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Call Me Carmela

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As a book reviewer, I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher or author to facilitate this review. I received no other compensation, and all opinions are always 100% my own.

Dot Meyerhoff is a police psychologist in the Northern California town of Kenilworth, and she’s already got more than enough on her plate when her friend, Fran, asks for her help with her god-daughter Ava. Ava was adopted at birth, and now that she’s 18 she’s managed to track down her birth mother. Unfortunately, this has exposed cracks in her adopted family’s relationships, and Ava has run away to Fran’s. Co-owner of a popular local diner and a police widow herself, Fran has maintained friendships with a lot of the local policeman, including Ava’s adopted dad.

Dot finds Ava to be strong-minded and determined to find the truth, no matter who it hurts. In fact, Ava expects to be the one who is hurt. But when Dot and Ava meet with Ava’s birth mother Iliana, they find a different story, one that is going to end up with Ava looking at old friends in new ways. Soon they’re entangled in details of alcoholism and bullying, adoptions that were barely legal, rape followed by threats of deportation, corrupt policemen, and shattered lives. One thing is clear: for Ava to know and tell the truth, a lot of lives may be irrevocably changed.

Call Me Carmela is a gripping read. Ava’s single-minded determination and courage calls out the best in both her birth mother and adoptive mother. Dot is calm but tough, successfully managing to speak wisdom into disparate situations. I enjoyed this book! Recommended!

Book Links:Amazon | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads | Open Road Media

Author Bio:

Ellen Kirschman

Ellen Kirschman, Ph.D. is a police psychologist. and clinician at the First Responders Support Network. She is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, The American Psychological Association, Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and the Public Safety Writers Association. She is the recipient of the California Psychological Association’s award for distinguished contribution to psychology as well as the American Psychological Association’s award for outstanding contribution to the practice of police and public safety psychology. Ellen brings her expertise and decades-long experience to both fiction and non-fiction. She is the author of three non-fiction books and a five-book mystery series featuring police psychologist Dot Meyerhoff.

Catch Up With Ellen Kirschman:
EllenKirschman.com
Goodreads
BookBub – @EllenKirschman
Instagram – @ellen.kirschman.copdoc
Facebook – @ellen.kirschman

Did you get an ereader for Christmas? (A Mr. Poppers Penguins ebook giveaway)

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Did you get an ereader for Christmas? Or did your child or teen? I predict that’s one of the hot gifts of the year. If you did get or give one, I’d love to know which ereader and from whom it came (or was received).

Once you get that ereader, you need to stock it up with titles. The beauty of my Kindle is that I will never run out of books to read! What’s more, I make sure that there are titles on there for my kids as well. I keep a good eye out for sales (I bought several titles for me, and each of my 2 kids, for less than $4 a few months ago), and I’m always watching the Kindle Free bestsellers, which include small press and self-published books as you’d expect, but also has backlist titles from authors you love.

Today I’m proud to feature a wonderful ebook title from Open Road Media.

Read my full review of the new enhanced Mr. Poppers Penguin ebook over at 5 Minutes for Mom, and you can enter to win your own download.

She definitely enjoys sharing books, and Jennifer doesn’t really mind sharing her ereader with her kids either. She blogs at Snapshot.

The Mystery of the Blue Ring (Polk Street Mysteries by Patricia Reilly Giff)

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Raise your hand if you ever spent a Free Range Saturday when you were growing up trying to solve a mystery that you conjured up? Yeah, me too. Unlike the kids in the books I liked to read, there were never any real mysteries to solve.

The Mystery of the Blue Ring is the first book in the Polk Street Mysteries series, by Patricia Reilly Giff, originally published in the late 80’s. This short chapter book is only somewhat dated (like the fact that the 2nd graders can roam to and fro unsupervised as children did in the 80’s). The plot is simple and one that children will be able to understand and will relate to. One day Emily loses her special birthday ring with the blue stone. Dawn is a suspect, so she figures the only way to clear her name is to find the ring or the thief herself!

The kids don’t have attitude; there aren’t funny cartoons throughout — it’s just a book that is easy-to-read and engaging at the same time, which proves that good things come in old packages.

I may be in the minority here, but I’m so glad that they are releasing more children’s books as ebooks. For one thing, the price is right. For another, kids like using a device, and finally — it’s so easy to have unlimited ebooks on you! Even before I got my Kindle, Amanda was using the Kindle app on her ipod touch. I don’t like reading on that small screen, but she does. Kyle probably would too. He hasn’t gotten to this book yet, but he did read a couple of short books on my Kindle on our last driving trip, and I have this one loaded up for an upcoming trip.

Thanks to Open Road Media, who has re-released this series (along with a number of others for kids and adults), I have TWO copies of the ebook of The Mystery of the Blue Ring. If you win, you will be sent a download link where you can read it on your ereader of choice (Nook, Kindle, Ipad compatible), or your PC or Kindle app which is available on many devices.This giveaway is closed.

Leave a comment if you’d like to enter. I’ll announce the winners on July 27.

Don’t miss a thing: Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed or video reviews on YouTube. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter or on Facebook.

Jennifer Donovan isn’t sure that she wants to share her Kindle, however she’s happy that her children have yet another way to enjoy books. She blogs at Snapshot.

Prince of Tides

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The story of the Wingos is one of humor, grotesquerie, and tragedy. Tragedy predominates.

Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy

A while back Open Road media let me know that they were publishing some of Pat Conroy’s backlist titles as ebooks. I remembered reading and loving The Prince of Tides back in high school or college, so I agreed to check it out on my kindle (also available on all the other popular e-reader platforms).

Well I finally got around to it (as a part of my rekindled love affair with my kindle), I was absolutely riveted. The fact that I knew a little bit more about Pat Conroy after recently listening to his memoir The Water is Wide helped me slide into the fictional world of the Wingo family living on the water of South Carolina even more.

This is a hard read. There is abuse and there is anger, and that abuse has led to dysfunction and distress in the Wingo children, now adults. The whole story is told by Tom Wingo to his sister’s psychiatrist Dr. Lowenstein when he goes to New York after Susannah’s umpteenth attempt to commit suicide to try to quiet the demons.

It’s hard and some will avoid it because of the subject matter and some profanity, but I am absolutely enthralled by Pat Conroy’s writing. The story unfolds as a type of character-driven suspense as he foreshadows and eventually reveals the penultimate crisis in the family, that which caused Tom’s own nervous breakdown.

Instead of continuing to gush, I would like to share some of Conroy’s own words, to convey both the plot and the style:

“It’s an act of will to have a memory or not, and I chose not to have one. Because I needed to love my mother and father in all their flawed, outrageous humanity, I could not afford to address them directly about all the felonies committed against all of us.”

“I grew up in South Carolina, a white southern male, well trained and gifted in my hatred of blacks when the civil rights movement caught me outside and undefended and proved me to be both wicked and wrong.”

“The American male is a quivering mass of insecurities. If a woman makes the mistake of loving him, he will make her suffer terribly for her utter lack of taste.”

“You’re not a bad mother. Bernard is a teenager. Teenagers are, by definition, not fit for human society. It’s their job to act like ___ and make their parents miserable.”

“In the hour it took to finish that meal, I learned that silence could be the most eloquent form of lying.”

“If they are lucky, good coaches can become the perfect unobtainable fathers that young boys dream about and rarely find in their own homes. Good coaches shape and exhort and urge.”

This is absolutely a 5-star read. It had been at least 20 years since I read this book, and I remembered one of the awful events, but the rest was just a light fog of familiarity. This is a long book, but I savored every single page and am so glad that I revisited it.

Jennifer Donovan reads and blogs. She reads everywhere and almost everything, and she blogs at Snapshot.

The Water is Wide

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When I posted in Mailbox Monday that I had received a copy of the audiobook of Pat Conroy’s memoir The Water is Wide, Kathy of Bermuda Onion commented, “I loved The Water is Wide and kind of envy you for getting to experience it for the first time.” Only minutes into listening to the CD, I realized that her comment perfectly sums up the experience of reading this book.

The Water is Wide is one of those stories that will make an impression on you.

I remember reading Pat Conroy’s The Prince of Tides and seeing the movie years and years ago. I’ve never re-read it, but I haven’t forgotten it either.

The Water Is Wide is a memoir about Pat Conroy’s early career teaching African American students on the remote Yamacraw Island of South Carolina in 1969. These kids are isolated by the island — so much so that many do not even know what country they live in. Many of these kids cannot read at all and some do not even know their alphabet, though they are all over 10 years old.

This is a story about teaching, and if you are looking for an inspirational story to share with your favorite teacher (be he or she a relative or your child’s own teacher), this is it. Conroy’s youthful idealism coupled with the frustration of dealing with the old guard is something that many teachers faced with similar challenges will be able to identify with. Any adult who works with youth will understand the compassion and love that he has for his students. There is some strong language in it, but it’s appropriate to the time and the situation. If you avoid language altogether, you’ll probably want to skip this one (although I think that the story is completely worth an exception and some overlooking of off-color language).

Conroy looks back at the “carnival of blind hatred in my early years of high school . . . (when) the “n-word” felt good on my tongue,” to his evolution in college to one who was ashamed of that way of thinking, to one who later reached out to this population when he became “The White Teacher” on the island populated mostly by African Americans.

This story is told with honesty, empathy, and lots of humor. I simply can’t recommend it highly enough.

Open Road Media has made Pat Conroy’s early works, including this one (and the Prince of Tides, which I think I’m going to pick up), available as ebooks for your favorite e-reader. Check out their Pat Conroy ebook page for more, or look for them on your favorite ereader platform today.

AUDIOBOOK NOTES: I don’t think I’ve heard a book read by Dan John Miller before, but his reading added tremendously to the story. I always enjoy a first person novel or memoir in audiobook format, but this went above and beyond. Not only is this a 5-Star book, but a 5-Star audio version by Brilliance Audiobooks as well. I am glad that I experienced the book in this way.

Jennifer Donovan finds little in life more satisfying than connecting with a good book. Connect more with her by reading her blog Snapshot.

American Gods

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5M4B disclosure

The premise behind Neil Gaiman’s American Gods is intriguing; that as people migrate around the world, they carry with them their gods. So that in America, as a land of immigrants, we would have floating around everyone from Mad Sweeney the leprechaun (brought by Irish immigrants fleeing famine) to Odin the Norse God (brought by the Vikings), Kali the Destroyer from India, Horus and Ibis the Egyptian gods, and more–only in a weakened form as not many people believe in them, and belief brings power. But as America changes, the new gods, gods of money and drugs and technology, are gaining the upper hand. In addition to this original look at religion and mythology, Neil Gaiman also wanted to write about America, a sort of travelogue of her small midwestern towns, roadside attractions, glittering casinos, dingy motels, and more. The result is an original tale that nonetheless bears his particular and inimitable style.

