From the Heart: A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck

You could see from here the house was haunted. It hadn't had a lick of paint since VJ Day, maybe the war before that. Only the snowball bushes crowding its foundations seemed to hold the place up.

At night lights moved from room to room. Every evening just at dusk a light bobbed down the walk to the cobhouse and the privy behind and back again.

My little sister Ruth Ann couldn't take her eyes off the place.

"It's like Halloween here in August. I betcha there are spooks inside that house."

And for twelve-year-old Bob that privy becomes his own private house of horrors. Scooped up by the village bullies, led by the massive Roscoe Burdick, they "initiate" him to life in Piatt County, Illinois, by trussing him up and playing water polo with him in the funky brown waters of the local pond and then hanging him, upside down and naked, in a web of fishing line inside that privy, to be eventually found and rescued by the equally frightening Mrs. Dowdel, the nearly ninety-year-old resident of the "haunted house." Mrs. Dowdell wastes no time sizing the situation up:

"I thought I'd seen everything!" she remarked. I made a small sound.

She dumped her corncobs and the Farm Journal and ripped the duct tape off my mouth.

"Yeoww!" I hollered.

"Had to be done," she said. "Who did you say you was?"

I coughed up something--maybe a tadpole. "I'm Bob Barnhart. The boy next door."

"Well, I can see you ain't the girl," said Mrs. Dowdel.

Bob is not the only one in the family for whom prospects look dim in their new home. "I take back every bad thing I ever thought about Terre Haute," Bob's mom laments as she sizes up the situation, and his dad, serving his first pastorate in the dilapidated and almost memberless Methodist Church, spends his first days ministering to the dirty and windowless sanctuary, killing a hog snake and no end of spiders in the choir loft and tacking up plastic over the broken windows. Bob's fifteen-year-old sister Phyllis takes refuge in the daily letters she writes to Elvis and sums up the secret feelings of the family. "I hate this podunk town!"

A most unlikely Christmas angel, Mrs. Dowdel, irascible and short-tempered, proudly proclaiming that she's not a church woman and she doesn't neighbor, nevertheless takes the forlorn family's fortunes into her own large and capable hands. No one knows the ins and outs of the town better than she does, and as the summer turns into autumn, Mrs. Dowdel works her own kind of miracle on every member of the family. Oh, it takes the Halloween appearance of a fake Kickapoo Princess' ghost, the comeuppance of Roscoe Burdick and his accomplices which halts his draft-dodging ways and ends with a shotgun wedding to scheming high school queen Vaynetta Blalock, saving Phyllis from his scruffy attentions and getting at least one Burdick out of town. By book's end, Bob's mother has a proper Methodist Christmas choir to lead, his dad has an overflowing sanctuary and new windows, courtesy of Mrs. Dowdel's jam sales at the triumphant funeral of the Kickapoo Princess led by Rev. Barnhart. And Bob Barnhart, having successfully steered their old car, "The Pickle," on a wild ride into the woods for Mrs. Dowdel's free Christmas tree, feels himself well on the way to manhood.

Richard Peck's newest, A Season of Gifts (Dial, 2009), brings back the memorable Grandma Dowdel of his Newbery books, A Long Way From Chicago (Puffin Modern Classics) and A Year Down Yonder, still feisty and masterful twenty years later, as she finds young people who need her to take their lives by the horns as she did for her grandchildren Joey and Mary Alice a generation earlier.

As Richard Peck shows us in those hilarious and heartwarming books, he excels at stories of the American heartland, set geographically as they are in the Midwest, but also set emotionally squarely in the heart, the place where children--and their elders--really live. As the critic at Kirkus Reviews puts it, "Pitch-perfect prose, laced with humor and poignancy, strong characterization and a clear development of the theme of the gifts one person can offer make this one of Peck's best novels yet-and that's saying something."

Stocking Stuffer: Merry Christmas, Splat! by Rob Scotton

DEAR SANTA,

CAN I HAVE A REALLY BIG PRESENT FOR CHRISTMAS?

THANK YOU,
SPLAT

P.S. I have been a very good cat.

Proud of his expansive letter to Santa, Splat can't resist showing it off to his sister.

"Only REALLY good cats get really big presents from Santa," she said.

"Are you SURE you have been good?"

"Of course," said Splat.

She gave Splat a look that only a little sister can give.

" R-E-A-L-L-Y?"

His sister's words plant a seed of doubt in Splat's self-image. Has he really been that good this year? He decides he needs a little Santa insurance.

"Mom! I'm going to help you get ready for Christmas!" he informs his mother. And Splat is as good as his word. He enthusiastically washes the Christmas dishes, stacking them precariously all over the sudsy kitchen, even though his mom had already taken care of that chore. Splat adds so many ornaments to one side of the tree that it threatens to collapse under the weight, and setting out to clear the snow on the doorstep, he opens the door to an avalanche of the white stuff.

"Being so good is very tiring," observes the super-good Splat, turning in early with his trusty flashlight to make sure that Santa comes through with his really big present. Of course, Santa is as sly as Splat is self-assured, and the gift arrives practically under Splat's whiskered nose as Santa makes us co-conspirators with a shushing finger to his lips as, unseen, he whisks a really big present right beneath Splat's tree.

In this third adventure in the Splat the Cat series, titled Merry Christmas, Splat (Splat the Cat), Rob Scotton's young cat character bristles with energy and impetuous high spirits as always, fairly bursting off the page in Scotton's stylized but oh-so-faithfully-feline portrayals. Other books in this series include Splat the Cat and Love, Splat (Splat the Cat). There's even a plush character, Splat the Cat Doll: 8", to set off this appealing entry for the gift-giving season.

Bless Us Every One! A Christmas Carol, Illustrated by Brett Helquist

MARLEY WAS DEAD.

THERE WAS NO DOUBT WHATEVER THAT OLD MARLEY WAS DEAD AS A DOORNAIL.

THIS MUST BE DISTINCTLY UNDERSTOOD OR NOTHING WONDERFUL CAN COME OF THE STORY OF EBENEEZER SCROOGE.

But in the hands of notable illustrator Brett Helquist, (best known for his illustrations of Lemony Snicket's best selling The Complete Wreck (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Books 1-13), something wonderful does come of this crusty Christmas classic. With an excellent new abridgment, sacrificing none of Dickens' picturesque language, and the illustrator's noire caricature style, this venerable story is both accessible and attractive to young and old alike. Helquist's hatchet-faced Ebeneezer Scrooge is as disagreeable as ever, arguing his own hard-nosed worldview even as his dead partner Marley, swathed in chains and trailing the mists of the grave, goes nose to nose with him in his declamation of Scrooge's predicted end.

Helquist sets his bitter, parsimonious Scrooge off against a swirling background, busy with Victorian merrymaking, and the familiar transformation of that classic curmudgeon comes off as both dramatic and inevitable, as Dickens intended, while Helquist's palette shifts from a dank greenish gray to mellower and warmer tones as Scrooge's own heart thaws in the glow of his recovered good will.

For kids in Kindergarten through adults of all ages, Helquist's A Christmas Carol (Harper, 2009) is dead-on Dickens, just right for this holiday season. As the reviewer for School Library Journal says, "...this year’s version, illustrated in Helquist’s darkly comic style, is one of the best. A winning combination of sparkling prose and exciting art."

Tinsel Time! Fancy Nancy-Splendiferous Christmas by Jane O'Connor

OUR HOUSE NEVER LOOKS FANCY, EXCEPT...

TA-DA! AT CHRISTMAS TIME.

The repentent Scrooge would have approved of the way Fancy Nancy Clancy keeps Christmas. If anyone knows how to "make merry" at Yuletide, it's our favorite glitzy girl.

Author Jane O'Connor and illustrator Robin Glasser open their first Santa season story with the whole Clancy family, including Frenchy the dog, togged out in a Christmas tree toboggan and green and red striped leg warmers, hanging the outdoor lights, decorating the mailbox, and wrapping the entire house in a a bright red ribbon and bow.

