Language: 0

Violence: 1

Sexual Content: 1

Adult Themes: 1

Title:  Princess for Hire

Author:  Lindsey Leavitt

Ratings Explanation

Violence:  In the Amazon rainforest, subbing for an Amazon tribal princess, natives shoot poison darts in Desi’s direction and at the “bubble” she travels in. The bubble then malfunctions, sending her crashing to the rainforest floor and breaking her rib.

Sexual Content:  Desi kisses Prince Karl. She also receives mouth-to-mouth resuscitation from a dreamy boy when she falls into a dunk tank and almost drowns.

Adult Themes:  Desi’s attorney father prosecutes the father of her former best friend (Celeste), landing him in jail. Celeste’s mother then divorces her father. Celeste blames Desi for ruining her life.

Synopsis

Desi Bascomb is a 15-year-old girl who dreams of making an impact in the world. The problem is, how do you do that when you’re stuck in Sproutville, Idaho, your ex-best friend torments you and is dating the boy you’re secretly crushing on, and your boring job requires you to dress as a groundhog for the local pet store? Ahh, with a little magic potential (“MP”), of course, which Desi just happens to be unwittingly in possession of.  She spots an ad in the paper looking for a “substitute Princess” and eagerly signs up when Meredith, a fairy godmother of a very different sort, appears in a magical bubble in her bathroom. Now all Desi has to do is rub some magical Egyptian rouge on her cheeks and, presto! she morphs into whatever princess is in need of a breather from the tedium of royal life. What she learns, however, is that not all princesses live glamorous, charmed lives. They have problems, too, like manipulative older sisters and unrequited love. Navigating these trials on-spot proves more difficult than Desi expects, and even though she lands herself in hot water a few times, she uncovers her true self-worth along the way.

Girls who enjoy princess-themed stories (a la “The Princess Diaries” or “Ella Enchanted”)–and even girls who don’t–will devour this book. The story is light-hearted and upbeat, but I was glad to see the main character learn that a princess’s life is not always enchanted. An entertaining read that leaves you with that happy, bubbly feeling afterwards. This book, released in spring 2010, is the first in a series (book 2 is in the works). I’m sure the sequel will have an eager following.

Language: 0

Violence: 2.5

Sexual Content: 1

Adult Themes: 2

Title: Three Quarters Dead

Author: Richard Peck

*This review refers to an Advanced Reader’s Copy. Three Quarters Dead will be available for purchase October 28, 2010.

Ratings Explanation

Violence: Kerry’s friends persuade her to enter someone else’s house with a stolen key.  She leaves a baby doll with its throat slit and fake blood on a bedroom pillow.  There is a car accident and 3 girls die.  It is later described in detail from the dead girl’s point of view.  Tanya calls the dead girls back to life.  Kerry sees Natalie’s hand.  “It wasn’t even hers.  It was withered and worse.  It was shrunken, spotted, and greenish…oozing something that wasn’t blood.”  Makenzie “had no face.  She had been dead for weeks”. Tanya comes after Kerry and Spence with a knife.  Kerry and Tanya fight for the knife.

Sexual Content: “It was like an orgy of grief.”  The girls put on bra’s that give “bosoms that could take us anywhere.”  Several references are made to a “peekaboo” bra.

Adult Themes: Some girls think another girl has had an abortion and are cruel to her.  Kerry thinks doing bad things is like an initiation to the group.  Peer pressure is huge. The kids go to parties and after are “zonked”.  Kerry sees a grief counselor.  Kerry repeatedly lies to her parents and others.

Synopsis

Kerry believes her life has value now that the three coolest girls at school have noticed her.  She is willing to do anything to be a part of their group.  Then, unexpectedly, those girls are killed in a car accident and Kerry finds herself adrift and alone, full of grief and feeling “three quarters dead” herself.  One day Kerry receives a text from Tanya, one of the dead girls, telling her to meet them in New York.  Kerry goes and what she finds will send shivers down your spine!

I am quite guilty of judging this book by its cover.  I have actually never read a book quite like this before because I usually steer clear of anything that claims to be even remotely scary.  I do not like to be scared.  I didn’t realize that this book was a “ghost story” when I started it.  Was I scared reading this book?  Nope.  And I even read it late at night!  I was oddly interested in it though and I have to admit, I did continue to think about it after I was done reading it.  My favorite line from this book?  “People are always gone before you expect it.”  I would recommend 9^th-12^th grade for this book.

Language: 1

Violence: 0

Sexual Content: 0

Adult Themes: 1

Title: School of Fear

Author: Gitty Daneshvari

Ratings Explanation

Language: Derogatory language and name calling such as loser, portly, chubby, ugly beast, creep and chunky funk are used.  Lulu speaks disrespectfully to people in authority.

Adult Themes: Mr. Munchauser has a gambling problem and is always trying to bet.

Synopsis

People are scared of many things.  For some people, the fear gets out of hand and begins to rule their lives, becoming a phobia. That’s how it is for Madeline, Theo, Lulu and Garrison.  Each has an uncontrollable phobia.  Madeline is deathly afraid of bugs, Theo is petrified of dying, Lulu is scared of confined spaces and Garrison is terrified of deep water.  Luckily, there is a place for just such children –   The School of Fear.  The School of Fear is “an exceedingly exclusive program run by the elusive Mrs. Wellington; it is actually so select that few people are even aware of its existence.”  Things are not always as they seem though, and the four 12-year-olds are in for some interesting and even frightening experiences!

This was such a fun read!  I found the whole book so amusing, I even laughed out loud  (which really is something for me). Theo was by far my favorite character.  I loved him!  There is a new phobia listed at the beginning of every chapter which is funny.  I’d share it with whoever was closest to me.  Amid all the humor were deeper messages too.  Don’t judge a book (or person) by its cover.  Helping others will help you forget your own fears and problems.  And finally, most problems (or phobias) are not miraculously cured.  Instead it takes time and effort and will likely be a life long journey.  Here is my favorite quote from this book:  “It is a rather lamentable fact that few can call upon courage with the expediency they can fear.”  I think the recommended age range for this book is spot on.  I am now happily passing this book onto my kids.

Language:  0

Violence:  1

Sexual Content:  0

Adult Themes:  1

Title:  A Whole Nother Story

Author:  Dr. Cuthbert Soup

Ratings Explanation

Violence: Captain Jibby’s hand was once eaten by a tiger (and was replaced by a Swiss Army Knife with multiple, useful tools.)  The “Coats”–referring to the men in suits chasing after the Cheeseman family–use guns to threaten Captain Jibby.  The Coats kidnap Ethan, the father, and his son Gerard at gunpoint.  A monkey accidentally shoots his spy partner in the leg with a banana-shaped gun.  Captain Jibby rams his bus into a chain link fence that one of the Coats is climbing.  Captain Jibby stabs a Coat in the shoulder with his knife-hand.

Adult Themes:  Mrs. Cheeseman was poisoned and killed by the evil men who want her husband’s time machine.

Synopsis

Ethan Cheeseman is a scientist/inventor who has developed a super-secret time machine.  The problem is, the secret got out and now a whole slew of dirty government spies and evil thugs all want a piece of it–or actually, the entire thing.  This means Mr. Cheeseman and his three children, who are all “smart, pleasant, witty, attractive, polite, and relatively odor-free” are constantly on the run, moving from city to city and barely staying in one place long enough to make any friends.  The evil “Coats” will stop at nothing to get their hands on the time machine, even poisoning Mrs. Cheeseman, who dies before the story begins.  But this clever family is resourceful and quick, eluding the Coats at nearly every turn, changing their names with each move (half a chapter is devoted to recounting their long string of hilarious pseudonyms) and relying on their trusty, hairless, clairvoyant dog Pinky, who warns the family when evil is near.  Along the way, they meet and make friends with the odd members of a traveling circus sideshow and a quirky cowboy poet.  The story is narrated by Dr. Cuthbert Soup, “founder of the National Center for Unsolicited Advice”, and–you guessed it–he doles out short tidbits of advice on everything ranging from tattoos (“avoid getting one at all costs”) to dealing with ghosts (“listen to them carefully”) to squash recipes (“eat doughnuts”).

We read this one as a family, and there were several places where I found myself laughing so hard that my kids had to wait for me to catch my breath before continuing!  An entertaining, offbeat, and clean adventure, one that everyone will heartily enjoy.  I hope this debut novel from “Dr. Soup” is not his last.

Language:  1

Violence:  2

Sexual Content:  0

Adult Themes:  1

Title:  Artemis Fowl

Author:  Eoin Colfer

Ratings Explanation

Language:   Swearing includes four uses of  “damn” and several uses of a swear word in fairy language that is not translated, “D’Arvit.”  There are mild ongoing insults between characters and verbal sparring.

Violence:  We see magical creatures fighting humans and bodies fly into walls, shattering bones.  There is one battle including gun shots to a troll, “serrated ivory” talons piercing a human’s chest, blood matting the Troll’s fur, a human paralyzed, the troll thinking about eating a human.  The troll is crippled with blows by a mace and then hand-to-hand combat.  There are several incidents of highly explosive dwarf flatulence.

Adult Themes:  Artemis is a youthful criminal from a criminal family.  His mother has no control of Artemis, takes a lot of sleeping pills, and has been bedridden since her husband disappeared, losing her sanity.  A fairy is corrupted by alcoholism.

Synopsis

Artemis Fowl is a 12-year-old criminal mastermind from a legendary family of criminals.  His father is missing, possibly killed, and his mother has lost her sanity.  In addition, the family fortune has been largely lost, and Artemis sets out to restore it.  This is the story of  “his first villainous venture”—a scheme to kidnap a magical creature and hold it hostage for a ransom of fairy gold.  First, he deviously acquires “The Book,” which tells the rules of the magical world.  Then he abducts a fairy who is out of magic for the moment.  A team from the “Lower Elements Police,” or LEP, is dispatched to rescue her.  Having knowledge of fairy operations, Artemis and his trusty bodyguard Butler are one step ahead of the fairy folk for most of the conflict.  The situation escalates to a life-or-death battle of wits, brawn, and technology, which concludes with a clever turn of events.  In the fairy world we meet sprites, leprechauns, centaurs, goblins and others of a magical persuasion, and learn about fairy technology.  The book includes a secret message along the bottom of all the pages, and the reader can either break the code themselves or get help online.

This fantasy speeds along on quick repartee, interesting technical inventions and unexpected plot twists.  Some of the characters that started out as  “just plain bad” turned out to be more “human” than expected, and I found myself wincing, hoping that Artemis would not betray his loyal servants.  His concern for his mother and loyalty to friends surprised me and added a satisfying depth to the story.  The part about dwarves eating dirt and bodily “processing” the dirt as they tunnel, with lots of powerful flatulence, was definitely directed at young boys.  There was suspense and risk and lots of humor.  It’s a fun adventure for the 9- to 12-year-old but interesting enough for younger teens as well.

Language:  0

Violence:  0

Sexual Content:  0

Adult Themes:  2

Title:  Silas Marner

Author:  George Eliot

Ratings Explanation

Adult Themes:  Silas is accused of a theft he did not commit.  Squire Cass has two dishonorable sons; one drinks and steals, and the other is secretly married to a woman he does not love who has an opium addiction.  The men in town frequent the local pub (where amusing stories are told with a slightly tipsy narration).  A dead body is discovered lying at the bottom of a pond.

Synopsis

In this classic tale, a kind, gentle linen weaver named Silas Marner is accused of a theft he did not commit.  Framed by his best friend, who then steals his fiancee and ruins his reputation, Marner quietly leaves town and exiles himself to the tiny village of Raveloe, where his reclusive nature keeps him distanced from the other villagers.  He absorbs himself in his weaving and counts his gold each night, his only comforts.  In the same village live Squire Cass and his two sons, Dunstan and Godfrey, who have their own secrets to hide.  Dunstan is a dissolute young man who spends his father’s money and drinks to excess; Godfrey, who pines for the lovely Nancy Lammeter, is secretly married to a woman far beneath him in social stature and feels trapped.  Eventually, the lives and actions of the two Cass brothers become entwined in that of Silas Marner; Dunstan stumbles upon Silas’s unlocked cottage and steals his stash of gold coins.  The theft profoundly affects Marner, who loses the only thing in life he loved or valued.  Then one day an abandoned child inexplicably appears in his lonely cottage and reawakens inside him all that was missing from his life: joy, laughter, and love.

This is a beautiful tale of spiritual rebirth and redemption.  I enjoyed watching Silas’s transformation from lonely recluse to doting father; I particularly enjoyed Mrs. Winthrop’s commentary on religion:  “…there’s trouble i’ this world, and there’s things as we can niver make out the rights on. And all as we’ve got to do is to trusten, Master Marner–to do the right thing as fur as we know, and to trusten.”  An interesting fact:  George Eliot (the author) was actually a woman named Mary Ann Evans.

Language: 4

Violence: 3

Sexual Content: 4

Adult Themes: 3

Title: Radiant Shadows (Wicked Lovely, Book4)

Author: Melissa Marr

Ratings Explanation

Language: Hell, damn and ass were used frequently.  Stronger language, including the “F word”, were also used.  Sucks was used often.  Bastard made an appearance and exclamations of deity were also used.

Violence: The death of a child is ordered.  He was “ripped away and hurled across aisle toward opposite stall.”  Devlin needs blood to live.  He is an assassin who kills at his sister’s bidding.  There is blood letting on Ani and her blood is used for experiments.  There are deaths “too perverse to speak of”.  Ani is ordered to kill people.  A girl is killed and it is said she is “bloodied but no longer screaming.”  There is talk of revenge and wanting blood.  A fire poker is speared into the leg, knives stabbed into body, blood spurting.  Blood is shared to seal bonding.

Sexual Content: There is kissing throughout.  Ani feeds on emotions and physical touch.  References to sex and sexual things are made throughout.  For example “so you’re going to be celibate or something,”  “keep your clothes on”, “gyrating hips”, “no sex until I’m sure I won’t kill them.”  There is implied sex between Ani and Devlin.  There is talk about taking clothes off, unbuttoning jeans and so forth.

Adult Themes: Ani grows up without a mother and many different people help and take care of her.  Dark and evil powers reign.  There is drinking of wine.  The sexual innuendo is strong throughout the book and hints at a male-male relationship.

Synopsis

Ani is half human, half faery.  She is driven by her hungers; a need to feed on emotions and physical touch.  She struggles with fitting in as she is caught between two worlds.  Devlin is the creative product of two faery sisters, Order and Chaos.  He is an assassin doing the bidding of faery High Queen.  He secretly saved Ani as a child instead of killing her knowing that his choice could mean his death.  Now as Devlin and Ani connect, they find the need to join forces to combat those who are against them in the  faery world.

I probably would have understood this book and its characters better if I would have read the previous 3 books in this series first.  I don’t think this is a stand alone book, but written well enough that I got the main ideas.  I think my favorite thing in this book was Ani’s “steed”.  A genderless shape-shifting thing that serves and defends its rider.  It communicates with thoughts in Ani’s head and they become as one.  First it is a car, fast and sleek.  Then it is a horse to ride or a dragon to defend.  It’s awesome.  I want a steed!  I liked several ideas in this book.  I always enjoy a strong main female character.  I liked that Ani came into her own and found a place that fit her perfectly even though it wasn’t the “normal” or expected one.  I also liked that Devlin was able to rise above the bad ideas and behaviors he was taught and follow his conscious to be better, kinder.

Having said all that, I need to say that this book was so hard for me to read.  I felt like the book was ruled by lust and sexual undertones.  The foul language was plentiful.  I am so surprised that the recommended reading group is 9th-12th grade.  If this were a movie, it would be rated R.  Rated R movies are for ages 18 and up and that is exactly where I would place this book.

Language: 3

Violence: 2

Sexual Content: 2

Adult Themes: 3

Title: Saving  CeeCee Honeycutt

Author: Beth Hoffman

Rating Explanation

Language: Quite a few swear words, around 40 throughout the book. Two instances of “nigger”  and one instance each of “tramp” and “slut”. Also several profanities.

Violence: A woman is hit by a car and killed. Two middle-aged women fight, hitting and kicking each other. A man mugs a woman stealing her necklace and watch. Her friend hits him with a bag full of stones and breaks his nose.

Sexual Content: A nasty neighbor is referred to as a “great gaping vagina” and a “whore-hound”. Miz Hobbs and her married boyfriend are observed as they romp in the backyard. She wears a see though robe and is naked underneath. The man asks her to do her strip tease again as he swings her bra around. He grabs her butt and breasts. He is wearing his underwear and a Zorro mask and wants her to spank him (page 119 if you want to skip it)

Adult Themes: As a young girl, CeeCee is left to care for her mother who is mentally ill. Her father is never home because he is unable to cope with his wife’s illness. CeeCee struggles with her emotions as she resents her situation and her crazy mother. She also suspects that her father has a girlfriend. When her mother dies unexpectedly, CeeCee feels guilty and angry. She is unable to forgive the father who abandoned her.

Synopsis

Although CeeCee Honeycutt is only 11 years old, she needs saving, and quick. Abandoned by her father, she is left to care for her psychotic mother who wears a tiara and a pageant dress and thinks she is still the 1951 Vidalia Onion Queen.

When tragedy visits the Honecutt family, a long lost Aunt steps into CeeCee’s life offering to rescue her from her troubles.  CeeCee is unsure whether she is ready to leave her home in Ohio and Mrs. Odell, her 80-year-old neighbor and only friend. Persuaded that this could be her new lease on life, CeeCee agrees to go with Aunt Tootie and rebuild her life in Savannah, Georgia.

Savannah is full of interesting women who readily love her and help her heal. Finally in a home where she can be the child instead of the grown-up, CeeCee has the time to grieve, forgive and remember the precious moments she shared with her sweet mother.

This is truly a modern-day fairy tale complete with the fairy godmother who waves her magic wand and grants your every wish, almost. Unfortunately, when most people have really hard things happen in their lives there isn’t a long lost aunt available to whisk them away to a mansion, they just have to learn to deal with their trials.

CeeCee was a very sympathetic character and I was so glad for her to finally find peace. No child should have to deal with a situation like hers and I thought Ms. Hoffman realistically portrayed both her bitter and sweet feelings concerning her mother.

Even though it was a little too perfect, I enjoyed the book and Hoffman’s writing. She has a way with words and every once in a while had a phrase I read over and over. One of my personal favorites came from the eccentric Miz Goodpepper . “She reached out, slid the magazine from my fingers, and studied the woman on the cover. ‘I used to look just like that. But after I turned forty it was a daily struggle to keep myself up. I turned forty-five this past February, and let me tell you, every day is nothing but an insult.’ She tossed the magazine on the table with disgust. ‘Aging is a terrible slap in the face. My body betrays me every chance it gets.’”

Language: 3

Violence: 3

Sexual Content: 0

Adult Themes: 2

Title: A Conspiracy of Kings ( The Queen’s Thief, Book 4)

Author: Megan Whalen Turner

Ratings Explanation

Language: Hell and damn are the most common words used in various phrases.  Exclamations of deity are also frequent.  Bastard is used a handful of times.  Ass and SOB are used once.  Several references to swearing are made like, “I screamed every curse I’d ever practiced” and “swearing a blue streak.”

Violence:  Sophos says, “The sword slid through him and I found for the first time how easy it is to kill a man.”  Sophos pulls the sword out after hitting the bone.  Someone tries to strangle someone else.  Sophos is beaten and left hurt and swollen.  There is fighting with knives and punching in the face.  Someone stabs a horse in the belly.  There is sword training.  Men are shot and die.

Adult Themes: There is drinking of wine several times.  Sophos is sold into slavery and works with other slaves for quite some time.  Political unrest and internal wars are the basis for this book.

Synopsis

Sophos is the young heir to the throne of Sounis.  His lack of desire for political and defensive learning embarrasses his father who sends him to a remote villa to live with his mother and sisters.  He continues his tutoring there until one day the villa is attacked and Sophos is taken prisoner and forced into slavery.  During the time Sophos spends working as a slave, he matures both physically and mentally.  He determines to take control and fight for his country.  Sophos seeks the help and advice of his friends, the King and Queen of Attolia.  And from the book jacket, ”Across the small peninsula battles are fought, bribes are offered and conspiracies are set in motion.  Darkening the horizon, the Mede Empire threatens, always, from across the sea.  And Sophos, anonymous and alone, bides his time.  Sophos, drawing on his memories of Gen, Pol, the magus-and Eddis-sets out on an adventure that will change all of their lives forever.”

This is easily one of the best series of books I’ve read.  I love the characters and I love how Turner weaves a story.  I missed Eugenides in this book as the story mostly focuses on Sophos, but it was still a great adventure with an ending that I didn’t expect.  The storyline is easy to follow, yet complex.  I was engrossed from beginning to end.   At one point the word Contrariwise is used.  I love this word!  I’ve never actually seen it in a book before.  I think I remember it being in a Winnie the Pooh movie though.

My problem with these books is the language.  7^th grade and up seems to be the generally recommended reading level.  I would disagree based solely on the language content.  I would recommend an upper high school level for this book.

Language:  0

Violence:  2

Sexual Content:  0

Adult Themes:  1

Title:  The Tales of Beedle the Bard

Author:  J.K. Rowling

Ratings Explanation

Violence:  Witchhunters of the Middle Ages seek to persecute, imprison, or behead witches and wizards in one tale.  In another, a wicked warlock kills a maiden he woos to steal her beating heart and replace his own with hers, then dies in the process.  In another tale of three wizard brothers, one brother dies when his throat is slit; another kills himself. 

Adult Themes:  Typical unethical behavior of witches and wizards seeking to gain control over others.