The story follows a man named Shadow Moon, who is about to be released from prison when the story opens, after serving half of a 6 year sentence for assault. He is looking forward to joining his beloved wife, and has a job waiting for him in his best friend’s business. Instead, he’s released a few days early for his wife’s funeral, and he finds that his wife and friend were both together when killed in a car accident. He meets, and meets again, the enigmatic Mr. Wednesday, whom the astute reader immediately and accurately pegs as Odin in the flesh. He eventually agrees to work for Wednesday as a sort of chauffeur/errand boy/bodyguard, and from there on out, things only get stranger. The two seal the deal with Shadow drinking 3 glasses of mead, the traditional drink of the gods, and winning a fist fight with Mad Sweeney the tall leprechaun (that’s the joke, see, to call them the little people when they’re really tall), which ends with Sweeney giving him a piece of gold, which Shadow drops into his wife’s grave as a parting gift to her, which causes her to enter a sort of half-life where she’s not entirely dead but definitely not among the living either. Sorry for that long and complicated sentence, but I’d like to see you sum up a Gaiman plot in a simpler manner. We are still not even a third of the way through the book at this point!

Complicating things are the new gods, of Media and Technology and more, with names like Mr. Road and Mr. Town, and television sets that begin to interact with Shadow. They seem to want Shadow on their side, and kidnap and beat him with abandon. At one point he’s facing death, but Laura, his undead wife, shows up and kills them both and releases Shadow, then disappears again. Shadow’s on the run and is sent to Cairo, Illinois, where he passes the time helping Ibis and Jackal run their funeral parlor–until first Mad Sweeney and then Wednesday himself show up. Shadow is then sent to the charming town of Lakeside, Michigan, where everyone is friendly and helpful, serving hot chocolate with extra whipped cream and sending him home with jars of homemade crab apple jelly.

A stand-off between the old gods and the newer ones is brewing. Wednesday and Shadow travel around, recruiting old gods to their side to join the battle. Why do both sides seem to care about Shadow? Can Wednesday, whose names include Trickster and who was father to Loki and Balder, be trusted? Who will win? Who should win?

There are myriad little asides, short stories of people’s interactions with various gods. (This book will send you to google, trying to figure out who’s who amongst Ukrainian folklore and Native American legend and more) As in any Gaiman book, be prepared for graphic sex and a lot of horror and gore.

STARZ recently released the book as a television series, which prompted this “author’s preferred version” of the book. I haven’t watched the complete series, but I was impressed by the bits I have managed to catch so far. It’s very accurate, and manages to capture the creepy, other-worldly feel of the book. (Gaiman may write about gods, but the idea of people finding comfort in their belief system seems very foreign to him) It also captures the gore; in the opening scene of Odin’s arrival to these shores, there are literally fountains of blood shed. In addition, William Morrow Publishing has released an adult coloring book with line drawings from the TV series, interspersed with text from the book.

If you like Gaiman’s somewhat skewed view of the world, you’ll love American Gods. And, between the new edition of the book, the coloring book, and the TV series on Starz, you can immerse yourself there.

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The Sun in Your Eyes

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Female friendship over time is under the microscope in this evocative novel.

5M4B disclosure

The Sun in Your Eyes, Deborah Shapiro’s debut novel, revolves around a topic familiar in women’s fiction– female friendship. But the exploration here is perhaps deeper than usually depicted, for the two main characters’ inner lives are turbulent and interwoven. The result is a heady novel told from both women’s perspectives at various times in their lives.

To say that Lee Parrish has issues stemming from her parents would be an understatement. Her father, a famous singer and beloved icon, died young when Lee was only a child, and she doesn’t remember much of him at all. Yet, her life was in many ways defined by her relationship to him. She’s always felt that her mother is holding back on the full truth about his death, leaving a lifelong strain between them. Vivian Feld fell under Lee’s spell almost immediately when they met in college (the second time they met, actually, as the first time was a short and strange encounter), and they soon were roommates, along with Andy Elliott, a young man obsessed with music as well as with Lee.

The novel opens a decade after their time together in college, and Lee and Viv haven’t been in touch for several years. Lee reappears, asking Viv to accompany her on a road trip of sorts, on a quest that Lee is intent on finally seeing through– to learn more information about her father’s last days, and to find the recording that he was working on before he died.

As the two women come together again, readers see the pull they hold for each other. Viv, bored in both her professional life as a writer on a soap opera and personal life married to Andy, can’t help but say yes to one last hurrah with Lee. With sections that alternate narrator and skip back in time, the full story of their friendship is gradually revealed, warts and all.

I found the writing to be compelling, though sometimes too jumpy at points so that I had trouble keeping track of time and place. Perhaps this novel begs to be read slowly and thoughtfully, engaging the reader in analysis of each protagonist’s true motivations and emotions, as they’re not always what they present.

tlc-logo-resizedWe’re happy to be participating in the TLC Book Tour for The Sun in Your Eyes.

Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed. Follow us@5M4B on Twitter or on Facebook. Pin away with us on Pinterest.

Mouseheart

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mouseheartI loved this book! It did not draw me immediately in, but by page 40 or so, it was an exciting read.

I requested it to review because it’s described as Redwall meets the Warriors, and my 4th grade son has been totally into the Warriors series this year, so I hoped he might read it. He didn’t think it “looked good,” but after I finished it, I told him that he definitely needs to read it. I haven’t convinced him yet, but I know that if he gets into the first few chapters, he’ll be hooked. Now to convince him to to open the cover — I’m not above forcing a book that I know is a good fit!