Then it's off to Bruce's Spruces to take delivery of their tree. Nancy loves adorning their spruce with all the trimmings, including family heirlooms, ("that's fancy for old and very valuable"), ornaments from Grampa's childhood. And, of course, there has to be plenty of sparkle!

"You can't have too much tinsel!" Nancy says.

Nancy throws herself into Christmas Eve fun, wrapping gifts, making cookies with sprinkles, singing carols for Mrs. DeVine and her posh pet papillon, setting out treats for Santa, and all her other family traditions. But the most difficult custom requires waiting for Grampa to arrive to help trim their tree. With all her savings, Nancy had bought an elegant tree topper back in late summer, and she has been waiting so long to see it adorning the tip of her Christmas tree. And what is keeping Grampa? Nancy paces. She and her sister peer out the darkening windows. Finally, Nancy postulates a miniscule change from custom.

We pleaded with our parents. (Pleading is like begging, only fancier.)

"Please, please, pretty PLEASE! Can we just put up the tree topper NOW?"

And with no foreshadowing of the coming disaster, Mom and Dad relent. Nancy is overjoyed with the way her treetop decor looks. "Ooh La La! Everything it says on the box is true! It spins. It flashes on and off and changes color!" she exults.

Excited, Nancy decides to give her dog Frenchy her gift right then. But a tug-of-war ensues when Frenchy gets her teeth into the stretchy pull toy, and she falls backward into the tree. The brand-new topper smashes into pieces.

"I am devastated, which is upset, only a zillion times worse."

Grampa arrives just then at the scene of the disaster, but he has some wise advice:

"When life gives you cracked eggs, make eggnog!" he says.

And soon Grampa, Nancy, and her little sister are "improvising," a fancy word being creative--making a new ornament for the tree top from whatever materials they have, and seeing it atop the tree, Nancy is pleased with their product.

"It's going to be an heirloom," Nancy explains to her little sister.

"JOYEAUX NOEL, EVERYBODY!!"

Author Jane O'Connor slips a powerful little lesson in handling unforeseen crises into the latest in her best-selling picture book series, Fancy Nancy: Splendiferous Christmas, and Robin Preiss Glaser's splendiferous illustrations are sparkling and exultant--everything that a Christmasy Fancy Nancy should be. This one should come with the tag "OPEN BEFORE CHRISTMAS!"

Move Over, Rudolph! Olive the Other Reindeer by J. Otto Seibold

Back in her doghouse, Olive was wrapping presents and listening to the radio. She heard that same song again.

"All of the other reindeer..." went the song.

"Olive, the other reindeer..." Olive sang along.

"Olive, the OTHER reindeer?" said Olive. "Hmmm. I must be a reindeer."

It was the time of year when all reindeer reported to the North Pole to help Santa Claus. Olive put down her scissors and marched out the door.

Olive arrives outside Santa's workshop just as he is going through his pre-flight checklist, and St. Nick is a bit perplexed to find Olive lined up beside Dasher and Dancer.

Santa knew a lot about dogs. For instance, he knew
they couldn't fly. But as it was time to go, he decided to give Olive a chance. Comet, the biggest reindeer, used a piece of extra ribbon to make sure Olive was tied in safe and tight. Now they were ready to go.

And in the best Christmas magic tradition, Olive finds that she can fly, dangling just below the eight official coursers. Although Olive is cool with it all, the flying reindeer are so curious about Olive that they fail to gain enough altitude and crash into a tree, leaving Santa's sleigh stuck among the top branches. Of course, chewing sticks is almost a daily duty for dogs, and Olive soon has her crew freed of all entanglements. It's not an uneventful flight that night, but Olive's canine talents come to Santa's rescue repeatedly before the deliveries, made a bit late but thankfully well before dawn, are finally done.

But it is at the end of flight, when Santa is making his final landing approach back at the North Pole, that things get dicey. It's the dreaded North Pole Fog, and even Rudolph's nose couldn't have lighted Santa's way through this one. Luckily, although her nose doesn't glow, it still works in the proper canine manner, and sniffing Mrs. Claus' cookies through the gloom, Olive realizes that she's got the right sniff, er, stuff to complete this mission.

"Olive, won't you guide my sleigh this morning?" pleads Santa, and Olive's doggy sense of smell brings them down right on the runway. For her canine capabilities, Olive the other reindeer is rewarded with her own ceremonial set of antlers with which to join the reindeer games.

J. Otto Seibold's and Vivian Walsh's special edition of Olive, the Other Reindeer (Chronicle Books, 2009) is out for this Christmas season to add to that shelf of traditional "Santa's helper" books.

Available to accompany this newest reindeer recruit is the very popular Olive, the Other Reindeer Pop-Up Advent Calendar and its equally famous companion for the Christmas countdown, the Olive the Other Reindeer CD, narrated by Drew Barrymore--not to mention the plush Olive the Other Reindeer Toy for a complete Olive the other reindeer Christmas.

Bad Girl! Constance and Tiny by Pierre Le Gall

A little girl and her enormous pet who get in and out of trouble together in jolly adventures? No, it's not Emily Elizabeth and Clifford this time: it's the alternate universe version-- French, but of course--starring Constance, the impish, rebellious anti-heroine, and her giant cat Tiny, he of the evil Cheshire cat grin and long pointy ears.

All hard angles from her severely cut black hair to her pointy red frock, Constance is no bundle of sugar and spice. Her smile is right out of Cruella DeVille, and her eyes, like those of her huge, looming cat Tiny, glare defiantly at any one who gets in her way. Author De Gall's voice-over narration from Constance and artist Eric Heliot's black and white and red illustrations work with delicious irony as they tell two distinctly different stories.

My name is Constance.

I am locked up in an evil mansion.

It's my parents' house.

They are terrible people--unfair and mean!

Constance's home, as pictured by artist Heloit, is a charming French cottage with an inviting swimming pool; her father is an easy-going guy with a comfortable smile and hands perpetually in the pockets of his baggy pants; and her mother is a tall, elegant Frenchwoman shown in the illustration presenting the petulant Constance with a large beribboned gift. Likewise, her school is described as a place "where they torture me," while the pictured Constance bangs a gong while the chorus sings merrily.

No matter. Constance cannot be consoled by any of her good fortune. In her mind her good efforts are never enough to please her parents.

And even when I try my best, they are never happy. (Teacher shows test with a big red zero to parents.)

There's nothing for it for Constance and her destructive pet Tiny except to leave their evil mansion; so, taking along a full valise and some money from her mother's purse ("just lying around in a corner," as Constance puts it,) the two steal away, free at last to enjoy all the ice cream and candy they desire.

But the parents "hire a couple of bandits" (otherwise recognizable as a kindly policeman and policewoman) to find and bring them back home, to the joy of the worried parents and the total consternation of Constance.

"Right then I knew that the horrors were far from over!" Constance declares.

It's exhausting being good all the time!"

De Gall's hilariously ironic Constance and Tiny will tickle kids' funny bones while perhaps making them appreciate the trials and tribulations of her parents whose relieved and welcoming hugs are described as "trying to suffocate me!" Despite its unrepentant little heroine, this little book's text and illustrations work together perfectly to delight children, good and bad.

Constance and Tiny continue their misadventures in Constance and the Great Escape.

The Parent Swap: Would I Trade My Parents? by Laura Numeroff

"Sarah's parents allow her to have chocolate milk BEFORE dinner. I wish my parents let me have chocolate milk before dinner.

William has three cats, two hamsters, some fish, and a dog named Olive. I wish my parents let me have a dog.

Ben and his parents like to go camping. I went with them once. We slept under the stars. I wish my parents let me sleep under the stars."

It seems that the parental grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Who wouldn't have a few envious thoughts about friends whose parents let them do fun stuff like riding in a cool old convertible with the top down, or eating homemade blueberry pancakes for breakfast, or going to square dances and giggling through their mixups in the do-si-dos.

Laura Joffe Numeroff, author of the best-selling If You Give a Mouse series, has a recent book, Would I Trade My Parents?, which humorously deals with the parental envy problem. The young hero sees his friends' interesting and varied lives with their own parents and there's a lot there to envy. As he gazes ruefully at his own unexciting pet, a hermit crab in a cage, how could he not wish he could have cats, hamsters, AND a dog like his friend William, whose mom owns an actual pet shop? Who wouldn't like to watch TV 'til bedtime any night her homework is done like Katie?

