Christmas Past: Ghost Tale for Christmas Time (Magic Tree House #44) by Mary Pope Osborne

"My father had fallen on hard times," said Charles. "He was a good man, but he couldn't pay his bills. So he was sent to a debtors' prison across the river."

"But at least things are different for you now," said Annie. "You're a famous writer."

"How can that make me feel better?" said Charles. "What is writing? Just ink on a page. It's not food for the hungry. It's not medicine for the sick. Lately I've been thinking I should give up my writing altogether."

"It seems so foolish and vain."

It is late November, and Jack and Annie are again summoned to the Magic Tree House, this time for their final mission to bring happiness in the modern world by helping a creative person to give his special gifts to the world. Their summons asks them to travel to Victorian England, taking the magical Wand of Dianthus transformed into a child's violin in a green velvet bag, to help Charles Dickens, who, depressed by the poverty and injustice of his times, finds himself unable to write.

Set down in prosperous Hyde Park, Jack and Annie hire a hansom to take them to Dicken's home nearby. As the two notice the sumptuous shops along the way, they are also surprised to see that many of the workers of Victorian England are children of their own age. Switching their prosperous "young gentlemen" dress for the ragged clothes of a pair of child chimney sweeps, Jack and Annie fake their way into Dickens' home and pretend to clean the fireplace in Dicken's own study, hoping to have a chance to speak with him.

But the famous writer is in despair. Nothing he writes pleases him, and when he sees little Jack and Annie with their sooty faces, he reacts strangely.

"I can't bear it," Mr. Dickens groaned. "I--I can't bear it," he said. "I have to get out!"

Jack and Annie rush after Dickens into the foggy late afternoon, hoping to get a chance to persuade him to continue his writing. As they run through the busy streets following Dicken's slow-moving cab, they are arrested as potential thieves and just as they are about to lose the all-important velvet bag, Dickens happens along and recognizes the two as his grubby sweeps and testifies that they had the bag with them when they were working in his house.

But despite his kindness to the children, Dickens's despair leads him to hurry away to an almost deserted park, where he drops, weeping on a bench. Hiding nearby, Annie and Jack realize that it's time to use the violin to play the magical song which will create a vision to convince Dickens to continue his work.

Annie's song summons Dickens' own personal ghosts, one who shows Dickens himself as a twelve-year-old finding escape from his daily drudgery in a factory in his battered copy of Arabian Nights. A second ghost appears to show Charles his current fans, eagerly awaiting his latest work, and the final ghost, one from his future, shows his children at his own grave, sobbing in regret:

"Poor Papa," the young woman said to the other mourners. "How sad that he stopped writing when he was so young. If only he'd given more stories to the world, he might have touched the hearts of millions."

Mary Pope Osborne's latest Magic Tree House book, Magic Tree House #44: A Ghost Tale for Christmas Time (A Stepping Stone Book(TM)) (Random House, 2010) takes the reader to the moment of inspiration for Dicken's classic A Christmas Carol. As always in this notable series of early chapter books, Pope combines humor, adventure, and a bit of magic into an easy-reading taste of historical fiction that brings the past alive for young readers.

As Annie and Jack return back home, Merlin shows them the fruits of their last four missions right there in Frog Creek: the sounds of of local musicians rehearsing a Mozart piece for a church performance, a middle school band practicing a Louis Armstrong number for their fall concert, and at the library, a local storyteller recounting Irish folktales collected by Augusta Gregory. Then they see that their current mission was a success as well: at the local community playhouse, the marquee proclaims the upcoming opening of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" for the holiday season.

As always, Osborne also offers a companion research guide, Magic Tree House Research Guide #22: Rags and Riches: Kids in the Time of Charles Dickens: A Nonfiction Companion to Magic Tree House #44: A Ghost Tale for Christmas Time (A Stepping Stone Book(TM)) (Random House, 2010).

Llama Llama Holidays: Llama Llama Holiday Drama by Anna Dewdney

SPARKLY CANDLES, YUMMY BREAD.
DRESS-UP CLOTHES IN GREEN AND RED.

HOW LONG TILL THAT SPECIAL DATE?
LLAMA, LLAMA HAS TO WAIT.

For a lot of us grownups, the rituals of pre-holiday days--the goodies, the music, wrapping presents, parties with friends and family--are the best part. But for the little ones whose dazzled eyes are on the prize--those long-awaited gifts from Santa under the tree--the big day is way too long in coming. The earlier the jingle bells start up, the more the tension builds, and many a toddler meltdown has been the not-so-merry result.

