54. The Last True Poets of the Sea by Julia Drake

listened to audio on Audible Escape
narrated by Tavia Gilbert (A little over zealous)
Unabridged audio (10:10)
2019 Disney Hyperion
400 pgs.
YA CRF
Finished  3/19/2020
Goodreads rating: 4.00 - 1752 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting:  contemporary coastal Lyric, Maine

First line/s:  "Fun fact: My great-great-great grandmother was the lone survivor of a shipwreck."

My comments:  This book has an excellent storyline and a great cast of characters.  However I found it particularly depressing throughout.  Definitely for older YAs.  S-foot tall Violet, promiscuous since the age of 12, is spending her 16th summer in Maine with her uncle in the home where her mother grew up.  Her brother is spending the summer in a rehabilitation facility in Vermont after a suicide attempt.  Though only 16, Violet has had male and female lovers, dabbled in drugs and alcohol, and been suspended from school already.  She's a mess. The narrator put a little too much feeling into her narration in many parts of the book, making many of those parts difficult to listen to because her emphasis was a lot different than mine would have been if I was reading the book instead of listening.  Boy, she was really into it!

Goodreads synopsis:  The Larkin family isn't just lucky—they persevere. At least that's what Violet and her younger brother, Sam, were always told. When the Lyric sank off the coast of Maine, their great-great-great-grandmother didn't drown like the rest of the passengers. No, Fidelia swam to shore, fell in love, and founded Lyric, Maine, the town Violet and Sam returned to every summer.
          But wrecks seem to run in the family. Tall, funny, musical Violet can't stop partying with the wrong people. And, one beautiful summer day, brilliant, sensitive Sam attempts to take his own life.
          Shipped back to Lyric while Sam is in treatment, Violet is haunted by her family's missing piece - the lost shipwreck she and Sam dreamed of discovering when they were children. Desperate to make amends, Violet embarks on a wildly ambitious mission: locate the Lyric, lain hidden in a watery grave for over a century.
          She finds a fellow wreck hunter in Liv Stone, an amateur local historian whose sparkling intelligence and guarded gray eyes make Violet ache in an exhilarating new way. Whether or not they find the Lyric, the journey Violet takes-and the bridges she builds along the way-may be the start of something like survival.

66. Far From the Tree by Robin Benway

listened on Audible
2017
374 pgs.
Genre/Level
Finished July 20, 2018
Goodreads rating:  4.33 - 11,799 ratings
My rating:  5
Setting: Contemporary America

First line/s::  "Grace hadn't really thought too much about homecoming."

My comments:  Writing a book is magical, writing a truly good book is mystical.  I have such admiration for an author that can weave together a story like this one.  Getting to know and understand the three protagonists is a slow process and makes the story all the more delicious.  This book is also a reminder that there are more good people than bad in the world and that you don't have to be born into a family to be surrounded by love.

Goodreads synopsis:  A contemporary novel about three adopted siblings who find each other at just the right moment.
          Being the middle child has its ups and downs.
          But for Grace, an only child who was adopted at birth, discovering that she is a middle child is a different ride altogether. After putting her own baby up for adoption, she goes looking for her biological family, including—
          Maya, her loudmouthed younger bio sister, who has a lot to say about their newfound family ties. Having grown up the snarky brunette in a house full of chipper redheads, she’s quick to search for traces of herself among these not-quite-strangers. And when her adopted family’s long-buried problems begin to explode to the surface, Maya can’t help but wonder where exactly it is that she belongs.
          And Joaquin, their stoic older bio brother, who has no interest in bonding over their shared biological mother. After seventeen years in the foster care system, he’s learned that there are no heroes, and secrets and fears are best kept close to the vest, where they can’t hurt anyone but him.

67. Consider by Kristy Acevedo

Holo #1
read on my iPhone
2016, Jolly Fish Press
288 pgs.
YA Dystopia
Finished 12/3/2017
Goodreads rating:  4.17 - 621 ratings
My rating:  4
Setting: Contemporary Boston suburb

First line/s:  "When the Boston outbound T screeches to a stop, I lose my grip on the silver pole and slam into Dominick."

