Thursday, May 31, 2018

Old School Kidlit Reading Challenge: May 2018 Link-Up

This is the Old School Kidlit Reading Challenge link-up post for May! Please share your reviews and posts about any "old school" books you have read this month in the comments. (Even if you haven't signed up for the challenge you're welcome to participate with anything you've posted about a book published in the decade of your birth or before.)

Here are my "old school" reviews for the month:

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Book Review: Wild Blues by Beth Kephart (2018)

Lizzie's mom has to undergo cancer treatment, so she asks Lizzie where she would like to spend her summer. Lizzie chooses to go to her uncle Davy's renovated schoolhouse home in the Adirondacks, near where her good friend Matias, an immigrant from El Salvador who has proportionate dwarfism also lives. Not long after Lizzie arrives, however, two dangerous convicts escape from the prison, kidnapping both Matias and Uncle Davy and leaving Lizzie entirely on her own. Determined not to lose the people she loves most in the world, Lizzie sets out to bring them home, not realizing how dangerous this plan really is.

This middle grade novel is told in the form of a victim impact statement given by Lizzie to a listener whose identity is unknown to the reader for much of the book. This, combined with the suspense of the kidnapping and rescue mission, would make for compelling reading all on its own. But, as with Kephart's 2016 young adult novel, This is the Story of You, it is the gorgeous writing style that makes this book truly stand out as original and beautiful. Many middle grade books seem to have a singular generic voice, which can make it hard to differentiate one story from another. This one, however, is not just a memorable story, but a distinctive piece of writing. What Kephart has to say becomes more meaningful because of the way she says it. This book is filled with moments where the author employs just the right detail in just the right way at just the right time for maximum emotional impact. I was genuinely surprised several times when I suddenly felt like crying over some turn of phrase or turn of events in the story. It's been a while since a book got a true reaction out of me like that.

Content-wise, I think this book is probably more appropriate for middle school readers than elementary school readers. The writing is a bit flowery, making it more complex to read, and the idea of escaped convicts is more likely to trouble a third grader than an eighth grader. (Incidentally, there was a prison break in my hometown when I was a kid, so this book was extra interesting to me!) There are also some mentions of Uncle Davy's past relationship with a man whom he loved. Lizzie refers to him as a friend, however, and it would be easy for kids with no other context not to think there was anything more to the connection than friendship. The point is really just to show the vulnerable side of Uncle Davy and that he has experienced a loss, not to dwell on any adult themes.

The ARC of this book did not include the final full-color paintings which serve as the book's illustrations, but the preview images shown on Edelweiss are beautiful, and they do much to enhance the mood of the book. Art plays a major role in the stories of both Matias and one of his captors, and having Matias's paintings represented in the book adds a lot to the reader's knowledge of his character. . The fact that the illustrator is the author's husband, who is himself Salvadoran, is also a nice touch.

I would put Wild Blues in a category along with Lauren Wolk's books - that is, literary fiction for the middle school reader who likes description and action, strong character development and meandering reflections about life. It's certainly not going to resonate with every child, but there are definitely readers out there for whom this special book will be an instant and enduring favorite. It certainly is for me.

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Literary Homes I'd Like to Live In

This summer, we're planning to move to a larger rental home with more space. Though I expect we'll end up somewhere fairly ordinary, today's Top Ten Tuesday topic (Bookish Worlds I’d Want to/Never Want to Live In) got me thinking about interesting  homes and neighborhoods from books that I might like to live in if I could.

Skeldale House 

from All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot

James Herriot's descriptions of his life at Skeldale House with Siegfried and Tristan Farnon, and later with his wife, make it sound like such a cozy place to live, filled with laughter and camaraderie. 

Klickitat Street 

from the Ramona series by Beverly Cleary 

Like Ramona, I grew up in a neighborhood filled with kids of all different ages who hung out together. It's been fun revisiting that type of community as I've been listening to the audiobooks of this series with my four-year-old. While Klickitat Street is a real place, it's Cleary's fictionalized version of it, and the characters who inhabit it, that appeals to me. 

Three Pines

from the Inspector Armand Gamache series by Louise Penny

Though a good number of murders have taken place in this small Canadian village, it does seem like a cozy and idyllic place to live most of the time. I love all the little shops, including the new and used bookstore and the Bistro. 


Jim Qwilleran's converted apple barn 

from the Cat Who series by Lilian Jackson Braun

I have always loved the well-realized setting for the long-running and well-loved series about newspaper reporter Jim Qwilleran and his cats, Koko and Yum Yum. I especially love the renovated apple barn that becomes their home part-way through the series - I'd probably have plenty of room for all my books if I lived there! 

Kinsey Millhone's garage apartment

from Sue Grafton's alphabet series

Fairly early in the series, Kinsey's apartment is damaged in the course of solving a case. Her landlord, Henry, surprises her with a brand-new customized apartment that suits all of her needs. Every time Kinsey describes where she lives, I think it must be such a comfortable home. It also doesn't hurt that Henry, who is an excellent baker, lives right next door!