Anna Dewdney's insightful new Llama Llama Holiday Drama (Viking, 2010) documents the fun and the fuss over the holiday season perfectly. All the fun and frustration of those hustle-bustle days are seen in little Llama's eyes and reflected humorously in the eyes of his little stuffed llama who goes everywhere with him. As in her wonderful earlier Llama, Llama books, Dewdney shrewdly catches, from a child's eye view, the frustrations of daily life, especially the ones that build excitement over that time between the day the Halloween treats are all gone and that Christmas morning release.

LLAMA, LLAMA HOLIDAYS.
ADS, SIGNS, AND STORE DISPLAYS.

Mama Llama trudges through it all with little Llama in tow--choosing gifts for his friends, making what seems like millions of cookies, struggling to untangle the lights for their tree--and for a little Llama, it is all overwhelming.

TOO MUCH MUSIC. TOO MUCH FLUFF.
TOO MUCH MAKING. TOO MUCH STUFF!

Mama knows all too well what is likely to come next--big time Llama Drama! Leaving the lights in a tangle around them, she quietly takes him on her lap and gives him a cuddle.

WISHING, WAITING, WANTING THINGS...
WE FORGET WHAT THIS TIME BRINGS.

GIFTS ARE NICE, BUT THERE'S ANOTHER--
THE TRUE GIFT IS WE HAVE EACH OTHER.

It's not a new message, but Dewdney makes it once more and makes it well in a way that little ones can understand. There can be too much excitement, too many wants, too many gifts, but there can never be too much family time together for little ones, and in her first holiday outing, Llama Llama Holiday Drama, Anna Dewdney sticks up for those homey holiday hopes that really bring a "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night."

Fine Swine: Perfect Piggies by Sandra Boynton

DID YOU EVER SEE NOSES SO PERFECTLY ROUND?

WHERE ELSE COULD THESE CURLY TAILS BE FOUND?

AND LOOK AT THESE EARS, SO FLOPPY AND FINE!

YOU HAVE TO ADMIT,--WE'RE FABULOUS SWINE!

The latest entry in the best-selling Boynton On Board series of board books for the very young is Boynton's brand new edition of Perfect Piggies! (Workman, 2010), all dressed up in preppy pink and green, with a swinging downloadable song to go with this peerless piggie trio.

These piggies have no self esteem problems: they are the best pigs they can be, and with their cheery message toddlers come to appreciate piggy perfection and themselves to boot. As these fine swine put it...

YOU HAVE TO BE YOU.
WE HAVE TO BE WE!

'Sno Way! That's Not My Snowman! by Fiona Watt

THAT'S NOT MY SNOWMAN.

HIS SCARF IS TOO FLUFFY.

Fiona Watts' newest Touchy-Feely book, That's Not My Snowman (Usborne Touchy Feely) (Usborne, 2010) is an appealing little addition to this most popular of board books series. As in the others of these top-selling tactile books for the very youngest, the emphasis is on engaging the senses--large, colorful illustrations set spot-art style against bright white backgrounds to focus and delight the eye, and a predictably repetitive text, enlivened by a bit of alliteration to catch the ear of the young listener.

But the main fun lies in the tactile inserts on each page, each of which entice little fingers to feel, scratch, and rub. The cover snowman sports a felt fedora, soft and with just a hint of fuzziness, and his scarf features fluffy red fleece. His big black buttons are bumpy; and his mittens are as fuzzy as only the scrubby side of a dish sponge can be. But the real deal appears on the final page where the right snowman appears with his big, polka-dotted orange nose, appropriately squashy! Now that's a snowman!

That's Not My Snowman (Usborne Touchy Feely) joins such earlier holiday-themed hits by author Watts and illustrator Rachel West as That's Not My Reindeer (Usborne Touchy-Feely Board Books), and That's Not My Santa (Usborne Touchy-Feely) as super seasonal stocking stuffers for the littlest bibliophiles.

What Time Is It? Duck & Goose: It's Time for Christmas by Tad Hills

GOOSE!

IT'S NOT TIME FOR CATCHING SNOWFLAKES.

IT'S NOT TIME FOR MAKING A SNOW GOOSE.

Goose is obviously a carpe diem kind of guy. There's a fresh white snowfall on the ground, and he just knows it's time to throw snowballs, build snow forts, sled and skate, and create snow angels while the snow falls, so to speak.

