Review: The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare

5 stars for The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare.

This is a novel that warms my heart through and through.

Embarassed to say, I almost give this book a miss initially as the title does not entice me to give much thoughts to reading it. That and that the story is in third person narratives, not one that I look foward to. Now I am simply glad to have read it, and sad at the same time that the story has come to an end.

Set in eighteenth century Maine, this story is about the first settlers in a new township. 12-year old Matt Hallowell is tasked to guard the family's newly built log house and corn patch as his father returns to their house in Quincy to fetch his mother, sister and the new baby. Left alone to fend for himself in the wilderness home, Matt is hard-pressed to survive until local Indians teach him their skills.

Though the story is in third person narratives, we see the story unfolding only when Matt is around. He tells of how he gets to know and be friends with a local Indian boy Attean. Through Matt, the story explores frontier and pioneer life, Indians of North America, survival and adventure, courage, friendship, goodwill and respect.

There are many things to like about this book - the world building, the characters, the useful survival skills, the understanding of the need to live with people of other ethnic groups, life's lesson, the way of the Indians, the secret of the forest and even the fundamental differences in the way of living and beliefs between two very different groups of people. Of all, life's lesson is my favourite. Because at the end of the day, that is what matters most. We learn and we grow, older and wiser. Just like how it is for Matt; he gains more than just survival skills from Attean, he is rewarded with firsthand experience of how it is for the Indians, watching their old hunting grounds being taken over by White settlers, and White traders demanding more animal skins than the woods can provide. Matt begins to see things differently, from a different perspective, one which he can never understand without the chance and willingness to integrate with the local people first.

These days when I read books, I always enjoy it when the author uses foreshadowing to cast doubts and worries and to up the excitement level. To quote " On the day of their greatest adventure, Attean had come without his dog. So there was no warning." I like the way the author suggests that something big and bad is coming their way. Yes, it will be Matt and Attean's greatest adventure but perhaps, also their greatest misfortune. It certainly keeps my eyes riveted on the book and my fingers on turning the pages.

All too soon, I have reached the end of the book. But I am not quite ready to leave the story and its setting behind. A check with Google revealed that this is the last book written by the author. She has gone to the great beyond in 1994. This means that there will never be any sequel to The Sign of the Beaver or any other new story by this same author ever again. And that is quite a sad thing. But there is consolation in knowing that there are some earlier works by her. I may check them out some day.

Review: Sarah, Plain and Tall (Sarah, Plain and Tall Saga #1) by Patricia MacLachlan

4 stars for Sarah, Plain and Tall (Sarah, Plain and Tall Saga book 1) by Patricia MacLachlan.

I have always enjoyed a tale or two on country life. There is a kind of unspoken peace and quiet and serenity that comes with country living, away from the hustle and bustle of life in the big city. Perhaps because I read the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder when I was young and it left a deep and lasting impression on me, I have always reserved a special place in my heart for such stories.

Sarah, Plain and Tall is a timeless story of living in the prairie. Anna and Caleb live with their father in their prairie home. Their father invites a mail-order bride to live with them. The two children like her and hope that she will stay.

Before I read the book, I have always thought that Sarah is the name of the protagonist in the story. And that will have to be a young girl since this is a children's fiction. How very wrong I am. But regardless of who Sarah is, the story warms my heart and brings comforting thoughts of family life and simple living where there are fields and grass and sky and not much else. The novel explores the theme of family, love, loss and fear of abandonement.

My only grievance is that the story is somewhat short and as a result, it lacks depth on character building. Other than that, everything is good.

Review: Rules by Cynthia Lord

4 stars for Rules by Cynthia Lord.

This is a story that will help readers be more understanding towards people with disabilities.

12-year old Catherine always hopes for normal in her family but she knows it will never be; her 8-year old brother David is autistic. To help her brother understands how other people behave and how the world works, Catherine creates a list of rules for her brother. But her brother does not always follow her rules and worst still, he set his own rules.

