The Queen of Water

Laura Resau and Maria Virginia Farinango collaborated on writing this novel which is based on the true story of Virginia’s life as an indígena (native) from an Andean village in Ecuador in the 1980s. Her parents are very poor tenant famers and are convinced or coerced into letting their 7-year-old daughter become a servant to a mestizo (mixed race, light skinned) couple, Doctorita (the wife) and Nino Carlitos. In exchange she is to be abe to come home monthly, be paid, and be given an education. Virginia is not looking for pity, but you need to know her story and know that hers is not the only story like this.

She is called stupid, longo, and forced to do all the house-work and take care of the children. Remember she is seven. Virginia is kept away from her family, never paid, and often kept locked away in the couple’s home. She forgets her native language, Quichua, and speaks only Spanish. She is beaten by Doctorita for even a minor infractions of the couple’s rules. This mestizo couple are educated – she is a dentist and he is a teacher. Yet, they don’t seem to see anything wrong with enslaving this young girl. They don’t give her any of the things her parent were told, no visits, no education, and no money. Virginia cannot even eat off the same plates the family uses.

Virginia is truly a strong person and she survives all the torture and torment. She returns to her family and works her way through high school. And now her story has been told.

This is one of the best books I’ve read this year. You can read an excerpt at Google Books.

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This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein

This is called the prequel to Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein. The story is told from Victor Frankenstein’s point of view and the main characters are Victor, his twin, Konrad, their cousin Elizabeth, their friend Henry, and an alchemist, Julius Poidori.

On one of the friends adventures at the Frankenstein’s chateau, they discover a hidden library, Biblioteka Obscura (the Dark Library) built by an ancestor who was an alchemist. Despite promising his father that he would not return to the library, Victor was hooked on knowing more about this mysterious world.

When Konrad became ill, Victor, Elizabeth, and Henry, worked to find the ingredients for an elixir that would save the twin. Their search leads them to the old alchemist Julius Poidori.

The story has some romance as Elizabeth and Konrad fall in love. Victor is furious that he is not the one that Elizabeth loves. If you have not read the novel, Frankenstein, you probably won’t know that some of the things that happen in the book are there because of what happens in the older novel.

Kenneth Oppel has planned a sequel to this book, Such Wicked Intent. The novel is also going to made into a movie too.

Google Books Frankenstein

Book Trailer from Simon & Schuster:

The Berlin Boxing Club

Karl Stern is 14-years-old. He lives in Berlin, Germany. The time is the 1930s. If you don’t remember, this is the time and place that Adolph Hitler and his Nazi party were on the rise. Karl is Jewish though he doesn’t look it. He suffers at the hands of the bullies in his school and his nation. Karl’s father is an art dealer and knows the famous German boxer Max Schmeling. In exchange for a piece of art Schmeling becomes Karl’s coach.

As the story opens, Karl isn’t overly concerned about the Nazis. His family is not practicing the Jewish religion. However, as the story progresses you see that the Nazi movement becomes central to Karl’s life and his family’s survival. It does not matter to the Nazis that the Sterns are not really invested in the Jewish faith.

Karl’s mom has many emotional problems. Karl’s dad wants to avoid all conflict if possible – why? As you read in the novel you will learn about Mr. Stern’s past. You will meet Karl’s Uncle Jacob, a Communist, who is arrested and dies at Dachau. You will also meet the Countess. Karl reacts to this person with a measure of discomfort until he learns more about the Countess’s past and how it relates to his father.

Karl is an artist. He loves to draw cartoons. He draws and writes stories for his little sister. He also draws stories that express his feelings – he creates superheroes like the famed Superman. Comic strips were a very important part of everyday life for many people at this time in history. My own parents followed the comics: Krazy Kat, Superman, Buck Rogers, Little Orphan Annie, Dick Tracy, and Popeye.

This book does not give you the feeling that all German people were bad, but it does show you what happens when people are too frightened to go against the group that was in power and chose to persecute groups that did not fit their “model”.

Watch the Joe Louis vs Max Schmeling – June 19, 1936
Max Schmeling: A Hero

Lexile 880

Dagger Quick

If you like books about pirates and piracy, you will like this one. Kitto(Christopher) Wheale has a clubfoot and in the 1600s that makes you really handicapped. He is picked on by the local bullies and often looks out to sea longing for a life he will not be able to have because of his foot.

Early in the story he finds that his name really isn’t Wheale, but Quick. He meets an uncle he never knew who is a pirate. Kitto’s father is killed by another pirate who wants to find some hidden treasure, and Kitto is blamed for the murder. Kitto is saved by his Uncle William, but his step mother and younger brother are captured by the pirates who killed his father.

One of the crew members on the Blessed William is a traitor and he also happens to have befriended Kitto.  The Kitto character has many of the same qualities as Jim Hawkins has in Treasure Island, but the novel is an easier read as the language is all modern. The adventure moves along very quickly and kept my interest. Swashbuckling is a good term to describe this novel.

