The Girl’s Best Books of 2011

I read 27 books last year, and some were better than others.  Here are my 5 favorites, in no particular order, with links to my reviews.  Not all of these books were published in 2011, but they are the best books I read last year.

Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis

I absolutely loved Bud, Not Buddy.  Right when you open the cover, it feels like you and Bud are friends.  You set out on a stunning, suspenseful, and fabulous read.  I give this book 5 out 5 stars because the author lets you feel what Bud feels, and what I really liked was the mystery about his father.  I was so sad when I was finished reading, and I hated to have to put the book down to go to school.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney

I loved this book so much I read it in a day! I would give it 5 out of 5 stars and recommend it to everyone if you want to laugh your pants off.

Soldier’s Heart by Gary Paulsen

I thought this book was amazing!  Paulsen makes you feel like you’re in Charley’s shoes, though some parts are disgusting, like when Charley wants to refill his canteen and he wonders why the water is red and sees dead bodies in the water.  This book makes you think that war is dumb!

The Entertainer and the Dybbuk by Sid Fleischman

The most interesting part to me was the court scene at the end of the book, when the dybbuk comes face to face with the Nazi officer who murdered him.  I suggest this book for Jr. High readers who are interested in ghosts and WWII history.

Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli

This book follows a young boy, Misha, on a journey to survive in the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland during WWII.  I loved this book, though sometimes it was annoying not knowing Misha’s real age because it seemed that he was really immature considering what he was going through.  It made me think about how horrible the ghetto was and how hard it must have been for the Jews trapped inside.

I also chose 3 books that deserve an honorable mention:

Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
Big Nate Strikes Again by Lincoln Peirce
My Rotten Life by David Lubar

What books did you and your kids enjoy last year?

© 2012 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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Review: Petticoat Spies: Six Women Spies of the Civil War by Peggy Caravantes

The American Civil War is not the only war in which women played an active role, but that doesn’t make the stories of these brave women any less interesting.  These women are to be admired for their courage and their willingness to put their lives on the line for their beliefs, regardless of which side they took in the fighting.  In Petticoat Spies: Six Women Spies of the Civil War, Peggy Caravantes tells the stories of three Confederate spies and three Union spies, six ordinary women whose lives were forever changed by war.  These women were young and old, married and unmarried, mothers, actresses, nurses, from both prominent and unknown families.

Elizabeth Van Lew lived in the most stately mansion in Richmond and was the daughter of a slave owner, but her views changed after attending school in Philadelphia.  She hid Union soldiers in her attic and carried letters to and from Union prisoners in food trays.  When her father died, she freed her family’s slaves, purchased their children, and freed them as well.  Many of these former slaves acted as her agents.

Sarah Emma Edmonds ran away from her abusive father and eventually became a Federal field nurse.  Her body was muscled from working the family farm, and she was manly in appearance, which made it possible for her to become “Frank Thompson” and gather information from the rebels that she passed on to the Union.  She put her life on the line many times, even disguising herself as a slave and having to perform back-breaking work until she could escape.

Belle Boyd was a determined, fearless young woman who spied for the Confederacy.  When she was 17 years old, the Yankees began looting houses in her town, and they made their way to the Boyd home because it was known that she hung rebel flags in her room.  When her mother was roughed up by a Yankee sergeant for resisting the raising of the Union flag over their home, Belle shot and killed the sergeant.  She was arrested and imprisoned several times, and she supported herself and her children after the war by transforming her memoirs into a stage act.

Caravantes brings these women to life in Petticoat Spies.  The book is comprised of six chapters, giving each woman their own chapter and making it easier for readers to follow their stories.  She provides a lot of information about each woman, from their childhood before the war to how they fared after their spying careers ended.  Caravantes enables readers to really get to know these women as people and as spies.  Not every woman had a happy ending, of course.  Some did not live to see the end of the war, some were recognized and honored for their service, and some found themselves penniless.

The Girl (age 11) and I both enjoyed Petticoat Spies.  Caravantes provides historical details in an interesting fashion, and The Girl listened attentively while I read the book aloud.  These women sacrificed a lot to smuggle information; one was abandoned by the man she loved, one was sentenced to death and fell into a depression after narrowly escaping the gallows, and many were separated from their families.  But these women were brave through it all, not letting fear and the prospect of capture deter them.  The Girl and I talked about whether we would have done what they did in their circumstances, and we’re not so sure.  Petticoat Spies is a short exploration of how some women endured the war and fought on their own terms, and it gets you thinking about the many other women who were just as brave but whose stories have been lost over the years.

