The Willoughbys: A Novel Nefariously Written and Ignominiously Illustrated by Lois Lowry
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery (1908), James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl (1961), The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1909), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (1884) . . .
What would you do if your parents were awful parents? You can do what eldest brother, Timothy, Barnaby A and his twin, Barnaby B and the little sister, Jane decide to do. They are going to try to ditch their parents so that they can live the adventurous lives of orphans, just like in those old-fashioned books.
This story made me laugh out loud at the ridiculous schemes these kids concocted to try to become orphans. Lowry did a great job at keeping the story light and not at all gruesome. As soon as I put this book down, I wanted to read it again. Not only is there a glossary in the back that defines all those old-fashioned vocabulary words that she used in the story (like the ones in the title,) but there is also a list of other old-fashioned orphan stories that you may want to read.
To watch an interview with Lois Lowry where she talks about her new book, The Willoughbys, click on the play button below.
The Puzzling World of Winston Breen by Eric Berlin
Hold on to your hat because if you love puzzles, you are going to love this book! Winston is a regular middle schooler who loves to solve puzzles . . . all kinds of puzzles. Word puzzles, math puzzles, logic puzzles; you name it, he solves it. Winston’s whole world is full of puzzles. His friends share puzzles that they create for him every day on the bus, his older cousin gives Winston puzzles to solve through email, and the kind old man who owns the local game store shares puzzles with Winston every time he stops in to the store. To date, there isn’t a puzzle that Winston Breen can’t solve.
Until one day, Winston buys a decorative wooden box at the old man’s store to give to his little sister, Katie, for her birthday. Accidently, Katie discovers a hidden compartment in the box. Inside the hidden compartment there are four small, wooden sticks with letters on them. Immediately, Winston realizes that it’s a puzzle except this is one puzzle that Winston can’t solve.
Winston and Katie do a little investigating about where the old man got the box and they find themselves smack dab in the middle of a real life treasure hunt. It turns out that the founder of Winston’s town owned a very valuable piece of jewelry and hid it from his four greedy children. Before he passed on, he left his four children clues to where the jewelry is hidden but he only gave each child one quarter of the puzzle. They would have to work together to solve this puzzle. Unfortunately, there is only one child still alive, the librarian at the local public library.
Can Winston and the librarian find the remaining pieces to the puzzle? Can they figure out the location of the jewelry before those strange men who have been harassing the librarian do? Will the jewelry still be there after all these years?
Every chapter of this book was packed with puzzles for you to solve (all the answers are in the back of the book.) I really enjoyed trying to solve the puzzles on my own but after I got halfway through the book, the plot was getting so interesting and intense, I just couldn’t be bothered to stop to solve the puzzles.
Great puzzles, great characters, great action! This is the perfect book to read for summer vacation. If you liked mystery and detective stories like The Westing Game where you try to solve the puzzle on your own, then you’ll love The Puzzling World of Winston Breen.
Back in 2000, Jerry Spinelli wrote Stargirl–the story of an eccentric and mystical, homeschooled girl who starts to attend the local high school. We meet Stargirl through the eyes of Leo who in one moment is in love with her and the next moment he can’t stand her. By the end of the story, Leo has dumped Stargirl because he finally lets peer pressure tell him how he should feel about her.
Well, Jerry Spinelli wasn’t happy with ending it there. Here is Love, Stargirl–the continuing story of what happens to Stargirl after the breakup and after she moves away to another state. Being hurt by the breakup, Stargirl decides to write the world’s longest letter to Leo. She talks about how she misses him, the crazy town she is living in, the new friends she is making, the natural sundial that she has created to celebrate the solstice, and the mysterious boy that has taken interest in her.
This book was hard to read sometimes because I could feel how hurt Stargirl was about the breakup. Stargirl keeps nothing a secret. She tells you (actually Leo) exactly how she feels . But then sometimes it was wonderful to read because Stargirl is such a neat person; she’s so hopeful and interesting and you can begin to see that her heart is beginning to heal a little. Stargirl is one of my favorite characters and if you have ever been in love or have been dumped then you would love Love, Stargirl, too.
First, I love Sharon Creech. She won the Newbery Medal in 1995 for Walk Two Moons and has been continuing to write all kinds of amazing stories (see the list of other Sharon Creech novels below). Naturally, when I saw her new book, I knew I had to read it.
This story is like a fairy tale. It takes place in a country that winds along the Winono River and on the banks of that river stands the majestic Castle Corona. It has a cast full of characters: Pia and Enzio, two peasant children; King Guido and Queen Gabriella who live in Castle Corona with their children, Prince Gianni the poet, Prince Vito the hero and Princess Fabrizia the . . . well, the princess. In addition there are the hermit, the storyteller, the wise woman, and the cruel master.
One day while Pia and Enzio are filling their buckets with water, they find a mysterious pouch. When they see the King’s soldiers scouring the woods for the lost pouch, they quickly realize the value of the pouch and begin to plan a way to return it without being accused of stealing it. In the process, the lives of all the characters are crossed in a wonderfully engaging way. Creech is a master of spare language–using very few words to convey lots of imagery and meaning. I loved all the different kinds of characters; some were funny, some were charming, some were irritating. I couldn’t wait to see if Pia and Enzio were going to be accused of stealing the pouch or if their dreams of living in Castle Corona were going to come true.
