A Clatter of Jars - an audiobook review

A Clatter of Jars by Lisa Graff
Read by Ellen Archer
2016, Listening Library

Quirky magical realism.
Read my full review at AudioFile Magazine.

A Clatter of Jars is Lisa Graff's follow up to 2013's, A Tangle of Knots.  I reviewed A Tangle of Knots in 2013, and declared, "If you read no other middle grade fiction book this year, you will have made a good choice." The magic doesn't wear off in A Clatter of Jars, a deftly woven, magical realism story set in the same world as the preceding book, where many people possess Talents - from the mundane (ability to understand frogs) to the powerful (telekinesis).  I particularly enjoyed this story because it features a boy who we may assume has some sort of spectrum disorder, and it has a subtle Lord of the Rings reference.

I often tell kids at the library that it's OK to start with a second book in a series if the first book is unavailable. (I don't like to see them go home empty-handed!)  Most authors do a fine job of catching the reader up on prior events.  However, because of the rich details of the world Lisa Graff has created, A Clatter of Jars is best read after A Tangle of Knots.


An audio excerpt from A Clatter of Jars and my review for AudioFile Magazine may be found here. [http://www.audiofilemagazine.com/reviews/read/114587/a-clatter-of-jars-by-lisa-graff/]

Sisters - a review

Telgemeier, Raina. 2014. Sisters. New York: Scholastic.

(Advance Reader Copy)

Sisters is the companion graphic novel to the award-winning Smile. In Sisters, Raina, her mother, younger sister Amara, and little brother Will are on a road trip to Colorado.  Past experiences and grievances, both large and small are unwelcome baggage on this family road trip. Raina and Amara feud for much of the trip, until one event brings the family together.

Prior events are relayed as flashbacks and appear on yellow-tinted pages.

I have sisters and I have daughters. I can attest to the fact that Raina Telgemeier tells it like it is. It's not the good times that make a family strong, but rather, how it deals with the bad times... and if everything turns out well, the bad times make the best stories.


Publishers Weekly has a 7-page preview of Sisters on their blog.



On a shelf near you, August 26, 2014.

I received my copy of Sisters at Book Expo America. Raina was kind enough to pose for a photo as she signed it. One lucky reader from my book club will be taking it home to preview on Wednesday!

The Council of Mirrors: The Sisters Grimm - a review

It's been years since I reviewed The Fairy Tale Detectives, the first book in The Sisters Grimm series by Michael Buckley.

I've recently had the opportunity to review the audio book version of the ninth and final book in the series. It's been a good run.

Below is my review as it appeared it in the August 2012, edition of School Library Journal.

The Council of Mirrors: The Sisters Grimm, Book 9. By Michael Buckley. 6 cassettes or 6 CDs. 6:50 hrs. Recorded Books. 2012. cassette: ISBN 978-1-4640-3363-6, CD: ISBN 978-1-4640-3362-9. $66.75.

Gr 4-6--In the final book (Amulet Books, 2012) in Michael Buckley's series, the fate of Ferryport Landing, the Everafters, and the Grimm family are at stake as the Grimms join with former foes and gather a ragtag army of Everafters to face the nefarious Scarlet Hand led by Mirror, the evil looking glass who has taken human form and forcibly occupied the body of the Grimm Sisters' Granny Relda. The Hand, a group of malevolent fairy tale characters, including Prince Charming's brother Atticus, Mayor Heart, and Sheriff Nottingham, is intent on wreaking havoc and gaining freedom from the magical boundary that keeps Everafters imprisoned in Ferryport Landing. Magic mirrors loyal to the Grimms reveal in a prophecy that it is young Sabrina and Daphne Grimm who are destined to save the world from the rogue characters. Despite their friends' lack of confidence, Daphne and Sabrina lead Charming, Puck, Beauty, and the rest of the group into battle. The secret to winning the war will likely be a surprise. Like the finale of Harry Potter, Michael Buckley ends this popular series with a hint of romance and a peek at the future--a glimpse of the much older Daphne and Sabrina Grimm. L. J. Ganser, has been the voice of all nine books. What he lacks in adolescent feminine vocal range, he makes up for with superb diction and the ability to make clear distinctions between the dozens of characters. Overall, a satisfying listen.