Synopsis

This book is a short collection of five fairytales from the magical world of Harry Potter.  The tales were supposedly written by a 15th century wizard named Beedle the Bard (a sort of magical version of Hans Christian Andersen), and include extensive commentary by the late Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore.  The commentary is often longer than the tales themselves, but very tongue-in-cheek and well-written.  So now the “Muggle” reader can enjoy such familiar tales to the wizarding world as “The Warlock’s Hairy Heart” and “Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump.”  Like traditional fairytales, virtue is prized and wickedness is condemned; those who deserve to come to a bad end generally do.  However, unlike Muggle children’s fairytales in which magic often lies at the root of a person’s troubles (a spell has been cast on our heroine by a wicked witch, for example), these tales are meant to teach young wizards and witches that magic can cause as much trouble as it cures.

This is an enjoyable read for any fan of Harry Potter.  My favorite tale of the five was “The Fountain of Fair Fortune,” in which three young, clever witches seek to relieve themselves of their sufferings and trials by entering the magical curing waters of the fountain, but in the end solve their problems through their own wit and wisdom.

Language: 0

Violence: 0

Sexual Content: 0

Adult Content: 1

Title: Savannah From Savannah

Author: Denise Hildreth

Ratings Explanation

Adult Themes: Savannah breaks into an office and makes copies of personal papers in order to construct a case against the beauty pageant director.

Synopsis

Savannah Phillips has graduated from college, completed a graduate degree and won a literary contest which includes a book deal. She has achieved all of her dreams so far, but when she discovers that her somewhat meddling mother had a hand in her winning the writing contest, she has a decision to make. In order to prove her independence and integrity, she declines the award and returns home to Savannah, Georgia. She lands a job at the local newspaper and, although it doesn’t pay as much as a book deal, jumps in with both feet, devoting herself to her new job.

The story Savannah chooses to pursue could have personal implications as she investigates the possible rigging of the Miss Georgia United States of America beauty pageant. Years ago, Savannah’s mother, Victoria, was crowned Miss Georgia United States of America and Savannah wonders how Victoria will react if it is discovered that her own mother did not win the crown fair and square.

The best recommendation for this book is that there is absolutely nothing objectionable in it. I enjoyed Savannah’s love of her home town. Her feelings about Savannah reminded me of the way I feel about the town where I grew up. There were some amusing descriptions of her larger-than-life mother and  some touching scenes when Savannah learns to appreciate her parents, but all in all, Savannah from Savannah is a very mediocre book. It is the first in a series, but I will not be reading the other books. I labeled it high school because I don’t think it would be interesting for younger readers.

Language:  5

Violence:  2

Sexual Content:  3

Adult Themes:  4

Title:  Cannery Row

Author:  John Steinbeck

Ratings Explanation

Language:  Every foul word is spewed by characters in Cannery Row.  Extensive profanity; language that is crude (whores, pimps, pisspots) and derogatory (wops, Polaks, “ching chong Chinaman”, etc.)  The f-word, spelled differently, is also used.

Violence:  Drunkards get into several fights and knock out teeth, bloody faces, break windows, and destroy Doc’s laboratory.  The bouncer at the local house of prostitution throws a bum out and breaks his back.  A drunken man has a hallucination of a baby’s throat being slashed.  A man’s wife beats him; he retaliates.

Sexual Content:  The whorehouse on Cannery Row and the girls who work there are mentioned often, along with the business they conduct, but not in detail.  Mack and the boys discuss how often Doc, who runs the laboratory, has women stay overnight at his place whether or not he needs a dame.  Henri the painter has had several different women live with him on his boat.  The sex life of sea creatures is scientifically detailed, with reference to sperm, ova, semen, and eggs.  A short discussion on the Model T Ford, and how “Two generations of Americans knew more about the Ford coil than the clitoris,” and that “most of the babies of the period were conceived in Model T Fords and not a few were born in them.”

Adult Themes:  Abundant references to alcohol and tobacco; the characters drown their sorrows in liquor.  Someone observes that “a man got just as drunk on half a glass as on a whole one, that is, if he was in the mood to get drunk at all.”  Dora, the whorehouse mistress, takes good care of her girls and won’t kick them out, even if they “won’t turn three tricks a month but still eat three meals a day.”  A man heavy in debt and depression shoots himself in the head; another man commits suicide with an ice pick to the chest.  An abused, mentally disabled 11-year-old boy breaks a store window and steals a clock to show Doc he loves him.  While collecting sea specimens on the shore, Doc discovers a dead girl’s body floating among the rocks.  The prevailing storyline is about people leading dissolute lives.

Synopsis

In the opening paragraph of this classic book, Steinbeck describes Cannery Row in 1940s Monterey, California as “a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of life, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream.”  Then he goes on to describe its inhabitants, who are a dichotomy: whores, bums, gamblers, drunks, and sons of b—–es, but also saints, angels, martyrs, and holy men.  Steinbeck paints with a true artist’s skill and eye for detail the humanity of these people, their interactions with one another, their ignorance and downfalls and dissolute lives, their good intentions and dreams and ability to survive.  There is Mack, the elder and leader of a group of bums who have in common “no families, no money, and no ambitions beyond food, drink, and contentment.”  There is Doc, the owner of Western Biological Laboratory, who remains a constant on Cannery Row, the man to whom both the bums and Dora’s girls turn for companionship, advice, and an occasional dollar to buy a drink.  And there is Dora, proprietor of the Bear Claw, who “keeps an honest, one-price house” and takes good care of her girls who in turn take care of everyone else (it is Dora’s girls who take hot soup to and nurse back to health all the families in Monterey during the influenza epidemic.)  The book cannot be pinned down to a plot, rather, it is a commentary on life and the successes and failures, happiness and despair which come to those residents of Cannery Row.  Steinbeck studied marine biology, and in his detailed descriptions of the marine life inhabiting the tidepools on the California coast there are echoes of the lives of his Cannery Row characters.

John Steinbeck was a master at illustrating the frailties of human nature.  His story in Cannery Row is no exception and is why it is considered a classic, but like most of his books, the reader may feel weighed down with such heavy subject matter and flawed characters who repeatedly mess up their lives.  Well-written and a worthwhile read, but definitely for a mature audience.  I would hesitate having my high schooler read this, not so much out of a virtuous desire to protect him from the subject matter (okay, maybe a little) as much as the idea that a teenager (hopefully) hasn’t experienced enough life to really understand some of Steinbeck’s commentary.

Language:  1

Violence:  2

Adult Themes:  2

Sexual Content:  2

Title:  The Hourglass Door

Author:  Lisa Mangum

Ratings Explanation

Language:  The words “hell” (“Go to hell”) and “hellish” used only a few times.  “Damnation” used once in a poem.

Violence:  Zo slashes Dante across his arm with a switchblade; blood soaks his shirt.  Abby slaps Zo as hard as she can; he gets very physically aggressive but doesn’t hurt her.  A few intense fight-like scenes by the riverbank. 

Adult Themes:  The rock band Zero Hour intentionally projects the same effect on its audience as drugs would; people experience emotional highs, lows, and hangovers from its intensity.  Dante and the band members are all accused or convicted war criminals from 16th century Italy.  At the Dungeon, a teenage hangout, the owner Leo gives Abby a drink concocted of mysterious ingredients that have a profound effect on her mind and psyche. 

Sexual Content:  Nothing beyond a kiss, however, Dante and Abby exchange many and they are described in intimate (albeit cliche) detail:  “…he kissed me,  his lips at once hard and fierce and yet still gentle and insistent.”  “I could taste the softness of his lips. . . I ran my fingers through the curls at the nape of his neck into his hair at the same time he slid his hands down to lock at the small of my back.  His fingers left tracks of heat in their wake.”  etc.  A lot of that going on.  In the scene where Dante is slashed, he removes his shirt in front of Abby, and she “drank in the sight of his long, lean body.”

Synopsis

Abby Edmunds seems to have the quaint, perfect life going on:  good family, good grades, nice boyfriend who lives next door, but it’s all a little bit too predictable for her.  Then one day, a mysterious, tall, dark, and exotically handsome exchange student from Italy walks into her life.  Meet Dante Alexander, who seems to be the polar opposite of her boyfriend, Jason.  He is spontaneous and charismatic and speaks with an accent, and Abby can’t help feeling attracted to him.  Time literally seems to stop when she is with him.  But Dante is hiding some dark secret, and Abby is willing to risk the status quo to find out what it is:  that Dante is actually an exiled prisoner from 16th century Italy who apprenticed with Leonardo da Vinci.  Under da Vinci’s tutelage, Dante learned the secret to the most dangerous thing da Vinci [supposedly] ever invented, a time machine through which the Italian government sent war criminals into the future to be punished.  Now Dante, who was wrongly convicted, is living in 2009 and trying to stop three other Italian thugs, members of a rock band named Zero Hour, from finding a way back through the time-space continuum and changing history.  But he is also inlove with Abby, who happens to hold the key to unlocking the Hourglass Door back through time.

The storyline here is a familiar one: boy meets girl, boy is hiding some unfathomable secret, girl unlocks secret, girl can’t help falling inlove and risking everything to help boy overcome his demons (real or otherwise).  Yet even with such a familiar premise, Ms. Mangum’s first book is intriguing enough to keep the reader turning the pages and ending on a cliffhanger note, tempting you with the sequel.  The romance hovers dangerously close to the cheese factor, however, for me.  By book’s end I had had more than my fair share of intertwining fingers and lips and penetrating gazes.   The Hourglass Door is part one in a three-part trilogy (book two, The Golden Spiral, was released in May 2010). 

Language: 0

Violence: 3

Sexual Content: 0

Adult Themes: 1

Title: Canticle Kingdom

Author:  Michael Young

Ratings Explanation

Violence: Girl in Nazi concentration camp is hit and taken in for beatings. Johann is attacked by a werewolf. Brigitta and Johann are attacked by snakes and creatures. “Creatures claws tore at her flesh, ripping large gashes…and sending lances of pain throughout her body.” Monster raises knife over Gwen. The floorboards and walls are streaked with blood. There are a LOT of sword fights, battles, and creature attacks; more than can be listed here. Guards beat prisoners. Rufus stabs a creature in the heart with a jagged shard of poison-stained glass. Karsten is run through with a sword and then extracts the sword from his chest, “crimson blood dripping.” “With a mighty heave and a keen eye, he launched the sword at his brother, impacting him directly in the center of his chest.”

Adult Themes: Nazi concentration camps are mentioned. There is magic, black magic and sorcery. Death and a sort of afterlife are referred to.

Summary

Two German brothers create a music box that holds a magical kingdom inside. Through time the music box somehow gets passed through many different people and places. People mysteriously disappear when listening to this music box. Inside the box, the Canticle Kingdom resides. The Kingdom is being attacked by an evil, dark power. The Queen falls ill and it is up to a few loyal subjects inside and outside the music box to help to save the kingdom.

I had a really hard time getting through this book. It was confusing and disjointed. Many things made no sense to me at all. It wasn’t until chapter 9 that I started getting a few explanations. Now, I understand ” keep the reader guessing”, and mystery and all of that, but this was really just confusing. I found many of the characters and their actions unbelievable. So many times there would be fighting and someone would be injured terribly, like a sword stuck in their chest. The character is near death, bleeding and almost ready to pass out and then they would proceed to pull out the sword and continue fighting. For a long time. In my notes I wrote, “How many times can one dude fall on his back, have bruised ribs and feel like he was dying and then get up and do it all again?” In the end, I didn’t have any real feelings for any of the characters. I’m not sure if it was the style of writing that made it so hard for me, or if the writing just lacked development. I think the story idea is good. On the up side, there was no foul language or sexual content. There was a fair bit of violence though. I laughed at the end when I read this next part because it summed up almost exactly how I felt about this whole book. “Capt. Edison tried to explain what was going on to his wife the best he could but found that he scarcely understood it himself.”

©2010 The Literate Mother

Language:  0

Violence:  2.5

Sexual Content:  0

Adult Themes:  2

Title:  Peter and the Shadow Thieves (Starcatchers Series, book 2)

Author:  Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

Ratings Explanation

Violence:  The pirates on Mollusk Island kidnap the island chief’s daughter.  It is briefly mentioned that Slank (one of the “Others”) killed and ate Little Richard while lost at sea.  In London, Peter runs into a man who beats runaway children; Peter is attacked by a street vendor who sells birds and has captured Tinkerbell, then arrested by a policeman for hitting the bird seller.  The Others kidnap Molly’s mother.  A servant girl working with the Others tries to stab Molly with a kitchen knife.  At the Tower of London, Molly tells Peter the story of two princes who were locked up, beaten, and murdered in the Tower by their cruel uncle.  Mr. McGuinn, a fellow Starcatcher, is killed when he falls from a stone stairwell.  In the final battle for the starstuff, both Peter and Molly’s father are shot by the Others (both recover.)

Adult Themes:  Peter is arrested and sent to jail, where he encounters several other boys (street urchins) who have been sent there “to rot.”  Boys who have been arrested are seldom set free again, but generally face a lifetime of imprisonment or hardship (very Dickensian).  When Molly’s mother is kidnapped by the Others and held for ransom, Molly’s father must choose between surrendering the starstuff to the evil powers or saving her life.

Synopsis

In this sequel to Peter and the Starcatchers, Peter and his gang of Lost Boys now live on Mollusk Island and gamefully spar with Black Stache (now nicknamed “Hook” by Peter & co.) and his fellow pirates.   But the day a different ship arrives on the island bringing Slank, the noseless man Nerezza, and a dark, creepy figure called Lord Ombra in search of the magical starstuff, Peter smells trouble.  When Ombra and his men learn the starstuff is in London, they sail off, and Peter decides he must head to England to warn Molly and her family before the evil men get there first.  He stows away on Ombra’s ship unseen, then flies off in London with Tinkerbell to find the Aster family.  London does not receive Peter kindly, and he is cast into jail and Tinkerbell kidnapped by a bird seller before they can even blink.  They escape, of course (the ability to fly can come in handy) and eventually reach Molly, but not before the eerie, inhuman Lord Ombra kidnaps her mother for a starstuff ransom.  Ombra steals people’s shadows (and their souls), reads their thoughts, and turns them into emotionless robots.  But Peter, Molly, Tink, and even a young George Darling team up to combat the nefarious shadow-thieving Others and ensure that the starstuff does not fall into their filthy hands.

This sequel-to-the-prequel proves just as satisfying as the first, but has a different tone.  There is less swashbuckling and pirate jargon, as Hook and his crew on Mollusk Island take a back seat to the main storyline set in the streets of Dickens-era London with the spooky Lord Ombra, whose shapeless figure can creep under doorways and suck up people’s shadows without warning.  Famous London landmarks (the River Thames, the Tower of London, Kensington Gardens) make brief but shining appearances in the story, with the final showdown between good and evil being set in farm country at a very familiar, “stony” location.  The authors even have James Barrie (Peter Pan’s creator) make a clever cameo in one scene.  Another entertaining and adventurous read.

Language: 1

Violence: 3

Sexual Content:0

Adult Themes: 2

Title: Surviving Antarctica Reality TV 2083

Author: Andrea White

Ratings Explanation

Language:  Four common swear words and four uses of the name of deity.

Violence:  The government uses Court TV as the judicial system.  Criminals are considered terrorists and have no human rights.  Near drownings, beating and sometimes crucifixion is used as punishment.  A young woman was beaten because she tried to help a dying contestant on a Reality TV show.  Many contestants are allowed to be maimed, injured, suffer disease and are even killed as part of the entertainment.  A horse is eaten by a killer whale.  It’s blood and guts float in the water.  A seal is shot for food.  The pony is killed by the hungry dogs.  A survivor’s toes are frostbitten, amputation is considered.

Adult Themes:  Children being used on a survival show for the entertainment of the masses.  TV has become the crime deterrent and educator.  A contestant has lost both parents.  A young man must decide whether or not to intervene with the government to save the contestants and stand up for their rights.

Synopsis

In the year 2083,  our nation’s government has turned to television to fight crime and educate the masses.  All programming is meant to be so captivating that citizens will be glued to their screens instead of looking for trouble.  To boost ratings, the Secretary of Entertainment has decided to use children as contestants in her next installment of the TV hit, Survival. This series has contestants literally fighting for their lives while reliving history through episodes such as The Alamo, World War II and The Plague. This time, five 14-year-olds have been chosen to relive Robert F. Scott’s 1912 expedition to the South Pole  (this was a real expedition and selected entries of Scott’s journal are used throughout the story).  What they don’t know is that they will be all alone without a camera crew.  To save the lives of her crew, the Secretary has had cameras implanted into one of the eyes of each contestant, unbeknownst to them.  She has also scripted several catastrophes to mimic the original expedition as well as help boost ratings.  As the children embark on their journey, they encounter all of Antarctica’s beauty and danger.  They quickly learn to depend on each others’ skills for survival.  True to her nature,  the Secretary delivers catastrophes and hardships for the contestants. Back home the public becomes enraged as they watch children facing certain death.  An editor named Steve is faced with the opportunity of secretly intervening and must decide whether or not to follow his conscience even if it means being beaten and being sent to prison.  Through the heroic actions of many, the children are rescued and the public is forced to take a good look at their values and government.

I am not a big futuristic fiction fan so this book took me off guard when I found myself still engrossed in it two hours later.  I appreciated how the contestants learned important life lessons and self-reliance as they had to completely depend on each other to survive.  I also liked that Steve had the courage to stand up against terrifying odds to do what he felt was right.  A great book to help young readers examine their values and priorities.

Language: 1

Violence: 2

Sexual Content: 3

Adult Themes: 2

Title: iDrakula

Author: Bekka Black

*This review refers an Advance Copy. iDrakula will be available for purchase October 2010.

Ratings Explanation

Language: A handful of swear words, one instance of profanity.

Violence: Renfield asks for a kitten to “consume”. Lucy and Renfield bite each other. The count kisses Lucy; she bites him and drinks his blood. Stakes are driven through the  hearts of vampires to kill them.

Sexual Content: Jonathon tells Mina he can think of a “few things we could do in the dark without parents around…” Lucy tells Mina that Renfield bit her, which Mina thinks is gross and unsanitary. “Like sex?” Lucy asks. Jonathon tells Mina, his girlfriend, that he slept with her best friend Lucy. Mina is worried about STDs and asks him to make a list of his partners. The count kisses Mina and she wants it to last forever. He licks the blood off her neck.

Adult Themes: Jonathon gets drunk and thinks he may have made out with the Count’s daughter. He has a hickie and a hangover. The Count turns people into vampires. Mina and Abe must kill Lucy, Mina’s best friend, by driving a stake into her heart. Mina is surprised that she could do it.

Synopsis

While Bram Stoker tells the story of Dracula mainly through journal entries and letters between his characters, this modern take-off utilizes text messages and emails to retell the classic tale. It is a brief retelling, hitting the major points of the original book.

After Renfield’s “phychotic break”, Jonathon travels to Romania in his stead to the Count’s very eerie castle where he finds piles of human bones, empty, deserted rooms and no way to escape but to jump out of his window. When Mina and Jonathon’s’ father manage to get him back home he is deathly ill, supposedly with some rare blood disease. Aided by Abe Van Helsing, Mina unravels the dark mystery that eventually claims more than one life.

I applaud Bekka Black for discovering what really seems to be a natural medium for retelling the classic Dracula. Although short, the reader gets the highlights of the original. Unfortunately, along with the modernization comes added sexuality which I do not remember from Dracula.

Language: 1

Violence: 3

Sexual Content: 0

Adult Themes: 2

Title: On Etruscan Time

Author:  Tracy Barrett

Ratings Explanation

Language: A common swear word used twice.

Violence: Vision of a boy after he was beaten, bruised and bleeding, about to become a human sacrifice.  Scene cut out as the knife is coming down.

Adult Themes:  History of human sacrifice to gods briefly discussed.

Synopsis

Eleven-year-old Hector reluctantly accompanies his mom on a trip to Italy for the summer.  She was asked to interpret ancient writings for an archeological dig of an Etruscan site.  Hector finds a companion in one of the archeologists who suggests that he become his apprentice.  Hector’s first find is a strange rock with the symbol of an eye on it.  He shows the archeologist, who claims the rock is not Etruscan and must have been dropped by a tourist.  Hector hangs on to the rock anyway, for a souvenir.  That is when things take an interesting turn.  When Hector holds on to the eye rock, he finds himself traveling back in time to when the Etruscans inhabited the area.   He meets a twelve-year-old boy named Arath, who is the son of the current priest and next in line to become a priest.  His uncle Cai, however, is a jealous man and wants Arath dead so that he can inherit the religious position himself.  Arath knows his life is in danger and begs Hector to help him.  Hector is forced to return to the present site where unfortunately, nothing has been found to impress the sponsors of the dig. They are threatening to close down the operation. With the help of his eye rock, Hector’s  ‘intuition’ leads him to find a few interesting Etruscan artifacts  which helps to keep the crew motivated.   Shortly afterward, Hector is brought back to the past where he tries to learn more about Arath’s situation.   He knows he does not have much time to stop his evil uncle from killing him.  Torn between two worlds, Hector’s summer is suddenly turned into a time traveling adventure where he must find a way to save his new friend and keep the site from shutting down.

An interesting plot that really made me want to travel to Europe to do a little digging myself.  I enjoyed Hector who was unassuming and awfully normal but brought into the middle of a great adventure.  The idea of human sacrifice, especially involving children was hard to think about.  Although not described in great detail,  I would steer sensitive readers away.

Language: 1

Violence: 2

Sexual Content: 2

Adult Themes: 1

Title:  Once Upon a Marigold

Author: Jean Ferris

Ratings Explanation

Language: The name of deity used. Name calling.

Violence: Some fighting with arrows and swords. Queen is forced off balcony and falls to the river far below. Queen threatens to kill her daughter and the king to gain power. The queen poisons the king to gain control over him.

Sexual Content: A scullery maid forces a kiss upon Christian. Babies born out of wedlock.