Greenglass House 

from Greenglass House by Kate Milford

I'm not sure I'd really want to live among ghosts and possible thieves, but I do find the smuggler's inn that is the setting of Greenglass House and Ghosts of Greenglass House to be one of the more interesting houses I've read about.


Rosetown 

from Rosetown by Cynthia Rylant 

The setting of this gentle middle grade novel set in the 1970s is another quaint small town complete with a used bookstore called Wings and a Chair. It seems a bit too perfect to be believable, but it would definitely be my kind of place.

Dandelion Cottage 

from Dandelion Cottage by Carroll Watson Rankin
Dandelion Cottage is a vintage children's book about four tween girls who transform an unoccupied cottage on the local church's property into a playhouse that is so well-decorated and organized that it briefly houses a tenant. I would have loved the idea of staying in a little house like that when I was a kid. 

The Burrow

from the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling 

I have always loved the cozy, cluttered atmosphere of the Weasley family home. And it has a lot of bedrooms, which would be nice! 

Monday, May 28, 2018

The RAHM Report for 5/28/18

What I Finished Reading


  • Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah Wiles ⭐⭐⭐⭐
    This series is like Fannie Flagg for kids. This particular book is a perfectly age-appropriate meditation on death with less of the emotional trauma of The Bridge to Terabithia. I don't recommend skipping Terabithia, but if a child who isn't quite ready for that has questions about death, this is a good book to help that discussion along. 
  • Sixpence in Her Shoe by Phyllis McGinley (OpenLibrary) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
    This book was written in defense of the work of the American housewife in the 1960s. I found it fascinating what the author took for granted, such as the ideas that every woman makes homemade pate and hosts dinner parties, and also what has remained the same in the last 50  years. It did sort of make me wish for a contemporary equivalent to this book - I'd nominate Leila Lawler of Like Mother, Like Daughter to write it. 
  • For the Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay (paperback) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
    This is a summary of Charlotte Mason's educational philosophy. I found it more easily digestible than reading Mason herself, and I absolutely loved the advice about discipline that Macaulay offers. Other aspects of this particularly homeschooling approach I can definitely live without, but this is a helpful resource for deciding what will work for a particular child. 


What I'm Currently Reading


  • Lakeside Cottage by Susan Wiggs
    I'm enjoying this even more than I thought I would. The writing is solid, and the summer atmosphere has been a great way to welcome the warm weather.
  • The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny
    It's good to be back in Three Pines! This mystery, involving a murder at the bistro, already has me hooked.
  • The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis by Max Shulman
    This was $1.99 for Kindle this past week, and because my sister and I watched the sit-com on Nick at Nite when we were very small, I decided to snatch it up and give it a read. I've only read the first couple of pages to get a taste, but I think it will be quick and fun. 
  • The Aurora County All-Stars by Deborah Wiles
    I've read the first two books so now  I can finally get to this one, which I listed on my Spring TBR way back in March. I usually like baseball books, so I'm expecting to enjoy this one too. 
  • Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
    I see this book on Overdrive a lot when I'm looking for audiobooks, and I'm always drawn to the cover. When I was looking for my next audiobook, I decided to just give it a try. I'm not 100% sold on it yet and may not continue to the end, but I'm going to give it a few chapters before I decide.
I'll be linking up today with Unleashing Readers/Teach Mentor Texts and Book Date for It's Monday! What Are You Reading?


Friday, May 25, 2018

Book Review: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (1985)

Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is a Third, born only after his parents received special permission from the U.S. government to exceed the two-child limit. His entire existence has come about in hopes that he, unlike his older brother, Peter and older sister, Valentine, will qualify for Battle School and go on to fight and win in the war against an insect-like species known as the buggers. When Ender is just six years old, Colonel Graff comes to take him to the battle school along with the many other exceptional kids who make up his launch group. Immediately, Ender shows aptitude for battle far above that of his peers, and he rises rapidly through the ranks of the school, all the while battling his own inner demons, many of which manifest themselves in a fantasy game he plays during his free time. Over time, Ender makes friends and enemies, pleases and disappoints those above him, and sacrifices his childhood for the greater good.

One weekend, my husband chose the 2013 film adaptation of this book for our weekly movie. Ordinarily, I would prefer to read the book first, but in this case, I think watching the film first did help me. Though there are definite problems with the movie, it did a decent job of bringing the battle school environment to life. When I read fantasy and science fiction, I frequently have trouble imagining things for which I have no frame of reference, so having these visuals as a starting point was a great help in acclimating me to this story.

And what a story! Since the author has stated that he believes Ender's Game is best appreciated in an audio medium, I listened to the audiobook and read along with the Kindle edition from my local library. Though this is not my usual genre, I could not stop listening. From the start, I was intrigued by the unusual setting, in which young children are recruited from their families to be trained how to fight in zero gravity. I also found Ender fascinating, and really liked seeing how he handled challenges at different phases of his education, even if I sometimes didn't like his choices. I found the opening scenes of each chapter, where higher-ups discuss Ender and their hopes for him, very effective in keeping the story grounded in time, and in building suspense about how Ender would fare as the stakes continually increased. The moral dilemmas raised by the story also give the reader a lot to think about, and they provide great fodder for discussion. I also enjoyed the somewhat prophetic nature of the subplot in which Ender's siblings take on alter egos and stir up political debates on "the nets." When I reached this section of the book, I turned to my husband and said, "Orson Scott Card predicted Internet trolls!" It's always fun when science fiction predicts something that later comes to fruition.

