Recommending Books for Children and Teens

The Gardener (Picture Book)

Sarah Stewart's The Gardener is one of my all-time favorite picture books.  It's about a girl named Lydia Grace, whose parents have to send her to live with her cranky Uncle Jim for a while when her father loses his job during the Great Depression.  (Does anyone else feel a certain yearning nowadays for books about that era?)  Lydia Grace tells her surprisingly upbeat story in a series of letters home.  I'm not usually a fan of stories told through letters--for some appalling reason I find myself nodding off--but I loved every word of this one.  And the illustrations, by David Small, are beautiful.  Don't miss it!

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New Blog Format

I've decided to mix things up a little and recommend a wider array of books.  You'll see the new categories listed on the right.  You'll still find a host of recommended middle-grade novels, along with a few picture books and books for teens.  I have a backlog of recommendations to add.  I'll do so as quickly as I can!  Happy New Year!

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Here Lies the Librarian (Middle-Grade Fiction)

I've always loved Richard Peck's novels. A Long Way From Chicago (Puffin Modern Classics) and A Year Down Yonderare two of my all-time favorite middle-grade books. Each won a version of the Newbery, so you don't really need me to recommend them.  But I do!  They're fantastic!  

Now Peck has a new book out: Here Lies the Librarian. And it's great!  It's classic Peck. A small town; unforgettable family characters; a dead body or two; crazy old folks; country-town tension; humor; and heart. My only quibble is that I found the first chapter, and the beginning of the second, a little choppy. I had a hard time feeling grounded in the story. But that's only about 15 pages. From the moment Irene Ridpath drives up and blows a tire, it's smooth sailing. You'll enjoy it. And it's only 145 pages in all. So if you're feeling daunted by the length of some of my other recommended readings (THE MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY, for example), start here.

 

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The Wild Girls (Middle-Grade Fiction)

Many apologies for not posting last week. I read a few books that I liked, but not enough to discuss them here. It wasn't their fault. If I'd read them another time, I'd have liked them more. I'm certain of it. But I was also immersed in George Eliot's Middlemarch (Oxford World's Classics). I'd never read it before. It's so very good that everything else seemed positively skimpy. So, for the adults visiting this blog: If you have some time and haven't already read it, pick up MIDDLEMARCH. It's truly fantastic. For the kids: It'd probably bore you now. But check it out later.

Now that I'm out from under the MIDDLEMARCH spell, I'd like to wholeheartedly recommend Pat Murphy's The Wild Girls. It's a beautiful book about adolescence and figuring out who you are and who your parents are and why. It's also about writing and wisdom. The characters are vivid, and the story lingers long after you've turned the last page. My one quibble is that the main character, Joan, seems awfully understanding and poised for a twelve-year-old. But she remains sympathetic; the story is still full of tension; and part of the point of the book is to show how the writing process can enhance understanding. So ignore that minor complaint. And enjoy!

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The Willoughbys (Middle-Grade Fiction)

And now for something a little different. Lois Lowry's The Willoughbys is perfect silliness. The four Willoughby children want to get rid of their parents. Meaning, they'd like them dead. As it turns out, the feeling is mutual: The Willoughby parents plot to get rid of their children. A baby is left on various doorsteps. A nanny dresses in a toga. It's mayhem. There's even a silly but quite useful glossary at the end, with entries like: "OBSEQUIOUS means overly eager to please. The kid who is always raising his hand in class and saying 'I know! I know!' is usually pretty obsequious and it's no wonder nobody can stand him. Smarmy is kind of a neat word that means obsequious." It's very difficult to read this book without having fun.

I, for one, had no idea Lois Lowry could be so silly. I've only read two of her other books: The Giver, a very serious, Newbery-medal-winning classic that imagines a world in which true emotion has been done away with; and Number the Stars (Yearling Newbery), another very serious, Newbery-medal-winning classic about the Holocaust. Needless to say, both are excellent. (Although frankly, I didn't love the beginning of NUMBER THE STARS. Why? I can't remember. But I do remember the ending--it was very gripping. And the book won the Newbery, for crying out loud. So if, by chance, you find the beginning disappointing, stick with it. It's worth it.) How many authors can do serious AND silly so very well? Can this woman do no wrong? Do I have to like her? Can I hate her, just a little?

 

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The Mysterious Benedict Society (Middle-Grade Fiction)

Here’s my recommendation for this post: The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart. I picked it up in my daughters’ school library. And what a find! It’s the story of a group of resourceful children who rely on their skills and each other to overcome dark forces. The characters are interesting and well-developed; the adventure is rollicking; it even has emotional resonance. I did pause occasionally and think, “Does that hold up?” Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn’t. Who cares? It’s a fun read. (At 485 pages, it’s not a short read, but it went very quickly.)