A preview is available on Google Books

Other books about pirates at OMS Library include

Bloody Jack series

Ship Breaker

Isle of Swords

Airborn

The Buccaneers

Dead Reckoning

Dark Frigate

Mystery at Blackbeard’s Cove

Peter and the Starcatchers

Pirates!

Lunch-box Dream

The book is set in 1959, a time I remember though I was younger than middle school-age. The book has a lexile of 800, but the book is emotionally difficult. The book is told from multiple points-of-view. Bobby doesn’t like “chocolate” people and is traveling with his brother, Ricky, his mother, and his grandmother. The other narrators are part of the Thomas family, a black family from Georgia.

The trip is to take Grandma back to Florida and they will get to visit Civil War battlefields. This is something that Ricky loves, but Bobby doesn’t care about it. An accident puts Bobby and his mother and brother on the same bus as the Thomases. Bobby learns a lot about how people are alike no matter what their color.

Any of you reading this book who are not an older adult will not remember that this was a time of civil rights turmoil in the United States. The book talks about Jim Crow laws, you can see samples here.

Read part of the book on Google Books.

Wild Things

This book is told by two narrators. Zoe, one of the narrators, has been adopted by her eccentric uncle after her “mental” mother dies. The other narrator is done in third person and tells the thoughts and feelings of a feral, or wild cat. The girl is fictional, but the cat is based on a cat that lived in the author’s neighborhood.

Zoe is taken in by her uncle Henry who is a sculptor and also a famous heart doctor who lives in the North Carolina woods.. Because of her life experiences Zoe doesn’t trust people. She has to learn about trust. So does the Mr. C’mere, the cat. The reader also meets a “wild boy” who lives in the woods and the albino deer, Sister, who he protects.

You will get to meet lots of characters who inhabit this small town. You may even recognize some of the personalities as people you might know. You will also grow with Zoe.

The Rock and the River

The topic of this novel is the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. I was a middle school and high school student during this era of unrest in America so I am certain that I read this novel with a different perspective than most of you. The setting is 1968 in Chicago, Illinois – a very turbulent time.

Sam and Sticks (Steven) are the sons of Roland Childs, a lawyer and civil rights activist who follows the lead of Martin Luther King, Jr. Sticks is a member of the Black Panther Party and Sam who is13 is torn whether to follow his father or his brother.

If you are not familiar with the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, this novel will give you a chance to think about that time in American history. You will learn that this was not a time that is easy to understand, but the author helps the reader work through some of the many problems of the time. The author, Kekla Magoon, lets the reader see the good and the bad of the different groups involved.

This book will not give you answers to the happenings of 1968, but it will let you understand the questions. Maybe you will have some questions of your own. I think she has presented a different view of the Black Panthers; possibly idealized, but still something that one needs to consider.

Heart of a Shepherd

Brother, Ignatius, is the youngest of 5 boys. Dad is a reservist who is going to Iraq along with many other parents from this rural Oregon community. Brother feels that it is his responsibility to help his elderly grandparents keep the cattle ranch running.

He struggles with beoming comfortable with himself and his feelings. He learns from his Grandpa, Ernesto (the shepherd), and Father Ziegler (the parish priest).

Masterpiece

This is one of the selections on the 2012 Rebecca Caudill list. I had actually purchased this book on one of my trips to Anderson’s Bookshop before it was on this list. I know some of you, students and adults will not give this book a chance because one of the main characters is Marvin, a beetle. It is not just a book for little kids – it is a book about friendship.

A great friendship was like a great work of art, he thought. It took time and attention, and a spark of something that was impossible to describe. It was a happy, lucky accident, . . .

Marvin and his family live under the sink in the fancy apartment of the Pompaday’s in New York City. We get to see the family life of both the bugs and the people – quite frankly the bugs’ life seems better many times!

Marvin finds an open bottle of ink and paper in James’s room and creates a miniature masterpiece of the scene outside the window using his front legs. Mrs. Pompaday wants to sell this creation and believes that her son James is the creator. This is just the beginning of a wonderful mystery and adventure for both Marvin and James.

This is a wonderful story that can be enjoyed by children of all ages and by the child in all adults. What a wonderful book to share with others as a read aloud. (It did win the E.B. White Read Aloud Award.)

Moon Over Manifest

This Newbery  Medal winner is a first novel for author Clare Vanderpool.

The novel is set in Manifest, Kansas in 1936. Yes, it is historical fiction – one of my favorite genres! Abilene Tucker is shipped to this small town to live with Shady Howard, a pastor with a shady past.  Abilene is looking for a place to hide her treasures when she pulls up a loose floorboard only to find that someone else had used it to hide their treasures. What follows is an enchanting story where Abilene and her friends, Lettie and Ruthann, embark on a spy hunt to find the Rattler. Miss Sadie, a diviner, and Hattie Mae, the town reporter, serve as guides to Abilene on her quest for discovering the past. She gets to know some people from Manifest’s past (1918), Ned and Jinx. There is a wonderful twist to the story.

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