All of my praise for the book aside, however, I have to admit that I'm shocked to know people read this with kids. First of all, the intended audience is adults. The character has to be a child because of the nature of the problems society faces in the novel, but the things this child endures are not for the faint of heart. There are a number of instances of very nasty physical violence in the book, all of which occur outside of combat, and all of which are disturbing. There are also many grotesque and frightening images in Ender's fantasy game which I would also not recommend for young kids. The author does refrain from using curse words, and there is a fair amount of toilet humor, so it does occasionally feel like a middle grade novel, but in general, I think truly appreciating Ender's story requires an adult perspective colored by a bit of life experience. There is no way I would suggest this book to a child under 10, and for my own kids, I'm thinking it will be the teen years before they are ready.

There are a lot of sequels to Ender's Game, and I doubt very much I will finish the series. I am interested, however, in reading Ender's Shadow (1999), which relates the same events from the point of view of Ender's friend Bean. I'm curious to see how this setting appears from another point of view.

Thursday, May 24, 2018

Book Tag: How Do You Organize Your Reading Life?


This month's prompt for Blog All About It is organize. In response, I've created a book tag all about how I organize and track all the books I read. (I'll also be using this post for the Book Blogger Discussion Challenge.)

How many books do you typically read at one time?  How many are you reading right now? 
I am usually reading at least three books at once. One or two never seems like enough, especially if one is an audiobook. I don't always adhere to this, but I typically like to be reading one audiobook, one adult book, and one children's book at the same time. Sometimes, if I'm reading a new children's book, I'll also read an old one simultaneously. Right now, I'm between audiobooks but I'm reading three physical books: Lakeside Cottage by Susan Wiggs, Sixpence in her Shoe by Phyllis McGinley, and Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah Wiles.

How do you keep your place in a book? 
When I read physical books, I typically don't do anything in the book itself to mark where I've left off. I either make sure to read to the end of a chapter so I can just remember the chapter number, or I update my status on Goodreads with the page number.

Do you take notes as you read? What is your preferred note-taking method?
I almost never take notes while I'm reading. I do sometimes take pictures of passages I like, so I can either share them on Instagram or remember to refer to them when I write reviews. Otherwise, I finish the book first and then try to jot down a few ideas for my review before finishing my next book.

How do you keep track of what you've read? 
I keep track of my reading on Goodreads and in a bullet journal. Goodreads is the method I prefer, but I'm doing so many reading challenges, I wanted to keep track on paper too so I could have checklists for each challenge.

Do you set reading goals for yourself? What is your current goal? 
I usually set a goal for the year on Goodreads. Since I like to keep track of everything I read, including picture books and board books I read with my kids, I usually inflate the goal so that it's still a challenge to complete even with all those short books included. This year, my goal is 500.

Do you participate in readathons? Which ones are your favorites?
I like readathons and I wish there were more. I really miss Mother Reader's 48-Hour Reading Challenge, and it's been hard to find another that I like as much. I have been doing Bout of Books regularly for about three years, and it's fun because it happens three times a year and it's really laidback. This year, I've also discovered the Seasons of Reading readathons. I didn't do very well with Spring into Horror, but I'm hoping to do better with High Summer.

When you decide what to read next, do you select from a reading list or choose books at random? 
I don't do well at all when I try to stick to a specific list. Open-ended challenges work well for me, but when it comes time to open up a book and start reading, I need the freedom to choose what I feel like reading at that moment. I do have a tentative idea of which books I'd like to read in the next few months, but I never know which book will be next until I pick it up and start to read.

Do you ever read series books out of order? 
I used to be much more relaxed about reading out of order, and I think I'd actually like to start giving myself permission to be that relaxed again. I would never suggest reading something like Harry Potter out of order, but with things like romances and cozy mysteries that are a little bit lighter it just doesn't seem to matter as much. You can always catch up on what you missed in the first couple of chapters.

How do you store the books you own? Do you have a system for organizing them? 
My husband and I are both librarians, so we own a lot of books, and because we live in a small townhouse, we don't have much of a system yet. Our bookshelves tend to be arranged by size so we can fit as many books as possible into our limited amount of space. Other books (mostly for our kids) are in boxes in the garage, organized into categories such as Christmas, easy readers, Spring, books for babies, books for one-year-olds, etc.

When you finish reading a book you've bought, do you keep it or pass it on? 
We buy the majority of our books used. When I finish an adult book I've bought used, I almost always donate it to the Friends of the Library or give it away to someone else. When we buy kids' books, we typically read them to help decide when our kids will read them and then pack them away until our kids are old enough for them.