My comments:  What an interesting story, and one, I think, worth reading.  It presented a few problems to me, personally, but I'll look past them after a quick mention.  The protagonist and her brother, Benji, are always at odds with each other for some reason.  Although she explains it a bit, she never says anything about how or where it started.  Or why.  It's disconcerting, unless I didn't read carefully enough to pick it up, and that's not like me (I'm a fairly slow reader).  And I never fully understand her overwhelming need to protect her father, her thoughts and actions about and toward him show that she dislikes him.  Maybe she's more like him than she realizes?  Otherwise, the characters are fully relate-able.  The scenario is one that makes you think....and think...and think some more.  What would you do if there was insistence that the world would end and you had the opportunity to escape to another world, with no facts to base your decisions on?  No actual facts.  Whew!  I've got to read the next book!

Goodreads synopsis: As if Alexandra Lucas’ anxiety disorder isn’t enough, mysterious holograms suddenly appear from the sky, heralding the end of the world. They bring an ultimatum: heed the warning and step through a portal-like vertex to safety, or stay and be destroyed by a comet they say is on a collision course with earth. How’s that for senior year stress?
          The holograms, claiming to be humans from the future, bring the promise of safety. But without the ability to verify their story, Alex is forced to consider what is best for her friends, her family, and herself.
          To stay or to go. A decision must be made.
          With the deadline of the holograms’ prophecy fast approaching, Alex feels as though she is living on a ticking time bomb, until she discovers it is much, much worse.

PICTURE BOOK - Lemonade in Winter: A Book About Two Kids Counting Money by Emily Jenkins

Illustrated by G. Brian Karas

2012, a Schwartz & Wae Book

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  3.68 - 595 ratings

My rating: 4

Endpapers:  solid pinky beige

1^st line/s:   "An empty street.
                    Outside, a mean wind blows.
                    Icicles hang from the windowsills.

My comments:  Another math picture book, and it's cute.  The illustrations, by G. Brian Karas are fun to peruse.  A little girl and her younger brother decide to purchase ingredients, make lemonade (and limeade and lemon-limeade) and sell it outside in the blizzard.  There's all sorts of math having to do with quarters and how they add up, how much they spend, and how much they make.  They even have to come up with marketing and advertising ideas!  Nice for first and second ... and perhaps some third graders, too.

Goodreads:  In a starred review, Publishers Weekly declared this delightful picture book "a beautifully restrained tribute to trust and tenderness shared by siblings; an entrepreneurship how-to that celebrates the thrill of the marketplace without shying away from its cold realities; and a parable about persistence."  
          A lemonade stand in winter? Yes, that's exactly what Pauline and John-John intend to have, selling lemonade and limeade--and also lemon-limeade. With a catchy refrain (Lemon lemon LIME, Lemon LIMEADE! Lemon lemon LIME, Lemon LEMONADE!), plus simple math concepts throughout, here is a read-aloud that's great for storytime and classroom use, and is sure to be a hit among the legions of Jenkins and Karas fans. 

6. House Arrest - K. A. Holt

read on my Kindle
2015 Chronicle Books
304 pgs. (written in verse)
Middle Grades
Finished 2/10/17
Goodreads rating: 4.26 (1577 ratings)
My rating: 5
Setting: Contemporary USA (at one point it mentions Texas)

My comments:  The beginning of the story (below) sets it up particularly well, but doesn't tell of the dire straits that Timothy, his mom, and his baby brother are in.  Not only is Levi on super expensive medicine, he must be accompanied every minute because his breathing can be compromised without notice.  That means help.  And the help they end up getting causes more bad than good.  There is so much love in this book. Lots of other wonderful stuff, but lots of love.  Written in verse, as a diary/journal.

Goodreads synopsis:
Stealing is bad.
Yeah.
I know.
But my brother Levi is always so sick, and his medicine is always so expensive.

I didn’t think anyone would notice,
if I took that credit card,
if, in one stolen second,
I bought Levi’s medicine.

But someone did notice.
Now I have to prove I’m not a delinquent, I’m not a total bonehead.

That one quick second turned into
juvie
a judge
a year of house arrest,
a year of this court-ordered journal,
a year to avoid messing up
and being sent back to juvie
so fast my head will spin.

It’s only 1 year.
Only 52 weeks.
Only 365 days.
Only 8,760 hours.
Only 525,600 minutes.

What could go wrong?

PICTURE BOOK - Secret Tree Fort by Brianne Farley

Illustrated by the author

2016, Candlewick

HC $16.99

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 3.73

My rating:  4

Endpapers:  Simple.  Pale green with individual leaves flicked in.  A great outdoors-in-the-yard kind of feel

Title Page:  Older sister curled up in comfy chair reading.  Younger sister creating a block masterpiece on the floor.

Illustrations:  charcoal, pencil, and ink.  Colored digitally.