This book is exciting — culminating in an epic battle — but it also plumbs deeper themes like heroism, purpose, friendship and family. It’s also incredibly well-written, using advanced vocabulary, but in a way that is accessible to readers who are good contextual readers. There are also line drawings by Vivienne To scattered throughout that enhance the telling of the story, though not on every page (not even close).

If you click on the picture below to bring it to full size, you can also read some the text.

mouseheart interior

It’s the first in a series, but this book completely stands alone as a wonderful introduction. I can’t wait for the next one.

I totally recommend this for fans of fantasies featuring animals but I think it also has a broad appeal to boys and girls who enjoy more character-driven stories as well. Hopper and Prince Zucker are great characters, and the secondary characters like Cyclops the one-eyed-cat just add to the story. In addition to the exciting adventure series that it was compared to, I felt a little Cricket in Times Square as well. I don’t know if it was the talking empathetic animals and the themes of friendship and bravery or the subway setting, but something reminded me of that beloved classic.

Because of the vocabulary and intensity, you might want to restrict it to about 4th grade and up, but there’s nothing objectionable in it at all, so it is also a great pick for strong younger readers (who wouldn’t be bothered by an intense battle scene).

You never know what books are going to hit big (and become the next Warriors, for example), but I’d be happy to see a quality book such as Mouseheart by Lisa Fiedler in many children’s hands this summer.

An author’s Labor Day post: “I couldn’t write without….”

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Thanks to Open Road Integrated Media for this guest post featuring author Joyce Maynard, author of The Good Daughters (linked to Nancy’s review).

As we prepare to celebrate workers everywhere this Labor Day, Open Road Integrated Media thought it would be timely to ask some of our authors to share their answer to the question: I can’t write without {fill in the blank}. The results were surprising . . . and inspiring.

Maybe because my father was an artist — a man who stood before his paintings, palette knife in hand, slashing color on the canvas — I formed, early, the picture in my head that creative endeavor should involve physical activity. I don’t make paintings; I write books. Still, I don’t like the idea that the one body part involved in the creation of my work should be my brain (with a little finger motion added in, for typing.) I want to get up and move, when I’m working on a book. That’s where my white board comes in.

I’ve worked in a lot of places over the years of my writing life: anonymous motel rooms and exquisite artists’ residencies, and in a wood-heated cabin in New Hampshire, and at an ironing board facing a volcano, in Guatemala. And a few dozen other spaces besides those. Probably the one element all those spaces shared (besides a window, and a flat spot to rest my laptop) was the presence of a white board—the bigger the better.

(A side note here: As I write this, I have been on the road , travelling around New England for the summer in a 22-year old convertible purchased on Craigslist. I’ve slept in fourteen different places since June 21, when this trip began, and in every one of those spots, I’ve managed to write something. What makes this possible, I think, is the three foot by four foot white board stashed in the back seat of the car, that I set up at every stopping place. The one comforting constant in a changing landscape. My old friend.)

If possible, I mount my white board on the wall of my work space, with a row of dry erase markers beside it. I start my writing day standing in front of it, much in the way my artist father used to face the boards he painted on, only instead of colors and forms, I cover my board with words and phrases.

Walk into my writing room on any given day, locate the white board , and take in what’s written there. It’s doubtful anyone but me could make much sense of what she’d see there:

Dog. Balloon. Skating accident. Canning jars. Red convertible. Birthday party , no one shows up. Mother’s ashes. Lost key. Spider web.

Barbie van. Elvis Costello song. Craigslist ad. Musician, glimpsed through subway window. Baby with red birthmark on face. Teacup ride. High school shooter.

I seldom write a whole sentence on my white board. But the fragments I scatter across it (in no particular order; term papers should be outlined, perhaps, but a novel should feel more fluid) are ones that make sense to me.

A violinist has her sheet music. An artist, paint. Even a dancer has a physical tool to work with: her own body. But a writer’s raw material — ideas, imagined stories, feelings– is hard to make tangible. All we have are the letters of the alphabet, formed into language. This can make for terror, or paralysis.

So for me, the white board serves as a kind of bridge, between the blankness of a page or the screen on my laptop, and a finished manuscript. Much work remains for a writer whose whiteboard is covered with a scattering of phrases, as mine generally is. But it’s a comforting thing, looking up at my wall, and seeing something there. Something tangible. And it’s a good feeling—good for the body, good for the brain—to get up from my chair on a regular basis, as I do whenever I want to scribble something new on the board—and reach for my dry erase marker.

It’s not a tube of Cerulean Blue, or Viridian Green, or Cadmium Yellow Light. But it’s something real. For me, that’s the starting place.

Joyce Maynard is the bestselling author of beloved fiction and nonfiction, alike, including her groundbreaking memoir: Looking Back: A Chronicle of Growing Up Old in the Sixties.

Ocean Beach

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I’m sure everyone has a different idea of what makes a good beach read – some like bodice-ripper romances, others might prefer a good hard-boiled detective novel. For me, a good beach read has romance, conflict, maybe a side mystery thrown in, and of course, a beach setting. Wendy Wax’s Ocean Beach, the sequel to last year’s summer hit Ten Beach Road, has all of those in spades.