Copyright © 2012 Library Journals, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. Reprinted with permission.

Listen to a sample:

Dumpling Days

Lin, Grace. 2011. Dumpling Days. New York: Little Brown.

(Advance Reader Copy supplied by publisher - artwork not final)

(a booktalk)
In Dumpling Days, Pacy Lin, her parents and two sisters (one older, one younger) are going to Taiwan for Pacy's grandmother's 60th birthday - for 28 days! Twenty-eight days?!  What is Pacy supposed to do for 28 days without her friends in a country where she may look like everyone else, but inside, she's definitely not. At least there will be dumplings!

Pacy Lin is Grace Lin's semi-autobiographical character from her previous books, The Year of the Dog and the Year of the Rat.  In Dumpling Days, Grace Lin has made a departure from her earlier books.  Breaking out of "The Year of the" formula, with its limited page numbers, Dumpling Days is a longer book (approximately 265 pages), that offers Lin a chance to explore many facets of Chinese art, food, and culture,  as well as offer deeper glimpses into the lives of Pacy's sisters, Lissy and Ki-Ki, and even their parents,

Mom and Dad had told us about how they had moved to the United States, but I hadn't thought about their not understanding TV commercials, not being able to order food, being ignored because you didn't speak the language - all the things I found hard here in Taiwan.  Maybe when Mom ad Dad were first in America, everything was just as strange and confusing to them as Taiwan was to me now. It was surprising to think about.

A beautifully concise thought channeled through the voice of a young girl, easily undertood and profoundly important. In addition to offering cultural perspective, through the family's travels and activities, the reader learns much about the Chinese/Taiwanese culture.

Ling & Ting

Lin, Grace. 2010. Ling & Ting: Not Exactly the Same. New York: Little Brown.

Twins Ling and Ting are not exactly the same, but they're close - at least, that is, until you get to know them. Ting is more fanciful. Ling, more disciplined.  In "Making Dumplings," Ling remarks that dumplings look like old Chinese money. 

"We should make a lot of dumplings," Ting says.  "Then we will have a lot of money." So, Ling rolls and Ting mixes. "I will close my dumplings tight," Ling says. "Then our money will not get away." 

 Ting stuffs her dumplings until they're fat and lumpy.

"I will put a lot of meat in my dumplings," Ting says.  "So we will be very rich."

In the end, it doesn't matter.  The girls laugh.  They have made "dump-Lings" and "dump-Tings!"

The delightful illustrations have Grace Lin's distinctive combination of simplicity and joy. Each page of this  easy reader contains a half-page illustration and minimal text.  Each chapter is printed on different, complementary colored pages, helping newly independent readers to an easy transition between chapters.  Also aiding the reader is the bad haircut that Ting receives in the first chapter!  Her botched (but still cute) bangs make the twins easily distinguishable from one another throughout the rest of the book.

Readers of this early chapter book will be treated to six short stories in which they will get to know Ting and Ling, and receive a small taste of Chinese American culture.  They will see that Chinese Americans are the same, but not exactly the same, as any other Americans. And they will see that though they are twins, Ling and Ting are as different as any other two sisters! 

Ling & Ting - they're twins, they're sisters, and they're funny.  I hope we see more of them.

Grace Lin's site offers a wealth of useful information - recipes, coloring pages, lesson plans and more. Her publisher's site offers a downloadable Educator's Guide specifically for Ling & Ting.

The only thing lacking for Ling & Ting? Leveling information - Lexile, Flesch-Kincaid, please, give us something to work with, Little Brown.  Oh how I wish publishers would all get on the same page when it comes to Easy Readers!

A question I'd like to ask Grace Lin:

Is there any significance to the giant cupcake?

Grace Lin's jacket flap author photos are just plain fun. And here's a fun little trailer for Ling & Ting: Not Exactly the Same.

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Three Rivers Rising

Richards, Jame. 2010. Three Rivers Rising: A Novel of the Johnstown Flood. New York: Knopf.

This book debuted in April 2010 to well-earned, rave reviews. In sparse verse, author Jame Richards, tells a story of devoted high society sisters, Celestia and Estrella, Whitcomb, their coldly calculating, businessman father, a miner's son, Peter, Maura, the wife of a Pennsylvania railroad engineer, and Kate, an obsessive-compulsive young widow struggling to find a purpose in life. Their lives become intertwined due to the tragically preventable Johnstown, Pennsylvania flood of 1889. Chapters of free-form verse alternate between the voices of the six characters.  An author's note separates the facts of the actual flood from the story. More than 2200 people died in the flood, including entire families.