Adult Themes: Desire to rule a kingdom no matter the cost to family and others.  Dysfunctional family relationships.

Synopsis

Christian is adopted by a troll, Edric, who lives in a crystal lined cave in a forest. The young boy grows up learning the ways of troll life and inventing contraptions from things left behind on the forest road. One of these contraptions is a telescope with which Christian enjoys watching the inhabitants of the castle across the river. As he grows older, Christian becomes more unsettled and wants to see and be a part of the outside world. With Edric’s permission, he leaves the cave hoping to find a job at the castle.  Christian finds a job helping the castle housekeeper. This presents him with the opportunity of getting to know the young princess he has seen for years only through a lens.  He finds Princess Marigold quite enchanting. She loves the simple things in life like reading, telling awful jokes, and playing with her dogs. She is very lonely however, because of a curse put upon her at birth. Marigold can read the thoughts of anyone that touches her. No one dares to touch her and rarely even talks to her. Christian is not afraid of this and finds Marigold fascinating,  simple and charming. Unfortunately, the queen wants Marigold married so that she can take over the kingdom. Christian struggles with his emotions as he watches his new love being courted by neighboring royalty. Things get exciting when Marigold’s forthcoming marriage is announced. Christian finds himself in jail, Marigold’s sisters are locked up and the king is being poisoned. Christian must prove he is not a traitor, rid the kingdom of their evil queen, find a way to save his true love and live happily ever after.

This was your predictable fairy tale with many quirky twists and turns to keep you guessing how the heroes would ever manage to live happily ever after. Christian even manages to re-invent royal life by introducing p-mail, vegetarianism, and one ear piercing.

Language: 1

Violence: 1

Sexual Content: 1

Adult Themes: 1

Title: Beauty: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast

Author: Robin McKinley, Newbery Honor Author

Ratings Explanation

Language: This may not even rate for some but, the word “damning” used as a verb in the following sentence:”To a certain extent this was damning me with faint praise…”

Violence: Talk of desire to kill the magician that cast the spell.

Sexual Content: Beauty’s sister is advised to get married and start a baby. Beauty is kissed by a boy at a dance.

Adult Content: Beauty’s sister loses her fiance in a shipwreck. Beauty is offered ale by the villagers that she has helped. Parents threaten their children with stories of monsters taking them away if they are not obedient.

Synopsis

Beauty’s wealthy family has come to financial ruin after her father’s ships are destroyed by disease and storm.  A shipyard worker offers the family a home with him back in his native village.  The desperate yet grateful family accepts the offer despite rumors of magic being practiced in the area.  The family adjusts to their new country life and do quite well for themselves until their father’s fateful journey.  After being lost in a snow storm, Beauty’s father stumbles across an enchanted castle in the nearby woods.  The invisible servants care for his every need.  After resting, he prepares to finish his journey home.  On his way out of the gates he notices a most beautiful rose garden and decides to pick one for Beauty.  This enrages the castle’s owner, a beast who up until now has remained unseen.  He accuses the father of being ungrateful and demands that either he or one of his daughters returns within the month to stay with him forever as payment.  Upon returning home, Beauty’s father tells his story to his daughters.  Beauty insists that she will be the one to return.  After an emotional debate upon the matter, Beauty gets her way.  The rest of the story is fairy tale history as Beauty and the Beast discover real love in each other and live happily ever after.

One of my all time favorite books!  I read it as a young girl and twice as an adult.  McKinley’s words are beautifully enchanting and  quickly bring you into this fairy tale world.  I only wish that the ending wasn’t so quick. McKinley has written a sequel to this book called Rose Daughter which I haven’t read yet.

Language: 1

Violence: 1

Sexual Content: 0

Adult Themes: 1.5

Title: Ruby Holler

Author: Sharon Creech

Ratings Explanation

Language: 2 instances of “Lord” as an exclamation. Florida uses words like “putrid” and “stupid” throughout the book.

Violence: Several foster families mistreat Dallas and Florida. Mr. Trepid, who runs the orphanage they live in, smacks them when they misbehave.

Adult Themes: Dallas and Florida’s mother abandons them as babies. They genuinely want a family to call their own, but their behavior always lands them back in the orphanage. Because of their experiences they have a general distrust of adults. A young boy dies while living in the orphanage and Dallas thinks it is his fault. Mr. Trepid is dishonest.

Synopsis

13-year-old twins, Dallas and Florida, have lived in the Boxton Creek Home for Children all of their lives, and according to the proprietors,  Mr. and Mrs. Trepid, cause much more trouble than they are worth. They want more than anything to find a family, but after a long string of unsuccessful foster home experiences which included digging a well, being locked in a dark, damp cellar, and defending themselves against unwelcoming foster siblings, they have all but given up hope.

Then one day Tiller and Sairy walk into the Boxton Home looking for a couple of teenagers to accompany them on their next adventure. Florida is to join Tiller on his trip down the Rutabago River and Dallas will help Sairy find an exotic bird on the island of Kangadoon.  As this unlikely family gets to know and understand each other, Florida and Dallas are surprised to learn that adults can be trusted and that they are worth loving.

This is the second time our family has read Ruby Holler aloud and it was just as good the second time. We all love this sweet book in which Florida and Dallas expect the worst from Tiller and Sairy, but are terribly disappointed. These sweet, older parents teach instead of scold and show patience instead of anger when the twins misbehave.  I love Creech’s writing style and the hilarious way the twins mix up words. One of my favorites comes from Florida, “She wished she’d paid more attention in health class, when that nurse had come in with a rubber dummy and showed how to do that artificial perspiration stuff.”

Recommend this one to your kids, and then treat yourself to it as well.

Language: 1

Violence: 1

Sexual Content: 1

Adult Themes: 2

Title: Gathering Blue

Author: Lois Lowry

Ratings Explanation

Language: Woman dyes threads in a “pot of piss”

Violence: Kira’s father recounts the story of when he was attacked by a man, beaten up and left for dead. His attacker slashed his face, blinding him.

Sexual Content: “Others would be coupling tonight, creating new people.” p.18

Adult Themes:  Kira was born crippled. When she was a baby the leaders of the village wanted to take her away to “give her back to the earth,” but her mother fought to keep her. Kira’s mother dies, leaving her alone in the world. People are generally unkind to each other in the village. No one helps each other, even Kira’s uncle doesn’t offer any assistance when her mother dies. Parents treat their own children poorly, slapping them, penning them up and yelling at them.

Synopsis

In this companion novel to The Giver, Kira, a young, crippled girl, is left to fend for herself after her mother’s death. In a society where the weak are cast aside, or worse, Kira makes a plan to rebuild the hut she and her mother  lived in and make her own way in their unforgiving village. After a confrontation with the fiercest woman in the village, who wants Kira’s land for her own, Kira is assigned a defender from the Council of Guardians. Having discovered her exceptional talent for embroidery, The Council brings her to  live in the Council Edifice where she has plenty of food, running water and a bed. These are luxurious accommodations compared to the living conditions of the village. There she meets a new friend, Thomas, who is a young, gifted carver of wood. Kira learns that her responsibility, in exchange for food and shelter, is to restore the elaborate robe worn by the Singer who, once a year, sings the village’s ancient history. The story is told on the robe through intricate designs and Kira is to tell the future of the village through her art.

While Kira enjoys the advantages of living in the Edifice, she begins to realize that she, Thomas, and Jo, the tiny girl who will be Singer one day, have been “collected” for their artistic abilities, making the Edifice start to resemble more of a prison than a haven.

I enjoyed this book far more than The Giver. While not the focus of the story, Kira’s disability is handled beautifully. She is never embarrassed or bitter about her lot in life. “Mother said pain made me strong,” states Kira. She is determined to be an influence for good and to change the future of her village. Although The Giver and Gathering Blue are companion novels, there isn’t any connection between the stories until the end when a boy is mentioned who might, or might not, be Jonas. I will be interested to see if they fit together in The Messenger.

Language:  3.5

Violence:  2

Sexual Content:  4

Adult Themes:  3

Title:  Beastly

Author:  Alex Flinn

Ratings Explanation

Language:  A few instances of profanity; just about every other swear word but the f-word used at least once.  Other crass language (skank, piss, slut).   The bad language does not permeate the book, but is enough to give literate mothers pause.

Violence:  The beast attacks the witch after she transforms him; he has a temper and lashes out at people and breaks things.  He watches (through a magic mirror) a father physically and emotionally abuse his daughter.  The beast breaks a girl’s arm at a dance.  He is attacked by subway passengers and lashes out at them.  A man threatens and points a gun at the girl he loves and the beast attacks him to save her.

Sexual Content:  Kyle, the main character, says that school proms are a form of “legalized prostitution.”  Kyle uses crass talk when referring to situations between him and his girlfriend, i.e. “…in return, I get some,” school dance chaperones “keep us from mating on the dance floor,”  her hand on him was headed “toward the Danger Zone,”  ”going for the crotch again,” someone suggests a “threesome.”  Kyle watches naked girls through his magic mirror.  When searching for a girl online to break the spell, pay sex sites pop up and women send him naked pictures.  He overhears guys at the dance talking about “what they had in their pockets and who they’d use them on.”  He imagines “tangling [Lindy's] body with his.”

Adult Themes:  Kyle’s mother left his father to run off with another man.  Kyle and his girlfriend drink vodka at her parent’s house after the dance.  Rape is discussed very briefly, and castration as punishment.  Lindy’s druggie father abuses her; her “slut” sisters had run off to live with their boyfriends.  Kyle discusses a gay writer (Oscar Wilde) with his tutor.   A drug dealer breaks into Kyle’s house and offers him drugs.  In the end of the book, it is mentioned that Lindy has moved in with Kyle to get away from her drug-addicted father.  (She has a separate bedroom, but both Lindy and Kyle are still in high school.)

Synopsis

Kyle Kingsbury, a Manhattan freshman at an elite prep school, describes himself as the guy with money, perfect looks, and the perfect life, “The guy you wished you were.”  He treats everyone badly and laughs about it, having no sympathy for anyone less endowed than him in either looks or money.  That is, until the day a Gothic-looking girl at his school casts a horrible spell on him and turns him into a beast (sound familiar?).  Now he has two years to find someone he can love and who loves him in return for who he is–the classic spell-breaking love in fairy tales.  So Kyle’s dad moves him out of their Manhattan apartment and into a Brooklyn brownstone where he holes himself up with nothing but books, the internet, and the magic mirror the witch gave him and no one but a cook/maid and a blind tutor.  In the meantime, he transforms on the inside from a horrid, egotistical jerk into a sensitive, literary, rose-loving, gardening, sweet-but-hairy-on-the-outside kind of guy.  When a drug dealer breaks into his house and fears for his life in the clutches of the Beast, he offers his teenage daughter in exchange for his life (really?!)  Along comes Lindy, the average-looking, smart girl with a gentle touch and a love of books who sees past his beastly exterior and into his now-refined heart of gold .  Bet you can’t guess the ending.

The author paints such an annoying picture of Kyle in the beginning of the book, you almost want to put the book down.  I suppose that was intended, so that the reader will relish watching his sanctifying transformation.  Of course he becomes the lovable, perfect guy in the end who falls for the ordinary girl that every girl reading this book thinks she is.  It’s a nice, familiar story that doesn’t disappoint in the end, but it could have been just as good without the crude language and sex talk.  I also found it hard to believe that a 16-year-old couple could find true love that would last forever and that they were living together in the same enormous house by story’s end with no apparent parental supervision.  These are themes I would not recommend adolescent girls to indulge in.

Language:  0

Violence:  1

Sexual Content:  0

Adult Themes:  1

Title: The Westing Game

Author: Ellen Raskin

1979 Newbery Medal Winner

Ratings Explanation

Violence:  One character, a teenage girl named Turtle, runs around kicking people in the shins.  Three small bombs explode (in a restaurant, in an elevator, and at a bridal shower) causing minimal damage and injury.  Discussion of how Mr. Westing may have been murdered (the premise is a murder mystery, after all.)

Adult Themes:  Samuel Westing, multi-millionaire businessman, has supposedly been murdered and multiple suspects are partnered together to solve the crime.  Mr. Westing’s daughter died years ago; some speculate drowning, some think suicide.  One character is disabled and in a wheelchair; light discussion of racism.

Synopsis

“I Samuel W. Westing declare this to be my last will and testament and do hereby swear that I did not die of natural causes.  My life was taken from me–by one of you!”

An odd assortment of people have been personally offered the opportunity to move into a new, swanky condominium development.  Once they’ve moved in, the residents of Sunset Towers discover that they have two things in common:  they are all potential heirs to multi-millionaire Samuel Westing’s paper products fortune, and they are also all suspects in his murder.  Now they have been brought together to have his cryptic will read to them and a puzzling set of clues dispersed to mis-matched partnerships.  Thus, the Westing Game begins.  The players include mothers, fathers, teenagers, a secretary, an inventor, a Chinese chef,  a doorman, a doctor, a judge, and a dressmaker (not to mention a bookie, a bomber, and a burglar).  They must work in pairs to solve the mystery, and the first pair to solve it wins the enormous fortune.  But since none of them appear to be related,  how are they all tied to Mr. Westing?  And why do all the clues, when put together, become the lyrics to “America the Beautiful”?

I dusted off this Newbery-winner from my childhood to read aloud to my youngest and discovered that, even as an adult, it requires serious attention to details to follow this clever mystery.  Young readers might want to take notes if they intend to solve the crime before the surprise ending.  The book tends to shift perspectives frequently during the narrative, which makes it somewhat confusing if you are reading it aloud (unless you are good at acting out several different voices, including Chinese and Scottish accents), but it is a very worthwhile and entertaining read.  A good introduction to the mystery genre for young readers.

Language-4

Violence- 2.5

Sexual Content- 1

Adult Themes- 1

Title: The King of Attolia (The Queen’s Thief, Book 3)

Author:  Megan Whalen Turner

Ratings Explanation

Language: There was a high level of language in this book.  The most frequent being hell and damn.  Exclamations of deity are also prevalent, usually in conjunction with damn.  Bastard is used a handful of times, along with a couple of other stronger words.

Violence:  Assassins try to kill the King.  He fights them and is injured in the process.  The Dr. stitches the wound and it is described.  The Queen slaps the King.  The king is angry and throws things, breaking them.  There is sword fighting and aggressive behavior.

Sexual Content:  The Queen and King kiss.  There are references to them sharing a bed, although they are married.  The guards and the King sit naked in the steam room.

Adult themes: Loyalty vs. betrayal seems to be the outstanding theme in this book.  The people worship many different Gods.

Synopsis

The Thief, Eugenides, is now the King of Attolia.  He must convince the Queen’s court that he is worthy of the title he now bears.  The Attolians think he is an idiot, a puppet of the Queen, and that there is no love in the marriage.  After all, she was the one who cut off his hand.   The king finds himself the recipient of many pranks, jokes, and even an assassination attempt.  Eugenides is clever though, and as usual, has a carefully laid out plan.

This book was a bit different from the other two books, but no less exciting and compelling.  I love the storytelling in this book and in this series.  While this book lacked the twists and surprises the other two books had, it had a depth that I enjoyed.  Eugenides literally changes the minds of those who wish ill upon him, and he does it with integrity, intelligence and patience.  The story of love between the Queen and King is so good.  The biggest drawback of this book, for me, is the language.  Most editorial reviews place this book anywhere from 7-11^th grade.  I would disagree and say that this book (and series) should be at the upper end of the high school range, if not young adult.

Language- 3

Violence- 1

Sexual Content- 1

Adult Themes- 1

Title: I’d Tell You I Love You, but Then I’d Have To Kill You

Author: Ally Carter

Ratings Explanation

Language: The “B” word is used many times in this book.  Sometimes it looks like this: “B__”.  Sometimes it is actually spelled out.  There is a damn, a bloody, and a bloody hell.

Violence- The girls are training spies and there are mild references to spy torture and combat techniques.  Cammie throws Josh down to the concrete.  The girls have an “operation” where they use kicks and hits to subdue their enemy.

Sexual content- Cammie and friends think the new teacher is “hot”.  Cammie and Josh hold hands and kiss.

Adult Themes-   Girls in this book sneak out and lie to adults.  Cammie’s father, who is a spy, is missing and presumed dead.

Synopsis
Cammie is a 15-year-old girl who’s life is anything but normal.  She attends Gallagher Academy,  a top secret boarding school, training to be a spy.  Her mother is a spy and also the head master of the school.  On a training exercise,  Cammie meets a “normal” boy who shows interest in her.  Cammie must keep her real identity a secret and the lies she tells lead to many complications and adventures.  Cammie had no idea falling for a guy could be so dangerous.

The story itself is cute.  It’s a rather fluffy read, quick and very teenager-ish.  Cammie is full of sarcasm and one liners that made me laugh.  What girl hasn’t, at some time or another, wished she could be a super strong, smart, sexy spy?!  (Go ahead, say that 5 times, really fast…)  The downside to this book is the language.  It is so completely unnecessary.   Here is my favorite part of the book:

“I did what I was trained to do- I grabbed the offending arm, shifted my weight, and used the force of my would-be attacker’s momentum against him.

It was fast.  Really fast.  Scary, these- hands- are- lethal-weapons fast.  I am so good, I thought, right up until the point when I looked down and saw Josh lying at my feet, the wind knocked out of him.  His voice sounded so weak, and I thought, This is it.  I killed the only man I could ever love, and now I’m about to hear his deathbed (deathstreet?) confession.  I leaned close to him.  My hair fell into his open mouth.  He gagged.

So…yeah…on my first pseudo-date, I not only physically assaulted my potential soul mate, I also made him gag- literally.”

 Language- 4

 Violence- 3

 Sexual Content- 1

 Adult Themes – 2

 Title: The Queen of Attolia

Author: Megan Whalen Turner

 Ratings Explanation

Language: Exclamations of deity (Oh Gods, Thank the Gods, Oh My God) are used frequently.  Damn and hell are also used frequently in several different forms and phrases.  Bastard is used once.  The “B” word is also used.  Several references are made to cursing without actually using the words.   For example, “A great deal of swearing”.

Violence: Eugenides is caught in the Queen of Attolia’s castle and is imprisoned and treated poorly.  His hand is cut off as punishment and is described in detail.  There is a war between several countries and thus, fighting and death.  Some battle scenes are described which include fighting with swords.   Eugenides gets his ears “boxed” by the queen.  Eugenides is angry and throws things.  There is a scene where Eugenides takes a goat to offer as a sacrifice to his Gods.  He “deftly” slits the goat’s throat, then its belly.  The blood and guts are described.  The windows of the building are blown out by the anger of the Gods.

Sexual Content: Eugenides declares his love for the Queen.  He kisses the queen.

Adult Themes: There is much talk of war, loyalties, and betrayals in this book.  Worship of Gods and the fear of offending “the Gods” are the basis of many decisions the characters make.  The Gods speak with the characters in several instances.  Eugenides feels “betrayed” by the Gods.

Synopsis

The Queen of Attolia is the second book in the Queen’s Thief series.  It continues the life and adventures of Eugenides, the queen’s thief.  In the first book, Eugenides stole a mythical relic from the Queen of Attolia.  Now he finds himself in the path of her wrath and her plans for revenge.  His small country becomes entangled in a war with Attolia.  It is said that Eugenides can steal anything, but can he steal the Queen of Attolia and peace for his warring country?  What will be the cost of such attempts?

This is a fantastic, compelling story.  The characters are strong and believable and  Eugenides has a dry wit that I love.  The twists in this story are so fun.  There were parts of this book I just couldn’t get through fast enough for wanting to know what happened next.  I can’t believe how badly I wanted good things to happen for Eugenides, like he was my child or something!   The ending was superb.  I loved it, and I love Eugenides.  Such emotions can only be brought about by a great story.  Having said all that, I have to add how disappointed I am in the language levels in this book.  I would never feel comfortable allowing my children to read this book.  I felt uncomfortable with the language.   This is not a child’s book.  The themes, feelings and actions of this book are very adult.  The main characters are young adults, but I would suggest caution in allowing children to read this book.  My favorite quote from this book is, “Gen, I know my decisions are my own responsibility.  If I am the pawn of the Gods, it is because they know me so well, not because they make up my mind for me.”

Language:  1

Violence:  2.5

Sexual Content:  1

Adult Themes:  2

 Title:  Peter and the Starcatchers

Author:  Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

Ratings Explanation

Language:  A few instances of the word “damn”; typical derogatory pirate talk.

Violence:  A lot of talk of walking the planks, men being thrown overboard, and threats of slicing them up and feeding them to the sharks; the pirates smack each other around a lot.  Typical descriptions of pirate attacks on the open seas.  The natives on the Mollusk Island throw Peter and his friends into a pit to be eaten by a crocodile.  Mermaids viciously attack two seamen who, in turn, attempt to stab and kill the mermaids.  The boys beat up one of the seamen with coconuts.  Molly is held at knifepoint by a pirate.  Black Stache stabs a native in the chest and leaves him to die.  And quite a few other instances of pirates attempting to kill Peter, Molly, and other pirates.

Sexual Content:  Allusions to Mrs. Bumbrake, Molly’s governess, spending evenings in Slank’s cabin on board the ship.  Peter dreams he is kissing a mermaid and wakes to find it is true (she is actually breathing life into him); Peter sweetly thinks about kissing Molly and how “it doesn’t seem so bad”.  The pirates wantonly gaze at the sunbathing mermaids (who, being mermaids, are naturally topless but with very long hair discreetly covering certain areas.)

Adult Themes:  Mrs. Bumbrake (is she married?) getting cozy with Slank; an allusion to Peter being maltreated at a home for boys; common pirate behavior such as drinking rum into oblivion, ogling mermaids, stealing, plundering, pillaging, etc.  The sails on Black Stache’s pirate ship resemble an enormous brassiere.