Duck, however, is a task-oriented sort. There's a job ahead and there's no time like the present to get it done. What time is it?

Well, it's Christmastide, and it is obviously Duck's self-appointed purpose to push and prod his happy-go-lucky pal to get cracking with the Christmas tree. What Duck fails to heed all along, of course, is that Goose, despite his momentary heedless hedonism, is planning ahead as well. Concealed behind his back is a large gold star, all ready for topping the tree at just the right moment.

With Tad Hill's new holiday board book treat, Duck & Goose, It's Time for Christmas (Schwartz & Wade, 2010), it is well nigh impossible not to spout words like "cute" and "adorable" and "charming," because that is exactly what it is. That odd couple of the board book set, Duck and Goose, are delightfully darling in their stocking caps and mufflers, and their final product, the little snow-decked Yuletide tree, freshly wound with cranberry and popcorn strings, is, well, quite cute! Just in time for the holidays, the youngest board book lovers will welcome this addition to the series.

Other books about Duck and Goose are Duck and Goose (Duck & Goose), Duck, Duck, Goose (Duck & Goose), What's Up, Duck?: A Book of Opposites (Duck & Goose,) Duck & Goose, 1, 2, 3, Duck and Goose: How are You Feeling? (Duck & Goose), and Duck & Goose Find a Pumpkin. A selection of these, er, charming little board books makes a great pre-Christmas or stocking-stuffer gift for any, er, totally adorable toddler you know.

Surprised by Joy: That's When I'm Happy by Beth Shoshan

When it's cold outside and Daddy and I are cleaning up...

And when we take a soft, striped bag and fill it up with leaves...

And when he chooses a leaf just for me, because it is a deeper, darker red than one of the others...

That's when I'm happy.

Beth Shoshan's little story, lovingly illustrated in lavish autumn hues by Jacqueline East, points out that small moments can be the ones that bring greatest joy. Giving the gift of a perfect leaf, counting the stars in the sky--up to 119--and reading the most favorite story in the book with Mommy--those are moments of the simple joy of being alive with the ones we love. Shoshan's That's When I'm Happy (Sandy Creek, 2010) presents such moments in this lovely time capsule for the young reader.

No Stone Unturned: Olivia Goes to Venice by Ian Falconer

IT WAS TIME FOR SPRING VACATION.

OLIVIA DECIDED THAT SHE AND HER FAMILY OUGHT TO SPEND A FEW DAYS IN VENICE.

"OLIVIA, YOU WON'T BE NEEDING YOUR SNORKEL," SAID HER MOTHER. "OR YOUR FLIPPERS."

"MOTHER, APPARENTLY THE CITY IS OFTEN UNDER WATER AND..."

"OR YOUR WATER SKIS"

Olivia quickly packs up a valise full of her trademark red-and-white-striped dresses. And airport security wands are just another novel adventure for the extroverted Olivia.

AS THEY WENT THROUGH THE AIRPORT, OLIVIA WAS SEARCHED FOR WEAPONS. SHE WAS VERY PLEASED.

In Venice Olivia is in her element. She tours palazzos, feeds the sky-darkening flocks of pigeons in the Piazza San Marco in an hilarious parody of Hitchcock's The Birds, and after getting a snoutful of the Old World charm of the city, soothes her overwhelmed senses with multiple gelatos--so many in fact that the, er, enhanced family nearly swamps their gondola when they see the city by water from the Grand Canal.

"TOURISTS!" MUTTERED THE GONDOLIER. "TOO MANY GELATOS!"

And then it's their last day. Olivia's family has visited all the touted tourist traps in town, and they go back to the Piazza to soak up the scene one last time. But Olivia isn't content with just photos to remember her trip by.

"I MUST HAVE SOMETHING TO REMEMBER VENICE BY. I MUST FIND THE PERFECT SOUVENIR."

Perfume? Olivia hates perfume. Lace? Not very Olivian. Olivia finds nothing among the touristy shops to capture the essence of Venizia. At last she returns proudly to her parents, sipping their espressos, with something heavy in hand.

"ONE OF THE STONES OF VENICE!" SHE EXULTS.

"OLIVIA!!!" SCOLDED HER MOTHER. "IF EVERYONE TOOK A PIECE OF VENICE WITH THEM, THE CITY WOULD FALL DOWN!"

