Book Review: The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

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The Mysterious Benedict Society cover imageFour children with no parents around to care for them are brought together under unusual circumstances and given a mission. They are to stop the plans of a man who intends to take over the world. The four, Reynie, Sticky, Kate and Constance, discover that only children can succeed in the task, and only by combining their talents will they prevail.

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart is a great adventure for readers who love to solve puzzles and mysteries. The four heroes get into pickles over and over again, each one leading them closer to figuring out how to stop the evil Mr. Curtain. Each time they think they can’t go further, they find ways to carry on. As they discover more about each other and their sometimes hidden strengths, their friendship grows in unexpected ways. It’s a great testament to the way different personalities can develop separate skills and ways of approaching problems. In the end, teamwork wins the day.

I recommend The Mysterious Benedict Society for mother-daughter book clubs and readers aged 9 to 13.

My daughter owns a copy of this book and I read it for review.

Book Review: Evolution by Carla Mooney

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Evolution cover imageThroughout the long history of the Earth, plants and animals have evolved as conditions around them have changed. Evolution: How Life Adapts to a Changing Environment by Carla Mooney takes on the task of explaining what evolution is and how it happens. Chapters talk about topics like how evolution works, identifying species, evidence for evolution and why it matters, as well as other topics. Each chapter contains pullouts with words to know and sidebars highlighting other interesting information. 25 projects are designed to give hands-on learning experiences about many of the concepts.

Evolution can be used by teachers in the classroom to enhance lessons, or by parents who homeschool their children. While the book says it’s recommended for ages 9 to 12, I found some basic concepts mixed with advanced concepts that may be more difficult for that age group to follow. For instance, one list of “words to know” included the words habitat and migration, which seems appropriate for 9 year-olds, but it also included the terms reproductive isolation and allopatric speciation, which would definitely be more challenging. Evolution can be a great tool for the right reader. I recommend parents and teachers consider where it can fit in with other learning.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: Wanda’s Better Way by Laura Pedersen

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Wandas Better WayWanda’s Better Way by Laura Pedersen is about a young girl who lets her frustration over problems in her life inspire her to find innovative solutions. A disorganized dance-class dressing area makes Wanda grumpy. But then she has an idea to get everything organized. Wanda wants to help her mom in the garden, but she doesn’t like bugs. She does notice the squirrels eating birdseed and comes up with a plan to keep them off the feeder. Wanda wants to help her dad in the kitchen, but she doesn’t want to get messy cracking eggs and separating yolks from whites. Her idea to stay clean ends up being a science project at school.

Each time Wanda uses the scientific method to address a problem. Penny Weber’s illustrations show Wanda’s thought process as she brainstorms solutions. A note at the back explains the scientific method, which starts with observation and goes through several steps to a conclusion, which may include trying again.

The examples along with the methods should provide great inspiration for young readers to try solving their own problems.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: The Love Letters of Abelard and Lily by Laura Creedle

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The Love Letters of Abelard nd LilyLily’s mother has promised her that if she does well in school during her junior year she’ll be able to visit her dad for the summer. It’s been five years since he left the family and the life he leads on a goat farm seems like a dream to Lily. She imagines being homeschooled there, away from the difficulties of turning in appropriate paperwork and completing assignments, difficult tasks given Lily’s dyslexia and ADHD.

Then she starts texting with Abelard, a boy her age with Asperger’s. Abelard is brilliant at school, but he doesn’t have friends. The two have an easier time expressing their emotions over text, and finding quotes from the medieval Letters of Abelard and Heloise. Soon they are dating and trying to find a way to work around both their traits that make relationships difficult. Finding a way forward will mean accepting themselves for who they are, being honest with each other, and accepting help from others who care about them.

The Love Letters of Abelard and Lily by Laura Creedle is both heartbreaking and hopeful in it’s frank treatment of life for teens living with disabilities. Lily has a tendency to leave when things get difficult, so she skips school a lot. Abelard doesn’t like to be touched, which makes it hard for him to forge relationships. They both long for someone who understands what it’s like to be them. But overcoming their tendencies is hard work, and sometimes giving up seems like an easier option.

The book also shows what it’s like to be the parent of a teen like Lily or Abelard. Parents often try to balance their desire to fix what’s wrong for their children while granting them freedom to make life-changing decisions on their own. And Lily’s younger sister Iris, who goes to a school for gifted children, also struggles with how to be herself without making things more difficult for Lily. Creedle treats all of her characters with care while making them human and relatable.

I highly recommend The Love Letters of Abelard and Lily for mother-daughter book clubs with girl aged 13 and up.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: The Civil War by Judy Dodge Cummings

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More than 150 years after it’s conclusion, the American Civil War provides an ongoing topic of discussion and dissention. Was it begun over slavery? Were state’s rights the biggest issue? Were the military tactics that targeted civilians justified? Judy Dodge Cummings addresses all those questions and more while providing hands-on learning for 12 to 15-year-old history lovers in The Civil War: The Struggle that Divided America.The Civil War

The book, part of the Inquire & Investigate series, is chock full of content that encourages thought and further investigation of the people and events of the conflict. The timeline at the front starts with the advent of slavery in the 1600s in Jamestown, Virginia, and follows major milestones leading up to the 1860s.