Synopsis

In this clever ”prequel” to J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, we learn all about what happened to Peter before we meet him on Wendy Darling’s bedroom windowsill.  The book begins with Peter, a 13 or 14-yr-old (even he’s not sure) and his fellow orphan mates being taken from St. Norbert’s Home for Wayward Boys in London and being placed aboard a ship, the Never Land, which unbeknownst to them will deliver them into servitude on a faraway island.  There he meets Molly Aster, an astute, pretty 14-yr-old girl who speaks with porpoises and confides in him about the contents of a mysterious trunk aboard the ship.  According to Molly, the trunk contains mystical, glowing ”starstuff”, star matter which falls from the sky and is quickly retrieved by a secret society called the Starcatchers whose job it is to keep the powerful stuff from falling into the wrong hands.  Starstuff gives anyone who touches it immediate joy, warmth, increased intelligence, and the ability to fly.  It can also transform fish into mermaids, but in the hands of the Others, its power can be used for evil.  Peter is instantly intrigued (and a little dazed by the lovely Molly) and vows to help her protect the starstuff from Black Stache, a notorious and greedy pirate whose ship is now in hot pursuit of the Never Land.  Inevitably, a storm shipwrecks everyone on a tropical island inhabited by savage natives and a monstrous crocodile.  Swashbuckling adventures ensue as Peter and Molly rush to find the trunk before the pirates do. 

As with all great children’s fantasy tales, this one indulges the adults, as well.  Its classic pirate dialogue (not too randy for the kids), clever storyline, and high-seas adventure will keep the pages of this novel turning.  The authors fill in many of the blanks from the original story (and the Disney cartoon) with delightful satisfaction.

Language: 1

Violence:3

Sexual Content: 2

Adult Themes: 2

Title:  Heir Apparent

Author: Vivian Vande Velde

Ratings Explanation

Language:  Three common swear words used.  Belittling of others because of their rank in society.  Sarcastic humor used for good and bad throughout the book.

Violence:  A group of activists, supposedly protecting children and families, storms an arcade gaming center, damaging equipment and placeing some of the gamers lives in danger.  In the game, the participant can virtually kill other characters as well as be killed which starts the game over.  There are many battles using weaponry from the middle ages (bow and arrows, daggers, swords, catapults, poisoning etc.) .  Many heads are cut off, throats are slit, and bodies stabbed.  A young boy is killed for poaching, a man’s head is crushed by a wagon wheel.

Sexual Content:  Mentions that sexual harassment is not allowed in the games.  A man sits so that he has a good view down the front of a woman’s dress.  One of the wizards, a female, uses her good looks and feminine charms to influence men around her.

Adult Themes:  Main character does not have a good relationship with her dad.  She is uncertain that dads in general are any good.  The story is based on total immersion gaming which requires the gamer to link their senses and memories to the gaming system.  A group of activists protest the gaming center saying its product is ruining children and families.  In the game, minors are allowed to ‘consume’ alcoholic beverages.

Synopsis

Giannine receives a gift certificate for her 14th birthday from her dad.  It is for a gaming center which offers Total Immersion Gaming, the latest fad in the gaming industry.  When she arrives at the arcade, she  encounters a group of protesting activists claiming to protect families and children from this new evil.   She decides to go in, despite the protests, and signs up to play Heir Apparent.  This game offers a medieval adventure where the gamer is chosen to be the late king’s heir and must gain the confidence of the characters in the kingdom in order to be to be crowned and win the game.  Shortly after Giannine is in immersion, the activist group breaks into the building and begins to destroy some of the equipment.  Because she has already been immersed, technicians cannot safely disconnect  Giannine out without risking damage to her brain.   In order to be released from the total immersion status, Giannine must win the game.   On her adventure, she meets a spiteful step family, odd wizards, a few untrustworthy advisers, rebelling barbarians and a giant dragon.  Giannine must learn how to win their favor and be crowned before time is up.  She is killed virtually in several attempts and must start the game over until she finally learns from her mistakes.  This is coupled with the pressure of getting through the game in a timely manner so that she can escape her total immersion before her real brain is destroyed.

This book is a unique mix of fantasy and future with a creative story line and characters.  I thought it was interesting to see the influence that each of Giannine’s  choices had as she returned to the beginning after being ‘killed’. Sarcastic humor was abundant throughout the book and was a little much for me personally.  Because of the violence, (even though it wasn’t ‘real’, ) I would recommend it for the older end of the grade 6-9 spectrum depending upon the sensitivity of your reader.

 Language: 2

 Violence: 2

Sexual content: 1

 Adult Themes: 1

Title: The Thief (The Queen’s Thief, Book 1)

Author: Megan Whalen Turner

1997 Newbery Honor

Ratings Explanation

Language: “Damn” and “God’s Damn” are used many times throughout the book.

Violence: Gen is frequently mistreated and abused because he is a prisoner and beneath those he is traveling with.  He is slapped, kicked, hit, tied up and beaten with a riding crop.  The traveling group is attacked, there is fighting with swords and all attackers are killed.  Gen is injured when he tries to slow a group of soldiers by fighting them with a sword. Many people die in the attack.  Gen finds the bones of many dead people in the temple of the Gods.

Sexual Content: Gen is stripped down naked and washed.

Adult Themes: Gen is a thief and steals things.  The book is based on stories of Gods and Goddesses like the God of the Sky, Goddess of the Earth, the God of Thieves and so forth.

Synopsis The story of Gen begins in a prison where Gen is being held for stealing.  He is not just a thief, but a bragging thief.  Self proclaimed as the best thief, able to steal anything.  The king’s scholar, the magus, needs Gens help to steal a rumored and hidden treasure of the God’s from another land.  We follow their journey to the hidden temple of the Gods where Gens abilities are put to the test.  The magus has plans, but Gen is a trickster and has a plan of his own.

I did not really get into this book until Gen reaches the temple of the Gods and begins his adventure there.  I did love the ending of this book because it went someplace I wasn’t expecting.  It unfolded into another story.  Honestly, the repeated usage of “God’s damn” in the beginning of the book really distracted me from the story and the mean treatment of Gen was not my favorite.  The moment I really bonded with Gen was when he said this in response to Sophos’s question, “If you could be anywhere you wanted right now, where would it be?”  “In bed.  In a big bed, with a carved footboard, in a warm room with a lot of windows.  And sheets.  And a fireplace, and books.  Lots of books.”  That was the moment that I knew I could love Gen. 

©2010 The Literate Mother

Title:  The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

Author:  Kate DiCamillo

Ratings Explanation

Violence:  A cruel man kicks and yells at a hobo when he is discovered sleeping on a train.  The diner owner yanks Edward out of a little boy’s hands and slams the rabbit against the lunch counter, shattering Edward’s head.  Edward is nailed to a wooden stake and turned into a scarecrow, and the illustration of him resembles a crucifixion. Some of these themes and images may be disturbing for sensitive children.

Adult Themes:  A little boy’s father is an abusive alcoholic.  The boy’s younger sister dies, and he runs away from home.

Synopsis

In a house on Egypt Street there lives a beautiful china rabbit named Edward.  He dresses in the finest apparel and is adored by a little girl named Abilene.  But Edward thinks so highly of himself that he thinks very little of anything or anyone else.  Being loved by Abilene is fine as long as she doesn’t squeeze him so tightly that his clothes get rumpled.  One day they embark on an ocean journey, and Edward is tossed overboard by two careless boys.  There on the ocean floor he lays for some time, until a storm tosses him upwards and he is caught in the net of a fisherman who brings him home to his wife.  Thus begins an adventure for Edward of being lost and found over and over, from Abilene to the fisherman, from a garbage dump to a hobo, from the railroad tracks into the arms of a deathly sick little girl (who squeezes him very tightly), and all along the way, Edward begins to understand what it truly means to be loved and to love in return.  But will he ever see little Abilene again?

I read this book aloud to my little girl before bedtime, and each night after she fell asleep I would keep reading to find out what happened next to Edward.  Of course I knew he was just a pompous toy rabbit, but like Abilene, I loved him anyway and became engrossed in his journey.  The book is pure magic.  Edward is real not just to the reader, but to every character whose path he crosses in the book; the characters themselves are so sweet that it is heartbreaking to see Edward get separated from each one of them.  The ending gave me goosebumps.  A beautifully told story; it is, however, incredibly poignant and sad in many parts, which may be considered too heavy for very young or sensitive readers. That being said, it is still an extremely worthwhile read.

©2010 The Literate Mother

Language: 1

Violence: 2

Sexual Content: 2

Adult Themes: 2

Title:  The Book of the Maidservant

Author:  Rebecca Barnhouse

Ratings Explanation:

Language: One mild swear word.  The use of ‘damn’ and ‘hell’ in a religious sense.  Talking down to servants.  Belittling language used towards servants.

 Violence:  Johanna and company are threatened by mercenaries until they give them money.  Johanna’s mistress has a knife held to her throat.  Johanna is repeatedly hit by a large man for not doing her work to his expectations.  Johanna is attacked with a knife and forced upstairs by the man.  Another friend comes to defend her and is also threatened with a knife.  Johanna uses her dagger in self defense on a mercenary who is chasing her.  A young student slips on a rock while crossing a river and is seriously wounded.

 Sexual Content:  Mention of out-of -wedlock intimacy.  Allusions to sexual harassment towards servants.  Johanna’s mistress has a reputation of having several children by different fathers.  Johanna is forced upstairs by a pilgrim.  She is saved by a friend. A young married pilgrim traveling with her old husband flirts with a young student accompanying them. 

 Adult Themes:  Johanna’s mother dies in childbirth along with the baby.  Her older sister marries and Johanna is forced to become a maidservant  to a ‘holy woman’.  The servants are treated as less than people. 

 Synopsis

 Johanna is a maidservant of the well known holy woman Dame Margery Kempe.  Dame Margery hears the Lord speak to her daily and feels the pain and suffering of the Virgin Mary for her son.   Her gift, however, does not help her notice the pain and suffering of those around her.   When Dame Margery decides to go on a religious pilgrimage, she brings young Johanna with her to cook, wash, mend and care for the group of pilgrims she will travel with.  The journey brings many hardships, most of which arise from  the arguments between Madame Margery and her fellow travelers concerning her incessant preaching.  Relationships become so embittered that Dame Margery turns her back on the group and abandons them all, including Johanna.  The young maidservant is left on her own to find her way through foreign countries without any money, food or protection.  Johanna learns much from her adventures and in the end finds strength in herself and from the love of others.

  This book was inspired by the 15th century auto-biography of the real Margery Kempe.  These were hard times for women, especially the young and the poor.  An eye opening look for young readers at life in early England.

©2010 The Literate Mother

Language:  2

Violence:  1

Sexual Content:  1

Adult Themes:  1

Title:  The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

Author:  Jacqueline Kelly

2010 Newbery Honor Award

Ratings Explanation

Language:  Profanity in many of Grandfather’s exuberant exclamations; Viola, the cook, tends to use “Jesus” and “Lord a’mighty” as exclamations.  A handful of “damns” and “hells” sprinkled here and there.

Violence:  Grandfather tells Callie about the horrors he witnessed during the Civil War:  amputations, mutilations, death, disease, burning bodies.

Sexual Content:  Calpurnia tells her best friend Lula what is expected of wives when they marry (“lots of kissing”); Callie learns how plants reproduce; some light discussion on the mating rituals of farm animals and other species in the wild.

Adult Themes:  Callie’s mother drinks Lydia Pinkham’s “tonic water” (which isn’t water) when stressed.  Grandfather smokes cigars and imbibes on occasion.  He makes several attempts to produce liquor from pecans in his laboratory and gives Callie a taste, which results in her fitful coughing and belching.

Synopsis 

It is 1899 in Fentress, Texas, and young Calpurnia Virginia Tate (known as “Callie Vee”), the only daughter of seven children in an uppercrust family, is soon to turn twelve.  There are certain expectations of a girl in this era, none of which Callie is living up to.  She is less than praiseworthy at knitting, sewing, cooking, or “deportment” (i.e.: posture and propriety).  What she cherishes is spending time with her Grandfather, inaugural member of the National Geographic Society, out in his shed or in his library studying and classifying plants and insects and learning about evolution (gasp!).  She is fascinated by science but realizes that because of societal constraints, she will probably never be able to realize her dream of becoming a scientist.  Callie’s mother is overly concerned with her only daughter’s preoccupation with Darwin and Dickens, but when she attempts to steer her toward more ladylike pursuits by giving her the book The Science of Housewifery for a Christmas present (a humorous and poignant moment in the story), Callie feels her ”life sentence [has] been delivered.”  Despite these impediments, Callie is a determined and charming heroine who knows her heart and ambitions.  The conversations she has and discovery she makes with her grandfather (a new plant species) are the highlights of the book.  When a new invention, the telephone, comes to tiny Fentress and the entire town turns up to watch its installation, Grandfather says to her, “Do you realize what this means, Calpurnia?  The old century is dying, even as we watch.  Remember this day.”  The book ends with the new century dawning, and the reader is left to wonder if Grandfather’s words will ring true not just for the passage of time, but for the future of our young lady scientist and her traditional expectations, as well.

A wonderful novel.  I relished watching the relationship between inquisitive little Callie and her grandfather blossom as she learned by his side about the world around her.  Lines like “I’d never fainted in my life, but I thought it sounded like an interesting experience,” and “It was too bad, but sometimes a little knowledge could ruin your whole day, or at least take off some of the shine” (upon seeing through a microscope all the miniscule creatures that inhabit her favorite swimming hole) made this book truly enjoyable and real.  Details that make the turn-of-the-century come alive are Callie’s first taste of Coca-Cola at the county fair and Grandfather’s infatuation with a new-fangled invention, the automobile.  A book you will recommend to your friends. 

©2010 The Literate Mother

Language:  1

Violence:   0

Sexual Content:  2

Adult Themes:  1

Title:  The Secret Language of Girls

Author:  Frances O’Roark Dowell

Ratings Explanation

Language:  Some profanity.

Sexual Content:  Typical 12-yr-old girl talk of kissing boys.  Marylin has a crush on her teacher, Mr. Kertzner, who has a crush on Marylin’s newly-divorced aunt.  At Marylin’s first boy-girl party, the kids play spin-the-bottle and must kiss whomever the bottle winds up pointing to.  Marylin wonders what it would be like to kiss so-and-so, etc.  Andrew asks Kate to “go” with him.

Adult Themes:  Kate’s dad suffers a heart attack.  Talk of Flannery hanging out with friends who smoke.  The girls have a seance at a slumber party.  Marylin’s parents are getting divorced.

Synopsis

Kate and Marylin are eleven years old and have been best friends for as long as they can remember.  But when a new girl named Flannery moves into the neighborhood and threatens to come between the two, their perfect friendship is put to the test.  Suddenly Marylin is thinking about cheerleader tryouts and boys, while Kate is still thinking about catching fireflies and baking cookies.  When Flannery chooses Marylin for her new BFF,  Kate is snubbed and begins to sit with the “nerdy” kids at lunch.  She meets Paisley, an off-beat world traveler who doesn’t seem to care what anybody thinks of her, even when she has a piece of food stuck to her shirt.  Kate suddenly sees the nice boy Andrew in a whole new light–it is she, not Marylin, who finds herself with a boyfriend.  Meanwhile, when Marylin makes the cheer squad and Flannery does not, it’s Marylin’s turn to be snubbed.  Marylin finds out that her parents are getting divorced and wishes she could talk to Kate about it, but now that she is part of the in-crowd, will she have the courage to reach out to Kate and renew their friendship?

I viewed this book from two angles, the first being that it portrays somewhat accurately the ups and downs of preteen life and all of its insecurities, peer pressure, and backbiting.  The second, however, is that I struggled to finish it because of these issues and a trite story line.  Was it because I’m not eleven anymore and no longer concerned with these problems?  I doubt it, but there may be some schoolgirls out there who see themselves in the characters and can relate.  Not on my “must-read” list, but an innocuous read; a pre-cursor to typical teenage romance novels.

©2010 The Literate Mother

Language:0

Violence:1

Sexual Content:0

Adult Themes: 2

Title:  The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Author: Brian Selznick

2008 Caldecott Medal Award Winner

Ratings Explanation

Violence:  Hugo is treated roughly after robbing a store.  Hugo is seriously hurt from his hand being slammed in a door.  Isabelle breaks her leg falling off of a chair. Hugo is almost run over by a train while trying to run away from his pursuers.

Adult Themes:  Hugo and Isabelle sneak into the movies without paying.  Isabelle’s  parents died when she was a baby.  Hugo’s father is burned to death after being accidentally locked in a museum that caught on fire.  Hugo is orphaned after the accident and is sent to live with his alcoholic uncle.  His uncle disappears and Hugo must learn to survive on his own.  He steals his food from local stores.  The toy shop owner’s health is affected by his past.  He has a breakdown.  Hugo is put in jail for a short time.  His uncle’s body is found at the bottom of a river.

Summary
After Hugo’s father dies in an accidental fire, Hugo is given to his alcoholic uncle who lives in the local train station and maintains their clocks.  One day his uncle leaves and never comes back.  Hugo doesn’t want anyone to know he is alone and decides to keep up appearances by maintaining the clocks himself.   His hope for living lies in trying to repair an automaton his father found in the museum where he worked.  Hugo is convinced the robotic man holds some secret answer to a happier future.  Hugo relies on stealing food and parts from local stores.  One day he is caught by the toy store owner.  A young girl, living with the owner, befriends Hugo and tries to help him discover the mystery of the automaton.  They discover the toy store owner is the famous Georges Melies, a magician and maker of early films.  Hugo and Georges find their lives mysteriously intertwined and end up becoming the answer of hope that the other had been searching for.

This book amazed me.  Selznick uniquely combines 525 pages of  illustrations and text with a movie like feel to tell this amazing story.  The message was tender, the story suspenseful, and the artwork beautiful.  My favorite quote from the book is when Hugo is looking down from the clock tower with Isabella and says, “I like to imagine that the world is one big machine.  You know, machines never have any extra parts.  They have the exact number and type of parts they need.  So I figure if the entire world is a big machine,  I have to be here for some reason.  And that means you have to be here for some reason, too.”

©2010 The Literate Mother

Language: 0

Violence: 1

Sexual Content: 1

Adult Themes: 1

Title: Remembering Isaac – The Joyful Potter of Neiderbipp

Author: Ben Behunin

Ratings Explanation

 Violence:  Mary, Emily, and Marge witness the near killing of a chicken in what Farmer Hill called ‘the pecking order’, saying there was little he could do to save the poor bird. “He told us that if he stepped in now, it would only be a matter of time before another bird began to get picked on and that it would be better just to let nature take its course.”  The chicken’s pecking order is no different than the girl’s social circle.

Sexual Content: Jake and Amy share a kiss.

Adult Themes: Pregnancy Loss.

Summary

Jake purchases a post-college graduation airline ticket to Greece and eagerly awaits his upcoming adventure.  A ceramics professor suggests he apply for an unusual position,  a town potter.  Neiderbipp’s town potter, Isaac, has died.  Jake takes the bus to rural Pennsylvania to weigh his options before his departure for Greece.  He arrives in Neiderbipp and finds a somewhat quirky, yet charming town settled by German immigrants in the early 1700’s.  A town that looks as if it has been transplanted from Germany to Pennsylvania.  Jake is intrigued and accepts a trial position as the town potter for the summer, delaying his trip to Greece for a few months.

Jake cleans out the potter’s studio/shop and discovers an array of mugs hanging from the rafters with varying levels of dust.  As the summer passes, Isaac’s friends stop by to clean their mug, make a pot of peppermint tea, and share their “Isaac Experiences” with Jake.   Jake realizes that Isaac was much more than the town potter as he pieces together Isaac’s life story.  Jake also discovers the “wisdom of a humble craftsman”.

This book simply makes me want to be a better person.  I loved it!  I look forward to reading the sequel.

©2010 The Literate Mother

Language:  0

Violence:  0

Sexual Content:  0

Adult Themes:  1

Title:  Dear Mr. Henshaw

Author:  Beverly Cleary

1984 Newbery Medal Winner

Ratings Explanation

Adult Themes:  Leigh’s parents have recently divorced and his father is mostly absent from his life.

Synopsis

Dear Mr. Henshaw,

Guess what?  Today the school librarian stopped me in the hall and said she had something for me.  She handed me your new book and said I could be the first to read it.  Now I know Mr. Fridley isn’t the only one who notices me.

Leigh Botts is a sixth-grader with a lot of trouble on his mind.  His parents have recently split up, he and his mother have moved to a new town, and Leigh’s only friend at his new school seems to be the kindly custodian, Mr. Fridley.  He is angry at his father, a cross-country trucker who took the pet dog with him, seldom phones and usually sends his support payments late.  Does he even remember my name?  Leigh wonders to himself.  (He only ever calls him kid–even Mr. Fridley calls him son.)  And to add insult to injury, someone keeps stealing all the “good stuff” out of his lunch every day.  Then an assignment in English class comes along:  write a letter asking questions to an author.  Naturally, Leigh chooses Mr. Boyd Henshaw, who’s been his favorite author since the second grade.  What Mr. Henshaw replies just may help Leigh through this rough patch, gain him some perspective, and earn him a friend or two while he’s at it.

Written as a series of letters and journal entries (first “Dear Mr. Henshaw”, then “Dear Mr. Pretend Henshaw”, then just a date at the top of the entry), this book is a shift from Beverly Cleary’s usual light-hearted fare of children living on Klickitat Street and motorcycle-riding mice.  But as can be expected with Mrs. Cleary, her trademark sense of humor and realistic voice help paint an endearing portrait of a young boy coming to grips with himself and his emotions.  A wonderful and poignant book.