Disclosure: We borrowed Petticoat Spies: Six Women Spies of the Civil War from our local library. I am an Amazon associate.

© 2011 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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Review: When Will This Cruel War Be Over? The Civil War Diary of Emma Simpson by Barry Denenberg

Monday, March 7, 1864

The war has been going on far longer than anyone thought, so long that I fear we have become accustomed to it.  We have grown accustomed to having no men around, accustomed to things we had taken for granted — coffee, ink, flour for baking — all becoming precious, and accustomed to all the gaiety having vanished from our lives.  We seem to have lost all hope, as if this is the way it will be forever.

(from When Will This Cruel War Be Over? The Civil War Diary of Emma Simpson, page 40)

Part of the Dear America historical fiction diary series for young readers, When Will This Cruel War Be Over? The Civil War Diary of Emma Simpson is set in Gordonsville, Virginia, in 1864 toward the end of the American Civil War.  Barry Denenberg gets into the head of a fictional 14-year-old girl who keeps a diary over the course of one year — a year filled with war, loss, and hardship, probably the toughest year Emma Simpson (and girls like her) ever faced.

The diary starts off with the loss of Emma’s brother, Cole, in the war.  Her brother’s death hits her and her mother hard, especially as it occurred just before Christmas.  With her father off fighting as a colonel in the Confederate Army, nothing is the same for the Simpson family, and Emma can’t help but remember how just one year before, she and her extended family had a festive Christmas.  Cole’s death is the beginning of the end of life as Emma knew it.  In the coming months, she will meet a young man who captures her heart then rushes off to fight, she will lose more family members to illness, and the war will arrive on her doorstep as the Yankees take over her home and force her and her family to a few rooms on the third floor.

Meanwhile, the slaves on other farms are rebelling, sometimes violently, sometimes just running off.  Readers will have to understand where Emma is coming from when she describes how her family’s slaves are loyal and content and not likely to run off.  It is not likely that her family’s slaves are content, and it is not likely that they appreciated her father’s “firm guiding hand,” but Emma is the daughter of a slave owner and has grown up thinking slavery is normal and that blacks are simply inferior to whites.  The letters from her father insist that the Abolitionists must be beaten, but Emma’s letters from her boyfriend, Tally, and the things she has seen with her own eyes show her how war isn’t always black and white.

I find it impossible to imagine them lying cold upon some battlefield with no one to care for them.  I cannot bring myself to believe — as others seem to — that somehow it would be worth it.  Is anything worth dying for?  Is this awful waste — this painful sacrifice — justified in God’s eyes?  (page 129)

One could call The Civil War Diary of Emma Simpson a homefront novel of sorts.  While the men are off fighting, Emma and her cousin, Rachel, are pondering hair styles, clothes, and marriage.  But those conversations come to an end when Emma confronts death, hunger, cold, and Yankee soldiers.  The war actually comes to her doorstep, though what she experiences is nowhere near as horrible as what the men experienced on the battlefield.  It really drives home the point that war is a hardship for everyone, though at different degrees.

The Girl (age 11) read this book first, then told me I had to read it, too.  She says she thought it was interesting for the most part, but some parts dragged, and she didn’t think it was necessary for Emma to call her family Brother Cole, Cousin Rachel, and Baby Elizabeth over and over.  She thought that was annoying.  I see her points, but the book was so short that these things didn’t bother me as much.

The Civil War Diary of Emma Simpson is a good book for parents and children to read together about the Civil War.  It definitely raises some talking points about war and slavery, how war dramatically changes every day life, how it forced children to grow up early, and how it pushed people to their limits.  The novel is not a cheerful one, and at times, Emma seems to lose all hope and wonders if things will be this bad forever.  But that feeling of desolation, helplessness, and pain is what makes it authentic.

Disclosure: We borrowed When Will This Cruel War Be Over? The Civil War Diary of Emma Simpson from our local library. I am an IndieBound affiliate and an Amazon associate.

© 2011 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends who are celebrating today!  In a few short hours, I will be busy preparing a feast for my family and Serena’s family.  Maybe Serena, The Girl, and I will steal a few minutes between dinner and dessert to read, but that might just be wishful thinking.

I am thankful that I will spend the day with my family and good friends, and I also am thankful for all of you, who brighten my day every time you stop by my bookish home to chat.

I asked The Girl if she wanted to write a poem for Thanksgiving, and she jumped at the chance.  I thought she’d write about things for which she is thankful, but as a growing pre-teen, she has one thing on her mind these days:  food.  Ah, well.  At least she loves to write and entertain!