But then, his own parents are pretty cool, too. His mom teaches him French and plays piano duets with him. His dad takes him on long walks, talks to him about everything, and teaches him to recognize different kinds of clouds. His mom puts a note in his lunch every day, his dad reads to him every night, and they all hop on their bikes for a long ride every weekend. His own parents, on reflection, are not too shabby!

"I wouldn't trade my parents. I know that they are the best!"

Out of the Gate: Wild Girl by Patricia Reilly Giff

In the distance, between his yelling and the horn blaring, Tio Paolo sounded desperate. "Hurry," I told [my horse] Cavallo.

Suddenly I was feeling that desperation, too. We had to drive all the way to Sao Paolo to catch the plane. But I was determined. Five minutes, no more.

Up ahead was the curved white fence that surrounded the lemon grove. The overhanging branches were old and gnarled, and the lemons still green.

Pai, my father, had held me up the day he'd left. His hair was dark, his teeth straight and white. "Pick a lemon for me, Lidie. I'll take it to America."

"When I send for you, you'll bring me another," he said.

But her father has forgotten the lemon, forgotten the meaning of that promise, and when Lidie offers him the still green fruit she has carried in her pocket all the way from Brazil, he doesn't understand its significance. Her big brother Rafael has decorated her new bedroom in baby pink with Disney figures, and Lidie finds the five years away from her father and brother too great a gulf to reach across. The taciturn men talk little and then only of their work training the racehorses that her father oversees. After the years since her mother's death, years of dreaming of being with her father, Lidie finds herself longing for the cheery bustle back in her aunt and uncle's sunlit house. There, praised by her uncle Paolo as "a natural rider," Lidie is saddened to be consigned by her father to "learning to ride" on a broken-down school horse too old to gallop.

But then a new horse arrives at the training barn, a young, beautiful gray, named Wild Girl, Lidie's mother's affectionate name for her, in whose fearful but lonely eyes Lidie sees herself, her own longing. As she gentles the terrified newcomer, Lidie begins to feel at home in her own skin and in her new place. Finally, she finds the courage to ride the filly in a joyful dash across the fields before her father's eyes, and he begins to see her, not as the little girl he left behind, but as the person she now is. And then her father tells how Wild Girl came to be there.

"About the horse," he said. "About Wild Girl. When I heard her name, when I heard she was for sale, I couldn't resist." He shook his head. "It's what Mamae called you."

I looked at him now, this stern man whose face I suddenly recognized, my father, who had laughed as he held me up to the tree in the lemon grove.

Now the lemon seemed so unimportant, that he hadn't remembered it. But, ah, Wild Girl.

No one gets inside the head of a character and reveals it to the reader better than Newbery winner Patricia Reilly Giff, and in her latest Wild Girl (Wendy Lamb Books, 2009), as she did so well in Pictures of Hollis Woods and Nory Ryan's Song, Giff knows how to bring the immigrant, the lonely outsider, forward and reveal the resilience and strength of her characters with striking clarity.

Prehistoric Pets: Buying, Training, and Caring for your Dinosaur by Laura Joy Rennart

THERE IS A DINOSAUR FOR YOU!

THERE'S A DINOSAUR FOR EVERY KID AND A KID FOR EVERY DINOSAUR.

This guide will help you find the right one for you.

With a warning that "some dinosaurs need a little more housebreaking than others," Laura Rennart's and Marc Brown's new tongue-in-cheek guide to caring for pet dinosaurs, Buying, Training, and Caring for Your Dinosaur, (Knopf, 2009) is off and running.

Need a watch-dino? Try Tricerotops or Tyranosaurus Rex! ("Post a BEWARE OF DINOSAUR warning; the mail carrier will appreciate this!") Your T. Rex is an unparalleled watch-dino, but a sturdy leash and obedience lessons are a must for this one.

Now Old three-horn-face is also great as a ring-toss target for birthday parties, and a Diplodiclus also has party possibilities. With one of those you have your own roller coaster!

Training? Well, that takes a little forethought. Before undertaking the sit command, be sure to check underneath your dino.

Roll Over? Don't even go there!

Hygiene? When your dino needs a bath, the carwash is best! Be forewarned, however, that an Ankylosaurus is difficult to groom. Exercise? Hit the water! Dinos make excellent floatation devices, and some have awesome waterslide possibilities.

Buying, Training, and Caring for Your Dinosaur has some, er, fantastic advice for the would-be pet owner, but there's one bit of counsel I'd like to question:

Potential Health Problem: Extinction (but not for millions of years)

Uh, guys! Read your First Book of Paleontology lately?

Rock Stars: Crystals and Gemstones by Chris and Helen Pellant

Kids are born rockhounds, but adult field guides can be a bit off-putting for the novice collector. Chris Pellant's Crystals and Gemstones (Rock Stars) (Gareth Stevens, 2009), part of this notable nonfiction publisher's Rock Stars series packs plenty of basic information into its 24 colorful, photo-filled pages. Author Pellant provides all the basics--facts about the big three, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks, the mechanics of crystal formation, and the usefulness of crystals in daily life--from the diamonds in the British crown or in surgical blades to the crystals which compose our own bones.

Color photographs display the range of colors, forms and sizes which crystals and their refined relatives gemstones can take, and an intriguing graphic shows the range of hardness for crystals, from the durable diamond to the softness of talc, with practical advice on testing with fingernails (2 1/2 on the scale) to steel nails (5 1/2 on the scale). Organic gemstones (amber, coral, pearl) are also described with explanations of how they are formed and used.

A section titled "Crystal Collector" offers photos and descriptions of common collectible stones from augite to tourmaline, aquamarine to zircon. Directions for field collecting, storage, and display are clear and easy to read, and a glossary and index back up the textual information.

To spark interest, the author scatters star-shaped text boxes (IT'S A FACT!) with kid-catching tidbits of information to spark further investigation. One page features a display of popular birthstone gems, while another (RECORD BREAKERS) shows the biggest crystals (36 feet) and the oldest cut diamond (the 5000-year-old Koh-i-Noor), among others. Another engaging browsing page (DID YOU KNOW?) offers more fascinating facts (the Statue of Liberty looks green because of the atamite crystals caused by reaction with oxygen on the copper surface).

Good nonfiction books can expand on classroom knowledge or inspire a lifetime avocation among young readers. Crystals and Gemstones (Rock Stars) is a new entry on this popular subject which definitely makes the grade. See also Fossils (Rock Stars), another title in this solid series.

Gold Rush: Hard Gold: The Colorado Gold Rush of 1859 by Avi

He said, "Gold looks like a god's eye, bright, bold, and beautiful. It's smooth and soft, the way a god's touch should feel. You can bend it, shape it, and darn hear chew it. It won't change on you. It won't rust. Get enough gold in your hands and you can buy yourself a palace.

"But," cried the minister, and it seemed as if he was pointing his stubby finger right at me, "if you get gold seeping into your heart and mind, if you let it take over your soul, it will turn you into a hard devil. The only thing your gold can buy you then is a cold coffin in a colder grave."

His words chilled my heart.

Next moment Mr. Wynkoop called, "Westward ho!"

Fourteen-year-old Early Wittcomb finds himself a rather unwilling gold rusher. His nineteen-year-old uncle, Jesse, has taken off to Colorado, hoping to find enough gold to pay off the mortgage on their Iowa family farm and save it from the land grabbing railroad speculator who operates in conspiracy with the local banker. When Jesse's first letter begs his nephew for help guarding his find in the lawless mining camp, Early feels that it's his responsibility to go.

Early's only passage across the Nebraska and Kansas territories is to sign on as a hand with the Bunderly family on a wagon train heading for Denver. Bunderly is a weak, unsuccessful barber hoping to better his fortunes, but his wife is ailing and his daughter Eliza, also fourteen, is headstrong and dubious of her father's promises of a better life in the West. But as Early and Lizzie, as she prefers to be called, share the long walk westward, they forge a trust and friendship that serves him well when they finally reach Colorado.