Do you review everything you read? How do you decide which books to review?
I used to review almost everything I read, but with three kids, there just aren't enough hours in the day anymore. Now I pretty much only review books about which I have something definite to say, or which I have requested for review from NetGalley or Edelweiss. I also used to review everything on my blog. Now I try to post one children's book review per week on the blog and review most other things on Goodreads.

How do you find out about new books you might want to read? 
I have a whole post in my archives about how I discover new books. The short version is that I get recommendations from my husband, Instagram, my friends' to-read lists on Goodreads, fellow bloggers, and my library's Novelist database.

If you've read this post, tag - you're it! Copy the questions and post your answers on your own blog, then leave me a link so I can read your responses. (If you don't have a blog, feel free to leave your answers in a comment below.)

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Book Review: The Penderwicks at Last by Jeanne Birdsall (2018)

In this long-awaited conclusion to the Penderwicks series, which is set 15 years after the first book, the entire Penderwicks clan has returned to Arundel to celebrate Rosalind's wedding to Tommy Geiger. Lydia, the youngest Penderwick, is eleven years old, and is thrilled to finally visit the magical place that has been the subject of so many stories told by her now grown-up sisters, who range in age from 19 (Batty) to 27 (Rosalind). While wedding preparations unfold around her, Lydia befriends Alice, the daughter of Cagney Pelletier and his wife, Natalie, and the two girls do such things as flee from nosy Mrs. Tifton, whom Jeffrey did not consult before offering Arundel for the wedding, babysit the dog of Batty's ex-boyfriend, and take care of some chickens.

When I first read The Penderwicks nearly ten years ago, I gave it a very enthusiastic five stars. Here was a timeless book about sisters having adventures together, solving their own problems, and mostly looking out for one another. It was my exact cup of tea and I drank it down eagerly. The following sequels varied in quality: I liked The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, but found The Penderwicks at Point Mouette too contrived, and then enjoyed The Penderwicks in Spring, but felt it didn't match the tone of the first three books. This final book, however, is the biggest disappointment of the four sequels, and it sends the series out not with a bang, but with a whimper.

The biggest problem, I think, is with the original four characters. In every book of the series prior to this one, one of the original four girls has still been young enough to take center stage as the protagonist of the story. Readers feel at home in those books because even though the characters are a bit older in each new title, readers have built up a relationship with those characters over the course of the series and have a vested interest in learning what happens to them. Because those beloved characters are now all adults in this book, they are suddenly just not that interesting. They all have adult worries about careers and marriage that kids just don't care about, and we are no longer inside any of their heads.

Worse, because they have been kids in the previous books, their adult selves feel very hollow and inauthentic, as though only the most stereotypical vestiges of their personalities actually followed them to adulthood. I kept thinking about those obligatory sit-com episodes in which the characters imagine what they will be like in the future. The actors get dressed up as older versions of themselves, utter a few catchphrases from beneath their fake white wigs and everybody laughs at how silly they look and sound. As I read passages about the older Penderwick girls, I kept finding myself thinking that each one felt like she was pretending to be an adult and not doing a very believable job of it. In that sense, reading this book was like reading a book-length Harry Potter epilogue.

The other big problem, unfortunately, is with Lydia. She only made her first appearance in the fourth book, in which she was only two years old, and she is completely unknown to the reader at the start of this book. While she does have some qualities that supposedly set her apart from the other Penderwicks, such as the fact that she supposedly likes everybody she meets, these are mostly superficial and do nothing to develop her as anything other than the vehicle by which the reader is able to check in on Rosalind, Skye, Jane, and Batty as adults.  She essentially spends the whole book trying to recapture what her sisters have told her about Arundel and asking questions meant to remind readers of events that have gone before. (This is especially weird because at every opportunity Batty claims not to remember things, like wearing wings, that I think most average people would remember from their childhoods.)

Without a strong main character, and with the four original characters off to the sidelines posing as grown-ups, there is nothing to distract the reader from the usual tropes that appear in the other books of this series, which, in the past, have been made less annoying by the book's other good qualities. These include Mrs. Tifton's utterly stereotypical and incredible continuing disdain for the Penderwicks after essentially not seeing them for fifteen years, the sheer number of unnecessary characters, including Alice's brother and a host of dogs whose names are impossible to keep straight, and the last-minute decision by one of the other sisters to also get married along with Rosalind. Also problematic is the fact that the book spends all its time building up to a wedding, and then not one word is written about the actual wedding ceremony. I also absolutely hated the references to the "patriarchy."  That gave the book a political flavor that was decidedly absent from the others of the series, and which is grossly inappropriate for the 8-to-12-year-old audience.

All in all, this book is just one story too many about these characters. While it is nice to know what happened to them all as adults, it is not necessary to devote an entire book to explaining it. Honestly, a single chapter at the end of the fourth book which described the wedding would have done the trick - that even could have been from Lydia's point of view and it would have been a fun novelty instead of the major liability it is for this book. It was an interesting idea to have the characters age so much from book to book, especially since so many years went by between books, but I also think there is a reason more authors don't take this approach. This fizzling out at the end of the series was almost inevitable, simply because kids want to read about kids, not nostalgic adults who used to be the kids they loved to read about.