The Johnstown Flood is the backdrop, but Three Rivers Rising is foremost a story of society, class, and first (or forbidden) love.
Highly recommended for grades 8 and up.


A reader's guide is available for teachers, librarians and book clubs.

The aftermath of the Johnstown Flood.

(Photograph from Wikimedia Commons, originally taken by an employee of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.)

Information about the flood and its victims is available from the Johnstown Area Heritage Association.

One Crazy Summer

Williams-Garcia, Rita. 2010. One Crazy Summer. New York: Harper Collins.

If you haven't heard of One Crazy Summer, you will.  Rita Williams-Garcia's latest middle grade fiction is getting a lot of buzz, and justifiably so.

One Crazy Summer is set in a poor neighborhood of Oakland, California, 1968.  Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern (three African-American girls, aged 11, 9 and 7) travel on their own from Brooklyn to Oakland.  Their father, against the judgment of the girls' grandmother and caretaker, Big Mama, has decided that it's time for the girls to meet Cecile, the mother that deserted them.  With visions of Disneyland, movie stars, and Tinkerbell dancing in their heads, they set off on the plane determined not to make, as Big Mama says, "Negro spectacles" of themselves.  This is advice that Delphine, the oldest, has heard often.  She is smart and savvy with a good head on her shoulders, and she knows how to keep her sisters in line.  Not much can throw her for a loop, but then, she hasn't met crazy Cecile yet.  Cecile, or Nzila, as she is known among the Black Panthers, is consumed by her passion - poetry.  She writes powerful and moving poems for "the people" - important work, and she is not about to be disturbed by three young girls and their constant needs for food and attention. She operates a one-woman printing press in her kitchen - no children allowed. Instead of Disneyland and the beach, she shoos the girls off daily to the local center run by the Black Panthers.  There, in the midst of an impoverished, minority neighborhood, the girls receive free breakfast, kind words, and an education the likes of which they would never have gotten in Brooklyn.  Slowly, they begin to understand the plight of "the people" - the Blacks, the poor, the immigrants, even Cecile.

Although this book has several great themes (Civil Rights, sisterhood, community) and well-rounded strong-willed characters, you can read about them in any number of reviews.  As for me, with my teenage daughter preparing to take a trip to Europe next month with the Girl Scouts, one thing from One Crazy Summer jumped out at me - the mind-opening, positive power of travel.  Had Delphine, Vonetta and Fern stayed in their quiet, stable Brooklyn home, they would have been safe and well-cared for, however, they would have missed many experiences (both good and bad) that would likely shape their lives, their attitudes, their opinions, forever.  Visiting new places and seeing the world through the eyes of people different from ourselves is a powerful experience.  Delphine's wise father recognized that. So do I.

A heavy topic made light by the hearts of three winning sisters, smart and practical Delphine, carefree and adaptable Vonetta, and Fern, small, but determined  Highly recommended.

A detailed review of the book is at Fuse #8 and another at Dog Ear.

An excerpt read by the author is available at teachingbooks.net.

Jacket Knack offers an interesting post about the inviting cover art by Sally Wern Comport.

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My Sister, Alicia May

Tupper Ling, Nancy. 2009. My sister, Alicia May. Ill. by Shennen Bersani. Raynham Center, MA: Pleasant St. Press.

My Sister, Alicia May is a beautifully realistic story of a young girl whose sister has Down Syndrome. Sharing both the good,

"She watches ladybugs warm themselves on our red door. Then she counts their dots: 'One lady dot, two lady dot, three lady dot,...' I think God is glad someone notices these things,"

and the bad,

"I slouched down in my seat... 'Katie,' I whispered, 'pretend we don't know her.' So we did,"

Alicia May's sister recounts life with her sister with touching honesty.
The illustrations by Shennen Bersani have an almost photographic quality, realistically portraying the familiar features of a Down Syndrome child, as well as the typical gap-toothed smile of a young schoolgirl, still waiting for all of her permanent teeth. The touching illustrations are a perfect match for the text. Bersani dedicates the book to her own sister, who has Down Syndrome.

