Four for Halloween

 Creepy Carrots by Arron Reynolds, illustrated by Peter Brown
I am a person who has always avoided carrots.  Not because I didn't like them, but because they are orange.  I refused to eat orange food as a kid and it just became a habit.  Recently I have started to eat carrots and actually enjoy them.  But not as much as Jasper Rabbit in Creepy Carrots.  Japser loves carrots so much that everything he  passes through Crackenhpper Field he helps himself to carrots - big fat, crisp, free for the taking carrots.  Then one day Jasper began to think the carrots were following (perhaps stalking?) him.   Carrots????  Although this delightful picture book isn't a Halloween story per se, it is creepy and spooky enough to be read for a holiday filled with ghosts, goblins and other sinister creatures.  Added to this mix are some excellent pencil and digitally colored mood-creating black, white, grey illustrations with a touch of orange for the carrots by Peter Brown and you have the perfect not-too-scary-I-didn't-see-that-ending-coming story for young readers age 4 to 8.

Into the Pumpkin by Linda Franklin, illustrated by Linda Franklin
I used to love Halloween and part of the fun was deciding what to do and then getting ready for it with my friends.  Linda Franklin has captured that excitement in these picture book told completely in short, simple rhyme and full of the usual cast of Halloween characters: ghosts, goblins, witches, ravens, black cats, to name a few.  These spooky spectres are planning their Halloween party and we follow the preparations from start to finish.  Each creature has a job to do to get ready from sending out invitations to choosing the place to have the party - castle or graveyard? -  to decorating with scarecrows and pumpkins.  This delightful, charming story is complimented and enhanced with beautiful, dreamlike watercolor illustrations done by Franklin herself, apparently one illustration each year for Halloween until the book was complete.  A not scary Halloween story that should please readers age 4 to 8.

Halloween Forest by Marion Dane Bauer, illustrated by John Shelley
Here is another just spooky enough Halloween story told completely in verse about a young girl, all dressed up for trick or treating,  who decides to take her sack full of candy and go off to the forest of bones.  As she walks through this forest of all kinds of skeletons and bones that seem to be looking at and reaching out to her, has this girl just met her worst nightmare?  Or does she have a surprise for all those old bones?  Halloween Forest has a sense of otherworldly eeriness will take young readers to just the point of scary that they can tolerate and then give them a real surprise that might just elicit a laugh of relief.  The eeriness of the story is heightened by the wonderful pen, India ink and watercolor illustration, done mostly in black, white, grey and touches of orange.  This book is ideal for kids age 4 to 8.

And last, but not least, is a book that I found in a second hand bookshop that is no longer in print but still easily obtainable:
A Newbery Halloween: a dozen scary stories by Newbery Award-winning authors, selected by Martin H. Greenberg  and Charles G. Waugh
This collection of Halloween stories are made up of short stories and excerpts from novels all by authors who may already be familiar to and even a favorite of kids.  Beverly Cleary begins the fun with a story about Ramona the Pest in "The Baddest Witch in the World" and the selections just get better.  And how about Jennifer in "A Halloween to Remember" by E.L. Konigsburg.  Or Phyllis Reyonlds Naylor's "The Witch's Eye" from the book by the same name.  There is sure to be something in this volume that will be everyone in this volume for kids age 8 to 12.  These stories are great for reading aloud or alone, all of them are spooky and entertaining without being too scary.  And I love the Halloween cover illustration by Norman Rockwell.

Have a happy, safe Halloween!

Disclosure:
Creepy Carrots was obtained from the publisher
Into the Pumpkin was a E-ARC from Netgalley
Halloween Forest was obtained from the publisher
A Newbery Halloween was bought for my personal library

Shadow and Bone: the Grisha Trilogy (Volume 1) by Leigh Bardugo

From the Publisher:
Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh.  Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything.  But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life - a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free.  Wrenched from everything she know, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems.  With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha...and the secrets of her heart.

My Thoughts:
This book's initial appeal for me was its elements of fantasy mixed in those of Imperial Russia.  And since I had enjoyed The Gathering Storm so much for the same reasons, I figured that I couldn't go wrong with Shadow and Bone.  I am happy to say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Shadow and Bone is loaded with the usual fantasy tropes that we all know and love in this particular genre: an orphaned hero/heroine with a special power; this hero/heroine represents the good side of a conflict between good and evil, while a dark figure represents the evil side of things; a settling that somewhat parallels reality; and a quest resulting not just in the conquest of good over evil but also in some real self-actualization on the part of the hero/heroine.