Early is disturbed by the stories he hears about Uncle Jesse, a wanted man for killing a miner who Early knows from Jesse's letter was determined to steal his hard-won earnings. Leaving Denver for the nearby gold fields, Early and Lizzie manage to arrive just ahead of a bounty hunter to find and warn Jesse. Early finds his uncle's kind and sunny heart turned hard and distrustful of everyone but him, but as Jesse flees for his life, he gives Early his stash of gold, with which Early manages to pay off the farm. Once back in Iowa, however, Early realizes that his future is not as his older brother's farmhand but with Lizzie back in Colorado, and with a new life ahead, he again heads west.

Newbery Award author Avi continues his noted historical fiction series with I Witness: Hard Gold: The Colorado Gold Rush of 1859: A Tale of the Old West, a clear-eyed look at the "Pike's Peak or Bust" gold mania of 1859. Avi presents the long road west not as a series of harrowing adventures so much as a long and wearying slog, despite the buffalo stampede which almost takes his life and the death of Lizzie's mother along the trail. But filled with details of daily life, partly presented in journal entries, Avi's account does much to bring this period of American history alive for middle and young adult readers.

This book is preceded by Avi's earlier account of the Civil War battle between the Monitor and the Merrimac, Iron Thunder (I Witness), reviewed here.

Thankful: The Very First Thanksgiving Day by Rhonda Gowler Greene

This is the food, gathered and blessed,
the corn and sweet berries, and wild turkey dressed,
Shared on the very first Thanksgiving Day.

Beginning at the heart of the Thanksgiving story, Rhonda Greene's The Very First Thanksgiving Day (Aladdin), utilizing the familiar "house that Jack built" verse form, clearly signals that this rhyming account is aimed at young children. Working closely in tandem with artist Susan Gaber, whose acrylic paintings of youngsters involved in the Pilgrim story glow with energy and light, this retelling has much to offer the picture book audience.

Greene uses an engaging stratagem to tell the oft-told tale, beginning, like Jack's house, with the end of the story and working backward, through the harvest, the planting with the aid of the Indians, the hunger and sickness of the first winter, the long voyage, and at last the colonists' hopeful departure from their own land, leaving behind everything except their hope:

This is the land where it all began.
The land where a brave group made ready their plan
To travel the ocean that never would end,
That sometimes was foe and sometimes was friend....

Gaber's skillful illustrations, in full-page and double-page spreads, flesh out the simple verse, telling the historic and dramatic story visually with admirable force. And from this beginning in the old-country harbor, author Greene proceeds to reverse the action, taking the reader again back to the harvest celebration in a recapitulation of the feast of Thanksgiving which the reader can now appreciate fully.

Not far from the houses, built in straight rows,
That stood in the hot sun and harsh winter snows
And sheltered the Pilgrims who farmed the new land,
Who steadfastly labored and toiled by hand.

Who learned from the Indians, skillful and strong,
Who knew how to live through the winters so long.
And ate of the food, gathered and blessed,
The corn and sweet berries, the wild turkey dressed,

Shared on the very first Thanksgiving Day.

Dressed in its colorful, inexpensive paperback edition, The Very First Thanksgiving Day, with its satisfying cadence and striking illustrations, deserves its own place at the table for Thanksgiving reading.

Talkin' Up Turkey Day: Thank You, Sarah by Laurie Halse Anderson

You think you know everything about Thanksgiving, don't you?...

How the Native Americans saved the Pilgrims from starving...

How the Pilgrims held a big feast to celebrate and say thank you: turkey, pumpkin pie, cranberries--the works.

Well, listen up. I have a news flash....

WE ALMOST LOST. . . THANKSGIVING!

Think of it! No turkey and dressing! No weekday regional gridiron rivalries on TV! No l-o-o-o-ng holiday weekend in November! No Aunt Lorena's-caramel-pumpkin marshmallow-surprise.... . Oh, well, you can see what a sad loss some of that would be.

And it almost was lost, had it not been for one woman--Sarah Hale. In her time the celebration of Thanksgiving had become a lackluster thing, honored vaguely and then only in the New England states.

More and more, people ignored the holiday.

Thanksgiving was in trouble.

It needed... A SUPERHERO!

No, not that kind of superhero. Not a caped and masked SuperPilgrim with a giant P on his chest. Not a giant cleated Pigskin Man. Not even Cornucopia Man. And definitely not TURKEY DUDE.

Thanksgiving needed Sarah Hale.

Sarah had the right stuff. Although she was petite and ladylike, she was made of steel. While raising five children with one hand, with the other she fought for many good causes--from playgrounds to girls' schools to the abolition of slavery. She wrote poetry, novels, children's stories, even "Mary Had a Little Lamb," and became the first woman magazine editor, publishing Longfellow and Poe, BUT. . .

When folks started to ignore Thanksgiving, well,
that just curdled her gravy.

She picked up her PEN!

The pen IS mightier than the sword. Sarah was a writer, so she wrote articles for newspapers and magazines, letters to senators and governors, and even wrote her best letter to none other than President Zachary Taylor himself. But "Old Rough and Ready" was not ready. She waited and then wrote President Millard Fillmore (WHO?), but he was too engaged in securing his place in history. She wrote President Franklin Pierce. Too busy redrafting the Ostend Manifesto. Sarah wrote President Buchanan, but it seems "he had other things (abolition, secession, states rights) on his mind."

But Sarah never relented. Asking that the fourth Thursday in November be made a national holiday, she tried the new guy, the newly elected President Abraham Lincoln, arguing that being grateful together would bring the divided country together. And then...

LINCOLN SAID YES!

It took Sarah Hale thirty-eight years, thousands of letters, and countless bottles of ink, but she did it. That bold, brave, stubborn, and smart lady saved Thanksgiving...for all of us.

Thank you, Sarah.

Author Laurie Halse Anderson brings her Newbery-winning historical skills to bear on this true story of the woman who almost single-handedly saved what many consider our best-loved civil observance. Filled with fresh humor and historical detail, her Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving tells a story as true to the national character as is the original Pilgrim and Indians story, in a style that will grab the attention of children grown blase' about Thanksgiving traditions. Matt Faulkner's illustrations are hilariously over the top, as when he shows a sobbing linebacker, a sorrowful Squanto, a pouting Pilgrim lad, a wistful Wampanoag lass, a deflated dinosaur parade balloon, an anguished football fan with his useless remote in hand, and a flock of rejoicing turkeys as the television screen reads "THANKSGIVING CANCELLED. NO FOOTBALL TODAY!."

A worldly wordsmith herself, Sarah Hale would doubtless be pleased with this telling of her biggest story.

Not Ready for Prime Turkey Time: Thanksgiving Turkey Trouble by Abby Klein

"I have a problem.

A really, really big problem.

My class is doing a play for Thanksgiving, and I'm afraid I'll get the worst part!

Let me tell you about it."

It's an inconvenient truth that the star of many elementary Thanksgiving dramas is often the central symbol of the day--the turkey--a comically awkward critter at best who, as well as winding up being the main course of the feast, has a name which is also the slang synonym for "loser." When Freddy, the main character in Abby Klein's Thanksgiving Turkey Trouble (Ready, Freddy!), (Scholastic, 2008) learns from his know-it-all big sister that Mrs. Wushy has her first graders draw their roles for the performance from a hat, he immediately begins to obsess over the possibility that HE will have to be the turkey. "The turkey! NO WAY!" Freddy moans. His mom and dad make light of the odds and assure him that he'll do well even if he doesn't get to be an Indian brave, but Freddy still dreads the moment when he pulls that folded square out of the hat:

And there it was, in big letters. T-U-R-K-E-Y.

Of course, Max, the would-be class bully, takes this opportunity to compose a poem in Freddy's honor, which he gleefully recites to the giggles of the whole class:

"The turkey is a funny bird.
His head goes wobble, wobble, wobble,
And his only word is gobble, gobble, gobble."