Mother's warning is prophetic. Olivia, who as we know can do nothing in a small way, has apparently chosen the very stone from the bell tower that has kept it upright all these centuries, and as the horrified parents gather up Olivia and her brothers and flee the Piazza, we see the tower crack and crumble and collapse behind them, to the amazement of the sightseers all around. Olivia has definitely left her mark on St. Mark's Square, and Venice will never be the same again!

Ian Falconer's new Olivia Goes to Venice (Atheneum, 2010) succeeds on several levels. It's pure Olivia, brash, self-confident, and always on stage, and to show her off, Falconer sets his detailed and stylized charcoal and gouache drawings boldly against picturesque color photos of the beautiful Venetian landscape. Wry humor turns this tale from a travelogue to a giggle fest of a Grand Tour for the picture book set.

Brainteaser: The Potato Chip Puzzle by Eric Berlin

The principal's office was down a short hallway, ending in a door you never wanted to open. Winston had never had a reason to knock on this door, and that was fine with him. He was still trying to figure out some way he might be in trouble. He took a keep breath and knocked softly. "Come in," said a brusque voice. Winston creaked the door open.

Principal Unger was not behind his desk. He was up and pacing. "Ah, Winston. Good. You're still the puzzle person, right? I want you to take a look at this. Here!" Mr. Unger thrust a paper into Winston's hands.

This was not at all what he had expected from a visit to the principal's office. "What is this?" asked Winston.

"I was hoping you could tell me."

Before him Winston Breen sees what is obviously an alphanumeric code of some sort, C3, J5, S2...., as his principal waits impatiently. Can Winston crack this code? And if he does, what does it mean for Principal Unger, Walter Fredericks Jr. High, and its most famous puzzle fan?

Winston Breen, hero of Eric Berlin's first book in this series, The Puzzling World of Winston Breen, again finds himself and his friends Mal and Jake involved in a cerebral mystery. Winston does unlock the code, revealing a local phone number, and when Mr. Unger calls, he learns that by solving the first test, his school has qualified to compete in a day of competitive puzzling sponsored by the eccentric millionaire entrepreneur, inventor of the square potato chip, who is offering a $50,000 prize to the winning team from those local middle schools who qualify by puzzling out the mysterious invitation. Only a handful of schools qualify, and when the day of the contest arrives, Winston finds himself for the first time among his puzzler peers, particularly the over-zealous Brendan Root, who falls all over himself to meet his idol, Winston, whose puzzle expertise in locating a local treasure trove has made him famous in his town.

But extricating himself from the lugubrious Brendan is only the beginning of Winston's problems. Not only is their chaperon, the controlling math teacher Mr. Garvey, consumed with his need to best a rival math teacher whose whizkid teams consistently smash Walter Frederick's math competitors, but the other teams are obviously filled with puzzle wizards and coaches who are equally determined to win by almost any means.

Then things turn take a turn for the worst. Mr. Garvey's car has a flat tire as they set for for the Planetarium to solve their first test, and it turns out that a glass-shard filled bottle was wedged behind their tire to make sure that their team would fall behind the others. Then other teams run into similar tricks: signs are reversed and a critical door locked to slow down another team; one team has a member locked in a bathroom, a handheld device with which each team reports the solution to each puzzle is stolen, at an amusement park the Ferris wheel with the puzzle clues aboard is locked in motion so that members of several teams are stuck aboard until another key can be found, and when Mal pursues a fleeing figure at the scene, he is injured in the scuffle which results in a black eye but in his grabbing a bag with incriminating evidence when the malefactor escapes.

It is obvious that one team is definitely guilty of malice aforethought in its determination to win the contest. Now Winston has two problems to solve: how to help his team complete the list of puzzles first and how to find out and foil the cheaters along the way.

Puzzle/mystery aficionados will find this second in the Winston Breen series, The Potato Chip Puzzles: The Puzzling World of Winston Breen, (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2009) just as exciting and even a bit more menacing than its predecessor. Fans of the riddle-based books in Trenton Stewart's best-selling The Mysterious Benedict Society or The 39 Clues, a popular ongoing series each sequel of which is intriguingly written by a different famous author, or Pseudonymous Bosch's quirky Secret Series which includes cryptic best-selling titles such as The Name of this Book Is Secret (Secret Series),If You're Reading This, It's Too Late (Secret Series), and This Book Is Not Good For You (Secret Series) will surely find the brainy and likable Winston Breen their man.