I don't bring these tropes up to be snarky, but only because they work so well and in the hands of Leigh Bardugo, coalescing in a book that is interesting and exciting.

The main character, Alina Starkov is the orphaned, plain, seemingly ordinary girl training to be a cartographer; ordinary that is until it is discovered that she is a Sun Summoner - a power so rare it is the stuff of fable.  Sun Summoning is her only talent, but it is a big one, big enough to offer the possibiltiy of uniting and giving complete power over all the inhabitants of Ravka to anyone who can get her to make it work for them.  What could be a more perfect metaphor for the representative of good in the battle of good and evil than a person who can provide bright light at will.

And naturally such a bright character needs a really dark foil.  You would think it very well could be the handsome, mysterious, really seductive figure of the Darkling, a powerful Grisha who instills fear in the hearts of the people of Ravka.  But he convinces Alina that his intentions are good, it was, after all, his grandfather who created the Shadow Fold and it is now the Darkling's greatest desire to fix things, to untie the country again.

Put these characters in Ravka, a country which has been split in two by the Shadow Fold, a lightless strip of land running through it and inhabited by Volcra, the former men, women and children now turned into vulture-like creatures who attack anyone trying to cross the Fold and you have the perfect setting for a battle between a light summoner and a dark lord.  But could it be the Darkling, so called only because of his dark features, or could it be someone Alina would never suspect?

It all results in a fascinating first volume of Bardugo's Grisha Trilogy.  Shadow and Bone is an exciting, chilling, heart-stopping adventure with an absolutely sympathetic protagonist.  If you are in the mood for a good paranormal novel, you can't go wrong with this.

This book is recommended for readers age 12+
This book was purchased for my personal library.

This is book 2 of my 2012 Spooltacular Paranormal Reading Challenge hosted by Marie @Ramblings of a Day Dreamer

Update: One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

From the Publisher:
In the wake of heart-breaking betrayal, Carley Connors is thrust into foster care and left on the steps of the Murphys, a happy, bustling family.

Carley has thick walls and isn't rattled easily, but this is a world she just doesn't understand.  A world that frightens her.  So, she resists this side of life she'd believed did not exist with dinners around a table and a "zip your jacket, here's you lunch" kind of mom.

However, with the help of her Broadway-obsessed and unpredictable friend, Toni, the Murphys do the impossible in showing Carley what it feels like to belong somewhere.  But, when her mother wants her back, will she lose the only family she has ever known?

My Thoughts:
In One for the Murphys, 12 year old Carley was repeatedly told by her mother to never cry, or people would think she is weak.  This admonishment makes Carley's life in foster care very difficult.

Now, Carley has closed herself off from feeling any real emotion, covering up her hidden feelings with a smart mouth, a mouth that provoked her stepfather enough to badly beat both Carley and her mother.  But in foster care with the Murphys, Carley may have met her match in Mrs. Murphy.  Mrs. Murphy is the exact opposite of Carley real mother, in fact, she seems to be an almost too good to be true wife and mother, and she refuses to give up on Carley, no matter what Carley's says or how badly Carley acts out - and there is some pretty (understandably) bad acting out at times.  Turns out, Mrs. Murphy has a secret that just may to the trick. 

One of the themes in One for the Murphys is about heroes. The youngest Murhpy boy is obsessed with superheroes, so much so that he has a sign hanging in his bedroom (where Carley now sleeps) that says Be Someone's Hero.  But not all heroes need super powers to be someone's hero, and this idea becomes a theme that runs throughout the novel and a constant sad reminder to Carley that she does not have a hero in her life and secretly wants one - very badly.

Hunt's characters are well done, having both dimension and personality.  Mr. Murphy is a fire fighter and away from home much of the time, leaving his wife with lots of time to focus on Carley.  Unlike his wife, he is not really happy to have a foster child in his home; the eldest boy resents Carley, but the younger two rather like her.  And it is Carley who teaches her friend Toni, obsessed with the play Wicked, to not judge a person based on appearances, throwing the message of Wicked right back at Toni.  They are all realistically drawn and likable in their own way.