Ham
a poem by The Girl (age 11)

I told my mom to get turkey.
But I ended up with ham.
Why ham?
Turkey is fat, brown, and gobbles!
What does ham have?
It’s thin, it frowns, and worst of all
it doesn’t go gobble, gobble.

So now I’m stuck with a plate
full of ham!
I ate the ham. I was wrong
We’re getting ham for Christmas
but keep turkey for Thanksgiving!

I bet next, I’m going to have spinach
on my ham!
And I’m right.

I have no idea what inspired this poem!  I’ve never made ham for Thanksgiving or Christmas; I’m not much of a fan.  But she’s a creative spirit, who’s always making me laugh and smile with her poems, stories, and plays.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

© 2011 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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The Girl’s Thoughts on Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever by Jeff Kinney

Because The Girl (age 11) is doing so well in school, we treated her to the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book when it was released on Nov. 15.  It took her only a couple of hours to devour this one, and now she’s already waiting for the next installment in the series.  Diary of a Wimpy Kid:  Cabin Fever is the 6th book in the series, and her favorite so far.

Greg Heffley is in big trouble.  School property has been damaged, and Greg is the prime suspect.  But the crazy thing is, he’s innocent.  Or at least sort of.

The authorities are closing in, but when a surprise blizzard hits, the Heffley family is trapped indoors.  Greg knows that when the snow melts he’s going to have to face the music, but could any punishment be worse than being stuck inside with your family for the holidays?  (publisher’s summary)

Imagine being trapped in your house with your mom, whose glasses break and is pretty much blind without them, your older brother, who terrorizes you at every moment and you have to share a room with him, and your little brother, who needs his mustard put on his hot dog just so or he throws a fit.  Well, you get all that and more in Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever.

I loved this book!  My favorite parts were Manny and the hot dog because Greg couldn’t get the mustard right and how they undecorated the Christmas tree because Manny wanted to be the first one to hang an ornament.  I loved this book so much I read it in a day!  I would give it 5 out of 5 stars and recommend it to everyone if you want to laugh your pants off.

I recommend you read the first book before this one if you want to know more about the characters.  This was my favorite in the series because it’s the funniest.  So go read it!

Disclosure: I purchased The Girl’s copy of Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever. I am an IndieBound affiliate and an Amazon associate.

© 2011 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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Review: Cake Wrecks by Jen Yates

I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to read this book!  I’ve been enjoying the cake disasters posted on the Cake Wrecks blog for about a year now, having seen it mentioned by Mary Alice on Charm City Cakes.  The subtitle best describes this book — “When Professional Cakes Go Hilariously Wrong.”  Jen Yates started the Cake Wrecks blog in 2008 after receiving a forwarded e-mail with the picture featured on the book’s cover, and the site has grown more popular over the years as readers submit pictures of wrecks they have received from bakeries and those spotted while strolling through the grocery store.

I’m always tempted to snap a photo when I see a cake wreck, but I don’t want to offend the bakers who normally are standing right there.  However, I should have taken a photo of the wreck that was Serena’s baby shower cake before I had it fixed!  It was a fairly large sheet cake, and somehow they just couldn’t fit “Best Wishes Serena and Cris” without the “and Cris” going up and off the side of the cake.  I was too upset to think about taking a photo, and after I complained, I felt bad even though my complaint was justified.  Well, with Cake Wrecks, I don’t have to feel guilty about laughing and cringing at the cake decorating horrors gracing its pages.

Yates includes some favorites from the blog, but much of the book is never-before-seen wreckage.  The photos feature ridiculous spelling mistakes, explosions of frosting that look like bathroom accidents, and cakes that make you question the intelligence of the decorators.  (These two aren’t in the book, but they illustrate my point perfectly.)  Yates’ humorous commentary is sometimes funnier than the cakes.

There are chapters on the horrors of cupcake cakes, wedding cake disasters, and even some hilarious-but-not-exactly-family-friendly cakes.  Yates pokes fun at the latest trends in baby shower cakes, with huge baby bumps (sometimes with feet poking through), baby butts, and the creepiest baby face ever immortalized in sugar.  She tells the stories behind some of the cake wrecks, and even if these stories don’t make you think twice about what you say to the baker when you’re ordering a cake, they’ll surely make you laugh out loud.