The last thing that I loved about this book were the gorgeous illustrations. They were created by David Diaz and they look like illuminated manuscripts (the lavishly decorated illustrations of the middle ages.) If you love reading fairy tales or if you love reading stories with secret endings and unexpected plotlines, then you’ll love reading The Castle Corona.
Once again, Funke has written a funny and spunky story about Igraine, a girl who is not interested in becoming a magician like her family. She wants to be a knight and go on quests and adventures, saving damsels and fighting dragons. It’s Igraine’s 12th birthday and her parents, Lord Amorak and the Fair Melisande, are busy in the workshop magically creating her birthday present. They are assisted by Igraine’s brother, Albert, magician-in-training, and some very charismatic singing books. You heard me right! Singing books. Unfortunately, something goes wrong when casting the last spell and Lord Amorak and the Fair Melisande accidentally turn themselves into pigs. But then, all of a sudden, their castle is being attacked by Osmund the Greedy because he wants to steal the singing books so that he can become the most powerful magician in the land. As long as Igraine’s parents are pigs they have no magical powers to protect the castle and finally! Igraine has a reason to go on a real adventure to save her family and castle from Osmund the Greedy.
This story is full of colorful characters like the Sorrowful Knight and the Iron Hedgehog. Igraine is spunky and clever and oh so brave. Can she defeat Osmund the Greedy? Can she help to return her parents to their human form? Can she protect the singing books? If you loved reading Dragon Rider or The Runaway Princess by Kate Coombs, then you’ll love Igraine the Brave.
What can I say about one of the most visually stunning books I’ve ever seen? Shaun Tan has created a mesmerizing book of one man’s story of immigrating to another world. I could not take my eyes off this book. The people looked like authentic immigrants from our country’s history but the setting is purely fantastical. Because the world is nothing I have ever seen before, it made me understand what it would have felt like for an immigrant to come to our country where the culture, the people and the language is completely foreign. What is even more stunning about this book is that it is a wordless story. It is told completely in pictures as a graphic novel. It is clear that Tan did lots of research at the Ellis Island Museum but managed to create a unique book that you will find yourself wanting to look at again and again.
The book opens with Ivy and little brother, Ray, in court waiting to find out if their parents will be found guilty of embezzlement (that means slowly stealing money from your boss or company). It sounds like this should be a serious and dramatic realistic fiction story, but it’s not! Ivy and Ray’s parents are found guilty and are sent to jail. Ivy and Ray must now live with the old woman from whom their parents stole the money. She lives in a huge mansion called La Grande Maison (in french that means the big house). Ivy and Ray spend the rest of the book devising ways of finding proof of their parents’ innocence. The funny part of this book is that the author knows that Ivy and Ray’s parents are guilty and keeps leaving hints for the reader. But poor Ivy and Ray are clueless and finds themselves in funny situations trying to collect evidence. Another funny note is that “big house” is also a slang expression for jail. This story was fun and funny.
So, if you liked reading The Big House then you are going to love the sequel, Sneaking Suspicions. Ivy and Ray’s parents are finally out of jail and the whole family decide to take a family vacation to visit a long lost cousin. I’m sure you can imagine that everything is not on the up and up and that there must be some sort of ulterior motive for Ivy and Ray’s parents wanting to visit strange family members.
Mosca Mye and her homicidal goose, Saracen, travel to the city of Mandelion on the heels of smooth-talking con-man, Eponymous Clent.
Three Good Deeds by Vivian Vande Velde
Caught stealing some goose eggs from a witch, Howard is cursed for his heartlessness and turned into a goose himself, and he can only become human again by performing three good deeds.
The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett
A young witch-to-be named Tiffany teams up with the Wee Free Men, a clan of six-inch-high blue men, to rescue her baby brother and ward off a sinister invasion from Fairyland.
The Game of Sunken Places by M.T. Anderson
When two boys stay with an eccentric relative at his mansion in rural Vermont, they discover an old-fashioned board game that draws them into a mysterious adventure.
With the aid of the wizard Luthe and the Blue Sword, Aerin wins the birthright due her as the daughter of the Damarian king and a witchwoman of the mysterious, demon-haunted North.
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
Born in the Caribbean islands, Kit finds life in the Connecticut colony of her relatives to be extremely bleak and lonely. When her only friendship is discovered, she finds herself accused of witchcraft.
A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
Tree-ear, a thirteen-year-old orphan in medieval Korea, lives under a bridge in a potters’ village, and longs to learn how to throw the delicate celadon ceramics himself.
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
After her mother leaves home suddenly, thirteen-year-old Sal and her grandparents take a car trip retracing her mother’s route. Along the way, Sal recounts the story of her friend Phoebe, whose mother also left.
The High King by Lloyd Alexander (Book 5 in The Prydain Chronicles–My all time most favorite fantasy series!)
In this fifth and final chronicle of Prydain the forces of good and evil meet in ultimate confrontation, which determines the fate of Taran, the Assistant Pig-Keeper who wanted to be a hero.
Holes by Louis Sachar
As further evidence of his family’s bad fortune which they attribute to a curse on a distant relative, Stanley Yelnats is sent to a hellish correctional camp in the Texas desert where he finds his first real friend, a treasure, and a new sense of himself.
The Willoughbys: A Novel Nefariously Written and Ignominiously Illustrated by Lois Lowry
