Book Reviews

ATTENTION, MIDDLE GRADERS. Laugh your way through “The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling,” by Maryrose Wood (Balzer & Bray 2010), a story about three children who have been raised by wolves. Like all good puppies, Alexander, Beowulf, and Cassiopeia try to please their people. And who wouldn’t want to please their young governess Penelope Lumley, trained at the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females. (You’ll wish you had a governess just like Penelope). (I do).

Penelope’s story is told with tongue held firmly in cheek, meaning it’s a satire, meaning that the author is poking fun at manners and rich people, specifically, but not exclusively, of 19^th Century British society.

When Penelope’s students are nipping and rolling on the carpet, or howling and panting in the nursery, she must forgo teaching Latin and Geography in favor of table manners, proper introductions (“may I take your umbrella?”) as well as bows and curtsies, in time to present them at the Ashton Place Christmas Ball. But something goes amiss at the party. Who is trying to sabotage the children’s best efforts causing them to behave wolfishly and creating mayhem? And why?

Even the villains are delightful, in their own ways. For instance, Lady Constance Ashton, their mother figure of sorts, is in favor of sending the children to an orphanage so that they might take their “rightful place as burdens on society.” On another occasion she declares she is “tragically late for a luncheon engagement.” You can use these lines and many others with your friends, as I certainly will be doing.

Sprinkled throughout are pithy dollops of wisdom, having been spoken by the academy’s founder, Agatha Swanburne—such as, “When things are looking up there’s no point in looking elsewhere.”

Forgive me when I say, you’ll be howling for more. And you’re in luck. In #2 “The Hidden Gallery” (2011), the Incorrigibles are whisked away from their country estate to London where they meet Simon Harley-Dickerson who aids Penelope and the children in her search for a hidden gallery in the British Museum. Why must they find it? Who is directing them there? Could Penelope’s long lost parents still be alive?

The entire family will be delighted by a read-aloud of the Incorrigibles after dinner. I take full responsibility if you don’t laugh your socks off.

 

Patricia Hruby Powell (www.talesforallages.com) is a nationally touring speaker, dancing storyteller, substitute librarian and children’s book author.

This is the first of the middle grade book reviews I will be writing for our newspaper in Champaign Urbana–the News Gazette. This ran Sunday, April 10, 2011 and a new review will run once every three weeks.

 

ATTENTION, MIDDLE GRADERS (yes, you — let’s say third- or fourth- through seventh-graders): Every third Sunday, this book column is for YOU to read.

I was immediately attracted to the book “Storyteller” (Wendy Lamb Books 2010) by Patricia Reilly Giff because I’m a storyteller. What could this story tell me about myself? Isn’t that one reason we read? To find out about ourselves and our world?

Elizabeth is sent away from everything familiar — her father, home, friends, school — to live with Aunt Libby in upstate New York so that Pop can work in Australia for a time. To make things worse, she’s plunked into a new school in the middle of the year.

At Aunt Libby’s house, Elizabeth is attracted to an old framed drawing of Zee, who looks oddly like her. Elizabeth starts asking quiet Aunt Libby, her deceased mother’s sister, about this familiar-looking relative who lived in the 18th century during the War for Independence.

Zee tells the story of her Patriot family, farming on the New York frontier. Those loyal to the British king (called Loyalists) were her friends and neighbors until they burned down her house and farm. Zee, 15, had to flee into the woods, leaving her mother behind.

We the readers, have the privilege of hearing Zee, who has seriously burned her hands, describe her barefoot journey through the forest and mountains northward in search of her brother and father, who she thinks are fighting at Fort Dayton for American freedom.

Alternately, Elizabeth has only the drawing, her imagination and research to patch together Zee’s story. We experience the horrors of war, but thankfully, without graphic sensationalism.

Readers will connect with the more familiar plight of Elizabeth’s loneliness, but they’ll be riveted by the life-and-death adventure of Zee.

As Elizabeth uncovers her family history, she and others realize she’s a storyteller. What Elizabeth finds in an antique shop allows us to see the outcome of Zee’s life, just as Elizabeth discovers the truth herself.

 

Patricia Hruby Powell (www.talesforallages.com) is a nationally touring speaker, dancing storyteller, substitute librarian and children’s book author.