1^st line/s:  "It's a beautiful day!  Go play outside!"

My comments:  Ha!  The first pages definitely remind me of me and my own sister.....  And, it's dedicated to "my favorite sister." This book is cute, clever, and imaginative - a little Where the Wild Things Are meets Bink and Mollie.  And, unlike what really happened with my own sister, it has a wonderful, perfect ending.  Great picture book.

Goodreads:  Even a bookish big sister is drawn in by the promise of her imaginative sibling’s spectacular hideaway.
          I have a secret tree fort, and YOU’RE NOT INVITED!
          When two sisters are ushered outside to play, one sits under a tree with a book while the other regales her with descriptions of a cool fort in a tree that grows ever more fantastical in the telling. What will it take to get the older sister to look up? The promise of a water-balloon launcher in case of attack? A trapdoor to stargaze through? A crow’s nest from which to see how many whales pass by or to watch for pirates? Or the best part of all, which can’t be revealed, because it’s a secret?

30. Wonder - P. J. Palacio

Series information

Read on my iPhone through Audible

Audio read by Diana Steele, Nick Podehl and Kate Rudd

Unabridged (8:06)

2012, Knopf

315 pgs.

Middle School Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Finished 4/28/2015

Goodreads rating: 4.42

My rating:    (5) Awesome  

Contemporary NYC

My comments:  First let me say that I listened to this book, which gave additional voice to the four or five characters that had points-of-view. At times this was great, at others not-so-great. It gave a different dimension to the character of Auggie - a lightly gravelly tone that seemed to have a teeny, tiny bit feminine edge to it that every so often put me off.  August has (and will continue throughout his entire life) to see first hand reactions to a face that is grotesque, different, un-beautiful  in a world that has embraced physical beauty as a capstone. What would my reaction be when I came face to face with a ten-year-old with such a face?  OF COURSE I would want to get below the surface, but I am an adult.  I could go on and on with my thoughts about this, and that's what makes this book such a marvel.  It makes you contemplate deeply.  It makes you look at your own inner values and realities.  That is what makes this book stand apart from so many others that I've read.  And the best thing is that all this thinking comes packaged in a delightfully written story that is character AND plot driven.   A winner.

(This will have to be my primary read-aloud next year.)

Goodreads book summary:  I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse.
          August (Auggie) Pullman was born with a facial deformity that prevented him from going to a mainstream school—until now. He's about to start 5th grade at Beecher Prep, and if you've ever been the new kid then you know how hard that can be. The thing is Auggie's just an ordinary kid, with an extraordinary face. But can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, despite appearances?
          R. J. Palacio has written a spare, warm, uplifting story that will have readers laughing one minute and wiping away tears the next. With wonderfully realistic family interactions (flawed, but loving), lively school scenes, and short chapters, Wonder is accessible to readers of all levels.

Gifts of the Heart - Patricia Polacco

Illustrated  by the author

2013, Putnam Juvenile

HC$17.99

40 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 4.13 (39 ratings)

My rating: 3/a very nice story

Endpapers: Rust

Illustrations: Wonderful Patricia Polacco's, which need no further description, do they?

Title page: The page BEFORE the title page shows a front vies of the two children as they look into a store window.  There is also the first page of text.  When you turn the page to the title page, you see a full two-page spread of the back of the children's heads as they look into the shop, with snowflakes falling onto their heads.

1^st line/s:  "Richie and I huddled together and pressed our faces into the cold glass of the Hudson's store window.  Everywhere we looked was a dazzling array of wondrous toys for Christmas.  Then my eyes fell on the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen: a delicate ballerina doll, her hair drawn up in a nest of perfect curls held there by a halo of tiny blue flowers.  Her slippers were gold, like polished stars.  How I longed to have her!"

My comments:  A new Patricia Polacco!  As much as I liked it, the story didn't "enchant" me as hers usually do.  That's not to say I didn't like it, but it didn't grab me and yell "hurrah".

Goodreads:  Beloved author-illustrator Patricia Polacco’s holiday story is a wonderful ode to the magic of family, Christmas, and giving the right kind of gifts—gifts filled with love.  Richie and Trisha want to buy Christmas gifts for their family, but they don't have enough money. Enter Kay Lamity, a new housekeeper . . . but is that all she is? She comes into their lives like a whirlwind, brimming with positive energy and a can-do attitude. Kay not only straightens them out when it comes to whether or not Santa Claus is real, she teaches them something about gifts: the just-good-enough kind that come from the pocketbook and the unforgettable kind that come from the heart. Because of Kay, Trisha and Richie—and the family—have a Christmas morning they will never forget.  Celebrating the joy of homemade gifts, Patricia Polacco introduces readers to a new character who is truly a force of nature in this story reminiscent of Christmas Tapestry and An Orange for Frankie. This is a magical Christmas story the author swears is true, right down to the sleigh tracks on the farmhouse roof!