In addition to the puzzles embedded in the plot of The Potato Chip Puzzles: The Puzzling World of Winston Breen, which readers can solve along with the characters, the solutions to these and many more puzzles are contained in the back matter, and if those aren't enough to keep fans going through the long winter nights ahead, there is a companion website with plenty more here to keep the puzzle addict satisfied.

Dark Days: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I: A Review

It is an apocalyptic time. Dumbledore is dead, the Ministry of Magic has become a tool of Tom Riddle, the dark Lord Voldemort, and in the opening scenes in which the Order of the Phoenix summons all its powers to spirit Harry to a safe house, even their leader Mad-Eye is lost. It remains only for Voldemort to take Harry's life by his own hand, and his domination of the magical and muggle world will be complete.

Part 1 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has the three apprentice wizards, Harry, Hermione, and Ron, breaking away from their elders and taking on the task of finding and destroying the six remaining horcruxes of Voldemort, in each of which resides part of his being and powers. Despair, loss, and loneliness go with the three, no longer merry children eagerly welcoming adventures, but young adults who realize that the weight of a sinking world is on their young shoulders.

In a symbolic poignant farewell to their former selves, we see Emma Watson as Hermione magically expunging herself from the photos (and thereby memories) of her parents to spare them the grief that she fears is to come. Together the friends travel through a wintry wasteland, finally finding only one horcrux and destroying it near the end of this half of the film of J. K. Rowlings' final book.

The adjective everyone uses to describe the film is "dark" and there is no better word for it. Filmed in half-light throughout, many of the scenes take place at night, lamplit, or in a cloud-covered landscape of what appears to be an eroded lava field. The principal actors, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint, are thin, their faces drawn, their costuming subdued tones of gray and brown. Their relationship, too, is also strained to the bone, showing a touch of romantic rivalry between Harry and Ron over Hermione, Ron's resentment at always being Harry's second, and Harry's despair in knowing that his own death is almost a surety coupled with his reluctance to take his friends with him into that dark night. The dialogue is spare, with the young but seasoned actors up to the challenge of portraying this tension without the cover of words. Unlike his brief but terrifying cameos in the early films, Voldemort becomes a major on-screen character, including one stunning and iconic scene in which he opens Dumbledore's tomb and takes the fabled wand from his dead hands.

This is not a movie for youngsters. For one thing, the viewer must have really read the books, especially Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7). Director David Yates and chief writer Steve Kloves follow Rowling's text more respectfully in this film than in any before. Although there is plenty of action, viewers who want to see gratuitous video-game style wizardly duels or CGI monsters will not be satisfied. What is there is well done: there are Voldemort's familiar, Nagini, and plenty of chase scenes, but they do little to advance the plot. Rather, the story focuses on the final development of the major characters and the overall theme, preparing the viewer for that inevitable end to come in the final movie.

Like the hero saga Star Wars for an earlier generation, the sequence of Harry Potter books and movies eerily parallels events in their real-time world. The books begin in 1997 with the formation of the friendship between Harry, Hermione, and Ron which anchors the series, filled with youthful hope, schoolboy high-jinks, quirky ghosts, amazing airborne games, and wonder-inspiring wizardry, all symbolically lighted brilliantly by the blazing candles of the great hall at Hogwarts. But the world grows dark, times grow hard, and hopes dim to the lantern-lit interiors of their little tent as the three insurgents press on alone in their quest.

Is it all worth seeing for the long-time Harry Potter fan? Oh, yeah.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I, is rated PG-13 and runs two hours and 26 minutes.

The Case of the Disappeared Drawers: Charlie's Superhero Underpants by Paul Bright

ON A WILD AND WINDY DAY,
ROUND ABOUT THE END OF MAY,
A GREAT AND GUSTING GALE BLEW THE LAUNDRY CLEAN AWAY.

SOCKS AND SHIRTS, A WOOLLY HAT,
BUT FAR WORSE THAN ALL THAT
WAS YOUNG CHARLIE'S SUPERHERO UNDERPANTS.

Now, mind you, these are no prosaic underpants: Charlie has already proved their powers in many a daring deed of doughty duty. They are no tiresome whitie tighties either. They're yellow, with red trim and the word POW! on the front and KERZAP! OOF! and SPLAT! emblazoned on their backside.

What's a superhero to do without his nifty knickers?