Nicole, Maddie and Avery, along with Maddie’s daughter Kyra and grandson Dustin, and Avery’s mother Deirdre, have a new house to renovate, this time for the a new TV show called “Do Over.” When the ladies arrive at the historic home in South Beach, owned by legendary comedian Max Golden, things are not quite what they expected. “Do Over” will be more reality show than home renovation show and there’s a camera crew following their every move. They work out a deal with the network to allow for private moments and agree to keep the fighting and personal conflict to a minimum as the renovate The Millicent, named for Max’s recently deceased wife and comedy partner, Millie.

Each of the women is struggling with their own inner demons. Nicole is still reeling from her brother’s betrayal and trying to maintain her matchmaking business, so when a mysterious and supposedly rich man contacts her to find him a wife, she thinks nothing of it at first. Maddie’s marriage is on the rocks and her husband is not as supportive of her presence at The Millicent as she would like him to be. Avery is still trying to prove herself as an architect while managing her romance with the contractor and childhood friend who helped the ladies renovate Bella Flora, while Deirdre works hard to earn Avery’s forgiveness for abandoning her as a child for a career in Hollywood. Kyra is battling the camera crew for her own footage of the renovation while dealing with the movie star who fathered her child, who is trying to worm his way back into her life.

So that covers romance, conflict, and the beach setting. While helping Max clean out his closets, Maddie discovers he had a son who disappeared from their front yard when he was 3 years old. The friends agree to find out what happened to Max’s son, adding a nice little side plot to the story.

Ocean Beach is a fun summer diversion, whether you’re actually at the beach or just wishing you were.

We have a copy of both Ten Beach Road (linked to my review) and Ocean Beach for one winner, U.S. addresses only. To enter, leave a comment and tell us what you think makes a good beach read. The winner will be announced on July 11. This giveaway is closed.

Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed or video reviews on YouTube. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter or on Facebook.

Check out these other beach reads:

The Replacement Wife

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Camille Hart has the perfect life. She is married to Edward, and together they have two wonderful children, Kyra and Zach. She has a successful career as a professional matchmaker and has also survived a bout with cancer. While she is making her way to hear the results of her latest PET scan, Edward is secretly meeting with a travel agent inquiring about a romantic vacation for their twentieth anniversary.

Unfortunately, her perfect life comes to a standstill when she hears the news that the cancer has not only returned, but spread. As she and Edward debate whether to pursue treatment despite the extremely low odds of survival, Camille comes to a decision. Spurred by the memory of growing up without a mother, she determines that she is going to use all of her professional skills and resources to find a new wife and mother for her family before she is gone.

The Replacement Wife is a fascinating novel, not just for the premise, but for the deft way the author weaves in both Edward and Camille’s past together and in their families growing up, allowing us to see how our previous experiences – and tragedies – affect our decisions in the present. As the search for the new wife continues, these decisions take on a life of their own rather than following the neat plan Camille had in her head, and those twists and turns make this book more and more enjoyable as the story unfolds.

Eileen Goudge is a longtime favorite in women’s fiction, and this is her first e-riginal, as she call this book, which is being released primarily in electronic format (there is a large print version and an audio version available).

We have one e-book of The Replacement Wife to share with one of our readers. Just leave a comment below to be entered to win. We’ll announce the winner in our giveaway column on April 11th. This giveaway is now closed.

  • The winner of Wide Open is #27 Anita Yancey
  • The winner of Glow is #12 Karen

Don’t miss a thing: Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed or video reviews on YouTube. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter or on Facebook.

Trish thanks Open Road for the review copy of this book. She blogs at In So Many Words.

The Memory Bank

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When opening to the first pages of Carolyn Coman and Rob Shepperson’s new middle grade novel, The Memory Bank, the tone is immediately set as readers are met with the pencil and ink drawings that begin the story of Hope and Honey, devoted sisters alone in a tiny barren bedroom. The first lines of text confirm their need for each other with the lines:

Hope and Honey Scroggins were the closest of sisters, had been right from the start. Truly, they were lucky to love each others so!
Not so lucky when it came to their parents, though.
Mr. and Mrs. Scroggins were simply awful people.”

What follows in the subsequent pages is the wondrously imaginative story of Hope’s quest to find Honey after her parents abandon her on the side of the road, for breaking the “no laughing” rule of all things. Her parents may tell Hope to forget about her, but Hope’s memories- and love- are much too strong for that to be an option. After receiving a letter from the World Wide Memory Bank, she is soon swept into a world where memories and dreams are kept organized in one central place, run by people with their own unique pasts. Here she discovers the power of dreams and memories, and hangs onto the hope that these will be the keys to finding Honey again.

While Hope’s story is told in engaging narrative full of beautiful language (both established, as well as with words created just for this imaginative environment) and in illustrations, it is Honey’s experiences that are expressed only in images. Readers will be compelled to linger on these sketches, noting the small details that contribute to the plot.

My ten year old son and I read, and viewed, this captivating story together, and I found it to be even more beautiful when read aloud. The mysteries and secrets were fun to discuss together, offering our ideas for what would come next to each other, extending the reading experience beyond just the words and pictures. I would highly recommend The Memory Bank for readers of all ages, especially perfect for shared reading!

Dawn is a huge advocate for reading with children, even those big enough to read novels on their own. Her own bibliophile kids are key players on her blog, my thoughts exactly.

Books on Screen Stage:
Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical

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There are some picture books that I’ve read hundreds of times over the years, either as the teacher reading to a group of preschoolers or as the mom snuggling with her own brood. When I can read a story again and again (times 100!), and still do it with joy and gusto, I believe it says something pretty remarkable about that book. At the top of that list are the wonderful and funny works by author/illustrator Mo Willems. With a collection of characters that continues to grow (he’s certainly one prolific writer!), my children and I happily consume his books like crazy.