Of course, at the heart of the novel is Carley's inner emotional struggle.  Though she still loves her mother, she must face the fact that her mother may have played a part when she was beaten by her stepfather.  Carley knows that she will go back to her mother and she must come to terms with the fact that her mother is never going to be the kind of mother Mrs. Murphy is.  It's a tall order for a young girl.

One for the Murphs is Lynda Mullaly Hunt's first MG novel, and it turns out to be one of those middle grade books that is really a must read.    I liked it very much, and feel the underlying message is one we can all take away with us:

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was obtained from the publisher.

UPDATE: One for the Murphys now has a very nice teacher's guide available here

Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday is a weekly event hosted by Shannon at Books, Ramblings and Plenty of Shenanigans

Laugh with the Moon by Shana Burg

From the Publisher:
Thirteen-year-old Clare Silver is stuck.  Stuck in denial about her mother's recent death.  Stuck in the African jungle for sixty-four days without phone reception.  Stuck with her father, a doctor who seems able to heal everyone but Clare.
Clare feels like a fish out of water at Mzanga Full Primary School, where she must learn a new language.  Soon, though, she becomes immersed in her new surroundings and impressed with her fellow students, who are crowded into a tiny space, working on the floor among roosters and centipedes.
When Clare's new friends take her on an outing to see the country, the trip goes horribly wrong, and Clare must face another heartbreak head-on.  Only an orphan named Memory, who knows about love and loss, can teach Clare how to laugh with the moon.
Told from an American girl's perspective, this story about how death teaches us to live and how love endures through our memories will capture the hearts of readers everywhere.

My Thoughts:
I had some reservations about this book when I first began reading it.  It seemed like it was going to be about another spoiled girl taken away from her comfortable home and friends and pouting her way to the end of the story towards a Eureka moment when her beloved materialistic life is somehow forever changed.

Well, close, but not quite.  Clare isn't as spoiled as she acts, but she is terribly alone and unhappy.  She has been unable to come to terms with the fact of her mother's premature death, and is afraid of losing her in her memory as well.  And she resents her father's seeming ability to just move on from her mother without even a look back.

But for all Clare is mad at her dad, a volunteer with the Global Health Project, and even gives his the silent treatment when she remembers to, she does begin to assimilate to her life in Malawi, and even makes a new best friend, a girl named Memory.

This is a wonderful story that deals with death, mourning and memory and the process that a 13 year old girl must go through when tragedy strikes her life.  I thought Clare's journey through this process was so realistically portrayed , and I can say that from experience.  My daughter lost her dad when she was that age and a lot of her feelings, thoughts and behavior were mirrored in Clare.

Actually the who book has a realistic feel to it.  Burg's interest in Malawi began while doing research on the Save the Children program there and much of what she discovered can be found in Laugh with the Moon through Clare's eyes.  Clare's observations and descriptions of the problems and deprivations, including death, that Malawian kids must deal with every day have a somewhat teachy feel to them but they are also really informative.

One of the things I did like and I think the readers will relate to is that for all the poverty and lack of books, technology and supplies, school turns out to be not so very different from school anywhere.  There is Memory, always friendly and easy going; Agnes, who thinks she is the school queen bee; and Saide, the good looking boy all the girls are crushing on.  But what is different, and what Clare learns about, is the idea of making do, which many school must do, even in this country nowadays.  When the headmaster asks Clare to take over teaching English to the younger children, for instance, she is shown how to create alphabet letters for the class by baking the mud from a termite hill.

This trip proves to be a pivotal trip for Clare in many ways.  Not only does she experience the disparity between how the native Malawians and the azungu (white people) are treated, but most importantly she discovers how Memory is able to deal the losses of parents and siblings in her own life.

But will Clare ever be able to come to terms with her mother's death so that she can follow Memory's philosophy: "Even the mourner must stop and laugh with the moon."

This is a wonderful middle grade coming of age novel that deals with some serious topics for kids that age.  It is an energetic, well-written and compelling novel and I highly recommend it.

This book is recommended for readers age 9-12.
This book was purchased for my personal library.

Three Little Words by Sarah N. Harvey

From the Publisher:
Sixteen-year-old Sid barely remembers his birth mother and has no idea who his father was.  Raised on an idyllic island by loving foster parents, Sid would be content to stay there forever, drawing, riding his bike, hanging out with his friend Chloe and helping out with Fariza, a newly arrived foster child.  But when a stranger named Phil arrives on the island with disturbing news about his birth family - including a troubled younger brother - Sid leaves all that is familiar to help find the sibling he didn't know existed.