©2010 The Literate Mother

Language:  1

Violence:  2

Sexual Content:  0

Adult Themes:  2

Title:  Sounder

Author:  William H. Armstrong

1970 Newbery Medal Winner

Ratings Explanation

Language:  One instance of an offensive racial epithet.

Violence:  The boy’s father is gruffly and cruelly manhandled and chained when arrested; the men shoot the boy’s dog in the road; a somewhat graphic description of the dog’s suffering and injury; the boy is treated harshly when visiting his father in prison; he vividly imagines a cruel fate for the jailer; a detailed description of a bull being choked, strangled, and prodded to death.

Adult Themes:  The boy’s father steals a ham to feed his family and is arrested, imprisoned, and sentenced to hard labor for his crime.  As the story is set in the deep South in the late 19th century, social injustice and prejudice are a major theme in the book.  Also death, uncertainty, hunger, hardship, and pain are all addressed.

Synopsis

This is the story of a poor sharecropper’s son and his loyal companion, a coon hound named Sounder.  The boy’s father and Sounder come home night after night from possum hunting empty-handed.  But one morning, the delicious, sweet smell of ham and sausage fills their tiny shack; finally, the family will eat a real meal.  But then the sheriff and his deputies come to arrest the father for stealing.  The mother is quiet as he is dragged away; the children cry; Sounder breaks free, chases after the sheriff’s wagon, and is shot in the middle of the road.  The boy finds a shot-off piece of Sounder’s velvet ear in the road and puts it in his pocket.  (“He was going to put it under his pillow and wish that Sounder wasn’t dead.”)  Sounder disappears, presumably to die somewhere, and the boy is broken-hearted.  His mother tells him, “You must learn to lose, child. . . Some people is born to keep.  Some is born to lose.  We was born to lose, I reckon.”

Time passes.  Months after Sounder’s disappearance, the dog wanders back home.  He is as thin as a skeleton, missing part of his ear and head, blind in one eye, and limping on three legs.  He no longer barks.  He is a shell of his former, robust self.  The boy wanders from county to county in an attempt to find his father, who has been sentenced to hard labor.  Years go by and his father finally returns.  He is now crippled and limping from a mine blast, but he is home at last.  Sounder barks at his master’s return.  One day the boy’s father lays down to die in the woods, and soon thereafter, Sounder gives up the ghost.  The boy learns that hardship for his family is a way of life, but remembers something he read in a book, “Only the unwise think that what has changed is dead,” which he interprets to mean if a flower blooms once, it goes on blooming somewhere forever.

This is a powerful and moving book, subtle in its writing style yet deep in its nuances.  Names are left out of the story, and the characters are referred to as simply “the boy,” “the boy’s father,” and ”the woman,” lending them the universality of the common, oppressed spirit.  I found some parts hard to read because it was so heart-wrenching and, to be honest, depressing.   It might even be hard to bear for particularly sensitive children (i.e.:  the scene where Sounder is shot is painfully detailed), but it gives the reader a deeper understanding of the social injustices of the day.  A favorite line of mine:  The boy had heard once that some people had so many books they only read each book once.  But the boy was sure there were not that many books in the world.

©2010 The Literate Mother

Language:  1

Violence:  1

Sexual Content:  0

Adult Themes:  1

Title:  The Whipping Boy

Author:  Sid Fleischman

1987 Newbery Medal Winner

Ratings Explanation

Language:   When writing the ransom note for his illiterate captors, Jemmy tells them, “I’ll tell [the King] you’ve got reserved seats in Hell.”  Many instances of demeaning name-calling and mild harsh language, but nothing objectionable; i.e. “dim-witted numskulls”, “insolent rascals”, “scurvy riffraff”, etc.

Violence:  Jemmy is repeatedly beaten by the King’s servants, descriptions of which are not explicit.  The kidnappers whip the prince and mistreat both boys.

Adult Themes:  Child abuse; as the prince’s official whipping boy, Jemmy has been taken from his home to live in the castle and bear the injustice of corporal punishment for the prince.  The prince runs away and demands his whipping boy come with him.  The boys are taken hostage by two ruffians who threaten and beat them.  The boys escape, are hunted by their captors, and are chased through a sewer.

Synopsis

By royal decree, Prince Horace (a.k.a. “Prince Brat”) is not to be spanked, thrashed, cuffed, smacked, or whipped, for it is forbidden to lay a finger on the heir to the throne.  So when the prince misbehaves, which is often, it is the fate of poor young Jemmy, former rat catcher and commoner plucked from the streets, to suffer his thrashings for him.  One day, Prince Brat, bored of castle life and hi-jinks, decides to run away and forces Jemmy to accompany him.  While in the forest, the two boys are seized by the infamous ruffian Hold-Your-Nose Billy and his dull accomplice Cutwater, who demand a King’s ransom for the prince’s safe return.  But Jemmy, who is sharper than the two of them combined, fools his kidnappers into thinking he is the royal brat and then escapes their hairy, garlic-scented clutches.  Naturally the prince follows, as does adventure and mishap.  But soon enough, amidst mistaken identity woes, dank and smelly sewer chases, and a dancing carnival bear, the boys learn the meaning of trust, friendship, and keeping your word.  And of course, the rogue captors reap their own due reward in the end, as it should be.

This story is a clever, immensely enjoyable twist on the classic “prince and the pauper” tale set in a day and age long gone, when boys were called “lads” and expressions such as “Do say!” and “As I live and breathe!” found their way into conversation.  It comes across as a humorous adventure story reminiscent of Huck and Tom, but it’s clear it claimed the Newbery Medal for its true heart– a tale of two very different boys whose initial mutual dislike for each other turns to appreciation and trust by journey’s end.   At one point Jemmy queries, “Was it clothes that made a prince, just as rags made a street boy?”  It is great fun to watch as they discover what lies beneath their princely/pauperish exteriors.  I marked it for grades 4-5 reading level because of the vocabulary, but it would be a delightful (and quick) family read-aloud.

©2010 The Literate Mother

Language: 1

Violence:2

Sexual Content: 0

Adult Themes: 2

Title: Les Miserables

Author: Victor Hugo

Abridged by James K. Robinson

Ratings Explanation

Language: Several instances of taking the Lord’s name in vain.

Violence: Some descriptions of life in prison: chain gangs, solitary confinement, prisoners treated like animals. Jean Valjean is held captive by Thenardier and several other thugs. There is a struggle and when Valjean is subdued he is tied to a bed. He escapes and burns his own arm with a white hot chisel. Shots are fired at the battle of the barricade and both students and soldiers fall. Eponine takes a bullet to save Marius and dies in his arms. Gavroche is shot and dies outside of the barricade. Javert throws himself into the rapids of the Seine.

Adult Themes:  The near impossibility of those at the fringes of society to better their lives in an honest way. The judicial and social systems ensure that they never rise to anything better. Valjean rises above his circumstances because he commits a crime. Mercy vs. justice. Forgiveness vs. revenge. Suicide.

Synopsis

Jean Valjean is imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister’s starving children. Nineteen years and several foiled escape attempts later, he is released back into society with  his yellow papers, marking him an ex-convict for life. Unable to even procure a night’s lodging and a meal, he turns once again to crime. Valjean steals silver from a priest who has given him a place to sleep, food, and acceptance and love. When the priest forgives him, Valjean sees the good in man. From this priest he learns forgiveness and caring which leads him to devote the rest of his life to God.

Valjean becomes a wealthy mayor, employing and serving all the less fortunate in his city. He takes Fantine, a destitute woman, into his care and rescues her daughter, Cosette, from the exploits of the Thenardiers. Caring for her as a beloved daughter, Valjean learns what it is to love another person.

While Valjean devotes his life to serving God and his fellowmen, Javert, a former prison guard and now police chief, devotes his life to finding Valjean and bringing him to justice. This game of cat and mouse continues over years with Valjean always looking over his shoulder, but never afraid to do good.

Hugo’s classic tale of Jean Valjean and his struggle against society and conscience is starkly abridged in this edition. While the major characters and basic story line are kept intact, nearly all of the social and political commentary is eliminated. The story feels choppy and a little confusing at times, but for someone only interested in the bare bones of the plot, it will do the job. I thought that much of the emotion of the story was lost and felt like characters just appeared to do their job in the story and then disappeared again. (Eponine was only mentioned twice before she died in Marius’s arms. It was hard to believe that she really loved him with so little interaction between them.) I would recommend reading either the unabridged version or a much longer abridged version to get the full effect of this wonderful and moving piece of literature.

©2010 The Literate Mother

Language:  1

Violence:  0

Sexual Content:  0

Adult Themes:  1

Title:  Because of Winn-Dixie

Author:  Kate DiCamillo

2001 Newbery Honor Book

Ratings Explanation

Language:  Miss Franny, the librarian, describes war as “hell”.  Amanda tells her, “Hell is a cuss word.”  Miss Franny replies, “War should be a cuss word, too.”  Gloria Dump expresses herself by saying “Lord”.  The Dewberry boys call Otis “retarded”.

Adult Themes:  Opal’s mother abruptly left her and her father when Opal was only three.  Opal struggles to understand being abandoned.  When Opal asks her father to tell her about her mother, he tells her she was an alcoholic.  Gloria Dump tells Opal that she has made many mistakes in her life, some of them attributed to drinking too much.  Opal gets a job in a pet store working for Otis, who says he was in jail once.  Opal worries her father won’t like her working for a “criminal”.  (It turns out Otis went to jail for refusing to stop playing his guitar on a street corner.)

Synopsis

Young India “Opal” Buloni and her father, a preacher, move around a lot.  Their latest move is to a small town in Florida called Naomi.  Opal has no friends until she rescues a mangy mutt from a supermarket and names him Winn-Dixie.  Now everywhere Opal goes, Winn-Dixie comes along, including to church and the library.  The lovable dog attracts unlikely people who soon become friends with Opal:  Miss Franny Block, the elderly librarian, and full of good stories; Gloria Dump, an old, nearly-blind black woman that the Dewberry boys think is a witch; Otis, the shy, quiet, guitar-strumming pet store clerk; even “pinch-faced” Amanda Wilkinson, who Opal later learns is not mean, just sad because of the death of her little brother.  Opal’s relationship with her father begins to change, and he opens up to her about her mother, telling his daughter ten things about her that Opal memorizes in her head, so she will recognize her if she ever walks back into their lives.

Over the course of a muggy Florida summer, Opal’s friends teach her life lessons that transform her.  She learns from Miss Franny that in life, sometimes sweetness is mixed in with sorrow in a way that makes it endurable.  Gloria Dump shows Opal her “mistake tree”, with empty liquor bottles hanging by strings to scare away the ghosts of the things she’s done in the past.  She tells Opal that the most important lesson to learn in life is different for everyone, but that “you can’t always judge people by the things they done.  You got to judge them by what they are doing now.”  Gloria, whom Opal describes as the best adult she knows, also teaches her that “There ain’t no way you can hold on to something that wants to go. . .you can only love what you got while you got it.”  By the end of the story, Opal’s heart, which ached for so long without her mother, has begun to fill up again with the love of so many quirky and wonderful people, and she attributes it all to her faithful pooch, saying, “Just about everything that happened to me that summer happened because of Winn-Dixie.”

This is a pure gem of a book.  It resonates with sweetness and sorrow; its tale of unbiased friendship, expressed in the voice of a little girl with a hint of Southern twang, will strike a chord in every reader.  Highly recommended.

©2010 The Literate Mother

Language:  0

Violence:  0

Sexual Content:  0

Adult Themes:  1

Title:  Sarah, Plain and Tall

Author:  Patricia MacLachlan

1986 Newbery Medal Winner

Ratings Explanation

Adult Themes:  Anna and Caleb must deal with the loss of their mother, who died the day after Caleb’s birth.  They must also weigh the chances of having Sarah, who has come to stay with them for a “trial period” of one month, return to Maine rather than stay with them, marry their father, and become their new mother.  The theme of love, loss, acceptance, and change is the thread that runs through this story.  All of it is gently told from the perspective of Anna, and the book would be appropriate to read to any age.

Synopsis

Anna and Caleb live with their father, Jacob, on a farm in the Great Plains during pioneer times.  Their mother passed away at Caleb’s birth.  Several years have passed.  Papa doesn’t sing anymore and the home is too quiet.  One day, Papa tells the children he has placed an advertisement in the paper looking for a mail-order bride and a Miss Sarah Elisabeth Wheaton from Maine, self-described as “plain and tall”, has replied to say she and her cat will come stay with the family for a trial period of one month to see how things work.  Anna and Caleb are thrilled at the prospect of having a new mother, but their excitement must be tempered because they are too afraid to hope for the best.  When Sarah arrives, she is kind and gentle.  She sings, braids Anna’s hair, draws pictures for Caleb, and cooks stew.  She has never touched a lamb before, or seen a field of wheat.  She describes for them the colors of the sea, the seagulls, the seals, the wind, and her home in Maine; it is all too apparent to Anna that she misses her home too much to stay with them on the plains.  One day Sarah asks Papa to teach her how to drive the wagon so she can go into town by herself.  Anna and Caleb wait nervously all day, too afraid she won’t return.  Caleb cries that he is “too loud and pesky” for her and their house is too small.  But at the day’s end, in a cloud of dust on the horizon, the wagon returns with Sarah, who brings with her three pencils the colors of the sea:  blue, green, and gray.  She misses the sea, she says, “but the truth of it is I would miss you more.”

This is a simply told yet beautifully written book, short enough to read in an hour or two, and too good to miss.  It was based on a true event in the author’s family history.  A tender story about the yearnings of a lonely father and his children for someone to make their family complete.

©2010 The Literate Mother

Language:  1

Violence:  2

Sexual Content:  0

Adults Themes:  1

Title:  The Graveyard Book

Author:  Neil Gaiman 

2009 Newbery Medal Winner

Ratings Explanation

Language:  Use of the word “hell” to describe the underworld.

Violence:  The family of the main character (Bod) is murdered in their sleep at home.  Bod is hunted throughout the book by the evil character Jack.  Bod is kidnapped by ghouls and taken to their underworld.  Descriptions of their ghoulish activites and appetites (eating creatures and crunching bones).  Some of the ghouls are killed.  Bod meets a witch girl living in the graveyard who was drowned and burned.  Bod is locked in a storage closet by a pawn shop owner.  Bod forces himself into the dreams of the school bully to scare him.  The police pick him up and hit his guardian Silas with their car.  Jack returns and tries to kill Bod with a knife; he holds Bod’s friend Scarlett at knifepoint; Jack is killed by the Sleer, a creepy, snake-like creature.

Adult Themes:  Bod’s family is murdered when he is just a baby.  He must deal with growing up in the surreal world of the graveyard.  He is persistently hunted throughout the book by either the man Jack, the ghouls, or bullies at the neighborhood school.  The deaths of some of the graveyard ghosts are described (again, not in vivid detail).  Jack suffers a violent death in the end which Bod orchestrates.

Synopsis

Nobody Owens (“Bod” for short) is just a toddler when he is adopted by the ghost couple Mr. and Mrs. Owens, graveyard residents, after his family has just been murdered.  The entire graveyard of spirits help raise the boy, many of whom are reluctant to allow a living boy in their realm until they realize they may be his only hope for survival.  Bod is given the “Freedom of the Graveyard”, which enables him to see all the ghosts and to replicate some of their talents, such as “fading”(disappearing).  He is not allowed to leave the graveyard.  Another resident, Silas, a man who is neither dead nor alive, agrees to be his guardian and teach him skills he will need to survive one day in the real world.  As Bod grows, he becomes curious about why his family was killed.  He knows that one day the man Jack will come back after him.  Bod meets interesting characters who live in the graveyard, such as Liza Hempstock, a witch girl who was drowned and burned at the stake, and Caius Pompeius, the oldest resident who was buried in Roman times.  Bod’s only contacts are with the dead; he has no living children as friends until he meets Scarlett, a little girl who sometimes plays in the graveyard.  When she moves away, he is left with only his ghost friends again.

One day three ghouls arrive and promise Bod a better life, and he unwittingly travels with them to their underworld.  He then realizes he’s been kidnapped.  Miss Lupescu, a friend of Silas’s, enters the underworld as a werewolf and rescues Bod.  As Bod grows, so does his restlessness, and when Scarlett returns he agrees to leave the graveyard with her to solve his family’s murder mystery.  Unknowingly, the two of them are being helped by the kindly ”Jay” Frost, who is really the man Jack in disguise.  Mr. Frost tells Bod he can help him and they return to the home where Bod’s family was killed, now being rented by Mr. Frost.  He takes Bod upstairs and pulls out a knife.  Bod escapes and he and Scarlett go back to the graveyard to an underground crypt where the “Sleer” lives, a hideous snake-like creature with three heads that guards a treasure.  Jack follows them, is tempted by the treasure and is killed by the Sleer.  Silas erases Scarlett’s memory, she leaves, and Bod is left alone again.  As he grows older, he finds his ability to fade and see the ghosts weakening.  Silas tells him it is finally time for him to leave the graveyard and join the living, and Bod leaves, determined to see the world.

The murder of Bod’s family in the beginning of the book, though not explicit in detail, sets the overall tone for the book.  It is a somber yet fascinating story of a boy being raised by ghosts; there are no overtly disturbing images of death or violence.  But some children may be too sensitive for this book–I could see my youngest having nightmares of being kidnapped by ghouls–while others may enjoy the ghosts and other-worldly characters.  The graveyard characters are loving and gentle, not creepy.  You find yourself growing very fond of the mysterious Silas and rooting for Bod to survive and thrive. 

©2010 The Literate Mother

Language:1

Violence:2

Sexual Content:0

Adult Themes:0

Title:  How to Train Your Dragon Book 1

Author: Cressida Cowell

Ratings Explanation

Language: No swearing but several bits of name calling and taunting.   Many of their names are based on primitive crudeness (the Meathead Tribe, Snotlout, Duhbrain, Newtsbreath etc.)

Violence:   These young viking characters are all about the ruff and tumble lifestyle of their parents.  Lots of teasing, bantering and taunting.  A very large dragon has eaten an entire army of Roman soldiers, carts, horses and all.  The dragon also describes the best way to bone a human.   Live sheep are one of the dragon’s  favorite snacks because of their crunchy bones.  Two dragons take chunks out of each other during a fight.   A large dragon explodes after his fire breathing holes are plugged.  His innards are sprayed everywhere.

Synopsis

Hiccup is the unassuming hero in this book.  He is the son of the viking Chief Stoik but unfortunately, lacks the brawn and brutal manner that is so important in his culture.   As part of a right of passage, Hiccup must capture a dragon and prove that he has trained it.  This doesn’t turn out well. He comes back with the smallest, most common dragon that doesn’t even have teeth.   Discouraged, Hiccup talks with his grandfather Old Wrinkley who is trying his hand at predicting the future.  His grandfather tells Hiccup that there is hope and  that he will eventually become a hero.  Hiccup finds that using his brains can be just as important as using brawn.  He does eventually save his tribe from a gigantic sea dragon using his clever tricks.

A fun read for those that enjoy a quirky sense of humor.   There are silly illustrations and ink splots all through the book adding to its youthful appeal.  Hiccup is the true underdog hero that we all find ourselves rooting for.

©2010 The Literate Mother

Language: 0

Violence: 4

Sexual Content: 3

Adult Themes: 2

Title: Catching Fire

Author: Suzanne Collins

The Second Book of The Hunger Games

Ratings Explanation

Violence:  Katniss witnesses an older man from District 11 forced to his knees in front of the crowd, and a bullet put through his head.  Katniss reflects on killing Clove.  Gale is publicly whipped for hunting.  Gale’s back is a “raw, bloody slab of meat”.  Darius, District 12’s Head Peacekeeper is turned into an avox (similar to a eunuch).  Katniss is plagued with terrible nightmares.  Katniss displays her knot making skills to the Gamemakers by hanging a dummy symbolizing Seneca Crane.  Cinna creates a costume symbolizing rebellion.  He is knocked to his knees and hit with metal-studded gloves, opening gashes on his face and body.  The Peacekeepers drag Cinna’s limp body from the room and smears of blood are left on the floor.  Opponents in the Quell Games are slaughtered. Katniss tastes the blood of an opponent while swimming in the water.

Sexual Content:  Gale kisses Katniss.  Peeta and Katniss feign borderline delirious love for each other.  They kiss, dance, and try to sneak away to be alone.  Each night Peeta climbs into Katniss’ bed to hold her until she falls asleep.  Peeta does this to ward off Katniss’ nightmares associated with killing her opponents.  Katniss ponders marrying Peeta.  Cray, the Head Peacekeeper for District 12 has a habit of luring starving young women into his bed for money, which make him an object of loathing in the district.  The hungriest would gather at his door at nightfall, vying for the chance to earn a few coins to feed their families by selling their bodies.  ”Finnick is one of the most stunning, sensuous people on the planet.  He’s draped in a golden net that’s strategically knotted at his groin so that he can’t technically be called naked.”  Chaff throws his arms around Katniss and gives her a big kiss right on the mouth.  Johanna Mason, from District 7 unzips her costume and steps into the elevator naked.  The light from Peeta’s costume reflects off Johanna’s bare breasts.

Adult Content:  Districts grieve for their children as they are murdered.

Summary

At the conclusion of The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark miraculously survive The Games.  They pretend to be star-crossed lovers in order to win the populous’s adoration, and both leave the arena alive.  They succeed.  However, in their quest for survival they sow the seeds of rebellion by snubbing the president and the Capitol.  Katniss is relieved to be alive, however, her life is now lonelier than ever.  President Snow makes a personal visit to Katniss and threatens her loved ones if she does not diffuse the civil unrest.  Her closest friend, Gale, keeps her at a distance.  As victors, Katniss and Peeta’s families move to the wealthy, yet empty part of town.