My poor husband witnessed me and The Girl laughing so hard we cried while reading this book, and I kept making him pause the movie he was watching to look at the photos.  He was only mildly annoyed, as several times he laughed right along with us.  From carrot-riding babies with mohawks to The Girl’s personal favorite Darth Vader baby shower cake (which is pretty cool when you read about the Darth Vader bridal shower cake that became a family joke), Cake Wrecks (and the blog) will provide hours of entertainment.  The Girl and I can’t wait to get our hands on Yates’ newest book, Wreck the Halls.  Watch the trailer for a sneak peek of the hilarious holiday wreckage!

Disclosure: I borrowed Cake Wrecks from my local library. I am an IndieBound affiliate and an Amazon associate.

© 2011 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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The Girl’s Thoughts on Soldier’s Heart by Gary Paulsen

The Girl (age 11) finished this book yesterday and couldn’t wait to write this review, grabbing a piece of paper and her clipboard as soon as she finished her homework.  I’m so happy that she shares my love of historical fiction!  If you have a weak stomach, you might want to skip the teaser passage, which she chose herself because she wanted to show how the author illustrates the horror of war.

“Where are you hit?”

“I don’t know.  They sent me back.  I think it’s my shoulder but it don’t seem to hurt.”

“Over there.  Sit with that group by the tent and we’ll get to you when we can.”  The man turned back to the tent with no sides where a doctor working by lantern light was sawing a leg off a soldier.  Near the tent was a pile of arms and legs that stood four feet high and ten or twelve feet long. 

(from Soldier’s Heart, page 86)

In Soldier’s Heart, a 15-year-old boy named Charley Goddard hears the first “shooting war” has begun.  Charley thinks this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.  So Charley lies about his age and joins the First Minnesota Volunteers.  It is 1861.  He goes off to war not knowing what to expect but still excited about the journey that lies ahead.  Will Charley survive the Civil War?

Soldier’s Heart is historical fiction.  Some parts aren’t true.  In the author’s note, Gary Paulsen says the real Charley didn’t fight at Bull Run, but he does in the book.

I thought this book was amazing!  Gary Paulsen wrote Hatchet, which I thought was just okay, but this book proved he could do better.  He makes you feel like you’re in Charley’s shoes, though some parts are disgusting, like when Charley wants to refill his canteen and he wonders why the water is red and sees dead bodies in the water.  This book makes you think that war is dumb!

I recommend this book to people who like to study the Civil War.  But if you read this book, you must read the author’s note if you want to know what happens to the real Charley.

Disclosure: The Girl borrowed Soldier’s Heart from her teacher. I am an IndieBound affiliate and an Amazon associate.

© 2011 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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The Girl’s Thoughts on The Entertainer and the Dybbuk by Sid Fleischman

The Girl (age 11) and I spotted The Entertainer and the Dybbuk by Sid Fleischman awhile back while browsing the stacks at our local library.  We each grabbed a copy and planned to read it together.  I finished the book first (check out my review), while The Girl read it more slowly as part of her daily in-class reading.  A recent class assignment was to write about a book she’d finished, and because she would be presenting it to the class, she had to grab the other students’ attention without giving too much away.  She was excited about this assignment because she’d had some practice, having reviewed books here for the past couple of years.

Here are her thoughts:

In The Entertainer and the Dybbuk, a young Jewish boy who died at the hands of a bloodthirsty Nazi seeks his revenge. This is a fiction novel by Sid Fleischman. The main characters are the Great Freddie, who is a horrible ventriloquist, and the dybbuk, a Jewish spirit who was killed along with his sister in WWII.  The setting is pretty much all over the place because the Great Freddie is a traveling ventriloquist, but it mostly takes place on a train and in theaters in Europe and the United States.  The most interesting part to me was the court scene at the end of the book, when the dybbuk comes face to face with the Nazi officer who murdered him.  I suggest this book for Jr. High readers who are interested in ghosts and WWII history.

I was thrilled when she came home from school on Monday and told me she received an A+ on her book presentation!  Yea!

Disclosure: The Girl borrowed The Entertainer and the Dybbuk from our local library. I am an IndieBound affiliate and an Amazon associate.

© 2011 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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Review: Stagecoach Sal by Deborah Hopkinson, illustrated by Carson Ellis

“Don’t you worry, Pa,” I told him.  “I’ll get the mail from Ukiah to Willits on time.”

“It’s a long journey,” Pa managed to squeak out.  “No passengers tonight, just the mail.”

“No passengers!”  Ma flapped her apron in distress.  “You mean she’ll be driving alone at night, with Poetic Pete roaming the countryside?” 

(from Stagecoach Sal)

At the recent National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., while The Girl (age 11) was making bookmarks and browsing the free books in the Penguin tent, we heard a story being read and sung for a group of younger children.  When they announced that the author would be signing free copies of the book, we went to check it out for my nephew, who just turned 3.  The Girl said we couldn’t send the book to him yet because she was drawn to the cover because of the horses and the fact that the book was inspired by a true story, and she insisted we had to read it first.