What he discovers is a family fractured by mental illness, but also united by strong bonds of love and compassion.  As Sid searches for his brother, gets to know his grandmother, and worries about meeting his biological mother, he realizes that there will never be a simple answer to the question, Am I my brother's keeper?

My Thoughts:
Veteran Canadian writer Sarah N. Harvey writes on her website that some of the characters in Three Little Words were invited into this novel from her first piece of fiction (a work she says was not very good.)  And I am glad they came over, whichever ones they are, because they have obviously made this one of the best books I have read this year.

Gentle, patient Sid was raised in the calm, loving world of Megan and Caleb on a fishing island in British Vancouver.  He is also an artist who has been recording the world around him for years, filling up sketchbook after sketchbook.  Megan and Caleb have been taking in foster children all Sid's life, but he has stayed the longest and considers them his parents, and they think of him as their son.

Fariza, 8, their newest foster child, a terrified and traumatized African Canadian child who refuses to speak to anyone.  Sid knows he can ask what happened to her, but respects her too much to pry like that.

Gawain, or Wain, Sid's 13 year old stepbrother, whom he never knew existed, is part African Canadian, but unlike Fariza, he is very angry and very vocal about it.

Three Little Words is written in the third person from Sid's point of view, though sometimes the narrator gets a little omniscient and lets the readers know what is inside another character's head.  I like the way, for all he is a good, kind, patient, gentle person, Sid still has mixed or negative feelings about his biological mother, her abandonment of him and being pulled back into her world.  But, on a positive note, you can see the influence of Megan and Caleb in his actions and thoughts.  He worries sometimes that maybe he could end up like his manic-depressive mother, and some of this novel does beg the question of nature or nurture.

I thought that the portrayal of the relationships within the triangle of wounded children is really what makes this such a good book, though.  Harvey has captured Sid's mixed feelings what is happening, Fariza's fear of men and Wain's anger at the world and especially Side to the point of being palpable.  But she has also captured the kind of compassion that makes healing possible.

One hint: the title, Three Little Words, weren't what I thought and probably not what you think either, but pay attention to the chapter titles.

This is a wonderful YA novel that is able to make a strong impact on the reader and I would highly recommend it to anyone who might enjoy a realistic contemporary novel.

This book is recommended for readers age 12+
This book was obtained from the publisher.

Soonchild by Russell Hoban

From the Publisher:

Somewhere in te Artic Circle, Sixteen-Face John, a shaman, learns that his first child, a soonchild, cannot hear the World Songs from her mother's womb.  The World Songs are what inspire all newborns to come out into the world, and John must find them for her.  But how?  The answer takes him through many lifetimes and many shape-shifts, as well as encounters with beasts, demons and a mysterious benevolent owl spirit, Ukpika, who is linked to John's past...

My Thoughts:

In Soonchild, Russell Hoban has given us contemporary myth-making at its best.  Based in part on Inuit mythology and in part on Hoban's incredible imagination, then perfectly complimented with the wonderful illustrations of Alexis Deacon, it is a concoction not to be missed - if you like myth-making that will take you on a journey away from time and space as you know them.

Sixteen-Face John is a shaman in the far north where it's "so cold that your nose hairs get still and your eyeballs get brittle and your face hurts and your hands will freeze if you leave them uncovered for too long."  

Sixteen-Face John may have been a shaman, but he is afraid of everything and if he couldn't face his fear with one face, well, he had 15 others to choose from.  Sixteen-Face John is married to No Problem, who is pregnant with their Soonchild (so called because it is soon to be born and be a child.)  But Soonchild tells her father that she does not hear the World Songs in her mother's womb and so is unwilling to be born.  Now, Sixteen-Face John must go on a journey to bring these songs back to her.  

On his journey, Sixteen-Face John will become No-Face John, Three Times Dead John, he will shape-shift, and meet an idluitok, a bad-person gull who feeds the Master Song containing the all the World Songs to Yiwok the World Swallower, who wants to destroy the world by swallowing everything in it.  But in the end, John, and the reader, sees the importance of our connection to our past, present and future.  