But as always, with plenty of support from his family, excluding, as usual, his big sister Suzie, who comes up with several disaster scenarios for the reluctant thespian, and with a pep talk from his sympathetic principal, Mr. Prendergast, Freddy manages to pull off the performance with pizzazz, turning his turkey into a footlight triumph.

Author Abby Klein, an experienced Kindergarten and first-grade teacher, knows how to portray youngsters and write dialog which rings true in the school setting. Light-heartedly illustrated by John McKinley, this beginning chapter series continues to entice young readers, showing why Thanksgiving Turkey Trouble (Ready, Freddy!), is one of her long-running Ready, Freddy series, which now includes her latest for the Christmas season, The Perfect Present (Ready, Freddy!). Both of these books also include holiday games and crafts for young readers, as well her her trademark letters (FIN) hidden in each illustration.

Pilgrim Partners: We Gather Together....Now Please Get Lost! by Diane de Groat

His alarm clock doesn't go off, he spills his breakfast on his shirt, and even for Gilbert, it's a bad hair day.

But when he gets to school, the news is even worse. It's the day of the November field trip to Pilgrim Town, and since he's last one to school, he has to be the "bus buddy" of the class nerd Philip. Starving without his spilled breakfast, Gilbert tries to sneak a bite from his lunch on the bus, and Philip hastens to tattle, "I'm going to tell the teacher that you're eating on the bus!" Gilbert resigns himself to a dull ride and resolves to try to ditch Philip as soon as they arrive at the Pilgrim reenactment village.

Of course, the faithful Philip follows the rules, sticking to him like velcro, until in desperation Gilbert ducks quickly into a restroom and locks the door. With a sigh of relief, he settles down for a few minutes of peace while he waits for Philip to move on with the group.

But when he decides the coast is clear and tries to open the door, Gilbert finds that the lock is jammed and he's a prisoner.

Uh oh, Gilbert thought. If Philip didn't see him going into the bathroom, no one would know he was in there. Or worse--Philip might not tell anyone that Gilbert was missing and Gilbert would have to spend the whole night there. ALONE....

In this funny Thanksgiving school story from de Groat's popular Gilbert and Friends series, We Gather Together...Now Please Get Lost!, her hero Gilbert learns that are times when it's a very good thing to have someone around who does things by the book, and the doggedly dutiful Philip does not disappoint here.

This story of a school outing to study Pilgrim life makes a great classroom read-aloud experience for youngsters about to make a similar trip. Gilbert and his friends in Mrs. Bird's class are typical primary graders, and de Groat's appealing illustrations and authentic portrayals of life in the early grades are a good way to take kids through the significant events of the school year.

Biography Takes Young People's National Book Award: Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

Phillip Hoose has received the Young People's Literature award for Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2009).

Claudette Colvin was the fifteen-year-old high school student who first refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus to a white woman. Although Colvin's case caused a minor media stir at the time, the troubled and somewhat headstrong teen was not selected as the test case that the civil rights movement was seeking, and nine months later Rosa Parks was the citizen chosen to play that role on the national stage.

Still, as a plaintiff, Colvin became part of the legal action which eventually brought about integration of city buses in Montgomery and began the Civil Rights Movement. "Because of this woman, our lives have changed," stated the author Phillip Hoose, who honored Claudette Colvin by having her join him in receiving the National Book Award for Young People tonight.

T is for Thankful: P Is For Pilgrim by Carol Crane

Across the Atlantic Ocean
A lone ship on a vast sea.
Ablaze with a new hope,
All praying to be free.

Carol Crane's P Is for Pilgrim: A Thanksgiving Alphabet (Sleeping Bear Alphabets) begins this strikingly illustrated alphabet-in-verse book, one of the beautifully designed titles in the Sleeping Bear Alphabets series (listed here), with the arresting verbal image of that tiny ship amidst the vast Atlantic. Artist Helen Urban's striking paintings, nostalgically idealized as they are, give young readers an idea of the life of young colonists in the first days of Plimouth Plantation.

Crane draws upon later aspects of American life in this alphabet book, loosely linking Feast, Harvest, Mayflower and Pumpkins, Squanto, Tom Turkeys, and Wampanoags with other symbolic national icons as the Bill of Rights and Individual Rights.

For a more historically authentic account, see Diane Shore's gloriously illustrated This Is the Feast, Laura Melmed's equally beautiful This First Thanksgiving Day: A Counting Story or Joseph Bruchac's incomparable Squanto's Journey: The Story of the First Thanksgiving, reviewed here.

Ben Was Right! T Is for Turkey by Tanya Lee Stone

Old Ben Franklin was on to something when he nominated the turkey as our national symbol.

A modern slang synonym for "clueless loser," the turkey gets none of the respect he deserves. Knocked out of contention by his slicker, sleeker, (and more bellicose) relative the bald eagle, the American turkey has proven his staying power far beyond that of that famous raptor. Wild, hardy, elusive but sociable among his kind, he has remained a survivor for over 400 years who, despite his tastiness, has steadfastly refused to go extinct while sharing the continent with his human predators.

Adaptable and resilient, the American wild turkey now lives comfortably close to us non-natives, even (if news reports are to be believed) chasing down Massachusetts matrons unloading groceries from their minivans in search of a meal of their own.

And truly, we owe the turkey a treat or two. He's lent himself to celebratory meals, countless low-fat deli sandwiches, and endless elementary-school art projects, even subjecting himself to an inglorious worldwide domestication which has made a travesty, albeit toothsome, of his sleek shape, all the while maintaining a robust remnant which refuses to give up its wild ways.

What a bird! What a fine and nuanced symbol for America! Ben was right!

Tanya Stone's celebration of the turkey and all things Thanksgiving, T Is for Turkey (Price Stern Sloan, 2009), puts this fine bird right up there on the title page, along with other proud symbols of our most uplifting national holiday:

A Is for American story,
Our school play will tell.
Some myths we'll set straight;
Other facts you know well.

Stone's engaging alphabet rhymes point out that the Pilgrims dressed in bright as well as dark colors and that the local "Indians," the easternmost dwelling ones, actually called themselves the Wampanoag, or "people of the light," being the first to see the dawn over the Atlantic each day. In her entries for the letters H and L, she gives credit to Sarah Hale and Abraham Lincoln, who saved the local custom of Thanksgiving for the whole country by making it a national holiday. Massasoit, Samoset, and Squanto get their alphabetical due, and Stone doesn't stint that national characteristic which itself enabled that first harvest celebration:

Q is for quit,
Something we'll never do!
We're determined to carve out
A life that is new.

And that legacy, from those early settlers and from that beneficent bird which helped sustain them and us to this day, should fortify us this and every Day of Thanksgiving!

At Winter's Gate: In November by Cynthia Rylant

In November, the earth is growing quiet. It is making its bed, a winter bed for flowers and small creatures.

The majestic turning of the seasons, especially the joyous resurrection of spring, has always inspired poets and philosophers. But in the northern latitudes, as the year grows old, there is a quiet beauty in earth's paring-down preparations for its second solstice, the fullness of its fallow season. This crux of the cycle, the pause before deep winter, is the subject of Cynthia Rylant's emerging classic In November (Voyager, 2008).

In November the trees are standing all sticks and bones. Without their leaves, how lovely they are, spreading their arms like dancers. They know it is time to be still.

The staying birds are serious, too, for cold times lie ahead. Hard times. All berries will be treasures.

Animals sleep together, conserving their precious warmth, and humans, too, find comfort in hearth and home.

In November, people are good to each other. They carry pies to each other's homes....and give thanks for their many blessings--for the food on their tables and the babies in their arms.

Rylant's poetic prose and Jill Kastner's soft and sweet oil paintings flow together into a moving paean to that month in which all nature seems to slow down, take a deep breath and turn inward for a bit, a laid-back time to enjoy what we have with each other. Although illustrations show a family sharing the feast, the text never mentions the actual celebration of Thanksgiving, but this brief book draws upon the wellspring of that emotion--a great book to read, aloud or silently, during that mellow time.

In November, at winter's gate... the sun is a sometimes friend. And the world has tucked her children in, with a kiss on their heads, till spring.

Light Romance: Princess Hyacinth (The Surprising Tale of a Girl Who Floated) by Florence Parry Heide

Princess Hyacinth had a problem.

