Book Review 1: How I Saved My Father's Life (And Ruined Everything Else)

Back at the end of March I attended the Read-A-Palooza event at Thompson Middle School which featured author Ann Hood discussing her new book, How I Saved My Father's Life (And Ruined Everything Else). I've just finished the book and it was fantastic!

"So how did I, Madeline Vandermeer, fairly normal girl from a fairly normal family, decide to become a saint? Well, when I saved my father's life, I somehow managed to ruin everything else. Now my life was all upside down, and frankly, I needed something to happen. If I performed just one more miracle, I believed I could fix everything and become a saint."

Twelve-year-old Madeline believes she can perform miracles. And her biggest one to date is saving her father from an avalanche. But, unmiraculously, he divorces Madeline's mother after his recovery, writes a book about the avalanche, becomes a celebrity, and marries Ava Pomme, a renowned tart maker.

When he leaves, Madeline is left with her mother, who is slowly coming undone; her hypochondriac little brother, who spends his days worrying about air-bag safety; a house that is falling apart around her; and no clue how to perform the miracle that will fix it all.

Amidst ballet lessons, insufferable recipe experiments for her mother's Family magazine column, and a life-changing trip to Italy, Madeline learns the true meaning of faith - and family.

I really enjoyed How I Saved My Father's Life. I loved that it was set in Providence, RI. It's so much fun when you know the streets and the buildings that the author is writing about first hand. Madeline is a very relatable character - funny, smart and sympathetic. She's very angry with her mother over the divorce and it's not really fair but it was easy to understand why she felt that way and it was all the more rewarding when she realized that divorce is never as simple as finding one person to blame. Madeline's journey towards accepting the divorce and loving both of her parents is an enjoyable ride filled with ballet, good friends and an amazing trip to Italy! Highly recommended!

Ms. Hood will be speaking and signing books at Island books on Wednesday evening (the 14th) so stop by, say hello and be sure to pick up a copy of this book!

The Penderwicks are back!

Hopefully you are all enjoying the summer adventures of Rosalind, Skye, Jane and Batty otherwise known as The Penderwicks. I can't wait to discuss it with you (and the author!) next Monday at our meeting!

I'm sure you'll be thrilled to learn that there's a sequel to The Penderwicks which just came out called The Penderwicks on Gardam Street. We should be getting a copy in Newport soon but until then you can inter-library loan it from another RI library through the Ocean State Libraries Catalog.

In the second book about the Penderwicks, the sisters are home on Gardam Street and ready for an adventure! But the adventure they get isn’t quite what they had in mind. Mr. Penderwick’s sister has decided it’s time for him to start dating—and the girls know that can only mean one thing: disaster.
Enter the Save Daddy Plan—a plot so brilliant, so bold, so funny, that only the Penderwick girls could have come up with it. But in the meantime, they have some other problems to deal with. Rosalind can’t seem to get the annoying Tommy Geiger out of her hair—and she can’t stand him, really. Skye loses her temper on the soccer field in a most undignified manner. Jane’s love of creative writing leads her into deep waters. And Batty’s getting into mischief spying on the new next-door neighbor. As for Hound, he’s always in trouble.
It’s high jinks, big laughs, and loads of family warmth as the Penderwicks triumphantly return!

Ms. Birdsall is also traveling around on an author tour in support of the new book right now and she has some Massachusetts dates! Check out her tour schedule here and go and get your books signed!

2008 Edgar Award Winner

On May 1st the 2008 Edgar award winners were announced (mystery awards named after Edgar Allen Poe - for more information see the Mystery Writers of America website). The nominees for Best Juvenile mystery were:

• The Name of This Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch


• Shadows on Society Hill by Evelyn Coleman


• Deep and Dark and Dangerous by Mary Downing Hahn


• The Night Tourist by Katherine Marsh


• Sammy Keyes and the Wild Things by Wendelin Van Draanen

And the winner is... The Night Tourist by Katherine Marsh

Jack Perdu, a ninth-grade Classics prodigy, lives with his father on the Yale University campus. Smart and introverted, Jack spends most of his time alone, his nose buried in a book. But one winter evening, a near-fatal accident changes Jack's life forever.

His father sends him to see a mysterious doctor in New York City - where Jack hasn't been since his mother died there eight years ago. In Grand Central Terminal, he meets Euri, a girl who offers to show him the train station's hidden places - the ones only true urban explorers really know about. Eight flights below the station, however, Jack discovers more than just hidden tracks and mysterious staircases. He has stumbled upon New York's ghostly underworld. This, Jack believes, is his chance to see his mother again. But as secrets about Euri's past are revealed, so are the true reasons for Jack's visit to the underworld.