This month sees the transformation of one of Mo Willems’ most beloved stories from the page to the stage, with the opening of Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. If you have a young child and are not familiar with Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale, I will refrain from chastising you, but will instead very strongly encourage you to correct this wrong immediately. Seriously, it’s a fabulous book, the kind of book that kids love for its humor and cartoonish illustrations, and parents love for its oh-so-realistic portrayal of the joys of toddlerhood.

When my four year old daughter and I were lucky enough to attend the afternoon premiere of Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical, we both spent the hour giggling, bouncing and simply enjoying this familiar story come to life and expanded a bit. Dad and Trixie’s adventure at the laundromat plays out just as we know so well, now with catchy songs and just the right amount of lines and expressions meant as asides for the parents to appreciate. Gigantic, day-glo dancing laundry and periodic guest appearances by our favorite temperamental city bird add to the fun. The cast portray the feelings of both frustrated toddlers and their just-as-confused parents very well, making the play, like the book, accessible to audience members of all ages.

In the role of Trixie, the not-yet-speaking-words toddler who loves her Knuffle Bunny, Stephanie D’Abruzzo is fantastic. She played the wide-eyed, tantrum-prone, wordless (and occasionally ‘boneless’) toddler part with sublime perfection! The best connection to this story, in my opinion, is the fact that Knuffle Bunny was inspired by actual experiences, and it was D’Abruzzo herself who gave the real life baby Trixie Willems the stuffed animal that became her Knuffle Bunny.

I’m happy to say that I learned that little tidbit during a brief conversation with Mo Willems, who just so happened to be at the performance my daughter and I attended! In honor of her birthday that day, Mo kindly gave her some Knuffle Bunny body art as a souvenir, and I was reminded of his good spirit that most definitely influences the wonderful children’s literature that he creates. He also let it slip that there are plans to take Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical on the road, so if you’re not in the Washington, DC area, don’t despair, but watch your own local family theater venues for potential shows near you. It’s the perfect opportunity to expose your child to live theater and experience a story that is a modern-day classic.

Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical is being performed at Washington, DC’s The Kennedy Center through May 23, 2010. Script and lyrics by Mo Willems himself, and fun music (that sticks in your head for days!) by Michael Silversher.

Dawn and her brood have been big Mo fans since her now-tween son was a Pigeon-loving preschooler. Her love for funny kids’ books, her crazy children, and other randomness are all chronicled at my thoughts exactly.

Keeping Tweens and Teens Tuned into Books

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Last week author Lezlie Evans shared a great column with us on Raising Readers in an Electronic World. This week, in conjunction with Dawn’s review and giveaway of Lezlie’s book, Who Loves the Little Lamb? we are happy to offer up this column about Keeping Tweens and Teens Tuned into Books. So, read on, and join in the discussion below, but click over to 5 Minutes for Mom to read Dawn’s review and enter to win one of FIVE autographed copies of Who Loves the Little Lamb?

Dr. Michael Bennettt, Ed.D, has dubbed the four powers of greatness as: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening. These skills greatly contribute to a child’s success in school and throughout his life. Concerning the four powers I say, “Crown reading the King!” Reading rules supreme in my book (no pun intended) because every time a child picks up a book and reads he is developing the other three powers: writing skills, speaking skills, and listening skills. A recent study supports this—the top ranked high school and college students were both read to as children and became readers themselves.

In today’s world full of flashy computer games, instant messaging, and electronic gadgets, it takes a conscientious effort on the part of parents to encourage the reading of books. Researchers recently found the average young person age 8-18 spends nearly 8 hours a day with electronic media. This is not to say all electronics are bad. Many electronics serve good and useful purposes. The key is for parents to monitor and guide teens in the use of electronics and provide opportunities to develop the four powers of greatness.

While introducing your children to reading early in life is the best way to establish a solid foundation in literacy that will last throughout their lives, do not despair if you are starting late. Publishers are catering to teen readers more than ever before. Book production for the tween/teen market is currently the hot spot in children’s publishing, and despite a struggling economy last year, the release of new books for teens was up nearly 10%.

Let me share a few ideas that will aid you in tuning your teens into reading:

  • Make magazines and books accessible. Teens don’t usually like to hang out at the library, so bring the library to them! Check out a stack of books for your teen readers every time you go to the library.
  • Encourage reading for the fun of it and as a free-time activity. By building family activities around reading—like having a picnic followed by reading in the park, taking a family trip to the library and then stopping at the ice cream shop afterward, or taking everyone to the bookstore to pick out a book prior to leaving on your road trip—you will send the message that reading is fun!
  • Recommend books to your tween/teen. Finding the right title that is of interest to your teen is key. When my kids approached their teen years they started asking me for book recommendations. I knew my child’s interests and individual tastes, but not many books for teens. So I went right to my local Young Adult Librarian and asked for advice. Librarians know the hot new books, the most popular series, and which titles will appeal to your child’s interests. Most libraries also have lists of award-winning books and notable books—ask your librarian for these lists.
  • Set the example. Put a book in your hands or let your teen catch you reading. Studies have shown when books are viewed as important to parents, they will be important to the children in the home as well.
  • Read and discuss the books with your teens. This can be a great bonding experience and can open the lines of communication during the challenging teen years. Our discussions helped my children learn how to form and express opinions.
  • Don’t stop reading out loud when your child moves into the tween years. Read with your child at every age and through every stage! Even if it’s just part of a newspaper article or an interesting article found on the Internet, read it to them. A set family reading time will make a difference. On school nights, have a period where there are no electronics (TV or gaming). Encourage everyone to read a book, do homework, or research something they are interested in during this period. Our teens loved to listen while we read out loud from chapter books. You can also ask your teens to read to younger siblings.
  • Finally, offer rewards for reading and applaud your child’s efforts. Initiate reading incentive programs if you’re having a tough time getting your teen to read. One year we set a family summer reading goal and we celebrated our success by a family trip to Busch Gardens. It was a fun family event, but I think we enjoyed the summer reading even more!