Well, you are saying, everyone has a problem.

But this was an unusual problem.

Hyacinth's problem is with gravity. This force of nature apparently has no power on her body. Unless weighted down or tethered, she FLOATS, up and up and up. Inside the castle it's just a nuisance, having to retrieve her from the ceiling with the royal ladders from time to time. But when Princess Hyacinth ventures outside, the King and Queen have made sure that she has diamond pebbles sewn into her socks and gold nuggets sewn into her hems and a huge, heavy jewel-encrusted crown tightly jammed down to her eyebrows. Going for a walk in the royal park is itself a weighty matter, and Hyacinth is forced to watch the children of the kingdom splash in the pool while she sits at the window, hopefully wearing her swimsuit, seat-belted to a heavy bench.

As she watches, Hyacinth is strangely drawn to a Boy, one with a beautiful kite with a painting of her own crown on it, soaring freely through the sky. And the Boy himself is strangely drawn to her.

"I like your kite," said Princess Hyacinth.

"I like your crown," said the Boy.

But Princess Hyacinth is a girl whose heart yearns to be free, and one day as she trudges heavily through the park, burdened by her ponderous but protective poundage, the sight of a balloon man gives her an idea.

"If I took off my princess clothes, you could tie a string to my ankle and I could float." Since she was the Princess, she got her way.

"I feel like a balloon!" she cried.

The balloon man walked through the park and Princess Hyacinth bobbed along with the balloons.

It was pretty exciting.

She swooshed and she swirled, zigged and zagged and zigzagged, zoomed and careened and cartwheeled. She did handsprings and headstands, flip-flops and fandangos.

It was the most fun she had ever had in her life.

But, of course, the inevitable happens at last. Alas and alack, distracted, the balloon man drops the string that tethers the Princess to earth, and, clad only in her bloomered underwear, she floats away, up, up, UP, away from the castle and her horrified parents. Even though a bit anxious, Hyacinth has never felt so free.

But the Boy and his kite are there, and as the King and Queen despair that their daughter is lost forever, Hyacinth and the kite come together and the young hero reels her in, back to earth.

But once free, always free for this princess. With the Boy and his kite at her service, she resolves to fly freely every day.

The problem about the floating was never solved, and that's too bad.

But Princess Hyacinth was never bored again.

Author of the quirky classic The Shrinking of Treehorn, the story of a boy who daily finds himself growing smaller while no one else seems to notice, Florence Parry Heide has teamed up with award-winning illustrator Lane Smith in her just-published Princess Hyacinth (The Surprising Tale of a Girl Who Floated). An artist whose similarly quirky work has often graced the writing of Jon Scieszka, Smith's work here seems perfect for this off-beat but meaningful tale of a light-hearted princess who longs to escape the burdens of her office.

Gobble Gobble Giggles: Turkey Riddles by Katy Hall and Lisa Eisenberg

Why isn't it safe for turkeys to do math?

If they add 5 + 3, they get ATE!

What did the turkeys say when the Pilgrims passed the potatoes?

"No, thanks. We're stuffed!"

Those princesses of puns, the royals of riddledom, Katy Hall and Lisa Eisenberg are the go-to goddesses to turn to whenever an occasion for easy reading levity presents itself, and, after all, what is more lampoon-able than the titillating turkey? And these riddlemeisters for all seasons do not disappoint with their offerings for the Thanksgiving table:

What do you get when you cross a turkey with an octopus?

A Thanksgiving dinner with drumsticks for everyone!

And there are gobbler giggles for everyone in Hall and Eisenberg's Turkey Riddles (Easy-to-Read, Puffin), in this classic-as-green-bean-casserole favorite for the thankful season. Kristin Sorra adds to the spread with enticing full-page illustrations that set off each tasty morsel of holiday humor, leaving those beginning readers with a funnybone, er, well satisfied.

What did the sweet potatoes say to the turkey?

"Here I YAM!"

Fine Foxy Flick: Fantastic Mr. Fox: The Movie

A smart, stylish film with a witty but solid theme, based on a classic fantasy by Roald Dahl, author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, and The Witches, a voice cast which includes Bill Murray, Meryl Streep, and George Clooney, and all this in an animated movie just in time for the holidays which reviewers agree is at least as much fun for grown-ups as for kids--what's not to like!

Indeed, the reviewers found little to complain about in this PG film,opening November 13 in selected markets and nationwide by Thanksgiving. David Germain, movie critic for the Associated Press, has high praise.

Wes Anderson's story of a poultry-thieving fox and the evil farmers waging war on him is a delightful whirlwind of mayhem and high spirits. It's lightweight fun, yet "Fantastic Mr. Fox" succeeds on all levels, presenting cute and clever little varmints to charm children while offering adults merry screwball humor that slyly stretches the film's family-friendly PG rating.

Clooney's in his best smooth-talker form and Streep's vocals are pure grace and class, supported by great drollery from Schwartzman and frequent Anderson collaborator Murray, providing the voice of a Badger who is Mr. Fox's attorney.

Elizabeth Weitzman, of the New York Daily News, calls the film

...A visual treasure that successfully blends deadpan quirkiness with a wry realism rarely seen in any film, let alone one for children.

But perhaps the highest praise for us librarians comes from Marshall Fine, of HollywoodandVine.com, who dares to slip in a plug for the actual book by Roald Dahl, Fantastic Mr. Fox, as well:

Indeed, Fantastic Mr. Fox may convince more than a few newcomers to pick up the book for a read… and for a project as entertaining as this one, that's just icing on the cake.

Tallying Turkeys: 10 Fat Turkeys by Tony Johnston

Gobble, Gobble, Wibble, Wobble,
Do a noodle dance.
10 fat turkeys
Fooling on a fence.

"Lookie!" said a silly turkey,
Swinging on a vine.
Gobble, Gobble, Wibble, Wobble,
"Whoops!" Now there are ... 9!

While their parents are busy counting heads for their turkey-day dinner, preschoolers can be gleefully counting their own plump poultry in another of veteran author Tony Johnston's feast-day favorites, 10 Fat Turkeys.

Not just a counting book, this book is also an elementary subtraction exercise, as one by one the feathery flock do various dismounts from their fence and the turkey count drops:

"Lookie!" squawks a goofy turkey,
Trying to roller-skate.
Gobble, Gobble, Wibble, Wobble,
Oops! Now there are... 8!

There's soon plenty of room up on that fence as turkeys alternately dive, fall off, and even flop away after swallowing an errant bee, until...

Lookie!" yells a plump turkey,
Jumping up and down.
Gobble, Gobble, Wibble, Wobble.
That's all there are! ...NONE!

Rich Deas' bright autumnal palette decks out his terrific Toms in shades of amber and orange and provides them with their own distinctive chapeaus, from baseball caps to Stetsons to aviator helmets and goggles. With their goofy, googly eyes and expressive beaks, we just know these poultry pals won't be falling for anyone's Thanksgiving dinner invitation. And, despite its tempting board book and paperback/CD versions, if 10 Fat Turkeys totals too many turkeys, there's always its toddler cousin, Salina Yoon's equally bouncy and best-selling Five Silly Turkeys, which can, um, be counted on to fill the bill as well!

Without a Prayer! Two Bad Pilgrims by Kathryn Lasky

In 1620 a ship called the Mayflower left England bound for the New World in the west. On board were Pilgrims seeking a new life in a land where freedom.....

HEY! THIS IS BORING! HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW.

THIS BOOK IS ABOUT US---FRANCIS AND JOHNNY BILLINGTON--AND HOW MUCH FUN WE HAD ALMOST
BLOWING UP THE MAYFLOWER, LIVING WITH THE INDIANS, AND CAUSING LOTS OF TROUBLE IN THE NEW WORLD!

Literature is full of bad boys, from Tom and Huck on, but who knew that two naughty lads were among those staid, gray-clad Pilgrims?