Come in to the library today and check out one of these great mysteries!

Asian / Pacific American Heritage Month

In case you didn't know, May is Asian / Pacific American Heritage Month. There are a lot of wonderful Asian American authors and books out there - I encourage you to check them out! Here are just a few:

The Year of the Rat by Grace Lin:

In this sequel to The Year of the Dog, Pacy has another big year in store for her. The Year of the Dog was a very lucky year: she met her best friend, Melody, and discovered her true talents. However, the Year of the Rat brings big changes: Pacy must deal with the possibility of Melody moving away, find the courage to forge on with her dream of becoming a writer and illustrator, and learn to face some of her own flaws in the process. Pacy encounters prejudice, struggles with acceptance, and finds the beauty in change.

When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park:

For Kim Sun-hee's whole life, Korea has belonged to Japan. Sun-hee and her older brother, Tae-yul, have grown up studying Japanese and speaking it at school. Their own language, Korean, can be spoken only at home, and some Korean things - like the flag - are not to be spoken of at all. When the Emperor of Japan decrees that all Koreans must take Japanese names, Sun-hee and Tae-yul become Keoko and Nobuo. It is just one more step in a familiar process, but somehow it changes everything.

Then WWII comes to Korea. No battles are fought on Korean soil, yet soldiers are everywhere. At school, the students have war preparation duties instead of classes. But making Koreans take Japanese names has not turned them into loyal subjects, ready to fight for Japan. When Tae-yul sees a chance to help his beloved uncle, whom the Japanese suspect of aiding the Korean resistance, he leaves home. Sun-hee stays behind, entrusted with the life-and-death secrets of a family at war.

The Star Fisher by Laurence Yep:

It is 1927, and fifteen-year-old Joan Lee is taking a long train ride from Ohio to West Virginia with her Mama and Papa and her younger brother and sister. They are going there in pursuit of the American dream, to open a new business and start bright new lives. But when they get off the train, the first words they hear are "Darn monkeys!"

Joan is Chinese-American. That makes her and her family outsiders - so "different" that the narrow-minded townspeople think they belong in a zoo. How could that be? They live in America! She was born here. And she's going to fight to stay here.

Minn and Jake by Janet S. Wong:

Fifth-grader Minn, the tallest girl in school, begins a rocky friendship with Jake, a new student who is not only very short, but is also afraid of the worms and lizards that Minn likes to collect.

Also, check out this great website highlighting "New Novels for Young Readers to Celebrate Asian Pacific Heritage Month!"

Author Interview!

Well, I have amazing news. We are going to end the year the same way we started the year - with a telephone interview with an author! As you know, we are reading The Penderwicks this month, and I decided to try and contact the author, Jeanne Birdsall, to see if she would allow us to interview her like we did earlier this year with Ellen Potter and Grace Lin. I contacted her publisher, Random House, and everyone there was so encouraging and helpful. It was very easy! They suggested that I write a letter to Ms. Birdsall explaining what we want to do and I've heard back from her and she has agreed to do a telephone interview! So at the May meeting we will call Ms. Birdsall at her home and have a chance to ask some questions about her books and her life as a writer! Start thinking of some great questions now and feel free to post any as a comment on the blog.

A big thank you in advance to Ms. Birdsall for her time and the wonderful people at Random House for helping make this happen. Authors are the best!!!

Foreign Editions of The Penderwicks

I love seeing how the covers of books are changed when they are published in other countries. It's not always easy to find that information but fortunately some authors are now including it on their websites. We saw that in March with The Tail of Emily Windsnap - Liz Kessler had images of the Japanese cover on her website. And now Jeanne Birdsall has a wonderful page on her website with The Penderwicks covers from England, Greece, China, Germany, Italy, Czechoslovakia and Holland! View these covers here.

This is the British cover by artist David Frankland. It's very similar to the American version except it's darker and he's added Jeffrey to the back cover!

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This is the Greek cover:

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And this is the German cover...fascinating, isn't it?

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Author Jeanne Birdsall

Jeanne Birdsall is the wonderful author of our May book, The Penderwicks. She has a website and a blog where you can find out all about her and her books.

Also check out this interview with Jeanne from the April 10th Publishers Weekly!