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

A Few of My Favorite Character Names

Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is Best Character Names. I've posted before about some of the really ridiculous names I've discovered in children's books; today, I'm sharing ten of my favorite names from books of all types. (Books that are the first of a series are marked with *.)


Anastasia Krupnik 

from Anastasia Krupnik* by Lois Lowry

The beauty of the first name coupled with the geeky sound of the last name really sums up Anastasia's adolescent experiences throughout this series. It's the perfect name for a precocious young woman who makes a lot of mistakes as she comes of age.

Atticus Finch 

from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

This is a great name simply because of the way it sounds. It suits the professional image of the Southern country lawyer and is memorable without being laughable.

Aurora Teagarden 

from Real Murders* by Charlaine Harris

Cozy mystery character names are often either too plain to remember or so over-the-top I can't help but laugh. This one strikes a good balance between normal and memorable. I'm not as crazy about "Roe" as a nickname, but I can deal with it.

Cherry Sue 

from Poppleton* by Cynthia Rylant and Mark Teague

I love everything about this colorful and friendly llama who is the next-door neighbor of title character Poppleton (who is a pig.) This name suits her vibrant personality and positive outlook on every situation.

Hazel Motes

from Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor

Since so much of this book has to do with sight and the importance of seeing clearly I've always liked that O'Connor sometimes refers to Hazel as "Haze" and that a "mote" is mentioned in the Sermon on the Mount as something one takes out of his brother's eye after removing the beam from his own. This is a name that seems random on the surface, but clearly has a deeper significance.


Kinsey Millhone 

from A is for Alibi* by Sue Grafton

This is the perfect name for a detective, and I like the family connections represented by the first name. The name as a whole is unusual, but not unbelievably odd.

Nancy Blackett 

from Swallows and Amazons* by Arthur Ransome

I like this name for the great joke it represents. Nancy's real name is Ruth, but she calls herself Nancy because she fancies herself a pirate, and pirates have to be "ruthless."

Peaceable Sherwood 

from The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope

This name is another one that is just really fun to say. The character himself is a larger-than-life knave, so he needs a good playful name to accompany his personality. I also love the last name's nod to Robin Hood.

Praiseworthy 

from By the Great Horn Spoon! by Sid Fleischman

Praiseworthy is a butler who sails to California to seek his fortune in the Gold Rush. I can't think of a better name for a resourceful and proper butler than an adjective that tells us exactly what he is like.


Sumner Lee

from That Summer by Sarah Dessen

Sarah Dessen's books can sometimes get a little bit out there with their quirky character names, but this one walks the line really well between unusual and outright odd. I like that Sumner is close enough to Summer that the title of the book could be about him, just as much as it is about the special summer the main character, Haven, remembers her family enjoying with him.

Monday, May 21, 2018

The RAHM Report for 5/21/18

What I Finished Reading


I read for Bout of Books every day this week except Friday and ended up finishing six books. That's down quite a bit from the first few times I did Bout of Books, but up from my recent average of 3-4 books per week. I'm already looking forward to the next Bout of Books in August! Here's what I read, and the Goodreads rating I gave to each book:

  • Wild Blues by Beth Kephart (digital ARC) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
    This book was beautifully written just like the author's previous YA title, This is the Story of You. My review will be published on May 30. 
  • Love, Ruby Lavender by Deborah Wiles (read on Open Library) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
    I have The Aurora County All-Stars sitting on my nightstand but I wanted to read the series in order so I borrowed this first book from Open Library. It was mostly very sweet, but I was caught a bit off-guard when the main character made a reference to strip poker. It was so out of place.  But I liked the book overall. 
  • By the Great Horn Spoon! by Sid Fleischman (hardcover) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
    I was not crazy about this book at first, as the Gold Rush is not a topic that has ever really grabbed my interest. But this tale of a boy and his butler sailing to California to seek their fortunes ended up being a really fun (and funny) adventure story. The 1967 film adaptation - Disney's The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin - was entertaining, too, though the ending deviates quite a bit from the book.
  • The Penderwicks at Last by Jeanne Birdsall (ebook) ⭐⭐
    This was such a disappointment. My review will be up on Wednesday of this week.
  • The Princeton Impostor by Ann Waldron (paperback) ⭐⭐
    This was a strange cozy mystery. Everything about it was very tame and gentle most of the time, but then sometimes there would be 2 or 3 f-bombs on the same page. It didn't bother me, but it struck me as odd. The dialogue also felt stilted and the mystery dragged. This was the last book of the series, but the only one I've read, and I won't be seeking out any others.
  • Send in the Clowns by Julie Mulhern (audiobook) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
    Though I was initially put off by the audiobook narrator's mispronunciation of calliope as "callie opie," that wound up being the only mistake, and the word wasn't used again after the first couple of chapters. I did enjoy spending another book with Ellison, who was her usual witty and snarky self, and I do generally enjoy Callie Beaulieu's narration. 