This novel is heartwarming and inspiring, but it is also kind of sad and disappointing and frustrating. It is never easy living with someone with a severe disability.

The story teaches us that we do not always get what we wish for. Sometimes things are simply beyond our control. We do not get to choose our family, we are born into them. If ony one of the family members is born with special needs, the entire family have to take it in stride and move forward. Because Mother Earth does not stop rotating. Because the sun still rises in the east. Life still goes on.

The story also teaches us that sometimes what we hope for and what we get in return can be very different. Take the new next-door neighbour for example, the friendship that Catherine hopes to have with the new girl turns out to be very different from what she has in mind. She hopes for this friendship to blossom but instead makes an unexpected friendship of another kind in return.

Perhaps what I like most in the teachings of this story is making the efforts to spend time with family. It is always disheartening to read about parents procrastinating on spending quality time with their children. Children only grow up once and before we know it, our children will not want to spend time with the parents but with their friends instead. In the story, one of the parents is seen giving empty promises to the child just to stop the child from asking again. Well, work is never finished. If the parents are too busy with work to spend time with their children, why have children in the first place?

Overall, Rules is a good family story. It highlights the challenges and difficulties families with autistic members may face, but it also features the joys and human kindness that come with living and loving a person with special needs. This book is informative reading for anyone who is interested, and especially suitable for siblings and friends of autistic children. Autism is not an illness, and definitely not something abominable. It is just a person whose mind is wired differently, and for us to get to know this person who is different from the rest of us.

Review: Restart by Gordon Korman

Did not Finish Restart by Gordon Korman.

This is the story of 13-year old Chase Ambrose who suffers from acute retrograde amnesia after a bad fall from the roof of his house. Due to his memory loss, Chase is given the chance to rebuild himself with a clean slate, to make a complete fresh start. To restart life.

This book feels more like reading a young adult novel than a children's fiction. And the more I read, the more I didn't like where the story is going. The plot is predictable to a fault; bad boy has a bad fall, wakes up with no memory of who he is and starts life anew. Even though I did not finish reading the book, I can already see in my mind's eye how the story will pan out, a cliché ending that is.

I like first person narratives, but not this one. This book has just way too many characters narrating the story. Each time a new character comes on board, I have to orientate myself to know the new character. And just when I know enough of that character, I have to reorientate myself at the start of the next chapter and try to recall who that character speaking is again.

Sorry to say, I am not a fan of this story. I stop reading when I reach one fifth of the novel, my default point in deciding whether to stop or to go on.

Review: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg

5 stars for From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg.

The title is a mouthful. But because of the long title, the book is well taken note of. Add to that that this is the first book that makes it to the banned books list in my last reviewed book, Ban this Book, my interest is piqued and I promptly move it up from my Reading List to placate my reading whims.

The story centers around two children, 12-year old Claudia and her 9-year old brother, Jamie. They run away from home to live in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. While Claudia strives to keep things in order in their new home, she also works towards becoming a changed person and a heroine to herself.

In the story of Ban this Book, From the Mixed-Up Files is challenged by a parent and taken off the shelf of the school library. In fact, this book has indeed been challenged or banned in an American library at least once in the last thirty years. I can totally understand why. Because this novel is basically about runaway children. Though not all children will run away from home - immediately or thereafter - after reading this book, I do not deny that it may well plant the idea in impressionable young children. We can never know for sure what may transpire in the minds of children who read this book. And that is surely not a good thing. But then, I tend to think that banning the book from the shelf of a library takes it a step too far. Hmm..

Runaway children aside, this story is actually very interesting. It tells of two children and their meticulous planning, attention to details, careful decision making and good money management. It is fascinating to see how they manage to pull it off and not get caught for hiding and living in an Art Museum. But of course, this is a story and to have the story as a book, the children must not be caught. But still, the two children complement each other perfectly for their quest; what the sister lacks, the brother provides. The sister is cautious (about everything but money) and poor while the brother is adventurous (about everything but money) and rich.