Katniss and Peeta announce their engagement.  Katniss is repulsed by the Capitol’s forced “Victory Tour”.  Katniss and Peeta, the victors, must visit the eleven other districts whose tributes were killed, before the next set of Games begin.  Unknowingly, Katniss and Peeta have inspired rebellion throughout the nation.  The districts they visit are full of unrest.  When, Katniss and Peeta arrive in the Capitol, the Quarter Quell is announced and Katniss and Peeta are forced to enter into the arena again.  The populous is devastated that the young lovers will now face death.  Haymitch orchestrates arena alliances for Peeta and Katniss, but does not apprise Katniss of the situation. Katniss is the symbol of rebellion.  The ending is a cliff-hanger….

I abhor cliff-hanger endings!  The sequel was not as consuming as The Hunger Games, nor was the violence as graphic.  That said, I am disturbed by the amount of violence contained in this series.  The intense violence desensitizes.  While reading this series, I am a “Deer in Headlights”.  I continue to read, because I can’t fathom that each child is really going to be killed by another child –and they are.  

©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 0

Violence: 3

Sexuality: 3

Adult Themes: 3

Title:  Shabanu – Daughter of the Winds

Author:  Suzanne Fisher Staples

1990 Newberry Honor Book/Readers Circle

Ratings Explanation

Violence:  Rape is common place.  Nazir, the greedy landowner rapes and then sends the young girls home with money for their family.  The vultures circle and rip an ailing camel apart, feasting on the live camel.  Shabanu aids the camel’s fetus and saves it’s life.  Kalu and Tipu fight to be the stud camel of the herd.  Shabanu’s father beats her for trying to escape her impending marriage to an older man.  Hamir’s father is found dead in a well.  Hamir is shot by Nazir.

 Sexuality: There are descriptions of Phulan and Shabanu experiencing puberty, periods, emerging chests etc.  Shabanu wonders what sex will be like for her.  The stud camel impregnates the herd.  There are descriptions of the camels mating.

Adult Themes:  Shabanu is promised in marriage as a child, betrothed at eleven years of age, and then married at twelve years of age.  Daughters belong to their future mother in-laws.  Dowries and, in some instances, a bride price is paid.  Shabanu is the solution for a settlement between two families and is not given a choice.  Grandfather dies and is buried.  While traveling, the family comes across a deceased traveler who could not find water.  

Summary

Shabanu is an eleven year old girl living in Cholistan, the windswept desert border region of Pakistan and India.  Shabanu’s family lives in a mud hut in the desert and owns a herd of camels.  They live a free existence in the desert, as long as there is water in the pond (“toba” ).  When the toba dries, they move to a village with a deep well, awaiting the monsoon season.  Each year they travel across the desert to Sibi, where they sell their camels and buy the goods they need.

Phulan is Shabanu’s older sister.  Phulan is graceful, beautiful and betrothed to Hamir, a young man in a village nearby.  Shabanu is promised to Murad, Hamir’s younger brother.  The girls are excited to have such good fortune, to marry into the same family, and be near one another throughout their lives.

Shabanu is annoyed with her sister’s ego-centric behavior, “All about the Bride.”  Shabanu seeks solace in the desert from Phulan’s demands.  Shabanu cares for the camels, and her parents allow her much freedom.  She is not confined to housework and has a camel, Guluband, that she teaches to dance.

Shabanu accompanies her father to Sibi to sell the camels.  Her father receives an offer he can’t refuse for Guluband.  He sells Shabanu’s beloved camel and her is heart broken.  However, her father now has enough money for both of his daughters’ dowries.  They return home to prepare for the upcoming wedding by buying and sewing beautiful clothes and making a pilgrimage to Channan Pir.  Shabanu meets her mother’s cousin, Sharma, and her daughter, Fatima. Sharma left her abusive husband for an independent existence in the desert, raising goats and sheep. Shabanu wishes she could steal away to live a wild and free life in the desert with Sharma and Fatima.  Shabanu’s grandfather wanders off in a dust storm and dies two days later.  Shabanu’s family buries grandfather and travels toward the wedding in Mehrabpur, where Hamir’s family lives.

Hamir’s family purchased their land from Nazir Mohammad. Hamir’s family labored many years to make the land fertile. Nazir Mohammad is trying to force Hamir’s family to give him back the now fertile land.  Shabanu and Phulan come across Nazir Mohammad and his friends while returning from bathing.  The men see the girls and desire to take Phulan and rape her. Shabanu rescues Phulan and they ride to their campsite on a camel.  Everyone is fearful of Nazir Mohammad.  Nazir killed Hamir’s father.  Hamir attempts to shoot him Nazir and is killed.

The “Police”, the Desert Rangers,  gather the families to settle the dispute. Nazir Mohammad’s brother, Rahim- sahib, is a politician and wants to settle the dispute quickly.  The dispute is settled: Phulan will marry Murad (Shabanu’s promised) immediately and Nazir Mohammad will leave the family alone.  Rahim-sahib, will then take Shabanu as his fourth wife in a year.

Shabanu is devastated. She endures Phulan’s wedding. Sharma counsels Shabanu to learn to manipulate and control her future husband, but remain true to herself.  She will need to keep her heart hidden from him.  Shabanu has a short time before her betrothal and she is tempted to escape into the desert with Sharma and Fatima.  When Shabanu’s period begins, she hides it from her parents.  She must marry soon after it arrives.  Shabanu decides to escape.  The camel breaks a leg during the escape and Shabanu waits for her father’s arrival.  He violently beats her.  Shabanu is silent during the beating.  She resigns herself to her fate, but she carefully guards her inner happiness in her heart.  She marries.

This book is written at a 5th Grade level.  However, I would not recommend reading it until at least junior high, due to the more mature content.  Humera Diwan, my friend from Karachi, Pakistan, and my Boulder Book Group friend, chose this book a few years ago for discussion.  We had a fascinating discussion as we learned more about the culture of the people who live in the Cholistan Region of Pakistan.  I do love this eye opening book.

©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 3

Violence: 2

Sexual Content: 2

Adult Themes: 3

Title: The Help

Author: Kathryn Stockett

Ratings Explanation

Language: Frequent swearing and profanity. Racial slurs. Several uses of the word “nigger”.

Violence: Very brief description of the murder of Medgar Evers. One of the characters is beaten by her husband. A naked man comes into the yard of a home and the maid goes out with a knife to scare him off. When she falls down, he advances on her and another woman hits him with a fire poker several times.

Sexual Content: Description of the naked man, he touches himself, dances and runs around, flopping.

Adult Themes:  1960s race relations and civil rights. Domestic violence. A couple breaks up because the girl slept with someone else. A character briefly considers going away for the weekend with her boyfriend, and what that would mean.

Synopsis

 The Help is told in the voices of three different women in Jackson, Mississippi. Skeeter has graduated from Ole Miss and has moved back home. Her mother never stops criticizing her and nags her constantly to find a husband. Skeeter lands a job writing the housecleaning tips column at the local paper. Completely unprepared to tell anyone how to clean anything, she goes to her friend’s maid, Aibileen, for help.

Aibileen has raised 17 white children and loves Mae Mobley, who she cares for now. Her only son died in an accident at work and his white boss tossed his dead body on the curb at the colored hospital. Aibileen dreads the day when little Mae Mobley will “start to think that colored folks ain’t as good as whites” so she tells Mae Mobley secret stories about a Martian. “What’s his name?” Mae Mobley asks. “Martin Luther King,” replies Aibileen.

Minny is Aibileen’s best friend, but they couldn’t be more different. While Aibileen is reserved and polite, Minny is brash and sassy. Her uncontrollable tongue has cost her 19 jobs and when she sasses the wrong lady, it looks like she might not find work in Jackson again.

Very different on the outside, these three women come together to accomplish something that changes them on the inside. This secret project puts them all in danger, and eventually changes each of their lives, but it is something that must be done, because some risks are worth taking.

The Help is full of emotion. It is at times frustrating, funny, uplifting and heartbreaking, and I thoroughly enjoyed each page. The way the women of Jackson are portrayed is eye-opening, but the story feels balanced as well. The book is about social ideas in the south in the 1960s, but most of all it is about women and their relationships with each other.  Many relationships between women are explored, high school girlfriends who are now grown up, white women and their maids, mothers and daughters, girls and the maids who raise them, and the friendship that develops between Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny.  Skeeter sums up when she says, “Wasn’t that the point of the book? For women to realize, We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I’d thought.”

A wonderful lesson, if only we could all learn it.

©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 4

Violence: 0

Sexual Content: 1

Adult Themes: 2

Title: The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Author: Muriel Barbery

New York Times Bestseller

Ratings Explanation

Language: Several swear words and references to deity. 2 F-words.

Sexual Content: An incident between a male and a female dog in the elevator. Discussion about the sexual activities of bees.

Adult Themes: A 12-year girl contemplates suicide. Family tension. Perceptions of people based solely on socio-economic status.

Synopsis

Renee, the 54-year old concierge of an upscale apartment building in Paris, is frumpy and dimwitted, as far as the wealthy tenants know. What they would never suspect is that Renee is intelligent, funny and well versed in literature and art.

Paloma, the insightful 12-year old daughter of one of the wealthy families in the building, also has a secret. Disgusted with her pampered life and her ridiculously myopic family, Paloma has decided to commit suicide on her 13th birthday.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog is narrated by these two, seemingly unrelated, female voices.  Renee is unmercifully critical of the wealthy, who alternately judge and ignore her, without knowing a single thing about her. Paloma is extremely intelligent and sensitive and through her journals, is searching for a reason to continue living. Eventually brought together by a perceptive new tenant in the building, these two kindred souls find and appreciate each other, when others fail to do so.

This is one of the best books I have read in a long time.  Alternately philosophical, witty and poignant, I was engaged from the very beginning. Barbery’s writing is beautiful and elevated (you may want to keep a dictionary handy), but also clever and funny. Renee and Paloma are endearing and I loved them both. Who can resist Renee who says, “I may be indigent in name, position, and appearance, but in my own mind I am an unrivaled goddess.” She absolutely won my heart when she offered a full-page diatribe on the wanton misplacement of a comma. 

This book gave me a number of things to contemplate, including the question of class and the assumptions people make based solely on outward appearances, but it also makes a point of expressing that it is never too late to change the way we “see” other people. We each have the potential to touch someone’s life in a positive way and if we are open to it, friendship can  surface in the most unlikely places. 

©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 4

Violence: 2

Sexual Content: 1

Adult Themes: 2

Title: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

Author: David Wroblewski

Ratings Explanation

Language: 4 F-words, abundant profanity and swearing.

Violence: Fist fight between two grown men (brothers). Dogs are intentionally poisoned. Two characters killed by lethal injection. A deer is shot with a rifle. Character falls down the stairs and dies.

Sexual Content: An unmarried couple lives together and references are made about them sleeping together. 

Adult Themes: A tense relationship between two brothers. A boy witnesses his father’s death.  He must come to terms with losing his father and with his mother’s relationship with another man. Grown men drink and smoke. Murder.

Synopsis

Edgar Sawtelle and his parents live on an idyllic farm in Wisconsin where they breed and train Sawtelle dogs, an evolving breed that is exceptionally companionable, well behaved and intuitive. Edgar was born without the ability to speak, but he learns to sign and develops his own unique language. Edgar’s dog Almondine is his constant companion and epitomizes the traits they try to perpetuate in all of the Sawtelle dogs.

When Edgar’s father dies suddenly, he and his mother are left to run the farm. The work is far too much for the two of them to handle alone, but the reappearance of Edgar’s uncle Claude is not entirely welcome.  Although he lightens the work load, what does he want exactly? Is he trying to take over the farm he grew up on? As Edgar observes Claude, he is convinced that Claude had a role in his father’s death, but he has no real evidence. When an elaborate plan to expose Claude backfires, Edgar must leave the farm. Edgar and three dogs survive in the wilderness until he is compelled to face his father’s murderer.

Although an interesting book, I did not love this first novel by Wroblewski. At the beginning of the book I felt the language was a bit contrived, like he was trying too hard to be a good writer, but as the book progressed his writing seemed to improve (or I just got used to it). His writing is very slow paced, which isn’t a bad thing, but it felt drawn out in places. Billed by some as a modern-day Hamlet, I wasn’t incredibly surprised by the ending, but, although prepared, I was disappointed. In my opinion, the author took the easy way out and escaped the difficult task of resolving all of the problems and tying up the loose ends.

©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 0

 Violence: 0

 Sexual Content: 4

 Adult Themes: 3

Title:  The Second Summer of the Sisterhood

Author:  Ann Brashares

Ratings Explanation

Sexual Content:  Carmen’s mother, Christina, sleeps with her boyfriend, David.  Kostas and Lena spend an amorous night pushing the limits.  She desires him, but he restrains himself to be a “gentleman”.  When Lena breaks up with Kostas, “the rebound girl” becomes pregnant.  Kostas leaves Lena and returns to Greece to marry the girl.  Carmen spends a lot of energy describing Paul, her father’s attractive stepson.   Brian, Tibby’s friend, spends the night sleeping on the floor of her dorm room.  Tibby shuns Brian’s friendship in her quest to be associated with “cool” peers.

Adult Themes:  Bridget travels to Alabama to get to know her mother’s past as she spends time with her grandmother, Greta.  Bridget grapples with her mother’s mental illness and subsequent suicide.  She also deals with her father’s distancing role in her life.  Carmen attempts to drink her sorrows away, only to become drunk.  Carmen learns to meld the multi-faceted roles of her single mother.  Lena confronts her mother about Eugene, a long lost romance.

Synopsis

The pants make a second summer’s tour through four young girls’ lives: Bridget, Lena, Tibby and Carmen.  The girls each experience the tumult of relationships with their family, friends and those they love as they mature and learn from their summer’s adventure.

I found this book to be very light and packed with romantic drivel. Intense grappling throughout.  Unfortunately, this type of literature is extremely popular.   If you are going to spend 430 pages reading, invest your time in something more substantive.

©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 0

Violence: 2

Sexual Content: o

Adult Themes: 2

Title: The Diamond in the Window

Author: Jane Langton

Ratings Expanation

Violence:  The children have nightmares during which any injury received carries over to when they are awake.  During these dreams the children become trapped in a giant shell, caught in an avalanche of building of blocks and are chased by an evil man with a long sword who eventually falls on it, ending his life.

Adult Themes:  Ed and Eleanor are orphans cared for by their parents’ siblings.  Their Uncle Eddy has suffered severe emotional trauma due to the disappearance of his younger siblings Ned and Nora.  He is shunned and teased by the townspeople.  Aunt Lily’s love, Prince Krishna, turns up missing as well after trying to find the two missing children.  The bank threatens to take the family’s home if back taxes are not payed.  Eleanor and Eddy worry where they will live.

Synopsis

Eleanor and Eddy Hall live in an eccentric old house in Concord Massachusetts.  The children are in the care of their deceased parents’ siblings, Uncle Freddy and Aunt Lily.  Uncle Freddy was once a respected authority on the local transcendentalism (Emerson, Alcott and Thoreau are historical residents there), but after the disappearance of his younger siblings, Ned and Nora,  Uncle Freddy’s mind is never the same.  Aunt Lily does her best to hold the family together and support them by teaching piano lessons until the bank shows up demanding that all the back taxes on the home be paid by a certain date.  Eleanor and Eddy worry what will become of them all.  The town already looks on them as outcasts.  One summer day changes it all when the two go exploring in the attic.  They find  a room that seems to have remained untouched since Ned and Nora’s time.  It had two little beds and a collection of toys and is lit by a colored glass window.  Upon closer inspection, the window reveals a message or poem of sorts with the title Transcendental Treasure.  Intrigued by a possible treasure that may help them save their home, Eddy and Eleanor beg to move into the attic.  Once settled, the children find their dreams at night go along with clues from the poem etched on the window.  They also discover that the dreams are somehow real.  Whatever happens, good or bad, is reflected in the real world when they awake.   They also catch glimpses of Ned, Nora and Aunt Lily’s love, Prince Krishna.  They do find treasure throughout their adventures, but not the kind that brings them money.  Their adventures became more and more dangerous the closer they come to the final clue.  In the end, Eleanor and Eddy break the spell holding Ned, Nora and Prince Krishna prisoner all these years and return them to a recovered Uncle Freddy and a grateful Aunt Lily.  They also come away with a greater understanding of the treasures life has to offer.

I don’t think this book is in print currently but, it is available through places like Amazon.  It is actually a first in a series of the Hall Family Chronicles by Jane Langton.  A truly unique children’s book with a great mixture of adventure and true life lessons.  I am a little partial, because I too am a fan of Emerson, Alcott and Thoreau.   One of my favorite Uncle Freddy quotes is ‘… we are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones… So carve yourself well!” A great read for young and old.

©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 2

Violence: 2

Sexual Content: 1

Adult Themes: 2

Title:  Schooled

Author:  Gordon Korman

Ratings Explanation

Language:  One common swear word and some uses of the name of deity.  Name calling like jerkface, buttwipe, Neanderthal, freakazoid etc.

Violence:  Bullying by the popular kids. A knockout punch to the nose by a football player.  The entire football team tackles Cap who is innocently dressed in the opposing teams uniform.

Sexual Content: Naomi kisses Cap in front of a group of students and lets him know it is to be continued.  Cap is attracted to Sophie.  When he looks at her he feels funny.

Adult Themes:  Cap is arrested for being an under-aged driver after taking his grandma to the hospital.  Cap is arrested again for driving a school bus to the hospital after the driver passes out.  Sophie’s parents are divorced.  Her dad frequently makes promises he doesn’t keep.  Some anti-government opinions from Cap’s hippy grandmother.

Synopsis

Capricorn Anderson has been raised by his hippie grandmother Rain on a farm commune his whole life.  He knows nothing of modern technology, and has had little or no social interaction with the outside world.  That all changes when his grandmother is seriously injured and has to stay in the hospital.  Cap, as he is called, is forced to move in with a guidance counselor and her moody daughter.  He is enrolled in the local middle school where school politics rule and weirdness is shunned.  Zach, a fellow student, has climbed the popularity ladder and sees Cap as an opportunity to become the next legend of Claverage Middle School.   As the school’s tradition goes, the oddest nerdiest student is elected eighth grade president and always wins.  Zach nominates Cap for the job and sees to it that he wins.  Innocently, Cap becomes the butt of all of his pranks and jokes but not for long.  Cap’s unique non-violent and non-competetive upbringing helps him through it all.  Students begin to admire his weirdness when they see that it is genuine kindness with a hippie flare.  Capricorn Anderson wins over the student body and helps Rain to see a way to balance the past with the future.

This was a great story of accepting and understanding others  before we judge them.  It reminded me of the book Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli.  Each chapter in the book was from a different character’s point of view.  This gave a different insight to the situation at hand which was interesting.

 ©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 0

Violence: 0

Sexual Content: 0

Adult Themes: 1

Title:  The Family Under the Bridge

Author: Natalie Savage Carlson

Illustrator: Garth Williams

1959 Newbery Honor Book

Ratings Explanation

Adult Themes:  Madame Calcet is widowed.  She can no longer pay rent.  She and her three young children become homeless and seek shelter under a bridge in Paris.  Madame Calcet leaves her young children to fend for themselves during the day while she works in a laundry.  The family is exposed to gypsies as they join them in their camp.  The gypsies proclaim, “They don’t steal from friends, only from strangers.”  The gypsies sustain the family with food and shelter until Armand determines to help provide for the family.

Synopsis

Armand, an older homeless man, lives under a bridge in Paris.  He thoroughly enjoys his lack of responsibility and aimless wanderings, until he returns to his shelter under the bridge to find that three hungry, cold children have occupied his space.  The children have instructions from their mother to remain hidden so the authorities will not take them away.  The children while away the hours until their mother returns from work.  The children become endeared to Armand as he searches to provide them with food and warmth.  Armand determines that he will help provide for this ready-made family, and leave his carefree ways, as he quickly becomes their adopted grandpa.

This is a heartwarming story published in 1958.  An innocent tale that defines family.  I recommend this book for your young reader.

 ©2009 The Literate Mother

 Language: 1

Violence: 2

Sexual Content: 0

Adult Themes:  2

Title:  Run Away Home

Author: Patricia C. McKissack

Newbery Honor Winner

Ratings Explanation

Language:  The word nigger is used twice by members of the Knights of the Southern Order of Manhood.  A group of captured Apache Indians are called the “meanest bunch of cut-throats ever walked on two feet.”

Violence:  Mention of violent acts against the black population by members of white supremacy groups, such as burning businesses and schools,  destroying property and lynching.  A local white supremacy group throws torches into Sarah Jane’s home.  Her father threatens to shoot anyone that means harm to the family or property even though he had no ammunition in the gun.  Sky defends the property by scaring the group off with well aimed arrows.  One arrow does hit a man in the leg.  Buster, Sarah Jane’s dog,  is shot by one of the group members in the struggle and dies.  Sky is attacked in a store by two large men.  He skillfully defends himself, ending up with a knife and threatens to scalp one of the attackers.

Adult Themes:  Native Americans are shipped by train from Florida to a reservation. Mention is made of their suffering at the hand of the white man.  Sarah Jane’s father briefly remembers hard times during slavery.  The black population of their town are looked down upon and treated unequally in spite of the end of slavery.  Black citizens are threatened, and some beaten, if they choose the exercise their right to vote.  Segregation is carried out in businesses and schools. 

Synopsis

Sarah Jane and her parents lived in a small Alabama town in 1888.  One day, she and her father noticed an unexpected train full of soldiers escorting a group of Apache Indians.  They were on their way to a reservation after being held in Florida for the past two years.  While her father was speaking with some of the guards, Sarah sees a young Indian boy escape.  She decides to say nothing of what she saw because she feels that everyone has the right to be free.  A few days afterward, the Apache’s translator, Mr. Wratton, comes to the farm in search of the missing boy and leaves empty handed.  Sarah later finds the Indian boy, Sky, hiding in their barn, suffering severely from swamp fever.  Her mother takes him to the house and she and Sarah nurse him back to health.  Mr. Wratten learns that the boy has been found and decides to let Sarah’s family care for him until his health returns.  Sky’s recovery is slow but he learns to respect the family that has helped him so much.