What I'm Currently Reading

I have really only looked at the first page of each of these, but this is what is on my reading list for this week:


  • Sixpence in her Shoe by Phyllis McGinley
    I borrowed this essay collection about the American housewife in 1960 after my husband sent me an article about her from The National Review. There are now 5 people waiting behind me and my loan ends on Saturday, so this is my top priority for the next few days.
  • Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah Wiles
    This is the book that comes between Love, Ruby Lavender and The Aurora County All-Stars, and it is also checked out to me from Open Library. I expect to be able to read it in just a couple of hours.,
  • Lakeside Cottage by Susan Wiggs
    The weather is finally warm, so I'm ready for a light summery read. I hope to at least get halfway through this one this week. 
  • The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny
    I've been meaning to start this for weeks. I will definitely do so this week. I've had a good long break from Three Pines and I'm eager to go back!

I'll be linking up today with Unleashing Readers/Teach Mentor Texts and Book Date for It's Monday! What Are You Reading?


Thursday, May 17, 2018

Book Review: Dandelion Cottage by Carroll Watson Rankin (1904)

Bettie (12 years old), Mabel (11), Jean (14), and Marjory (13) are four young girls who are neighbors and best friends. When they discover that an empty cottage has been standing on the property of their local church since long before the church even existed, they long to fix it up as a playhouse. Fortunately, Mr. Black, one of the church wardens, is fond of the girls, and he agrees to let them have the house in exchange for their hard work pulling the dandelions that have grown up around it. The girls complete this task and go on to turn the ramshackle building into a very admirable playhouse. When new neighbors move in next door, however, Dandelion Cottage is suddenly under attack, and the girls must work to save it from being taken away from them.

This book, which I bought in hardcover, but which is also available on Project Gutenberg, is an utterly charming story of friendship, resourcefulness, and fun. The four girls each have their own distinct personalities, and these create much of the tension in the early parts of the story as they work out how best to use the little cottage. The girls also have many small adventures as a result of spending time in the cottage, including hosting an overnight guest, planning a dinner party, and protecting the house from the bratty daughter of the new neighbors. The story is a wonderful testament to the ingenuity of kids and the value of using their imaginations to make their own fun.

My oldest daughter is only four, but she already reads on a second or third grade reading level, so I am constantly thinking ahead to books that will be challenging enough for her in the next few years that will also be age-appropriate in terms of content for a child of six or seven. Though the characters in this book are significantly older than that, the conflicts they face and the details of their home decorating are exactly the kind of thing that will appeal to her, and there is nothing in the book at all that I would consider inappropriate or beyond her understanding. The text, meanwhile, is just descriptive enough to pose a bit of a challenge to a reader at a fourth or fifth grade level. I think it will be a perfect choice for her to read independently as her reading ability progresses, but it could work just as well as a read-aloud. The story moves quickly, and the chapters are the perfect length.

To my great excitement, this book turns out to be the start of a four-book series! The sequels are also available from Project Gutenberg: The Adopting of Rosa Marie, The Castaways of Pete's Patch, and Girls of Highland Hall. I imagine that anyone who has loved the Betsy-Tacy books, The Railway Children, or even The Boxcar Children will be as pleased as I was to discover this wonderful little quartet.

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Book Review: Rosetown by Cynthia Rylant (2018) (ARC)

Flora Smallwood and her parents live in Rosetown, Indiana, home to Flora's favorite used bookstore, Wings and a Chair, her new friend Yury, who has moved from the Ukraine and shares her love for vintage children's books, and her oldest friend, Nessy, who has been by her side since the girls were five years old. Flora loves Rosetown, but she does not love the feelings of uncertainty surrounding the recent death of her dog, her parents' separation, and the start of fourth grade.  Thankfully, however, in idyllic Rosetown, nothing terrible seems to last too long.

This gentle novel set in 1972 and 1973 is perfect for sensitive readers who like quieter, more introspective stories with minimal conflict and definite positive resolutions. Though there are problems facing Flora in this book, they are mostly the problems of everyday life as a nine-year-old, and each of these ends up on a hopeful note.

Rosetown itself is much like the little towns that often serve as backdrops to cozy mysteries, and all the little shops and their proprietors really appealed to me. While no small town is ever this perfect in reality, it can often feel that way to the kids who grow up there, and I think Rylant really does a nice job of highlighting Flora's all-encompassing love for her hometown, which makes it appear idyllic in her young eyes.

I was also thrilled to see a reference to the "new" Cricket magazine, to which Flora's teacher suggests she submit a story. Unfortunately, after reading Ms. Yingling's review, I learned that Cricket didn't begin publication until September of 1973, while Flora's teacher shows her a copy already printed in April. This doesn't ruin the story, but it is annoying, especially because the publication date of the first issue is readily available on Wikipedia and because pushing the whole story just one year into the future could have solved the problem!

Because of Flora's love for vintage and used books, this book is particularly appealing to me and my family, and I am probably biased in its favor. Even so, I think there is a lot to like about this book, especially for third and fourth graders who are ready for novels with descriptive language but maybe don't want to read about the concerns of middle schoolers just yet. I have been lamenting the loss of this type of short and sweet middle grade novel in recent years; I hope this book represents the beginning of its return.

