A Little Princess

Alright, this book, in some ways, doesn't need to be reviewed; it's a mainstay in a children's literature bookshelf. However, if you're like me, then you haven't read the book for years and have vague memories of the story mixed with images from film/t.v. of varying qualities. So, to do the book justice, I reread it.

A Little Princess is about a girl, Sara Crewe, who possesses a precocious intellect, a global worldview (having been raised in India), a vivid imagination and a very doting father (who lavishes luxuries upon her). Her father, the wealthy Captain Crewe, takes her from her happy home in India to a strict and cold boarding school in London under the tutelage of the aptly-named Miss Minchin. She spends several years there, befriending unlikely students and scullery maids, and garnering the growing resentment and jealousy of some other students as well as Miss Minchin herself. On her 11th birthday they receive word that her father has died and all of his money gone in a bad investment leaving her penniless. Miss Minchin now takes the opportunity to avenge her long-standing animosity to the child by making her one of the lowest and most poorly-treated servants in the house: depriving her of food, humiliating her in public and having her room in an attic with the rats. However, despite this ill-treatment, Sara maintains her pride and spirit and (as you likely know) ultimately triumphs.

In my head, I had remembered Sara as a sweet and cheerful protagonist, almost bubbly. Upon rereading the book, though, I saw that Sara is completely different- very thoughtful and quiet- even described as solemn. What keeps her spirit up isn't effervescence but equanimity. Her insistence on behaving as though she is a princess is very striking (not the princess/diva manner I would normally associate with the word) but rather a combination noblesse oblige and tranquil pride. Her few slips into discouragement and anger only highlight her general way of being rather than contradict it. I was quite inspired by this book and struck by Frances Hodgson Burnett's non-condescending manner of writing. If not for the slight classism in the book, it could easily have been written today. If you haven't read this book in a while, you should definitely revisit it- I guarantee the story will both pleasantly surprise you and might even move you.

Princess Ben

Like many books I review, I'll read a mention of the book from some lucky bookseller who has an advanced copy.  I'll get excited about the book, rush to my neighborhood bookstore or library and then realize the book doesn't come out for several months.  Sigh.  

Princess Ben was one of these books so I was pleasantly surprised when it arrived at my library.  And promptly settled down to read it...

Princess Ben is about a young free-spirited and slightly overindulged princess, who after her doting parents are tragically murdered, is left to the devices and education of her cruel aunt.  Her aunt, Queen Sophia, becomes more frantic about the quest to cultivate Princess Ben with hopes for making her marriage material when the neighboring kingdom (the chief suspect in the parents' deaths) begins to put pressure to overtake the kingdom.  After one particularly bad interaction between the Queen Sophia and Princess Ben, she is shut up in a cell behind her aunt's room.  However, the room holds an unexpected escape by way of a secret passageway that leads to a mysterious magical room...

Princess Ben started off with a bit of an angsty feel and, when coupled with the tragic circumstances, I steeled myself for a typical tortured heroine fairy tale.  However, by the Part Two of the book, I realized that this story was far from the typical fairy tale!  For start, the heroine isn't a delicate golden-haired beauty or even a feisty brunette beauty.  She's a sulky, strong-willed girl with a voracious appetite.  Her maturing and growth throughout the book is only one of many; it amazed me that characters that I made immediate judgments about (oh, she's the villain, he's the love interest) would change through the story as the narrator, the irrepressible Princess Ben, changed.  Catherine Gilbert Murdock's clever interweaving of fairy tale references only add to the cleverness of the story rather than serve as distraction.  

This story was deeper than the average "fairytale retelling" genre and delivered humor, adventure, and dare I say it, a valuable moral.

The Dragonfly Pool

I was so excited when I first heard about the release of The Dragonfly Pool; I completely adore Eva Ibbotson and the story sounded perfect.  

And, of course, it was.

The Dragonfly Pool begins in pre-WWII London where feisty Tally has to leave her beloved doctor father, and the danger of the city, for a progressive boarding school in southern England.  Despite missing home, she soon has friends and mentors that help her feel at home and she is renewed with a sense of purpose.  After seeing a special on Bergania's king bravely defying Hitler, Tally is inspired to visit and when she hears of an international dance festival taking place there, she rallies her classmates to participate.  Of course, things don't go as planned: there is an assassination, a prince on the lam, two hideous henchman, a rare Outer Mongolian pedestal dog, among many other things.  

I think that if I could have written a novel as a child, I would have wanted to write just like Ms. Ibbotson.  She has marvelous lead characters- definitely not cookie-cutter heros and heroines- some are spirited, some are shy but all are completely three-dimensional.  Her villains are delightfully abhorrent and usually quite repulsive (one villain kept a picture of Hitler in a locket, another collected rare glass eyeballs).  Her plots are usually outlandish and difficult to summarize (as I proved by my above paragraph) but, when reading, are easy to follow.  Her books move at a perfect pace and always have just the ending one wants.  The Dragonfly Pool was classic Ibbotson but classic Ibbotson with a cherry on top.  It was one of those read-straight-through-the-night-until-I-finish books.  Loved it.

What authors write the way you, as a child, wanted books to be written?

So Sorry!