Well, it seems that the Pilgrim Fathers filled out their passenger manifesto with several families of what the Pilgrims called "Strangers"--some of them adventurers, some scofflaws one step ahead of the constable--who boarded alongside the Winthrops and the Bradfords. Of especial note among these were the Billingtons, a family with two sons, Francis and John. Records show that their parents were no prizes, but Frankie and Johnny were decidedly something else!

In the hands of Newbery-winning author Kathryn Lasky, the waggish Frankie and Johnny tell their own story their way in her latest, Two Bad Pilgrims (Viking, 2009). The brothers' boast that they almost blew up the Mayflower is documented as no idle brag: bored with the seemingly endless games of "draughts" (checkers), "naughts and crosses," (tic-tac-toe), and "Lummelen," (keep-away) on the long voyage, it seems the two got their hands on some "squibs," gunpowder twisted inside a paper straw, used like matches to ignite cannons. Caught almost "red-handed" just in time, the Mayflower escaped, as one of the Pilgrim Fathers put it, "through God's mercy a great danger...." on the high seas, no thanks to Frankie and Johnny.

WE WEREN'T SO BAD. MAN, THERE'S BAD AND THEN THERE'S REALLY BAD. WE WERE JUST MIDDLING BAD. SO WE NEARLY BLEW UP THE STINKFLOWER. IT WASN'T LIKE WE MEANT TO!

Having nearly aborted a whole major chapter in American history doesn't seem to have inhibited the Billington boys. Put to communal tasks immediately when they set their feet on North American soil ("WE WERE ALLOWED TO PLAY FOR ABOUT THREE MINUTES BEFORE THEY PUT US TO WORK!") Frankie and Johnny managed to skip the labor detail most of the time, perfecting their tree-climbing skills to avoid detection. While they were goofing off in the treetops, however, they spotted some large bodies of water to the west, and one of these discoveries is known to this day as the Billington Sea. Avoiding close contact with their hard-working fellow colonists had another unexpected advantage: they and their parents waltzed through the "Great Sickness" with nary a sniffle, being, as their fellow colonists probably grumbled, too lazy to die.

Making himself scarce from schooling and labor did get Johnny taken hostage by the neighboring Nauset Indians, who didn't seem to be signatories to the treaty with Massasoit. The colonists had given the rascal up for a goner when word came of a wandering golden-haired lad living with the "natives" down around Cape Cod. Probably with understandable reluctance, the village elders negotiated for his return, in the process fortuitously establishing peaceful relations with the Nausets, who strangely seemed to have enjoyed Master Billington's sojourn with them.

"I'M B-A-A-CK!"

Pious Pilgrim history to the contrary, our first settlers were always a mixed lot, with their share of ramblin' guys who sometimes serendipitously brought their improbable good luck along for the ride and added to the colorful mix that is our land to this day. With insouciant asides from the two lads breaking into the earnest efforts of "the Professor" to narrate the official account of Plimoth Plantation, Kathryn Lasky's hilarious tales of the Billington boys will delight young readers with their little-known exploits. John Manders' caricature-styled illustrations add to the fun--and the historical facts--of the book. For older kids, who think they know it all about the Pilgrim Fathers, this new Thanksgiving story will be both a revelation and a total romp!

Spring Fever: Emma-Jean Lazurus Fell In Love by Lauren Tarshis

"It is clear that Will is not suitable for me in any way," Emma-Jean said. "And yet I find myself thinking about him even when I want to be thinking about other things."

Indeed she could not recall a single fact from her classes that day. She had concluded, however that the arrangement of freckles on Will's forearm closely resembled the constellation Virgo.

"Could it be," Emma-Jean asked, her tone grave, "that I am suffering from spring fever? A crush?"

That anomaly, a middle-school girl who tries to approach life with total rationality, the doggedly logical heroine of Lauren Tarshis' hit first novel, Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree, (reviewed here in my post of February 10, 2007) to her total surprise finds herself in the throes of a crush on Will Keeler, indifferent student, star basketball player, but, even to the sensible-minded Emma-Jean, irresistibly cute! To make matters worse, the Spring Fling is coming up, and her best friends seem even more twitter-pated than usual, talking of little except the boys they want to ask to the dance.

Only Colleen is without a crush, or so it seems, until a mysterious note appears in her locker one day:

COLLEEN-

I THINK YOU'RE THE BEST GIRL IN THE WHOLE GRADE.

I HOPE YOU WANT TO GO TO THE SPRING FLING.

LOVE,
SOMEONE WHO THINKS YOU'RE SO GREAT!

Colleen is transformed by the amazing thought that some boy actually likes her, and buoyed by this knowledge, commandeers Emma-Jean to sleuth out the writer of the note so that she can ask him to the dance. Emma-Jean readily agrees, and examining the note with her father's magnifying glass, determines that the writer must be one of the nine left-handed boys in her seventh-grade class. But when Emma-Jean's surveillance uncovers the real person behind the note, her crush on Will takes on a new and conflicting significance.

Fans of Tarshis' refreshingly insightful and truly funny first novel will love Emma-Jean's second adventure into the "messy" world of middle-school mores, Emma Jean Lazarus Fell in Love, in which she experiences both the startling twinges of first love and a new appreciation of the pivotal importance of the loyalty she shares with her best friends.

Game Action: Swing by Rufus Butler Seder

CAN YOU SWING A BASEBALL BAT?
WHOOM! WHOOSH! WHACK!

CAN YOU KICK A SOCCER BALL?
FROOM! BOOM! SMACK!

In another of his celebrations of movement, Rufus Butler Seder's best-seller, Swing! (Workman, 2009) turns from animals in motion to the joy and beauty of human movement.

CAN YOU CARTWHEEL THROUGH THE AIR?
HOP! LOOP! WHIRL!

CAN YOU SPIN AROUND ON ICE?
SLIDE! GLIDE! TWIRL!

Children of elementary age can be seen in all those ebullient activities kids love, swimming the breast stroke like a dolphin, getting off a jump shot, and just running a race for the sheer joy of it. This scanimation book, like its predecessors, Gallop!: A Scanimation Picture Book (Scanimation Books) and Waddle!: A Scanimation Picture Book (Scanimation Picture Books), has been described over and over as "jawdropping" and must be seen in action to be appreciated. For example, in the picture of a child hitting a baseball, we see the action from setting the stance, through the backswing and follow-through, until the baseball, stitches and all, caroms toward us and itself fills the "screen." Each stage can be "frozen" by holding the page immobile and reversed by turning the page back toward the front of the book. While not marketed as an "easy-to-read" book, the text is brief, presented in large, colorful type, and well within the reach of most beginning readers.

Swing! is a book which will fascinate kids and prompt them to read aloud to each other as they share the action. As an added bonus, after kids are told to "give themselves a great big cheer" (accompanied by a scanimation of a leaping pom-pom-waving cheerleader), the author offers a final healthy suggestion:

NOW LET'S GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY!

Move Over, Big Dog!: SheezuCacaPoopoo 2: Max Goes to the Dogs by Joy Behar

Everybody loves an underdog, and at Doggy Day Care, Max, the shihtzu/cocker/poodle-mix puppy, finds himself definitely low dog on the totem pole when he spends his first day at school being pushed around by the Big Dog on Campus, Brutus, and his burly buddies. Although his owner Evie is sympathetic with his plight, her mom is adamant that Max is too much of a mess maker to stay home alone, and Max finally realizes that he has to take matter into his own petite paws!

But when he meets up with a dog even smaller than he is, a timid little Chihua-poo, inexplicably named "Macho," who spends his day cowering under a table, Max realizes that it's got to be brains against brawn here. Forming a union of the little dogs, Max comes up with a game plan and a set of signals to bamboozle and outmaneuver the gangsta big dogs in order to get their rightful turn at the food bowls and sunny napping spots. Scooting under and around the big dogs, the little dogs achieve some of their objectives, but Max realizes that his campaign won't succeed unless the miniatures gain the respect of the big guys for good and all:

"Now see here, big guy," Max barked, trembling just a little. "I speak for my brothers and sisters when I say we may be closer to the ground that your are, but that doesn't mean you can walk all over us."

Brutus growled in reply. He was a dog of few words. Max though quickly. "You know, I bet we could even be useful to you if you give us a chance."