It contains numerous sidebars that provide more information on key people, laws, places, and other important events. Each chapter highlights a list of vocabulary words and gives opportunity for further research on the internet or hands-on projects, like the salt dough recreation of the Battle of Gettysburg.

The combination of narrative and activities helps teens learn proactively and in some cases come to their own conclusions based on their research. Appropriate for a classroom or a home library, The Civil War can open up great discussions and inform thinking about this important moment in history.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: Lost Stars by Lisa Selin Davis

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Lost Stars cover imageSince Carrie’s sister died she’s been spiraling downward, drinking and using drugs with Ginny’s old friends. Her mom has left, her dad doesn’t know what to do, and her younger sister is frightened of her. Carrie resents being forced to enroll in a summer work camp for teens, but as she works to build something new, she slowly reconnects with her old self, the one who liked being smart, the one happy to be an astrophysics nerd.

Lost Stars by Lisa Selin Davis examines a family coping with tragedy. Carrie’s parents, dealing with their own grief, aren’t available to help her process hers. She doesn’t know how to step off the path she chose after Ginny’s funeral, and she’s not sure how she’ll cope after her sister’s friends leave for college.

Carrie feels hopeful about a potential relationship with Dean, who is spending the summer next door with his aunt. Dean has his own personal demons, and Carrie doesn’t want to frighten him with her problems.

Teens and mother-daughter book clubs with girls aged 15 and up will find lots to consider and discuss in Lost Stars: finding resilience in the face of tragedy, the consequences of engaging in risky behaviors, being true to yourself in spite of peer pressure.

**Spoiler alert: while I think there are plenty of issues to examine in Lost Stars I was bothered by Carrie’s conviction that getting a boyfriend would solve all her problems. I would have preferred to see her find a way out of her troubles without looking for acknowledgement of self-worth through a guy. I also thought it inappropriate that Dean was 20, and in college. As a man older than 18, he possibly committed a crime having sex with Carrie, who is 16, even though she consented. Teen girls face real dangers from sexual predators; I believe it’s inappropriate to normalize a relationship between an older man and a teen.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Book Review: It Ain’t So Awful Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas

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It Aint So Awful Falafel cover imageWhen Zomorod’s dad gets a job helping to build an oil refinery, her family moves from Iran to the U.S. The first thing she wants to do is change her name to something that won’t make her feel so different, so she chooses to be called Cindy, after the character Cindy Brady on The Brady Bunch. Making friends isn’t easy at first, but once she meets Carolyn and joins a Girl Scout Troop, she starts to enjoy living in California.

Then unrest in Iran leads to a change in government, and as relations between that country and the U.S. deteriorate, hostages are taken at the U.S. embassy. Cindy goes from feeling like an ordinary girl to worrying about her family back home and fending off harassment from neighbors and strangers alike. Plus, she fears that she will be forced to return to Iran, where her family may face danger.

It Ain’t So Awful Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas provides a humorous and serious look at the challenges of being an immigrant from a country in conflict with the U.S. Even in the best of times, Cindy works hard to help her parents, who struggle with learning English, and to correct misconceptions people have about her and her culture. In the midst of a crisis, stereotypes lead to misunderstandings that can quickly escalate. It’s difficult for a middle schooler to navigate it all.

Dumas notes that the book is semi-autographical, which means parts of it really happened to her, and that all the historical facts are true. While the story takes place in the late 1970s, it resonates with current events as well.

I recommend It Ain’t So Awful Falafel for readers aged 9 to 12.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: Cici’s Journal by Joris Chamblain and Aurélie Neyret

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Cicis Journal cover imageCici knows she’d like to be a writer when she grows up. “My trick for telling stories,” she says, “is to observe people, to imagine their lives, their secrets.” To hone her skills at observation, she keeps a journal to capture her thoughts about the people around her. What she finds often turns into a mystery to be solved.

Cici’s Journal: the Adventures of a Writer-in-Training by Joris Chamblain, is about a spunky 10 year old who is curious about the world around her. With the help of her two best friends and a famous writer who lives in her town, she investigates when she notices unusual events.

The book is divided into two stories. In the first Cici works to figure out why a mysterious man disappears into the forest in the morning with buckets of paint and comes back out at the end of the day with paint splattered clothes. In the second she wonders why a woman keeps renewing a library book so no one else can check it out.

In both cases, Cici wants to find out what’s going on, but she also wants to help the people behind the mysteries. The trouble is, she neglects her friends and lies to her mom in pursuit of her stories.

The graphic novel, beautifully illustrated by Aurélie Neyret, uses several styles to tell the story, including panel action, journal entries, newspaper clippings, postcards, and Cici’s drawings and photographs. Cici’s Journal, which also contains advice on how to compose stories, should appeal to aspiring writers and young mystery lovers. Recommended for ages 9 to 12.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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