Stagecoach Sal, written by Deborah Hopkinson and illustrated by Carson Ellis, is the story of Sal, a young girl who has been riding shotgun in her father’s stagecoach since before she could reach the floorboards.  She loves driving the stagecoach and collecting fares, but most of all, she enjoys singing for the passengers.  Interspersed with the narrative are the lyrics to the songs “Polly Wolly Doodle” and “She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain,” among others, and The Girl had fun singing those parts while I read aloud.

When Sal’s father is stung by hornets and can’t drive the stagecoach due to swelling, Sal takes it upon herself to deliver the mail, despite the fact that a bandit named Poetic Pete is on the loose.  Poetic Pete is known for robbing stagecoaches while speaking in rhyme, and when Sal encounters him on the road, she uses the fact that his manners prevent him from interrupting a lady to her advantage.

Stagecoach Sal is based on Delia Haskett Rawson (1861-1949), who according to the author’s note, was the first and probably only woman to deliver the U.S. mail by stagecoach in California.  She was 14 when she started driving stagecoaches, and her nickname was  “Singing Delia Haskett.”  Poetic Pete is based on Black Bart, a gentleman bandit known for leaving behind poems after robbing stagecoaches.  Black Bart, whose real name was Charles Earl Bowles, never robbed Rawson but had ridden in her stagecoach, according to her recollections.

Stagecoach Sal is a fun picture book, and with the prose and the songs, makes reading more interactive for parents and their children.  Both adults and children alike will find the historical aspect of the story interesting; The Girl and I had never heard of Delia Haskett Rawson or Black Bart until reading this book.  Children will find much to admire in a young girl who is not afraid to set out on a solo journey and who doesn’t lose her cool when trouble arises.  They’ll have fun singing and learn a little history at the same time.

Disclosure: We received a free copy of Stagecoach Sal at the National Book Festival, with no review obligation. I am an IndieBound affiliate and an Amazon associate.

© 2011 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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The Girl’s Thoughts on Hit and Run by R.L. Stine

The Girl (age 11) is really enjoying her 6th grade reading class because her teacher believes in letting the kids choose what books they want to read so they will enjoy reading.  Every weeknight for homework, she has to read for 30 minutes, log the number of pages she read, and get my signature.  So this is the first of many books she hopes to share here during the school year.

She recently finished Hit and Run by R.L. Stine, reading the same tattered copy I had when I was around her age.  I’d forgotten it was in a box of books I’d passed on to her and was surprised when she pulled it out of her (massive) R.L. Stine collection.  She wanted me to ask her questions, rather than write up a review.

First, here’s the back-of-the book summary:

Eddie, Scott, Winks, and Cassie.  They went out for a drive one night.  Just to practice, so Eddie would be sure and get his license.

Then Eddie had a little accident.  Now four friends share a terrible secret.

Because Eddie hit someone and killed him.

Didn’t he?

Tell us about Hit and Run in 5 sentences or less.

Hit and Run is about four very close friends, who are all getting ready to take their driver’s tests.  Eddie is the most scared about the test, so one night they use his parents’ car to practice driving.  A man is standing in the road in front of them, frozen in fear, caught in the headlights.  They feel a bump; they hit him.  They don’t want to get caught by the police, but they don’t want to leave the body in the road.

What drew your attention to this book?

It’s by R.L. Stine, who is one of my favorite authors.  The back cover sounded interesting.  And the blood stain on the front cover is cool.

Tell us something interesting about the main character(s).

My favorite of the characters was Winks because he always played funny practical jokes on Eddie.  One time, he got an eyeball from Eddie’s cousin, who works at the morgue.  Winks pretends that his eyeball falls out and holds it in his hand.

How did this book compare to those in the Goosebumps series?  Was it scarier?

I didn’t think the book was scarier, but I thought it was one of the best R.L. Stine books I’ve read so far.  It’s definitely for an older audience than the Goosebumps books.

Did you like the book?  Would you recommend it to your friends?  Would you recommend it to adults?

I did like it.  I’d give it 4 out of 5 stars.  I would recommend it to readers who like thrillers with a twist.  Some adults might enjoy it, too.

Have any of you read the book? What did you think?

Disclosure: The Girl read my old copy of Hit and Run, which I purchased so long ago I didn’t even remember I owned it. I am an IndieBound affiliate and an Amazon associate.

© 2011 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.

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