Winter is For Snow - Robert Neubecker

Illustrated by the author

2013 Disney/Hyperion

HC $16.99

32 pages

Goodreads rating: 3.49 (41 ratings)

My rating: 4.5

Endpapers:  White with lots of pale blue snowflakes

Title Page: The same illustrations as the endpapers, except the background is pale, pale blue and the snowflakes are white.  The preceeding page is cool - 9 windows, 3/3, with various stages of a snowstorm.

Illustrations:  Really cool - every inch of the page is covered (much of it with.....snowflakes!)

1^st line:  Winter is for snow!    No.

My comments:  Ah - this is a good one!  A happy brother who loves the snow and everything surrounding it, and a grumpy sister who doesn't care for it at all - until the end.  Their words are in different colors (blue and read) and the four-line stanzas all gently rhyme.  Super book!

Goodreads: In a rambunctious ode to everything winter, two siblings explore a snowy wonderland . . . and end up in the cozy warmth of family. Delve into Robert Neubecker's expressive and rejuvenating illustrations that celebrate snow and the coziness of friends and family at home. Only Robert Neubecker's magic touch could make kids love winter this much.

31. The Burgess Boys - Elizabeth Strout

Random House, 2013

320 pgs.

CRF for adults

Finished 8/17/2013

Goodreads Rating: 3.53

My Rating: Liked it quite well (3.5) 

Acquired: TPPL

Setting: Contemporary NYC and rural Maine (with a few pages hiking in the AZ desert...)

1^st sentence/s: "On a breezy October afternoon in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, Helen Farber Burgess was packing for vacation."  (There was a prologue, but I chose to ignore it for the purpose of 1st sentence, it had nothing (much) to do with the story....and gave away a few hints that I would have rather figured out myself as I read.)

My comments:  What do I think? Hmmm. Hard to say. First off, this was definitely a "Maine-Basher" book, which turned me off completely. I am a Mainer, and proud of it. However, I loved the way that Strout developed the characters. At first I felt the plot was being forced, but then when I understood the reasoning behind poor Zach's behavior (throwing a pig's head into a mosque!) I no longer felt that. When you have genuine feelings for characters (hatred, pity, apathy...), I guess you're relating to them, and isn't that what you want in a book? And thirdly, I will think about this awhile, even as I read other stories. It's not a forgettable story - at least not for me. Yes, I liked it.

Goodreads Review:  Haunted by the freak accident that killed their father when they were children, Jim and Bob Burgess escaped from their Maine hometown of Shirley Falls for New York City as soon as they possibly could. Jim, a sleek, successful corporate lawyer, has belittled his bighearted brother their whole lives, and Bob, a Legal Aid attorney who idolizes Jim, has always taken it in stride. But their long-standing dynamic is upended when their sister, Susan—the Burgess sibling who stayed behind—urgently calls them home. Her lonely teenage son, Zach, has gotten himself into a world of trouble, and Susan desperately needs their help. And so the Burgess brothers return to the landscape of their childhood, where the long-buried tensions that have shaped and shadowed their relationship begin to surface in unexpected ways that will change them forever.

20. If You Find Me - Emily Murdoch

2013, St. Martin's Griffin

248 pgs.

Written for young adults

Finished 5/29/2013

CRF

Goodreads Rating: 4.09

My Rating:

4.5 Really loved it

TPPL

Setting:  Contemporary Tennessee, deep in the woods of the Obed River National Forest and in a small Tennessee town

1^st sentence/s: "Mama says no matter how poor folks are, whether you're a have, a have-not, or break your mama's back on the cracks in between, the world gives away the best stuff on the cheap.  Like, the way the white-hot mornin' light dances in diamonds across the surface of our creek."