Without his superhero underpants, Charlie's powers are impoverished, and when a preliminary search (by "boats and planes and satellites") fails, Charlie holds the requisite press conference and announces that he's off on a globetrotting geography tour to return his drawers to their proper derriere. First, it's over the English Channel by balloon, where he finds "a fine French fox" in possession of sister Sophie's socks. Other articles of family-wear are found on the Serengeti, the plateau of Peru, ("llamas in brother Ben's pajamas"), and the muddy Mississippi where a 'gator sports Gramps' woolly cap.

Finally the long trek takes him to Nepal, where he spots a giant shaggy Yeti with his nether parts jammed into Charlie's diminutive drawers, pictured humorously in Lee Wildish's breezy cartoon style in a vertical double-page spread. A trade is quickly made with the woolly hat for the special skivvies :

CHARLIE THANKED THE YETI, AND HE PULLED HIS PANTS UP TIGHT.

THEY HAD POW! ON THE FRONT SO HE HAD PUT THEM ON JUST RIGHT.

HE RAISED ONE ARM UP HIGH AND HE FLEW INTO THE SKY!

Paul Bright's newest, Charlie's Superhero Underpants (Good Books, 2010), offers zippy verse with a catchy internal rhyme scheme, and coupled with Wildish's clever cartooning, provides plenty of giggle fare for the picture book set, who are known to dote on earlier entries in the growing shelf of posterior lit. (For those who do dote on duff stuff, there is a roundup of recent rearward renderings listed in my May 22 review of Chicken Butt! here.)

Gobble? Over the River: A Turkey's Tale by Derek Anderson

OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE WOODS

TO GRANDMOTHER'S HOUSE WE GO!

But these prospective holiday feasters are no nineteen-century visitors looking forward to this year's version of Grandma's roasted turkey recipe. These trippers are turkeys themselves--Ma, Pa, and Baby Turkey, and the horse? Well, he "knows the way to carry the sleigh," all right, as he picks up his sled and "carries" it through the snow.

No further hints are needed to let the reader know that this is no ordinary run-through of Child's classic Thanksgiving lyrics. While trudging along o'er the snow, the turkey three meet up with the aforesaid horse and with a boy and his large, semi-scary-looking dog, who seem to be intent on making them his Thanksgiving dinner, and the chase is on!

In Derek Anderson's Over the River: A Turkey's Tale (Simon & Schuster) the fun is all in the contrast between the familiar staid lyrics of an old-fashioned visit to grandmother's, as portrayed by Anderson's Pilgrim-clad and portly turkeys, the little one looking not unlike the young Woody Allen, bespectacled and clutching his Pilgrim rag doll, fleeing through the woods in a melee of feathers and turkey feet from their supposed pursuers.

At the end, of course, theirs is a happy ending, with a fine vegetarian holiday feast for all, even the horse--"FOR THIS IS THANKSGIVING DAY!" It's a comic cartoon version with the best possible outcome for the turkeys, of course, and a few giggles for the reader as the hors d'oeuvre.

Serve this one as the appetizer for the real main course, perhaps Eve Bunting's savory A Turkey for Thanksgiving, Teresa Bateman's tasty A Plump and Perky Turkey, and Dav Pilkey's piquant and classic parody Twas The Night Before Thanksgiving (Bookshelf) for a full-fledged fillup of Turkey Day belly-laughs.

Kathryn Erskine's Mockingbird Wins 2010 National Book Award for Young People's Literature

Empathy is the theme of Kathryn Erskine's 2010 National Book Award winning Mockingbird (Penguin Group, 2010) , in which eleven-year-old Caitlin, with Asperger's syndrome, struggles to understand her father's grief over the meaningless school shooting death of her older brother Devon.

Caitlin, who has seen the world only in the dichotomy of black and white, had always relied on Devon to interpret its disorderly mishmash of feelings and social connections for her, now has to grope her way through an event whose meaning she sees in a much different way from that of her devastated father and her small community.

Erskine draws her theme from that of To Kill a Mockingbird in which Atticus Finch tells daughter Scout that you can't understand another person fully until you first walk in his moccasins. Without Devon, Caitlin knows no way to do that until a kind school counselor and others in her community help her to feel her family's grief and in turn come to understand and empathize with her as well.

Other finalists for this prestigious fiction award were One Crazy Summer, by Rita Williams-Garcia, Lockdown, by Walter Dean Myers, Ship Breaker, by Paolo Bacigalupi, and Dark Water, by Laura McNeal.