Keep in mind that by offering tweens and teens frequent opportunities to develop the four powers of greatness you are aiding in their success at school and in life. Being consistent in your efforts will make all the difference. So remember to have enticing reading materials readily available, talk about what you are reading on a daily basis, demonstrate reading is fun and enjoyable by reading yourself, and create family reading time, activities, and incentives. As you do this you will succeed in keeping your teen tuned into you and to books.


Lezlie Evans is a mother of six and a published children’s book author. Her latest title, Who Loves the Little Lamb?, published by Disney/Hyperion and illustrated by award winning artist, David McPhail, is the story of a mother’s unconditional love.

Lime Tree Can’t Bear Orange

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With the lush setting of Trinidad and Tobago, this story of a young girl mistreated and manipulated by the male figures of power in her life is beautiful and painful at the same time. In Amanda Smyth’s novel Lime Tree Can’t Bear Orange, the protagonist is a young girl whose parents are gone- her mother died bringing her into the world and her father is a mystery man to her who is believed to be in England. When living with her aunt no longer is a safe option, Celia leaves Tobago for the capital city on the larger island of Trinidad. At sixteen, she is still just a child in so many ways, but the road to her adult life is directly ahead of her.

Before leaving her home, Celia is asked to deliver something to a neighbor, an elderly woman who many believe to be a soothsayer with extraordinary powers. She abruptly delivers a fortune to Celia, one that isn’t terribly heartening, and Celia is left feeling frightened and confused. Some of the predictions are realized almost immediately, and the others weigh in Celia’s mind for the rest of the novel.

I got pulled into this novel quickly and with little fanfare. There’s something straightforward and unassuming about this book and its characters. Even though Celia has much to be pained about in her life, she expresses very little emotion throughout the course of her story, and the narrative in her voice is quite frank. With the soothsayer’s words spoken to her as a child opening the book, her path in life is clear to the reader even when she doesn’t see it coming. Smyth writes beautifully, and in Lime Tree Can’t Bear Orange the islands of Trinidad and Tobago come to life on the page.

Dawn loves being transported in time and place through the pages of a book. Her own story is told, in bits and pieces, with love and humor, on my thoughts exactly.

Visions in Poetry

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I have admitted before that I am not a poetry fan. In fact, the only reason I will willingly pick it up is if it has something to do with Lucy Maud Montgomery and anything she ever wrote. Anyone who is remotely familiar with the story of Anne of Green Gables knows that Anne was a pretty big fan of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Lady of Shalott. So when I saw that this particular poem was offered by Kid’s Can Press in their new Visions in Poetry series, I had to check it out!

Ok, I still don’t really understand the poem itself but I think it’s beautiful and haunting. Parts of it make sense to me but I feel like I’m lacking in the “deep meaning” department. (I just flat out don’t get poetry although I do try!) I cracked open The Lady of Shalott and was drawn in to Genevieve Cote’s illustrations of this old poem.

On either side the river lie
Long field of barley and of rye,
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;
And thro’ the field the road runs by
To many-tower’d Camelot;
And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow
Round an island there below
The island of Shalott.

Cote tells her own version of this classic poem by blending the time periods in her illustrations. There are castles and “bold Sir Lancelot” side-by-side with images that seem to promote the golden age of Hollywood. It’s quite unique but I didn’t mind it at all. I found each page spread equally interesting and I like Cote’s interpretation on the whole. Yes, it’s a deviation from Tennyson’s original, dare I say masterpiece?, but I think it’s faithful enough and exciting as well. Lovely, lovely work and I’ll tuck this book away on my bookshelf to pull out from time to time.

(Off subject to some extent but have you heard Lauren McKennet’s version of The Lady of Shalott? It’s my favorite. Take a listen by clicking here.)

In the (“only”) movie version of Anne of Green Gables, Anne participates in a concert at the White Sands Hotel and decides to recite Alfred Noyes’ The Highwayman. I remember reading this poem in high school and (surprise!) it made no sense to me. But I still “enjoyed” it because Anne had read it. Along comes the Visions in Poetry edition of this book and Murray Kimber’s illustration and suddenly the entire poem makes sense to me. (I’m thick headed. Apparently if you utilize a motorcycle in a grand poem, I’ll get the point!) I found this particular edition exciting because I could finally SEE that the poem tells a story and it is touching and does, in fact, cause one to cry. It’s a pathetically sad and tragic poem but Kimber brings just enough romantic drama to the whole ordeal that it feels worthwhile somehow.

Back, he spurred like a madman,
shouting a curse to the sky,
With the white road smoking behind him
and his rapier brandished high.
Blood-red were his spurs in the golden moon;
wine-red was his velvet coat;
When they shot him down on the highway,
Down like a dog on the highway,
And he lay in his blood on the highway,
with a bunch of lace at his throat.