Monday, May 14, 2018

The RAHM Report for 5/14/18


Bout of Books


Bout of Books 22 is this week! I'll be updating daily on Twitter and will share my progress for the entire week here next Monday.

What I Finished Reading


  • Rosetown by Cynthia Rylant (digital ARC)
    This is a short and sweet, gentle novel set in a small idyllic town in the 1970s. I enjoyed the way it was written and the fact that the main character enjoys vintage books and used bookstores. My review will publish to the blog tomorrow.
  • Post-Mortem by Patricia Cornwell, audiobook read by C.J. Critt
    I read this eight years ago according to my Goodreads account, but I had no memory of it, so I decided to listen to the audiobook. It was very good, especially toward the end when the truth started to come out. I'm planning to listen to the second book soon.
  • Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum by Laura M. Berquist
    I skimmed the second half of this book since middle school and high school curricula won't be relevant to me for another 8 or 9 years, but I found the author's approach to homeschooling very compatible with my plans. I'll have a full review up on Goodreads later this week. 
  • The Secret Science of Magic by Melissa Keil (review copy)
    This is a YA romance novel with a few things in common with John Green's Turtles All the Way Down. It was very slow to start, but was surprisingly emotional as it went on and the two main characters got to know each other. Review coming soon. 
  • Secret Sisters of the Salty Sea by Lynne Rae Perkins (digital ARC)
    Like this author's All Alone in the Universe  and Criss-Cross, this is another realistic fiction book where it feels like not much happens. The writing is very strong, but not every is going to gravitate toward the story. My review will be up in a week or so, hopefully.


What I'm Currently Reading


  • By the Great Horn Spoon by Sid Fleischman
    I keep forgetting that I'm reading this. I will really try to remember to finish it this week.
  • The Happy Hollisters at Sea Gull Beach by Jerry West (ebook)
    I'm reading this one with my four-year-old. She loves it, but I think the first two books were better.
  • Wild Blues by Beth Kephart (digital ARC)
    I loved Beth Kephart's YA novel, This is the Story of You, so I could not pass up the chance to read this new middle grade book involving a prison break in the Adirondacks. I've read four chapters and the writing is just beautiful. I have a feeling this will be the book I focus on the most this week. 
  • Send in the Clowns by Julie Mulhern, audiobook read by Callie Beaulieu
    I just started the audiobook of this cozy mystery. It's good so far, except that the narrator keeps pronouncing the word "calliope" as "callie opie" and it's completely distracting. 

I'll be linking up today with Unleashing Readers/Teach Mentor Texts and Book Date for It's Monday! What Are You Reading?



Thursday, May 10, 2018

Fumbling Through Fantasy: The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope (1974)

Kate Sutton and her sister Alicia are ladies-in-waiting to Princess Elizabeth, sister and (eventual successor) to Queen Mary I. When Alicia commits an act of foolishness, Kate is blamed for it and subsequently banished to Elvenwood Hall, also called the Perilous Gard. Here Kate meets Sir Geoffrey Heron, the man who has been charged with looking after her, as well as Geoffrey's brother, Christopher. Christopher has been blamed for the disappearance and presumed death of Geoffrey's young daughter Cecily, but Kate recognizes immediately that the circumstances under which she went missing do not follow logic. As she and Christopher investigate further, it becomes clear that tales of the "fairy folk" living beneath the Perilous Gard are not just stories, but factual accounts. Fairies have taken Cecily, and though her return brings great relief to Christopher and Kate both, it marks only the beginning of their own great trials in fairyland.

This novel, which received a Newbery Honor in 1975, is a complex blend of history, mystery, romance, and English folklore (especially the ballad, Tam Lin). Though the characters are strong, it is really the plot that drives the story, and I was hooked on the mysterious aspects of the book from the first moment Kate laid eyes on Elvenwood Hall. The writing, though not especially flowery, is still quite descriptive, and it gives the reader very concrete and memorable images of important moments in the story.  There is also a strong sense of suspense throughout the book, and while this is temporarily relieved at some points, the unsettling feeling remains even through the perfectly ambiguous ending, which just compounds the emotional impact of the whole story.

In terms of content, I would say this is primarily a book for middle school and maybe even high school readers. The romantic elements are minimal (and marriage is always their end goal), but I do think these situations are most likely to be appreciated by kids who are past the "kissing is gross" phase of childhood.  There are also a ton of historical references and allusions to folklore that most kids won't know, regardless of age, (I didn't know most of them myself!) but which middle school kids are most likely to grasp if they seek them out, or have them presented to them by an adult. There is also a lot of subtle commentary on paganism and Christianity that I don't think younger kids would be ready to grapple with, but which would spark lots of interesting discussion amongst eighth graders. For my own kids, I'll plan to use this book when we study the Medieval/Early Renaissance for the second time, during the Logic stage of the Classical Trivium. This should roughly line up with the start of middle school (6th grade), and hopefully it will be a nice complement to the factual historical texts we'll be using.