Scroll down to see my recommendation for the sequel, which I liked even better.  (I'm switching blog hosts, so the entries are a bit topsy turvy.) 

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Love That Dog (Middle-Grade Fiction)

How could it have taken me so long to recommend Sharon Creech's Love That Dog? It's one of my favorite middle-grade novels; it was published recently; and it has no shiny award stickers on the cover. So it even meets my old (now discarded as too constraining) blogging criteria. And it's a tiny, wonderful book, about a boy who hates poetry and his teacher, who must be the best teacher of all time, and, of course, his dog. It's the one book I took out every time I got stuck writing MY BIBI. I have another book that I take out every time I get stuck writing my new novel, but I won't ever get to blog about it fully. It's The Wife: A Novel, by Meg Wolitzer, and it's not even a book for kids. But it's funny and intense. I keep hoping I can somehow capture some of that feeling.

A sequel to LOVE THAT DOG came out last fall. It's called Hate That Cat: A Novel. Of course I'll read it. But can it possibly compete?

I can't sign off without mentioning another book by Sharon Creech: Walk Two Moons. An out-of-this-world, fantastic book. Can't be topped. I read it and I think, How did she do that?! How?! It won a Newbery, so you don't need me to recommend it. But, for the record, I do recommend it. I really do.

 

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Remembering Mrs. Rossi (Middle-Grade Fiction)

Full disclosure: I adore Amy Hest, the author of Remembering Mrs. Rossi. (I've recommended a picture book of hers, KISS GOOD NIGHT, in another post.)  I don't just adore her writing. I adore her. She was my first writing teacher, when I started writing for children. She is the reason I have kept with it. She has taught me more than I can possibly convey. And she is now a dear friend. 

I read REMEMBERING MRS. ROSSI in one sitting, the moment it came out. I loved it then. But I've hesitated to recommend it here, because I was worried about one thing: What if I'd loved it so much because I could hear Amy's voice in its pages?

So I read it again, this time trying to forget I'd ever met the author. Again I finished it in one sitting. And, again, I loved it.

It's the story of eight-year-old Annie Rossi, whose mother has just died. Does this mean it's sad? Of course it's sad. Her mother just died. But Annie is also funny and angry and jealous. In a word, she's eight. She and her father are struggling with Mrs. Rossi's death, but they're also moving on together. At the end of the day, the book isn't really about death (although of course that's a big part of it). It's really about Annie.

My older daughter is now eight. Will she read REMEMBERING MRS. ROSSI? I hope so. Will she cry? Probably. Is that bad? I don't think so. She'd be empathizing with someone who's had a difficult experience--an experience that, conceived broadly, all of us have to face at some point. Why isn't that good?

 

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A Wizard of Earthsea (Middle-Grade Fiction/Book for Teens)

My self-imposed constraints are too constraining! I'd decided to recommend in this blog only middle-grade novels published in the last ten years or so. I'd wanted to keep up with more recent arrivals and avoid revisiting old favorites. But there are so many older books that I've never read. And new and old alike help me with my writing. So I'm changing the rules. From now on I'll recommend any middle-grade novel I love, whether old and new. I will try to balance the two.

 

My recommendation this week, Ursula Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea (The Earthsea Cycle, Book 1), is a classic. How could I have missed it for so long? I have no idea. But if you've missed it as well, go get it. Right this minute. It's a treasure. In it, a young, arrogant, powerful, proud wizard quarrels with another young wizard, with fearsome consequences. The first wizard must then strive to set everything right.

Le Guin is a masterful storyteller. Her language is beautiful. She weaves important themes gracefully throughout. And she creates a compelling, alternate world that is difficult to leave. I'm tempted to read everything she's ever written. Which is a lot. I'll start with the other EARTHSEA novels. That's right! Great news! It's a series! (I know this isn't news formillions of readers out there. But if you're one of them, just think of how happy you were when you first discovered it!)

 

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Tuck Everlasting (Middle-Grade Fiction)

Here's another classic children's book that shouldn't be missed. (I managed to miss it for an embarrassingly long time, but I'm delighted to have read it now.) Natalie Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting is the story of Winnie Foster's adventures with the Tuck family, who became immortal after drinking from a magical spring. Winnie's parents own the spring, and she must decide whether she too would like to live forever. The story is straightforward, but filled with suspense and magic and meaning and well-drawn characters. Babbitt makes it all look easy. But believe you me, it's not!

My only caveat is that the pacing at the beginning of the book is a little slow. But this is for good reason. And after only about fifteen pages, it picks up dramatically. So stick with it. You won't be sorry!

 

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