Lastly, if any of you are particular fans of The Road to Avonlea show, you may recall that Sara Stanley recites The Owl and the Pussycat with her theatrical cousin, Pigeon Plumtree. Lo and behold, Kids Can Press also offers an edition of The Owl and the Pussycat! The illustrations are done by Edward Lear and they are quite unique – but fun! It’s just an interesting twist on this old poem.

Ok, so now I’ve confessed to you that 1.) I am pathetic when it comes to not understanding poetry. 2.) I am a sick devoted fan of Lucy Maud Montgomery and will read anything to connect with her work in a deeper way. 3.) I very much appreciate Kid’s Can Press for bringing poetry to life through illustrated stories. They’ve done an admirable job and I’m quite a fan.

(By the way, there are other, non-Anne related books in their Visions of Poetry series. You can view the rest of the books by clicking here on the Kids Can Press website.)

What about you? Are you a poetry lover? Are there particular poems that you feel drawn to for any specific reasons? I’ve shared so now it’s your turn! Don’t leave me feeling quite so alone, ok?

Carrie comes by her book obsession honestly, having descended from a long line of bibliophiles. She blogs about books regularly at Reading to Know.

A Friend Like Henry

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I’ve been living in a bubble. Never having come into close contact with a family whose child is autistic is surprising when you see the statistics. It’s the fastest growing developmental disability in the United States today with 1 out of every 150 American children affected by it, and 1 out of 94 boys. Just in case you’re in that bubble with me, let me tell you about this incredible story of Dale, born with autism, the journey he and his parents take and the role a golden retriever named Henry plays in changing their world.

It’s hard to say who touched me more. Was it Dale, the little boy born with autism, or his parents Jamie and Nuala Gardner, as my heart was torn by the gut-wrenching journey they were on, or was it the namesake of this book, a gentle, unassuming dog who came into their life with no way of knowing the impact he would have? It only took the prologue for this book to grab me.

Written from the mother’s perspective in raw, honest and sometimes strong language, Nuala gave me my first real glimpse of a family dealing with this disability, really any disability. There’s nothing ‘warm, fuzzy’ about this book. Rather, it allows us to spend time in their world, getting a close look not only at what day to day life was like, but also the depths of despair they reached, the anger and grieving, and the triumphs that came along now and then. Nuala flings the door to her heart wide open, letting us all see what life with a severely autistic child is like. Most of the book is written from her perspective, but I was also given a glimpse of what Dale was feeling, especially as he got older. The end of the book has snippets written by Dale himself.

Early in the book Nuala shared a scene of attempting to help Dale cross a busy street. Reaching the middle he began to scream, kick, pull her hair and all she could do was sit down astride him, trying to keep him from smashing his head against the concrete. If that wasn’t heartbreaking enough, the real lesson for me was in the responses of those trying to drive down the street. Horns honking, and people yelling out their windows, “That kid needs a da*n good spanking.” “Disgusting behavior.” Autism isn’t usually obvious to the casual eye. As a matter of fact, in spite of being diagnosed as ‘severe classic autism’ none of Dale’s friends ever knew of his disability, even though he eventually was placed in the mainstream high school. It’s easy to miss and misunderstand.

Almost accidentally Dale is exposed to a family member’s dog, and the parents immediately see a connection. With some hesitation they bring home a golden retriever puppy, and amazingly he is the key that unlocks Dale’s world. As he learns to care about, care for Henry, to spend time with him, to bond with him, Dale is literally freed from his solitary world to one of relationships, communication, friends, school, to a functioning level of independence. Possibly the most moving story in the book is when Nuala shares Dale telling her for the very first time that he loves her. Interestingly at just the same time I was reading this book, my own daughter shared with me that her two year old son had spontaneously told her he loved her. “Love u momma.” Nuala waited years for the same expression.

A Friend Like Henry wasn’t written to educate the public. I have to think, after reading it, that it was just lying there down in Nuala’s soul, waiting to come out. She’d lived it and had to share it. Still, it was a tremendous lesson for me, not only to what a parent of a severely disabled child must deal with on a day to day basis, but what goes on within their heart, the reactions they receive, the grief they must journey through, the parenting skills they must conjure up in the midst of heartbreak, discouragement and exhaustion.

Reading this book I realized there are countless people out there, living the life handed to them, loving their child fiercely, doing what they have to do, all the while dealing with loneliness, discouragement, misunderstanding, and a lack of respect or compassion or empathy, sometimes on my part. One point Nuala shared over and over was the vital role friends played in supporting them, often in practical ways. If you know someone who has an autistic child, or one with other disabilities, I would highly recommend reading this book. It will change how you see the world and that’s almost always a good thing.

I’m confident Nuala isn’t asking to be anyone’s hero but I came away with tremendous respect for this family, the tough road they walked, never once loosening their fierce grip on each other’s hands. Here’s a link to a video of the family on You Tube, for an upclose look at this family. The video was made when Dale was a little boy and still deep in his own world.

Bev shares whatever’s on her heart at Scratchin’ the Surface, when she doesn’t have her nose in a book, or isn’t on the phone with someone in her family.

To win one of three copies of A Friend Like Henry Sourcebooks is giving away, leave a comment here. We’ll post the winners on Wednesday September 10.

Editor’s note: Whether or not you have a child with Special Needs, you can peek into the world of families who do. Our sister site 5 Minutes for Special Needs features thoughtful posts from fantastic writers each day.

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