In the end, Alicia May's sister, Rae-Rae, is just as special as Alicia May. A simply beautiful book that will do more to instill a compassion for those with disabilities than any lesson ever will.

Waiting for Normal

Connor, Leslie. 2008. Waiting for normal. New York: Harper Collins.

“Truth was I never really liked dinnertime. Breakfast was our best meal because it was the only meal that was normal. What I mean by that is we had either toast or cereal. That’s normal for breakfast – everyone eats those things for breakfast. But we often had cereal or toast for dinner, too. … So, toast dinners became my specialty.”

Addie and Mommers live in a dilapidated trailer, sitting on cinder blocks on a busy street corner in Schenectady. The corner, not in Schenectady’s best part of town, has a vacant lot, a Laundromat, and thankfully, a mini mart and gas station. The trailer is a parting gesture from Addie’s ex-stepfather. After Mommers fritters away the mortgage money on another Internet scheme and abandons Addie and her half-sisters while Dwight is out of town on a job, Dwight really has no other choice but to take his daughters (whom Addie affectionately calls, The Littles) and move on. But despite his love for her, Addie is not his daughter. Addie belongs to Mommers, and Mommers is what Addie describes as "all or nothing." The problem is, Addie often gets nothing, while business schemes, boyfriends, and Internet chat rooms, get all.

In spite of all this, Addie displays remarkable courage, self-sufficiency, adaptability, honesty and humor. She becomes friends with Soula, the sickly and overweight owner of the mini mart and and her employee, Elliot. She makes new friends at her new school. She waits for normal.

This first person account of a young girl's triumph over adversity is reminiscent of Susan Patron's Newbery winner, The Higher Power of Lucky, however, Connor's protagonist is more hopeful, more believable. Even the dismal Schenectady street corner trailer seems to offer more promise than Lucky's trailer in a remote California desert town.

Both a coming-of-age and a triumph over adversity story, Waiting for Normal is a winner.

Rumor has Waiting for Normal as a possible Newbery contender. If chosen, it will be the second choice in as many years of a young adult (YA) or teen title. As a children's librarian, I hope that juvenile (J) title is chosen instead. There are many good choices this year.

The Penderwicks on Gardam Street

Birdsall, Jeanne. 2008. The Penderwicks on Gardam Street. New York: Knopf.

In Jeanne Birdsall’s debut novel, the Penderwicks were spending their summer vacation in the Berkshires. Now they’re back at home in Massachusetts in their home on Gardam Street. This follow up to the National Book Award winner, The Penderwicks, continues the adventures of the Penderwick family- the Latin-spouting botanist, Mr. Penderwick, Rosalind, the responsible oldest sister, Skye, the pretty, practical and athletic one of the bunch, Jane, the dramatic and artistic author of many Sabrina Starr adventures, and Batty, the sweet and sensitive youngest of the clan.

Rosalind calls an emergency MOPS, or Meeting of the Penderwick Sisters. Mr. Penderwick is about to enter the dating pool, on the five year anniversary of his wife’s death from cancer. The girls decide to implement the Save-Daddy Plan and the adventures begin.

Although the plot contains common and modern family issues – a dating dad, cheating in school, lying, a first crush, The Penderwicks on Gardam Street reads like the fiction of bygone days. (think Little Women or Anne of Green Gables). When Skye is responsible for a melee on the soccer field, the official ends the game,

“The Penderwick’s ride home was an unhappy one. ‘The referee told me this league has never had a brawl of that magnitude,’ said Mr. Penderwick after a long, painful silence. “of course, at the time I was pretending to be a casual passerby and not a father at all…..The point is that perhaps the family honor need not be defended so vigorously.’ ‘I think Sky was wonderful,’ said Batty. ‘No, I wasn’t, you nincompoop,’ said Skye. ‘I’m the captain and I wrecked the game. But for the rest of the season I’ll be well behaved if it kills me.’ ‘Try not to take it that far.’ Mr. Penderwick sighed. ‘How I came to be surrounded by such warlike women is beyond me.’”

The story’s conclusion may be a bit too pat, and the surprise ending may stretch credibility (just a bit!), but the Penderwicks are too charming to resist.