A quote I'd like to notate and remember:  "Then I hold on to the edge of the counter for support and cry until I'm all cried out.  I reckon a good cry has been a long time in the making, and I cry until I'm empty, but a goo empty, like the speckled shells left behind by flapping quail babies." (p. 149)

My comments: This is the first novel that I've read in one gulp in a long time. The first person narration was superb, I haven't been able to get inside a protagonist's head like this in awhile. The story was heart-breaking, totally believable, simple-yet-deep. Couldn't put it down, even though I knew exactly where it was going. It didn't matter, it was the WAY the story was told. AND, this was Ms. Murdoch's first (published) book. Super cudos!

Goodreads Review:  A broken-down camper hidden deep in a national forest is the only home fifteen year-old Carey can remember. The trees keep guard over her threadbare existence, with the one bright spot being Carey’s younger sister, Jenessa, who depends on Carey for her very survival. All they have is each other, as their mentally ill mother comes and goes with greater frequency. Until that one fateful day their mother disappears for good, and two strangers arrive. Suddenly, the girls are taken from the woods and thrust into a bright and perplexing new world of high school, clothes and boys.

Now, Carey must face the truth of why her mother abducted her ten years ago, while haunted by a past that won’t let her go… a dark past that hides many a secret, including the reason Jenessa hasn’t spoken a word in over a year. Carey knows she must keep her sister close, and her secrets even closer, or risk watching her new life come crashing down

27. Lone Wolf - Jodi Picoult

2012/Emily Bestler Books/ ATRIA/ Simon & Schuster
HC $28.00 TPPL
for: adults
421 pgs.
Rating:  It was okay (the 2nd half was more engrossing than the first)

1st line:  "In retrospect, maybe I shouldn't have freed the tiger."
Setting:  Contemporary Beresford, NH
OSS:  After Cara and Edward's dad, Luke Warren, a famous wolf scientist, suffers severe brain trauma in a car accident, the estranged family tries to decide what's the next step....sustaining his life or pulling the plug?

There were many things I liked about this story.  Each short chapter was in the voice of one of the key players....Luke, the father, Edward, the son, who had left at 18 for Thailand because of some sort of argument with his dad, Cara, the younger sister who lives with and idolizes her dad, Georgie, the ex-wife and Edward and Cara's mom, and Joe Ng, Georgie's new husband and the lawyer that defends Edward.  Each character is given his own font.  Luke's pieces, all italicized, are the story of the wolves and his obsession with them.

This is the story of a family that has had a tough time from the beginning.  When you have a dad that would rather live in the wild with wolves, you have a dysfunctional family, right?  So for most of his adult life Luke was lost between two worlds, never able to fully participate in either (except for the two years he actually lived in the Canadian woods and joined a pack).  There are little mysteries to be solved, actually quite evident ones, that come out as the trial proceeds.  What trial?  The trial that pits brother against sister in who will have legal guardianship of their father.

If you're an animal lover, especially a lover of wild animals, the story would probably be quite enthralling.  For me, a little bit of the wolf information went a long way.  I guess it was entirely based on the work of Shaun Ellis, a guy in England on whom the character of Luke is based.

My daughter loves Jodi Picoult, so I thought I'd try this new book.  The only one I read previously was not a favorite.  Laura says this one has not had the greatest reviews.  I think I'll wait awhile before reading another.

How Dalia Put a Big Yellow Comforter Inside a Tiny Blue Box – Linda Heller

(And Other Wonders of Tzedakah)
Illustrated by Stacey Dressen McQueen
Tricycle Press, 2011
HC $16.99
32 pgs.
Rating: 4
Endpapers: Bright yellow background, completely covered with a one-piece cut paper illustration
Acrylics and oil pastel. Very nice.
Afterword: An excellent history of tzedakah and tzedakah boxes.

First line/s: Dalia liked to learn things and make things, and she did just that at the community center.

Dalia teaches her younger brother, Yossi, about caring about others by teaching him about her tzedakah box. She adds money to hers from selling lemonade, her birthday, and weeding the garden. She has Yossi join her when she returns to the community center, and the children combine their tzedakah to purchase a warm comforter, a beautiful butterfly bush, and yummy banana cream pie, which they then give to an elderly, lonely shut-in.

69. The Weird Sisters - Eleanor Brown

audio read by Kirsten Potter (she was great)
Penguin Audio, 2011
$39.95 TPPL
9 unabridged cds
10.5 hours
336 pgs.
Rating:  4
NYTimes Review (from 1/16/11) excellent plot summary
The Reading Lark book review - I love her format, and I agree with so much of her thinking!

First line/s:  We came home because we were failures.

Setting:  Contemporary rural Barnwell, Ohio, a small college town and hour from Columbus (I think)
OSS:  Three very different sisters return home at the same time and show us, the reader, why they hate and love each other.