Elizabeth Marie Pope only wrote two books: this one, and The Sherwood Ring. Personally, I think I connected more with The Sherwood Ring because its fantasy elements were so straightforward, and I felt more comfortable with its American History references because they were more familiar to me. Personal preference aside, however, The Perilous Gard is probably the better book from a critical standpoint. The writer's craft is more finely honed in this second novel, probably owing to the 16-year gap between the two books, and it just feels like the story has more depth that would reward multiple re-readings. The Sherwood Ring is more of a romance novel with fantasy elements, whereas The Perilous Gard ties many threads together into a story that is not easily pigeonholed into one category.

Monday, May 7, 2018

The RAHM Report for 5/7/18

What I Finished Reading



  • Baltimore Blues by Laura Lippman
    I am definitely going to read more from this series. I enjoyed Tess and her friends and family, and I'll be curious to see how her PI career develops as the books go on. 
  • Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
    I didn't get very much reading done this week because I became consumed by the audio version of Ender's Game. I was so caught up in the world of the story, that I was kind of ruined for other books while I was in the midst of reading this one. Also, I'm shocked that children read this book. It's definitely for an older teen/adult audience!
  • More Milly-Molly-Mandy by Joyce Lankester Brisley
    I've been reading this aloud at lunchtime, and finally finished this week. The stories are all little stand-alone adventures of Millicent Margaret Amanda, nicknamed Milly-Molly-Mandy, who lives with her family in an English village in the 1930s. 


What I'm Currently Reading



  • Rosetown by Cynthia Rylant
    I really can't believe I haven't finished this yet! I'm hoping to have it done by the end of today.
  • By the Great Horn Spoon! by Sid Fleischman
    I don't think I touched this book at all this week. I'll probably end up assigning a number of pages to read per day to make sure I actually get it done by the end of the week. 
  • Post-mortem by Patricia Cornwell
    I've read this before, but I've forgotten the details so I'm listening to the audiobook to get back into the series. I'm having a little trouble getting into it because Ender's Game is still on my mind, but now that it's the only audiobook I'm listening to, it should be a bit easier to focus.
  • Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum by Laura M. Berquist
    I'm finding this book's resources for teaching the Catholic faith to kids very useful. I've read a few homeschool books, but this is the only one that has actually made me want to start getting more organized before our oldest turns five this fall. 
  • The Secret Science of Magic by Melissa Keil
    I've only read the first few pages, but I'm looking forward to getting into this one a bit more this week. 

I'll be linking up today with Unleashing Readers/Teach Mentor Texts and Book Date for It's Monday! What Are You Reading?


Thursday, May 3, 2018

Book Review: The Happy Hollisters by Jerry West (1953)

There are seven people in the Hollister family: Mr. Hollister, who has just opened a store called the Trading Post in his new hometown of Shoreham, his wife, and their five children: Pete, Pam, Ricky, Holly, and Sue. In this first volume of the mystery series named for this cheerful family, the kids try to solve two mysteries. One is that the small moving truck containing all of their toys never shows up to their new house, but the toys keep appearing in the possession of different people all over town.  The other is about the house itself, which some say is haunted, and which the Hollisters are certain has been visited by an intruder on multiple occasions since their arrival. As they work to uncover clues in both cases, the Hollister children also get to know their neighbors: Tinker, who takes a job working for their father, Ann and Jeff, who welcome them with open arms, and Joey Brill, who antagonizes the family with his cruelty and occasional violence and generally wreaks havoc everywhere he goes.

This vintage mystery is similar in both tone and content to The Boxcar Children and Bobbsey Twins books. The characters mostly have very generic upbeat personalities, but their never-ending opportunities for adventure make them appealing to young readers. Though the mysteries form the central plot of this book, the kids' effort to discover clues also provides many chances for them to fall into danger or to have an exciting experience that brings vicarious enjoyment to the child reader. Nearly every chapter ends on a cliffhanger, which may seem silly to an adult reading them aloud, but which has made my four-year-old want to sit through as many as six chapters in one sitting.

The writing in this book has an old-fashioned flavor to it, which feels a bit more formal in comparison with newer chapter book mysteries. The characters all speak to each other in the language you might expect to hear on a 1950s radio or TV sit-com, and sometimes the dialogue just sounds unnatural. The Hollister kids also rarely do anything wrong, whereas Joey Brill can't seem to do anything right. This gets old after a while, and is certainly unrealistic, but it is also appealing to young kids who are still sorting out the black-and-white definitions of right versus wrong. My four-year-old loves to become indignant on behalf of the Happy Hollisters whenever Joey Brill comes on the scene, and she worries each time one of the Hollisters ends a chapter in an uncertain or dangerous situation.

I originally started to read this book because it was free for Kindle one day and I was curious. Then I started reading it to my daughter when we were sitting in the car with a sleeping baby while my husband ran an errand, and she took such a liking to it, we are now well into the second book. I'm not sure how this series  would hold up for older kids who have already been exposed to very action-packed and highly fantastical stories, but for kids who have yet to read a mystery, it is a great first introduction to the conventions of the genre without a lot of scary situations. Even the most dire circumstances are painted with a light brush, and these characters make it feel safe to explore some edgier storylines. My plan is to use them to pave the way for my daughter to read The Boxcar Children independently when she is ready.