Tragedy strikes when the family’s cotton crop becomes infested with boll weevil.  They are unable to pay their debt to the white man that threatens to take over their farm.  Sarah finds a carpentry job for her father, who is a skilled craftsman, making desks for an all black school.  The debt collector gives them thirty days to pay before he takes over the farm.  A few nights later, the Knights of the Southern Order of Manhood threaten to destroy Sarah’s home and all of the wood to make the desks.  Sky helps to defend his new family by scaring the group off with arrows.  The time to pay off the debt was  quickly approaching, but workers were now scared for their lives and no one came to help with the desks.  Sky mysteriously dissapears for a few days and brings back  Mr. Wratten, along with several Apache Indians, to help finish the project.  Through this group effort the job was finished on time and the farm was saved.  Sky decides to stay with his new family and hope is restored to Sarah Jane’s family.

McKissack bases this story on  her own family history.  Her great-great-great grandfather was a Native American who married an African American woman.  I found the mix of these cultures fascinating.  Both races had suffered so much from prejudiced thinking and fought so hard to stay free.  I enjoyed having this story told through the point of view of a child. It was interesting to see her perspective as the nation was trying to redefine itself.  Because the difficult topics of this book were handled truthfully yet tactfully, I highly recommend it to young readers wishing to more fully understand this difficult time in our nation’s history.

 ©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 1

Violence: 2

Sexual Content: 1

Adult Themes: 2

Title:  At Home in Mitford

Author:  Jan Karon

Ratings Explanation

Language:  A few common swear words and liberal use of the name of deity.  Two uses of the word nigger from some unkind and prejudiced town folk.

Violence:  School boys fighting.  Officer shot during an attempted drug bust. 

Sexual Content:  Alludes to two out-of-wedlock pregnancies.  Father Tim has a strong desire to kiss the woman next door.

Adult Themes:  Racial prejudice, alcoholic mother giving up her five children, burglary, drug making, death of spouse and serious health issues.  All of these are tastefully mentioned and not elaborated on.

Synopsis

Father Tim, rector of 12 years for the small North Carolina town of Mitford, is finding himself a little burned out and feeling empty at the end of the day.  His doctor and secretary have repeatedly encouraged him to take some time for himself, but to Father Tim, caring for his parishioners is a full time job.  However, help comes to him in the strangest ways. First is a new companion, in the form of a  sofa-sized homeless dog, that is liberal with his affectionate and slobbery kisses and controlled only through the reciting of scripture.  Second is an ill-mannered,  eleven year old mountain boy, Dooley, who has been living with his grandfather until his recent bout with pneumonia.   Then there is Puny Bradshaw, the house help hired by the parish to care for their beloved rector, that takes her job more serious than most.  Mix in a jewel thief, a sixty year old mystery, a heart transplant patient, and an attractive new neighbor and Father Tim ends up needing to take a real vacation in the end.

  This book is not an attention grabbing page turner.   It is rather like sipping a relaxing cup of hot cocoa, and snuggling in a warm blanket on a rainy day.  It was a breath of fresh air and a reminder of true humanity and neighborly love. 

 ©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 0

Violence: 1

Sexual Content: 0

Adult Themes: 1

Title: The Big Wave

Author: Pearl S. Buck  (Pulitzer and Nobel Prize Winner)

Ratings Explanation:

Violence:  Nature versus man as a small Japanese village faces the fury of a volcano and a tsunami.

Adult Themes:  The tsunami kills many of the fisherman and their families in the village.  Jiya is from one of these families but was able to escape before the tidal wave hit.  He is left to face the death of his father, mother and brother.  In their culture, the Japanese are taught to “learn to live with danger” and “enjoy life and do not fear death.” 

Synopsis

Kino and Jiya are good friends growing up in a small Japanese village.  Kino and his family are rice farmers who live high up in the hills.  Jiya and his family are fishermen by trade and live below the hills on the beach.  One day, while working in the rice fields, Kino and his father notice a great deal of smoke rising from a volcano 20 miles away.  Changes in the sky and ocean make the villagers nervous as they watch, trying to protect their families.  The sound of a great bell from a palace below warns the villagers of danger and encourages them to come within its wall for safety.  Some heed the warning but many stay close to their homes.  Jiya’s family orders him to flee to the palace for protection.  Jiya instead runs up the hills to his friend’s home.  Kino and Jiya watch the commotion in the village below when suddenly the ocean turns angry and a giant tidal wave sweeps up onto the beach, taking houses and people with it.  Jiya watches in horror as his family is swept away.  Kino’s family commits to care for Jiya and raise him as their own.  Before fully recovering,  the wealthy owner of the palace comes to visit him.  He tells Kino’s father that he would like to take Jiya as his own son and give him an education.  Knowing that this is a great opportunity for the grieving Jiya, Kino’s father encourages him to visit the palace to see the opportunities that would be his.  Jiya obeys and visits the old man.  After touring the grounds, he then tells the palace owner that his choice is to stay with Kino’s family.  The old man is irritated at Jiya’s response and tells Jiya he could have everything he needs.  Jiya respectfully tells him that he already has a home on the farm.  Jiya returns to the hills and grows from a boy to a man.  He learns to live with his loss with the kind help of Kino’s family.  He is eventually drawn back to the ocean where he longs to be a fisherman like his fathers before him.  Then facing his greatest fear, Jiya builds a home on the beach for him and his new wife (Kino’s kind sister) .

 This is an incredibly powerful story in a very few short pages.  I loved the wisdom of life that Buck has pulled from the Japanese culture.  The underlying theme of the book is that life is stronger than death.  As Kino’s father tries to help his son understand the tragedy that has torn at their village he says, “No one knows who makes evil storms … We only know that they come.  When they come we must live through them as bravely as we can, and after they are gone, we must feel again how wonderful is life.  Every day of life is more valuable now than it was before the storm.”  A great read for quiet contemplation and thoughtful discussion.

 ©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 5

Violence: 5

Sexual Content: 5

Adult Themes: 5

Title:  Slumdog Millionaire (Originally published as Q & A)

Author:  Vikas Swarup

Ratings Explanation

Language:  Excessive swearing, use of nearly all swear words.

Violence:  Father John shoots Father Timothy and then commits suicide.  Armaan, a Bollywood Movie Star in disguise, grabs Salim’s crotch during a movie.  Shantaram, a violent drunk, beats his wife and scalds his daughter’s face with hot tea.  Shantaram breaks his Gudiya’s cat’s neck.  Shantaram returns home drunk and tries to “touch his daughter”.  He continually tries to molest Gudiya, his daughter.  Shantaram breaks a bottle over his wife’s head.  Shantaram molests his daughter.  Ram slams his weight into a drunken Shantaram as he walks past the rickety railing.  Shantaram loses his balance and topples to the ground below, and is left for dead.  Mr. Gupta, carries a short bamboo cane and whacks the boys in the juvenile home whenever he feels like it.  Gupta calls young boys into his room at night to sodomize and molest them.  Muslim youths lock Salim’s father, mother, and brother in their hut and set fire to the hut.  Babu Pillai cripples, blinds, and maims young boys and then sends them out on the streets to beg.  If they do not earn enough, they do not eat.   Mr. Rao kills his brother, for money and power at his wife’s instigation.  A dacoit/train robber grabs a nursing mother’s breasts.  The dacoit demands a kiss and wants to see the young girl’s breasts.  Ram wrestles the man to the ground as they fight for control of the gun.  The dacoit is killed and Ram runs.  Gruesome battle scenes from the war with Pakistan recounted by a supposed war hero.  Balwant Singh commits suicide when he is found to be a war hero imposter.  Ahmed Kahn is a professional assassin.  Salim secretly gives Ahmed, Babu Pillai’s picture and he is killed.  Prem Kumar abuses women.  He beats his lovers. Neelima has a very deep cut on her face, her cheek is swollen, and her chest has been burned by cigarettes.  Neelima commits suicide.  Salim is beaten by both families at a wedding party.  Shankar, the son of a wealthy woman, Swapna Devi, beat him as a child when he walked in on her, while she was having an affair with her brother-in-law.  Swapna Devi cruelly threw Shankar out of the home and forced him to live in a tenement.  Shankar regresses until he is nearly unintelligible and thought to be retarded.  Swapna Devi cruelly refuses to pay for rabies treatment for her son and he dies.  Nita, a prostitute is also beaten by Prem Kumar.  Nita’s jaw is dislocated and her chest is also burned with a lit cigarette.  Prem Kumar commits suicide by gassing himself to death in his car , although probably foul play. 

Sexual Content:  Description of the heroine’s breasts being voluptuous: heavy breasts and a slim waist.  Lovers interlude in a Bollywood movie is described, with bodies entwined, and soft moaning noises, and synchronized rhythmic thrusting.  Masturbation.  Armaan, the movie star, is rumored to be gay.  Census taker asks the Australian Diplomat “how often you have sex?”  Maggie’s underwear is stolen by Ramu, a servant.   A barmaid is considered a “cheap lay”.  Reference to “mind-blowing sex”.  Ram glances the underside of a nursing mother’s breast, which makes his mouth go dry.  Wealthy tourists from Delhi treat Ram to an evening in the “Red Light District” of Agra, where he loses his viriginity.   

Adult Themes:  “The biggest tease in the world is not sex.  It’s money.”  Ram is tortured by the police, beaten, tied to a wooden beam, chili powder is put on a stick and inserted into his anus.   He is also shocked with electricity.  A young boy is addicted to glue.  As an infant, Ram was abandoned and dumped in a large bin for old clothes at the Church of St. Mary.  Ram finds gay and child pornography in magazines and videos in a visiting priest’s room.  Ram sees strange-looking young men entering the church at night and going to Father John’s room.  Ram peers through a keyhole and sees Father John and a young man do lines of cocaine.  Ram peers through Father John’s keyhole and witnesses Ian and Father John in a  homosexual act.  Ian is actually Father Timothy’s son.  Salim and Ram are sold to Babu Pillai while in the juvenile home.   Excess whiskey drinking by Indians.  Mrs. Rebecca Taylor has an affair with the High Commissioner at the embassy.  Ram steals jewels to purchase Nita the prostitute from her pimp, her brother.  A six year old boy dies from a rabies.  Shankar also dies of a bite from a rabid dog. 

Synopsis

The unthinkable has taken place, Ram Mohammad Thomas, an orphan with no formal education has answered all thirteen questions correctly on the game show, “Who Will Win a Billion?”  (Rupees)  The conclusion is that he has cheated.  The police take Ram and torture him, to coerce him to sign a confession stating that he has cheated.  Ram is on the verge of death when he is rescued from the police by Smita, a lawyer.

Ram describes his amazing life experiences to Smita, as each chapter in the book unfolds the story behind each answer.  Ram began his life as an orphan left in a dustbin.  Ram draws on his vast array of experiences as a orphan child trying to manuever through the many challenges that thwart his daily survival in the slums of India.

I love the underlying theme of this book, “It doesn’t matter where you come from, only where you are headed.” 

Yes, I did see the movie, and I do know it is R-rated.  This is a rare case where I preferred the movie over the book.  (The plot premise is the same, however, the story is different in many chapters.)  That said, the book was extremely powerful.  The violence, child abuse, sexual abuse, child neglect, homosexual behavior, and assassinations were described in the book.  Whereas, the movie left much to the imagination or left it out completely.  There are disturbing passages in this book.  ”PROCEED WITH CAUTION”.  I would only recommend this book to adults who love to read stories of triumph in the face of crippling defeat.  “Luck has got nothing to do with it.  Because luck comes from within.”

 ©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 1

Violence: 0

Sexual Content: 1

Adult Themes: 2

Title: A Mango-Shaped Space

Author: Wendy Mass

Winner of the ALA Schneider Family Book Award,  honoring artistic expression of the disability experience

Ratings Explanation

Language: 2 instances of profanity

Sexual Content: Molly grows breasts over the summer and she is not going to hide it. Boys look at her. Mia’s doctor asks her if she has begun menstruating yet. Mia communicates with a boy in a chat room and when they meet in person he almost immediately asks to kiss her. Mia lets him.

Adult Themes: Jenna is coping with her mother’s death and her father dating. Mia lies occasionally then tries to make up for it by doing good deeds. Adam, age 14, discloses in an email that he got drunk on egg nog and threw up a lot. Coping with losing a pet.

Synopsis

Mia has always seen colors associated with numbers, letters and sounds, but in third grade she discovers that not everyone sees what she does. Afraid of being different, Mia keeps her gift a secret until 8th grade when it interferes with her school work and she goes to her parents for help. She discovers that she has a condition called synesthesia, and that other people have it too. Encouraged that she isn’t a freak, Mia dives into the world of synesthesia by attending research weekends, chatting with other synesthetes online and trying new experiments that heighten the effects of “her colors.” As she enters this new world she leaves her family and friends behind, but when her cat Mango becomes ill she is abruptly reminded of what is truly important.

A very interesting read! I had never heard of this condition and was fascinated by what synesthetes see in their everyday lives.  A different twist on the coming-of-age story.

©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 2

Violence: 4

Sexual Content: 1

Adult Themes: 3

Title: Nick of Time

Author: Ted Bell (New York Times Bestselling Author)

Ratings Explanation

Language: A few common swear words and two derogatory uses of the name of deity. 

Violence:  Nick, Kate and Gunner are threatened to be electrocuted by a security system if they continue to trespass.  A sailor is ordered to be sealed in a torpedo tube of a submarine and launched to his death.  Several instances of death and injury occur during a battle between two ships.  Sailors are killed or injured by cannon balls, guns and swords and the victims are seen laying on the deck or heard moaning and screaming in pain.   Before the battle, the ship’s decks are covered in sand to absorb any blood that would make it slippery.  A sailor’s severely injured leg is amputated and thrown into the sea.  Nick finds an injured sailor bleeding from both ears.   Nick sees another sailor fall on the deck that has “a small fountain of blood bubbling at his belly.”  One sailor sits on the deck drinking the last of his rum with only half of his face still intact.  Sailors on both sides of the battle are described as “wanting at each other’ throats”.   An evil pirate cuts off the end of his own tongue and swallows it to show Nick how sharp his dagger is.  The pirate’s dagger is shot out of his hand along with three of his fingers.  He goes crashing to the deck below.  The arm of the evil pirate captain is cut off and Nick sees the fingers on the stump still twitching.  Nick is cautioned to beware of the pirate captain’s bird because it could peck his eyes out.  A Nazi doctor aboard the sub tells Hobbes that he is a horrible surgeon but a great interrogator while flashing a scalpel.  Hobbes dreams that this crazy doctor cuts out his tongue.  The eccentric submarine captain shoots his escaping assistants as they try to swim  back to their U-boat.  Their blood pools in the water which attracts  sharks which finish them off.  The captain thinks he is leaving Hobbes and young Kate behind to suffer death by electrocution.

Sexual Content:  The pirate captain cannot be found and is suspected to be “sporting with his captured English filly”.  He is later said to be sipping tea with his English mistress.  Nick finds the woman a prisoner, chained up with “long deep red curls falling over the creamy white silk of her dress and bosom.”

Adult Content: Nick’s father goes against government wishes by being on the look out for the suspicious activity of German Nazis in the waters surrounding his light house.  He is later sent a letter telling him that he no longer has a job as light keeper and must move.  The submarine spying on them is an experimental Nazi U-boat.  It’s captain is short tempered and displays erratic behavior.  His assistant, a doctor, uses torture as a method of extracting information.  An evil pirate captain kidnaps children and holds them for ransom in the dark dank depths of his ship.  Most of the men in the story smoke as a means of relaxing.  Alcohol is consumed by sailors as well as by Lord Hawke and company for dinner.

Synopsis

Twelve year old Nick McIver and his younger sister Kate live on an English island in 1939, shortly before WWII.  Their father is part of a spy ring that is on the look out for suspicious activity in the waters around their lighthouse.  The English government is in denial that another war could possibly be coming and has warned all spying to cease.  Mr. McIver is found out and sent a letter relieving him and his family of duty at the lighthouse.  Nick’s parents immediately head to London to sort things out leaving their children in the care of an old family friend named Gunner.  Meanwhile, Nick and Kate discover a strange chest on the shore near their home.   With the help of Gunner and a reclusive neighbor, Lord Hawke, and his assistant Hobbes, they are able to open the chest and discover a beautifully crafted gold ball along with a note inside.  The note is from Nick’s ancestor, a sea captain living in 1805.  It explains  that the gold ball is actually one of two time machines in existence and that he is in desperate need of help.  Nick, Gunner and Lord Hawke head to the past to aid the captain.  There they find Billy Blood, a common enemy and owner of the other time machine.  Blood has kidnapped Lord Hawke’s children and taken Nick’s dog in hopes of obtaining both time machines.  This evil pirate has also kidnapped several other children from wealthy families throughout time and is holding them for ransom money.  Before it’s all over, the two ships engage in an intense battle leaving Blood with only one arm and fleeing off somewhere in the past or future.  After returning all of the children to their families, Nick returns home to find that his sister and Hobbes have had an adventure of their own.  They had been captured while trying to deliver secret documentation concerning sightings of a German U-boat. To their surprise, they become the U-boats prisoners.  Through careful planning and a lot of acting they persuade the captain of the German sub to return to the island.  Hobbes uses the captain’s ego against him and captures the U-boat in a secured lagoon.   English government officials are notified and come to inspect the submarine.  In the end, the two young heroes, Nick and Kate, are congratulated and reunited with their family.

This book was a fun sea-going journey from beginning to end and certainly satisfied in the adventure department.  I enjoyed the characters and found the mix of Nazis and pirates a great combination for some very suspenseful moments.  Although this book was written for readers ages 9-12, I thought that the battle sequences and threats of torture by scalpel were a bit intense for the younger reader. 

 ©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 0

Violence: 3

Sexual Content: 1

Adult Themes: 3

Title:  The Odyssey by Homer (Wishbone Classic)

Author:  Homer (retold by Joanne Mattern)

Ratings Explanation

Violence:  The Trojan War is described as a bloody field of battle.  Odysseus remembers soldiers screaming as they died, and swords and battle-axes crashing into their shields.  The Cyclops eats two of Odysseus’ men.  Odysseus and his men plunge the burning point of a spike into the Cyclops’s eye, blinding the Cyclops.  Circe changes Odysseus’ men into swine.  Scylla, a monster, snatches six men into his jaws.  Odysseus’ ship sinks in a terrible storm and every member of the crew is lost except Odysseus.  Odysseus becomes a prisoner of the Goddess Calypso for seven years.  Odysseus kills Antinous with an arrow to the neck, he gags and falls to the ground.  Odysseus kills all remaining suitors arrows.

Sexual Content:  Beautiful women, the Sirens’, sing a song so lovely that any man who hears it is drawn to them–and to his death.

 Adult Themes:  Odysseus and his men persuade the Cyclops to drink wine until he is drunk.  Odysseus travels to Hades – The Land of the Dead!  The aggressive suitors torment Penelope by eating her food, staying in her home, and demanding she choose a new husband.

Synopsis

King Odysseus leaves his wife, Penelope, and his infant son, Telemachus, behind in Ithaca, while he fights in the Trojan War with another Greek King, Menelaus.  They fight against the people of Troy for ten years!  Odysseus misses Penelope and Telemachus dearly.  When the war finally ends, Odysseus begins his journey, his odyssey home to Ithaca.  Odysseus finds the journey home to be more difficult than the war as he encounters Cyclops, Greeks Gods and Goddesses, sirens, and monsters.  He finally arrives home and battles Penelope’s aggressive suitors.

My 4th grade son, Ansel, recommended I read this book.  Ansel devoured this simplified version of “The Odyssey” in an evening.   An interesting read, with easy to understand explanations of Greek Mythology as well as great background information about the author, Homer. 

 ©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 0

Violence: 3

Sexual Content: 3

Adult Themes: 3

Title:  Stop That Bull, Theseus!  Myth-O-Mania Book Five

Author: Kate McMullan

Ratings Explanation

Violence:  Theseus battles Sinis, a troll.  Sinis is catapulted through the air to his death.  Theseus then battles Sciron, a giant.  Sciron kicks mortals to their death from a cliff into the sea, where they are caught in the jaws of a turtle.  Sciron belly-flops off the cliff onto the turle’s back.  The turtle swims Sciron out to sea, to his death.  Procrustes is a mortal and a murderer.  He runs a hotel and insists on tucking his guests to sleep.  He declares “Our beds are just the right size for You!”  He ties his guests to the bed and wields an ax to make them fit on the beds.  If the guests are too short, he stretches them and then chops them up.  Procrustes proclaims that he got such a bang out of murdering that after a while he quit wrestling so he could whack full time.  Procrustes is snapped to death in a collapsible bed.  A trap door springs open and the bed disappears into the black hole, with a faint splash.  Queen Medea tries to poison Theseus with wolfs bane.  She does not want Theseus to usurp her son’s position as the next King of Athens.  Theseus vows to kill the Minotaur.  He and thirteen Athenian youths are sent as a tribute to the Minotaur.  The tributes are not eaten by the Minotaur.  They are new wrestling partners for the Minotaur to train with.  Theseus forgets to take down the black sails as he returns to Athens.  King Aegeus jumps to his death when he sees the black sails.  

Sexual Content: ”Zeus was into building a dynasty, which means he married dozens of beautiful goddesses, nymphs, and mortals so he could have hundreds of good-looking gods, goddesses, and heroes as descendants.”  Aethra and Poseiden spent a few wild evenings together in Troezen and then they married.  King Aegeus came through town and Aethra began to flirt with the king.  Aethra jilted Poseidon for King Aegus.  Unbeknownst to them, Theseus is really Poseidon’s son, and not King Aegeus’s son.