I have been quite swamped with work and other distractions.  I promise to begin again in April with fresh reviews.  Thank you for reading!

Masterpiece

I was suffering from a rather nasty bout with the flu when a kind friend brought home Masterpiece to distract me from my ills.  I doubt he could have chosen a better book to take me away from my troubles completely!

A beetle, Martin, and his family, live under the sink in the Pompaday's house.  Although the beetles like the son James, quiet and lonely, they don't care much for the rest of his family (made up of his pushy mother, complaining stepfather and messy baby brother).  After James has a disappointing birthday (ruined by his mother inviting the sons of potential clients to his party rather than any of his friends), Martin paints him a tiny landscape using the pen and ink set James' father gave him.  The painting bears an uncanny resemblance to the work of Albrecht Dürer.  James is well aware that Martin, his new friend, is the true artist but all the adults around him assume that the painting was done by James himself.  When several people who work at the museum see the painting, they enlist James (and inadvertently Martin) to help them catch an art thief. 

I knew I would love this story, having loved Shakespeare's Secret so well.  Elise Broach's characters are just so marvelous!  Martin and his family, in particular, were refreshingly well-adjusted as a contrast to James' dysfunctional one.  There is even a bit of wise philosophy spoken by Martin's mother that I found quite inspiring (pg. 171).  The mystery, while quite complicated in parts (it took me forever to boil the book down to a one paragraph summary!), was fast-paced and exciting all while gently displaying the delightful characters.  The illustrations of Kelly Murphy added perfectly to the story of quiet friendship and intricate mystery.  

Somehow, like Master Dürer himself, Ms. Broach was able to create a masterpiece with tiny details and warm, enduring images.  

I also loved that Dürer was the featured artist in this book!  I thought he was an unorthodox choice; most books would feature an artist along the lines of Da Vinci or Michelangelo.  I would love to see a book that incorporates the art of one of my favorite artists maybe Alphonse Mucha or Maxfield Parrish.  What do you think?  Any artists, obscure or known, you would like to see in the plot of a book?

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Yes, yes, I realize that this book won numerous awards last year so this review is a bit behind the times.  But the book was recently recommended to me by a very enthusiastic 12-year-old so I had to pick it up...

The Invention of Hugo Cabret takes place in early 20th century Paris where a young and penniless orphan, Hugo, spends his days running the clocks in the train station and stealing food, and his nights working on a writing automaton in a tiny forgotten room inside the station.  Ever since his father died trying to fix the automaton he found in the attic of a museum, Hugo has been passionate about repairing it, hoping that the message the automaton will write will somehow be a message from his father.  To get the parts for his project, he steals mechanical toys from the little shop in the train station.  However, when the owner there, a mysterious and bitter old man, catches him in the act, Hugo enters into a new adventure- a far less lonely one- tangled with a cast of characters all connected to his beloved automaton.

Well, the first thing I was intrigued by in the story was (of course) the unique format of the half picture book/half novel.  I loved how Brian Selznick used the pictures to tell the story rather than just emphasize whatever the words are saying.  As a Francophile, I like the setting in Paris and I thought the illustrations were perfect.  Although I couldn't really identify with any of the characters, I think that the characters were almost incidental.  I felt that the emphasis of the story was on images (definitely supported by the use of pictures instead of words in so much of the story) and there were many images that will stay with me.  

The picture book (graphic novel?)/novel idea is quite unique.  I think Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix would have been easier to read with that combination.  Some of those fight/chase scenes were hard to follow! 

Any books you would like to see as hybrids?  Any picture book that could use more words or novels that could use pictures for part of the story?  

Roxie and the Hooligans

I am a sucker for a good title; so when I saw Roxie and the Hooligans by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, I was absolutely constrained to read it.   

Roxie Warbler looks forward to every visit from her famous explorer uncle, Uncle Dangerfoot.  She sits attentively while he tells her family stories about the latest adventures that he and his employer, Lord Thistlebottom, have experienced.  Roxie hangs on his every word as well as the words of Lord Thistlebottom's Book of Pitfalls and How to Survive Them.  However, there is nothing in either her favorite book or her favorite uncle's stories to guide her through her bully problem at school.  Helvitia's Hooligans have chosen Roxie, with her large, round ears, as their victim of the year.  Roxie is embarrassed to talk to her parents about it because, as a niece of such a great adventurer, she ought to be able to figure out how to escape them.  One morning, as the Hooligans try their latest bit of meanness on Roxie, she and the Hooligans end up in the dumpster.  And as fate would have it, the dumpster is promptly picked up and dumped into the nearby ocean.  After Roxie and Helvitia's Hooligans swim to a conveniently located desert island, the survival tips Roxie has learned come in handy as she tries to band together with the Hooligans, forage for supplies and outwit two dastardly thieves hiding out on the island with them.  

This book was exhilarating!  My only disappointment was that it was such a quick read because I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The little survival tips were fun and watching Roxie carry them out made them even more so.  I loved watching the attitudes of the Hooligans change as Roxie gradually became their fearless leader.  And I liked the very gentle explanation of why the Hooligans were the way they were and Roxie's realization of how much better her life was.  Above all, her refusal to panic in the face of anything was quite inspiring.

What a deliciously fun book!