Sound confusing?  It actually isn't.  Soonchild does require a little suspension of disbelief on the part of the reader, but that is true of all storytelling, isn't it?  And you feel somehow renewed when you have finish it.

I found Soonchild to be funny, strange, beautiful, weird and satisfying all at the same time - sort of like the different aspects of the World Songs.  And Sixteen-Face John, afraid of everything, must face the biggest most fearful thing of all - Yiwok the World Swallower - showing us that courage is really about being afraid but doing what is right regardless.

Interestingly, the pages change color each time the story moves forward.  As you read, you might was to pay attention to why that is a part of the story.  And do dwell on the excellent charcoal and pencil illustrations that add so much to the whole story.  

I loved Soonchild but it probably isn't for everyone.  It is supposed to be a YA book, but some critics have questioned that.  I think that, like all good myths, it will appeal to YA readers as well as adults.  It is most unfortunate the Russell Hoban passed away shortly after he finished this and one other book in 2011.  Hoban was an American expat who had lived in London since 1969.

This book is recommended for readers 14+

This book was obtained from the publisher.

The Gathering Storm (The Katerina Trilogy Vol. 1) by Robin Bridges

From the publisher:
St. Petersburg, Russia, 1888.  As she attends a whirl of glittering balls, royal debutante Katerina Alexandrovna, Duchess of Oldenburg, tries to hide a dark secret; she can raise the dead.  No one know.  Not her family.  Not the girls at her finishing school.  Not the tsar or anyone in her aristocratic circle.  Katerina considers her talent a curse, not a gift.  But when she used her special skill to protect a member of the Imperial Family, she finds herself caught in a web of intrigue.  
An evil presence is growing within Europe's royal bloodlines - and those aligned with the darkness threaten to topple the tsar.  Suddenly Katerina's strength as a necromancer attracts attention from unwelcome sources...including two young men - George Alexandrovich, the tsar's standoffish middle son, who needs Katerina's help to safeguard Russia, even if he's repelled by her secret, and dashing Prince Danilo, heir to the throne of Montenegro, to whom Katerina feels inexplicably drawn.  The time has come for Katerina to embrace her power, but which side will she choose - and to whom will she give her heart?

My Thoughts:
OK, I, like so many who have reviewed this novel about a 16 year old necromancer living in Imperial Russia, have to rely heavily on the publisher's blurb for a succinct description of what this book is about.

Why?

I found The Gathering Storm to be very confusing in some places, but they were important places as far as the story goes.  First, this version of tsarist Russia is divided into two courts - the light and the dark - and apparently a member of the light court can't marry someone from the dark court.  So when future blood drinker Prince Danilo of the dark court shows and interest in Katerina, her mother is ecstatic.  Unknown to mom, Danilo needs her necromancer blood to become a full fledged vampire on his 18th birthday.  But George Alexandrovich of the light court is also interested in Katerina.  Both know her secret, but the tsar's son can read her mind as well.

George Alexandrovish brings me to the subject of names.  There are so many confusingly similar Russian names in this novel and I kept getting everyone mixed-up.  Confusion of characters sometimes led to confusion about the action - which court was so-and-so connected to and why is this important for that court?  I would have liked a list of who's who for the dark and the light courts, partly because Russian names are unfamiliar and confusing to American readers and so many names are mentioned throughout the novel.

Did I enjoy The Gathering Storm?  You bet I did, despite my confusion complaints.  I found Katerina to be a delightfully unreliable narrator, George Alexandrovish very sexy and Danilo just scoundrelly enough to be very seductive (and I envisioned his sister Elena looking very Kim Kardashianish for some reason.)  By the end of this first volume of The Katerina Trilogy, I did have a better understanding of the two court and who belonged to which, though it was disconcerting while reading.  And I had most of the people worked out, and luckily, some of them didn't make it to the end of the story, making things simpler, as least for the moment.

On the whole, therefore, I found The Gathering Storm to be loaded with action, conspiracies and intrigue all swathed in a wonderful paranormal wrapping and wonderful descriptions of balls and ball gowns. And I can't wait to read the second volume, The Unfailing Light, available on October 9, 2012.

All in all, I would give The Gathering Storm 3 1/2 stars.

This book is recommended for readers age 13+
This book was obtained from the publisher.

This is book 1 of my Spooktacular Paranormal Reading Challenge hosted by Marie at Ramblings of a Daydreamer