"What do you mean?" the big dog snarled.

"There are some advantages to our size," said Max. "We could make this work for you."

Max goes on to point out the advantages of small size--retrieving chewy toys from under low furniture and scratching itches that the big guy can't quite reach, Brutus begins to get the drift.

"I guess you're worth having around after all, little guy," he admits, and Doggy Day Care is on its way to being safe for the small and the tall there each day.

TV celebrity Joy Behar does a workmanlike job in this sequel to her popular first Max tale, Sheetzucacapoopoo: My Kind of Dog Sheetzucacapoopoo 2: Max Goes to the Dogs, with its comical canine caricatures, easy, breezy style, and positive message about dealing with classroom bullies which kids will subliminally understand, establishes Max the spunky Sheetzucacapoopoo as a diminutive dog to be reckoned with.

From Cowrie Shells to Silver Certificates: Show Me The Money: How to Make Cents of Economics by Alvin Hall

"If you were on a desert island, no amount of money would help you survive--you couldn't eat it, drink it, use it to build a shelter, or to keep away wild animals.

So why is money valuable?

The answer is simply that everyone has agreed to it."

When you think about this last sentence, it seems remarkable that a planet full of diverse and opinionated people like us could agree on such an abstract concept as modern money, or as author Alvin Hall describes it, a medium of exchange, a store of value, and a unit of account. In his Show Me The Money (DK Books, 2008) Hall recounts this truly remarkable process, starting with the history of barter, and describes how livestock, jewel stones and shiny metals (e.g., silver and gold), cowrie shells, valuable objects such as tools, and at last coins, imprinted with graphics of these icons of trade, came to stand in for the value of goods and services themselves. After all, people are sometimes lazy and indecisive, and coins are certainly more portable than cows and less given to spoilage than a sack of grain, giving people the chance to carry their symbolic trading medium around and postpone their purchase until they were sure they were getting the best price for what they wanted.

With this thorny concept out of the way, author Hall goes on to explain in short, pithy text boxes such modern-day money matters as supply and demand, banks, stock exchanges, credit cards, and capitalism. Moving on, he discusses coinage, printing of paper money, counterfeit, and emerging means of exchange, such as debit cards, gift cards, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, and electronic credits (see PayPal!)

Of course, all this exchanging of forms of moola mean that someone has to actually perform some service or produce something of value in order to receive these rewards, and Hall doesn't slack on his discussion of work and of its anxiety-inducing alternative, investing!

There is much more to money--the choices between spending, stashing, or speculating and the perils of each (being busted, encountering inflation in price and thus deflation of the value of your stash, and the perils of getting the biggest return for your investment.) Although he stops short of explaining credit default swaps and Ponzi schemes, Hall takes the middle reader much further into modern economics than most authors have dared.

Shopping tips--look at what you're spending, not what you're saving by buying on sale; recognize the difference between needs and wants; and comparing the long-term gains and losses from money use--round out the discussions of personal finance. Hall then moves on to discuss matters of international economics, fair trade versus free trade, Keynesian versus Friedmanic philosophy, and the up and down cycles of global business. He even ventures to look at the world of work in 2020, ("The Way We'll Work") when his readers will be becoming part of the world's economy as producers.

Typical of Dorling Kindersley's design style, there are no long chapters, subdividing into sub-subjects, and no long gray blocks of text. Instead, bright photos and graphics dominate every page and subject sections are limited to double-page spreads. Still, Hall manages to cover a lot of ground, hitting the high points of economics and grounding them fairly firmly within the experiences of his intended audience. A brief biographical section, "And the Winners Are..." features current superstars who have taken good ideas and hard work into the realm of riches--Ben & Jerry, Tiger Woods, Bill Gates, Charles Schulz, J.K. Rowling, etc.,-- and a "Who's Who" of economics which briefly cameos theorists such as Adam Smith, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, and Milton Friedman, to name a few. Show Me The Money Show Me The Money makes an enormously complex subject lively and appealing to its targeted reader. As School Library Journal puts it, "Hall's presentation of this sometimes dull topic is remarkably vibrant.... [his] approach is distinctively eye-catching without sacrificing accuracy."

Motion Commotion: Waddle by Rufus Butler Seder

What's all this commotion about motion? Creator Rufus Butler Seder's little Waddle!: A Scanimation Picture Book (Scanimation Picture Books) (Workman, 2009), now riding high on both the New York Times best-seller list and Amazon's rankings, combines not-exactly-new moving image technology with solid design and easy-to-read text to produce an intriguing form of the picture book.

Can you waddle like a penguin?
Slip, Slide--Swoop!

Can you hop like a frog?
Flip, Flap--Floop!

Seder calls his technique "scanimation" and puts it to good use in his recent books. As he describes the process, he films animals and humans in motion, freeze-frames the subjects, cuts the images into skinny strips and combines the images and embeds all beneath an acetate film. When the pages turn, the layered pages slide, the subject appears to move in a lifelike fashion and VOILA'--scanimation!

Bouncy, alliterative, rhyming text with prominent use of onomatopoeia (remember that term from English class?) makes this technique a lot of fun for the picture book and easy reader crowd and almost irresistible for all who pick them up. Waddle!: A Scanimation Picture Book (Scanimation Picture Books) features slithering snakes, scampering bears, and prancing pigs, stomping elephants, and flapping hummingbirds, but the most fascinating image is that of the leaping dolphin, "UP, UP--AWAY!" which rises to the surface, arcs through the air and splashes down under water again (and if you close the page back, the dolphin will even leap tail first for you in the manner of running a film backwards!)

Although this venerable technique is probably familiar to most of us, Seder is one of the first to actually craft a full-fledged picture book with so much skill and appeal. Kids will crowd around this sturdy picture book to make these jolly animals do their thing and will no doubt stay to read the brief jaunty text before turning eagerly to see what's movin' and groovin' on the next page.

For more animals in motion, see also Seder's equally captivating Gallop!: A Scanimation Picture Book (Scanimation Books), this one showing off the special moves of horses, chimps, eagles, and other cool critters. Two very special books with appeal for kids from toddlers to 'tweens!

Best Buddies: Tarra and Bella: The Elephant and Dog Who Became Best Friends by Carol Buckley

Meet Tarra the elephant and Bella the dog who won her heart.

Whatever attracted the elephant and dog to each other remains a mystery, but one thing is sure--Tarra and Bella are truly forever friends.

An ex-rollerskating circus elephant and a shaggy mutt seem like an odd couple, but it was a case of love at first sight for these two.

Bella had been retired from show business to become the first resident of Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, a private park which provides meadows and woodlands for elephants emeritus. As other elephants were added to the herd, Bella seemed to take on the welcome wagon role, showing the newbies around barns, pastures, watering holes, and trails, but as the others paired off with each other for company, Tarra remained without a preferred companion.

That is, until one morning when Tarra awoke to find that she had a bed buddy--a shaggy gold and white dog sleeping right next to her. Unexpectedly, she touched the dog gently with her trunk and chirped a welcome, and an unlikely friendship was born. From that day the elephant and the dog, whom the staff named Bella, did everything together: they ate and walked and swam and even played hide and seek in the grass together.

Tarra even came to her friend's rescue one morning when she found Bella lying hurt in a shallow ditch surrounded by tall grass. The big elephant stood watch until the sanctuary staff noticed her anxiety and came to take Bella for medical assistance. Bella's big buddy remained by that spot all day, but when the caretakers did not bring her friend back, Tarra intuitively headed for the barn where Bella was resting after treatment. She returned there to visit her partner daily until at last the dog was well enough to be allowed out and around to resume their daily routines again.

Carol Buckley's Tarra & Bella: The Elephant and Dog Who Became Best Friends (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2009) is filled with appealing color photos of this unlikely pair of forever friends. Other books which feature unusual bondings between intelligent animals include Owen & Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship, the story of the unlikely bond between an orphaned baby hippo and a 130-year-old giant tortoise and its sequels, (see my earlier posted review here) and Koko's Kitten (Reading Rainbow Book), the equally amazing story of the sign-language-trained gorilla and the homeless striped kitten who became her best friend.