The three sisters told the story as "we," which I suppose was very clever and difficult to write, but which I didn't really like.  The father, a Shakespearean scholar, professor, and fanatic, and  his wife, a stay-at-home mother who was a free spirit in her own right, have raised three daughters in a home with lots and lots of books and no television.  They go to a "hippie/granola" school, then to the small college where their father teaches.  They are all bright, and all tainted in some way - as we all are.  Named for Shakespeare heroines Rosalind (Rose), Bianca (Bean) and Cordelia (Cordy) love each other fiercely, but while comparing themselves to each other run amok.

I enjoyed the book without really liking any of the characters...well, I did like Cordelia.  Everyone has flaws.  They had lots...and they overcame them all so that the ending is a lovely, tidily wrapped up package.  It's nice to know that you can like a book without really liking its characters.  Lots to think about with that, alone!

51. The Ice Queen - Alice Hoffman

Audio read by Nancy Travis
Hachette Audible Audio, 2005
5 unabridged cds
6 hrs.
224 pgs.
Rating:  4
Publisher Weekly starred review

1st line:  Be careful what you wish for.  I know that for a fact."

Setting:  a Florida college town, present
One-sentence summary:  A woman who has led a self-imposed solitary, invisible life (an "ice queen"), gets struck by lightning, which leads to her allowing herself to slowly melt.

Wow.  Incredible writing.  The first half - at least - was terribly depressing.  But mesmerizing, I couldn't stop listening.  Then, the second half.  Still beautifully written, sad, depressing, but mesmerizing.  Nancy Travis was an exceptional reader for this book.  What a picture these eloquent words painted.

Our unnamed protagonist, ever since making a child's self-absorbed wish when she was eight and then feeling it tragically came true, has become a self-made ice queen.  She is unhappy, makes crazy-wrong choices, and seems to stumble through an uninteresting life.  After any years as a librarian in a small New Jersey town, she moves to Florida to be near her brother, Ned, and his wife Nina. 

And then she is struck by lightning.  She loses the color red.  She hears constant clicking in her head.  She has to reteach her left side to move correctly.  And she becomes even more entranced with death.  She seeks Lazarus Jones, a man who was said to have been struck by lightning, died for 45 minutes, and then "come back."  

So much happens in this somewhat short book.  Sometimes our protagonist (I can't really believe that we never learn her name!) drives me crazy.  She is self-absorbed and single-minded about it.  The people she meets, pushes away, befriends, and loves without realizing she is loving, are well-flushed out and enticingly interesting.  Her brother Ned and his wife, Nina.  Her friend, Renny.  Her New Jersey cop lover and her Florida orange-grower, lightning-survivor lover... even her cat, Giselle.  Interesting twists and turns,  paths and fairy tales, butterflies and rain, fire and ice.

Flora's Very Windy Day - Jeanne Birdsall

Illustrated by Matt Phelan
Clarion Books, 2010
$16.00
32 pages
Rating: 4
Endpapers: a great lavender/lilac

These are great illustrations. Outlined minimally in ink, then watercolored and pasteled, Matt Phelan puts such movement into his pictures. I love Crispin's hat, its long tassel flying out behind him. It amazes me how an artist can flick a line of black onto paper and create expression on a face, a movement of the wind...

Flora's little brother Crispin is driving her crazy. It's a windy autumn day, and their mother shoos them outside for some fresh air. Although Crispin's driving her crazy she doesn't complain , but she is glad her mother puts on his regular boots while she has her "super-special heavy-duty red boots" which will keep her safely anchored to the ground. But when a great gust of wind scoops us Crispin, Flora kicks off her boots to go after him - to save him.

This is a cute story about young siblings and the idea that no matter how crazy they might drive one another, they're still brother and sister. A I read, I thought about sharing the story with Ella who now has a baby brother. I wonder if the idea of the wind picking her up and flying her into the sky - through the clouds and all the way to the moon - might scare her just a bit. I've looked for a mention of this possibility in other reviews, and found some really interesting ones. (Boy, there are some great blogs and bloggers out there.)

Here are a few of those reviews: Kids Lit, The Washington Post, Katie's Literature Lounge (includes an activity), Brimful Curiosities (includes a spinning flyer and other books about the wind!), and Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, which includes an interview with Jeanne Birdsall.

Matt Phelan's Website
Jeanne Birdsall's Website
(I copied this idea from a blog I read today. It's a good one. I'm bad.)