Ultimately, this is a story about finding yourself, about how the greatest adventure in running away from home is not about the running away but in looking within oneself, and the greatest discovery of home away from home is not about finding out the truth on an art work but in finding out what makes you.

From the Mixed-Up Files may be a story about children running away from home and one which some parents disagree with, but it is also a creative and inspiring story about the realistic aspects of living and growing up with invaluable lessons to be learned.

Review: Ban this Book by Alan Gratz

5 stars for Ban this Book by Alan Gratz.

I love this book. It sounds exactly like what I may well do, retaliate that is, if my favourite book is banned from the library.

This story is about reading and getting banned books back onto the school library shelves. Mind you, these are books that encourage children to tell lies, to steal and to be disrespectful to adults. Well, I know right, summarised into a sentence like this makes the book sounds like one really unsuitable for children. So it seems. But in all actuality, this is not what Ban this Book is all about. The books themselves are not the reasons for the bad behaviour, rather, it is the action of banning the books by the school that leads to them.

The story is told in first-person by Amy Anne Ollinger, a nine-year-old girl who often has difficulty speaking up for herself. She is upset by the school's decision to remove books, her favourite book especially, from the school library. As she works to get banned books back on the shelves of her school library, she discovers that she is not alone in her quest. She is, in fact, part of a community of booklovers that includes her good friends, classmates, their parents and even the school librarian.

***

Before I proceed further, I like to highlight two things of importance.

First, every title banned by the school board in this novel is a book that has in fact been challenged or banned in an American library at least once in the last thirty years. So, the banned books listed in this novel are for real, not some fictitious ones. This is as stated under the author's note at the end of the book. And as it is, because they are banned books, naturally the reader in me cannot resist the temptation but to check them out and add those that interest me to my Reading List. You got it!

Second, the author includes in the list of books banned, some titles that the protagonist, Amy Anne, does not like and even some that she feels uncomfortable reading. In doing so, the author is trying to put across the message that the things people choose to ban usually include things that they feel uncomfortable with. But the thing is, people cannot decide for everyone else what books others are or are not comfortable with reading. They cannot stop other people from wanting to borrow those books and reading them.

***

What I like about this book is that it is not simply a story about banned books, it is also about family relationships, learning to express oneself through words, art, action and even in the choice of books to take down from a library shelf to read, learning the right way as opposed to the wrong one to voice objections and learning to make a stand and find one's own strengths.

What I also like is the mention of the old ways used by libraries on keeping track of books borrowed by readers. It feels like a walk down memory lane as it brings back old memories, of nostalgic days when the queue time to borrow or return books can be as long as thirty minutes or even an hour. With the wonders of technology, it is hard to imagine spending that long an amount of waiting time these days.

With regard to banned books, I am of the view that libraries - be it school or public libraries - should be a place where one can find all kinds of books - good books, bad books, serious books, funny books, small books, big books, thick books, thin books, etc. You get my drift. Every person should be free to read whatever they want, whenever they want, wherever they want and not have to explain to anyone why they read it or why they like it or why they feel it is good or no good. I too, have my share of books that I like and do not like. I express my likes and dislikes - my own choice - in my review blog and recommend books accordingly. I do not impose my views on others as I respect that everyone has their own reading preference. And I certainly do not go to the extent of trying to get books banned in my local library simply because I do not agree with them. That will be the role for parents to play. Every parent has the right to decide what their child can and cannot read. We simply cannot make that decision for other people's children.

I am also of the opionion that children be exposed to as many different kinds of books and as many different perspectives as possible. It is important to let children read books that interest, educate, challenge and even entertain them. Where age is deemed appropriate (by the parents), children should be allowed to read books with content that adults may not agree with, but nevertheless, let them read and decide for themselves about things.

Ban this Book is an inspiring story suitable for children aged 8 to 12 years. It teaches children that sometimes getting into a truckload of trouble is worth the consequences. One more thing, this story will likely resonate with those children who have younger sisters or brothers, and are often made to give in to the whims of these younger siblings. I think they will enjoy this novel a lot more.