Adult Themes: Pre-marital sex - Poseidon and Aethra.  Aethra then commits adultery with King Aegeus, while still married to Poseidon.

Synopsis

Zeus’s version of the myths is completely wrong.  Greek Mythology is finally set straight by Hades, King of the Underworld, as he reveals the true story.

Hades, King of the Underworld, is asked by his older brother, Poseidon, to keep an eye on his son, Theseus.   Theseus is extremely forgetful.  Theseus and Hades travel from Troezen to Athens.  Theseus encounters and defeats three bullies on his “road trip” to Athens. When Theseus arrives in Athens, Queen Medea tries to poison him.  Theseus then travels to Crete to battle Asterius, the Minotaur.  He finds the minotaur does not want fresh meat to eat, he wants fresh meat to wrestle.  Unfortunately, Theseus forgets to change the ship’s sails from black to white on his return to Athens.  When King Aegeus sees the black sails he commits suicide, thinking Theseus has been slain by the Minotaur.

 My 4th grader insisted I read and post this book.  He LOVED it!  This is an entertaining read, although more violent than I would prefer.  I thought Procrustes’s use of the ax was intense for a 4th grade level book. 

 ©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 1

Violence: 0

Sexual Content: 3

 Adult Themes: 2

 Title: The School of Essential Ingredients

Author: Erica Bauermeister

Rating Explanation

Language: some mild swearing and profanity

Sexual Content: There are quite a few sensual references in the book. A couple drinks champagne in bed after becoming engaged. Claire, a busy mother of two, doesn’t want sex at the end of her tiring days and eventually her husband stops trying. He touches her breasts and says to their baby, “Those are mine.” A different character admits to her husband that she had an affair. Woman puts garlic between her breasts; a trail for her lover to follow. Chloe moves in with her boyfriend, vague talk about sex. One character poses naked for a sculptor; they have sex and there is a brief description of it.

Adult Themes: Extramarital affairs. Losing a wife to breast cancer. Co-habitation. Demands of parenthood creating strain on a marriage.

 Synopsis

The eight students who arrive to take Lillian’s cooking class all come for different reasons. Some want to learn to cook, one comes to fulfill the wish of a loved one, and two come to strengthen their marriage, but they all learn much more than how to combine ingredients. As their separate stories unfold, the lives of the students begin to intertwine. Lillian is a very perceptive chef and teacher who not only creates tantalizing dishes, but also helps the students savor life, reclaim lost memories, and identify what they want most.

This is a quick and interesting read and I picked up a couple of cooking tips! Although the book is fairly short, the characters develop nicely and I enjoyed the connections they make with each other. Although I would have liked more of an ending for Lillian, the author leaves the reader with a sense of hope and happiness.

 ©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 1

 Violence: 0

 Sexual Content: 0

 Adult Themes:1

Title: Criss Cross

Author: Lynne Rae Perkins

2006 Newbery Medal Winner

Rating Explanation

Language: Four swear words, 2 instances of profanity

Adult Themes: After leaving home to go to school, Debbie and Patty meet in the rhododendron bushes to change clothes. “Both of them had mothers who were stranded in the backwaters of a bygone era, and who were unable to grasp many current trends and ideas. You could argue and argue, but they weren’t going to get it. At some point you just had to go change your clothes in a bush.” (This is an amusing chapter)

Lenny experiments with chewing tobacco.

Synopsis

14-year old Debbie wished something would happen to her, soon. Criss Cross follows Debbie and some of her friends and neighbors through a period of everyday days. Sometimes something interesting happens, but quite often not much of anything happens. A coming-of-age story.

You know how Seinfeld was a show about nothing? Well, Criss Cross is a book about nothing. I was excited to read this Newbery winner, but my enthusiasm waned early on. There isn’t a plot or much of anything actually happening in the story, just random experiences. With that said, some of the experiences are pretty funny and her writing is quite witty, but I am surprised that Criss Cross won the Newbery Medal. Overall I found it a little better than mediocre.

An interesting note, the number of Amazon reviews rating Criss Cross as a 5 and as a 1  are almost equal. Maybe it’s one of those books you either love or hate.

 ©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 1

Violence: 1

Sexual Content:1

Adult Themes: 1

Title:  Stargirl

 Author:  Jerry Spinelli

Ratings Explanation

Language: One use of the name of deity. Some name calling and belittling. One girl, Hillary, says that Stargirl’s parents are witches or brain-dead vegetables in a hospital. She also belittles Stargirl in front of a group of other students, calling her goofy, crazy and tells her to go back where she came from.

Violence: Hillary holds Stargirls rat from a high balcony and threatens to drop it. She also slaps Star Girls face in an attempt provoke her to fight back. A tomato is thrown at Star Girl from fans at a basketball game when she continues to cheer for the opposing team.

Sexual Content: Leo describes the miracle of summer when someone “leaves in June looking like a little girl and returns in September as a full-bodied woman”. Leo and Stargirl’s first kiss is described as follows: “the last remaining space between our lips was gone… that was no saint kissing me.”

Adult Themes: The whole story revolves around social ethics dealing with individuality versus conformity. The characters must decide which is most important and to what extent they are willing to defend their position.

Synopsis

When a mysterious young girl moves to Mica, Arizona, she turns the local high school upside down. Stargirl, as she calls herself, “laughed when there was no joke. She danced when there was no music. She had no friends, yet she was the friendliest person in school”. Leo, a fellow student, is fascinated with Stargirl but never expects to actually like her. This relationship forces Leo to take a good look at himself and his relationship to others. Stargirl teaches him about true humanity and the importance of the individual, while bringing unity to their small community.

Spinelli did a great job in helping the reader rethink the importance of the individual. While reading, I experienced many of the same soul-searching questions that Leo had. In the end, I was left feeling a greater desire to look out for my neighbors and not be so quick to judge others. A great book to read and discuss with pre-teens and older.

  ©2009 The Literate Mother

 Language: 0

Violence: 2

Sexual Content: 1

Adult Themes: 2

 Title:  The Star of Kazan

Author: Eva Ibbotson

Ratings Explanation

Violence:  Hermann attaches fireworks to the dog’s tail.  The dog loses a leg and partial eyesight.  Stefan pushes a harp down the stairs at Grossenfluss, a boarding school, and critically injures the cruel headmistress.  A young boy is saved from near trampling by a horse. 

Sexual Content:  Frau von Tannenberg falsely claims to have rapidly met and married Annika’s father, who deserts his young pregnant wife only weeks after their marriage.  Frau von Tannenberg often travels with her brother-in-law, Oswald, much to her sister’s disdain.

Adult Themes:  The Eggharts, a wealthy Vienna family, resist caring for their elderly aunt.  The aunt, a former Parisian Chorus Girl was nicknamed “La Rondine”.  The Eggharts begrudgingly comply and the great-aunt is given an ascetic space in which to live her last months.  Frau von Tannenberg deceives Annika, an orphan, as she claims to be her long-lost mother.  Unbeknownst to Annika, Frau von Tannenberg is a con artist who uses unscrupulous methods to steal Annika’s inheritance.  Annika is completely unaware of her inheritance from “La Rondine”.   Frau von Tannenberg sells a few jewels, rapidly spends the money, and hides the remaining jewels in a vault in Zurich.  Frau von Tannenberg then sends Annika to Grossenfluss, an inhumane boarding school for unwanted girls of the aristocracy.   Girl #126 commits suicide at Grossenfluss, and the police are not allowed to investigate the girl’s death properly.

 Synopsis

Ellie and Sigrid, a housemaid and a cook, discover an abandoned baby girl in a village church while hiking in the Austrian Alps.  They raise Annika in the home of three eccentric professors in Vienna, where they are employed.  Annika is loved. However, she yearns for her mother.  Annika has an opportunity to make money reading to her wealthy neighbor’s great aunt.  She befriends “La Rondine” and soon it is not a job at all, but a pleasure to visit with the older woman.  When “La Rondine” dies, she bequeaths her possessions to Annika.  Annika is completely unaware of the inheritance.  Frau von Tannenberg arrives to claim Annika as her daughter.  Annika leaves Vienna and returns with her mother to Germany, to the ancestral home, which is a castle that has fallen into great disrepair.  Annika is not permitted to attend school or work due to her new aristocratic status.  She grows increasingly homesick.  Annika befriends Zed, the stable boy.  Hermann, her step-brother, is showered with attention and gifts.   Frau von Tannenberg steals her inheritance and lavishes the riches upon her son, Hermann.   Annika is then sent to Grossenfluss, a boarding school.  The Professors, Stefan, and Ellie rescue Annika and bring her back to Vienna.  Pauline and The Professors unravel the mystery surrounding Annika’s so-called “mother” and the stolen inheritance.

 At 403 pages, this is a very quick read.  Although, I am convinced the story could have been pared down.  I enjoyed the interesting character names and setting of the early 1900’s in Austria-Hungary and The German Empire.  Ibbotson’s descriptions of Viennese cuisine were divine.  Strudel anyone?  This book is extremely mild in all categories. I recommend this book to young readers Grades 4-8.

  ©2009 The Literate Mother

Language:4

Violence: 5

Sexual Content: 5

Adult Themes: 5

Title: Where the Heart Is

Author: Billie Letts

Oprah’s Book Club

Ratings Explanation

Language:  Diety, hell, damn are used often.  Bitch, shit and ass are also used  in various forms throughout the book.

(*Violence, Sexual Content and Adult Themes all overlap in this book.  Nearly every incident may be categorized in any of the three areas.)

Violence: Sodomization of a young boy, Brummett, and the violent beating of his mother, Lexie. Willy Jack is raped in prison.  His nose is broken, his chest is bruised, and his buttock is chewed.  The prison doctor salves his wounds with Drano. Willy Jack purposefully stumbles onto train tracks in an attempt to cut off a finger in order to have Union Pacific settle monetarily with him.  He drunkenly loses his legs instead.

Sexual Content:  Willy Jack gropes an underage girl’s nipple.  Willy Jack hires prostitutes, and when his money runs out he preys on tired women in bars.  Novalee takes the pill to avoid pregnancy.  After a one night stand with Troy, she realizes that three days of taking the pill will not protect her from pregnancy.  Novalee contemplates abortion if she were to become pregnant.  Novalee gives birth in Wal-Mart.  Lexie Coop, a nurse, hand massages Novalee’s breasts until she produces milk for her baby, Americus.  Sister Husband prays, ” We ask forgiveness, Lord, for the fornication that Mr. Sprock and me have committed again.”  Benny, a young Indian boy, runs naked over Rattlesnake Ridge at sunrise.  Benny, at age eighteen, seven years younger than Novalee, begs her for a kiss and she complies.

Adult Themes:  Willy Jack drinks and is cited for public intoxication.  Forney’s alcoholic sister soils herself.

Synopsis

Novalee Nation bounces from foster homes as a child.  As a pregnant seventeen year old girl, she is left at a Wal-Mart in Oklahoma, by her boyfriend, Willy Jack Pickens, as they drive to California to begin a new life.  Novalee, pregnant and homeless, lives for a few months in Wal-Mart and then gives birth to her baby there.  She is befriended by Moses and Certain Whitecotton.  Her mother, Momma Nell, comes to the hospital after she sees her daughter and grandbaby, Americus Nation, on TV.  There is an outpouring of support as strangers send money to Novalee.  Momma Nell takes Novalee’s money and runs.  Sister Husband rescues Novalee and Americus and provides them with a home, “Where the Heart Is”.  Forney, the town librarian befriends Novalee and feeds her voracious appetite for literature.  Americus is kidnapped by a couple from Mississippi, and found in the manger of the church’s nativity.  Novalee is mentored by Moses Whitecotton, a photographer.  She excels at photography and wins an award.  Sister Husband is killed in a tornado.  Novalee becomes a strong, resilient character as she faces and ultimately forgives those who have wronged her.

I had no intention of posting this book on The Literate Mother, due to its more”adult material”.  However, “Where the Heart Is” has been posted as an optional book for high school English classes.  (Violence, Sexual Content and Adult Themes all overlap in this book.)  I find Billie Letts, the author, inspiring.  Billie’s first book was published while in her mid-fifties - after years of focusing on nurturing her children and supporting her husband’s career.  This book is very well written and I thoroughly enjoyed the premise of the story.  Due to the inclusion of child sodomy and prison rape I do not recommend this book as youth literature.

 ©2009 The Literate Mother

Language:4

Violence: 3

Sexual Content: 0

Adult Themes: 1

Title: The Persian Pickle Club

Author: Sandra Dallas

Rating Explanation

Language: A moderate amount of swearing and profanity as well as 5 racial slurs and one F-word.

Violence: A man knocks Rita to the ground, hits Queenie twice and tries to force her to go with him. He grabs her breast, rips her dress and touches her body.  A neighbor comes along, hits the man in the face and breaks his nose. He kicks him in the groin and in the back. (This scene and the F-word occur on pages 127-135, in case you would like to skip them)

Adult Themes: A difficult marital situation, overbearing husband

Synopsis

The Persian Pickle Club weaves together the lives, stories, and secrets of 12 women in a quilting circle in Depression-era Kansas. Rita, the newest Pickle member, wants to become a reporter and is determined to get her big break by solving the murder of a member’s husband. Her sleuthing unearths both secrets and loyalty.

I truly enjoyed this story of friendship and loyalty between women. We all have some sort of support system that keeps us going when difficulties arise. When a friend needed help the Pickles brought food, built cook fires, and fed the chickens; today we might go to lunch, drive a friend’s carpool or pick up her groceries. No matter the time period, women help each other and the gift is the same.

 ©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 1

Violence: 5

Sexual Content: 3

Adult Themes: 4

Title: The Life of Pi

Author: Yann Martel

Ratings Explanation

Language: Mild profanity and uses of the name of deity.

Violence: There are descriptions of abuse from uncaring visitors towards animals living in zoos that leads to their illness or death. Pi’s father forces his two sons to witness a tiger attacking and eating a live goat to teach them the danger of the animals in the zoo. Several instances of animal kingdom violence and gore are mentioned as animals kill each other for protection or food. On three occasions, an animal kills a human being to protect their territory. Because of the survival theme the author describes the slaughtering of sea animals for their salt-free blood to drink and meat to eat. Cannibalism is also used as a source of food. At the end of the book a story is told of a demented ship’s chef. Pi tells the following story to two navel officers from Japan who will not believe his original story of survival. The chef amputates the infected broken leg of a life boat passenger. The amputees does not live long after this. The cook butchers the body for food (scalping the head and face, using the intestines and genitals). The cook later fights with Pi’s mother stabbing her to death and throwing her body overboard. A few days later Pi stabs the cook to death in anger, pulls out the heart and eats it.

Sexual Content: Abuse is mentioned to have happened to zoo animals by sexual deviant visitors. The author explains that certain animal sounds indicate the animals desire to mate. A religious man criticizes circumcision by describing it as “having the end of your pecker cut off.” A shape in a religious painting is described as a “phallic stump“. Pi observes the genitals of a rat as it soars through the air.

Adult Themes: When Pi’s ship sinks, he loses his parents and brother and grieves heavily for them. Pi explores the main religions in his area and speaks to religious leaders who explain their beliefs but also demean the beliefs of others. There is also a graphic description of the crucifixion of Christ. Pi uses a damp rag to induce asphyxiation to help pass the time during the dreadfully long days. Pi becomes desperate enough to drink urine and eat feces. Pi faces the tough ethical decision of eating the flesh of a dead man because of his extreme hunger. Pi experiences excruciating suffering as part of daily survival.

Synopsis

Sixteen year old Piscine (Pi) Patel has enjoyed a unique childhood growing up in India as a zookeeper’s son. He learns much from the animals surrounding him, as well as the divers religions that draw him in and pull at his soul. As the political scene in India changes, Pi’s family decides to sell the zoo and relocate to Canada along with some of the zoo animals. Unfortunately their ship sinks in the middle of the Pacific Ocean leaving Pi the soul human survivor along with a 450-pound Bengal Tiger as his companion. As hours turn into days and weeks, a rescue does not seem likely and Pi must learn to survive the elements and live peacefully with the tiger on a twenty foot long lifeboat.

Yann Martel’s talented use of the English language brings the reader directly into the story with words which awaken all of the senses. This also means the reader suffers the excruciating experience of survival on the sea including extreme fear, hunger, thirst , mind numbing boredom and difficult ethical decisions. There are several pages I found difficult to stomach because of this. After agonizing along with Pi page after page, I was exhausted and disappointed with the ending. Definitely a book for the strong stomached older reader. I recommend high school age or older.

Language: 0

Violence: 4

Sexual Content: 3

Adult Themes: 3

Title:  The Host

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Ratings Explanation

Violence:  Melanie is attacked by a man in the dark and held at knife point.  On Fire World, Fire Tasters burned Walking Flowers alive and ingested the smoke as their nourishment.  Eight humans surround Wanderer/Melanie “slavering for blood.”  Jared backhands Wanderer/Melanie with force enough to slam her into the rock floor.  Ian wraps his hands around Wanderer/Melanie’s throat in an attempt to strangle her.  Jared, Ian and Kyle take turns beating one another repeatedly throughout the book.  Doc kidnaps souls “…and mutilated, dismembered, tortured bodies, ripped into grotesque shreds.”… to learn more about them.  Jamie breaks Jared’s nose.  Melanie/Wanderer punches Jared after he kisses her.  Kyle attempts to kill Melanie/Wanderer and she ultimately saves his life.  Wes is killed by a Seeker.  At Wanderer/Melanie’s request, Jared hits Wanderer in the face with a rock and scrapes a few layers of skin off.

Sexual Content:  Sensuously described passionate kissing between Melanie, a 17 year old female and Jared, a 26 year old male.  Sensuous kissing and groping between Jared and Wanderer/Melanie and Wanderer/Melanie and Ian.  Ian implies that Wanderer ought to experience sex while she is living a human life.  Homosexual reference, one man to another, “But if you try cuddling up to me tonight…so help me, O’Shea.” 

Adult Themes:  Melanie attempts suicide by jumping down an elevator shaft.  She does not die, but is severely injured.  Wanderer/Melanie nearly dies of dehydration and starvation in the desert.  Euthenasia: Walter, a human suffering from cancer is given a morphine overdose and dies.  Wanda decides to sacrifice herself so Melanie can have her body back.

Synopsis

Wanderer, an invading “soul” with seven past lives, has been given Melanie Stryder’s body.  A human body – the host body.  The unseen souls (aliens) have been invading human bodies in a covert war with the human race.  A soul is a small silver centipede being that is inserted at the base of a human neck, where it connects its many legs to the human host’s brain and body, thereby controlling the host body and ultimately causing the human within to disappear.

Wanderer finds her host, Melanie, does not disappear.  Wanderer infiltrates Melanie’s memories in search of the whereabouts of the human resistance.  Melanie exposes Wanderer to her memories of human love and desire.  Wanderer finds that she also yearns to be with this man she has never known.  Melanie and Wanderer unite in a dangerous journey to find Jared and Melanie’s younger brother, Jamie as they traverse the unforgiving desert of the Southwest.  Wanderer is conflicted as she is forced to choose between the human race and her native race.  

The Literate Mother received a specific request that this book be read and reviewed.  I had to slog my way through the first 130 pages.  The author spent too much time describing the setting of the story and then finally the story began.  This book is Meyer’s first foray into writing expressly for adults.  This novel may be popular with science fiction fans.  “The Host” ultimately questions,  “What is our definition of a relationship?”  After the unhealthy relationships exhibited in The Twilight Series, this would seem to be a natural course for Meyer’s to explore.  As an Arizona Resident, I enjoyed the descriptions of the Sonoran Desert and Picacho Peak.  This book would be appropriate for a high school aged reader, if they were captivated by the story.  I was not.

Language: 0

Violence: 3

Sexual Content: 0

Adult Themes: 2

Title: Seekers: The Quest Begins

Author: Erin Hunter

Ratings Explanation

Violence: Animal kingdom violence. Bear kills a rabbit by sinking his teeth into its neck (it ends up being a dream), bear kills 3 seal cubs, mother bear is killed by orca whale, bears kill birds and rabbits to eat, bears attack each other over territories. A bear attacks a zookeeper. A bear, who is a shape shifter and turns into a boy, is shot and wounded.

Adult Themes: All three bears in the story are orphaned or abandoned and must make their way alone in the world. Toklo has a sick brother named Tobi. Toklo resents him because  their mother gives Tobi all of her attention and because he slows down their progress.  When Tobi dies their mother looses her senses. Thinking that Toklo is also dead, she tries to bury him. When she realizes that Toklo is alive, she chases him away and abandons him.

Synopsis

Seekers: The Quest Begins follows 3 young bears separated from their families as cubs. Navigating the dangerous world on their own is no easy task, but they all receive help along the way and also learn to help others. This is the first in the Seekers series.

We read this book aloud as a family and it took a REALLY long time. No one seemed to be very interested in it. Some books just aren’t written to be read aloud and perhaps this is one of them. I don’t plan on reading any more of the books in this series, but if your child really likes animal stories they just might enjoy this book.

Language: 0

Violence: 2

Sexual Content: 0

Adult Themes: 3

Title: Esperanza Rising

Author: Pam Munoz Ryan

Ratings Explanation

Violence:  Esperanza’s father is killed by bandits.  Esperanza sees his body covered in a blanket in the back of the wagon.  When the Esperanza’s mother, Ramona rejects an uncle’s proposal of marriage, the uncle arranges to have their home burned down.  Esperanza  recalls bandits coming to the house, ” six men, their faces covered with handkerchiefs, and they all held rifles.”  The strikers put shards of glass in the box of asparagus to cut the women packer’s hand.  The strikers also plant  “several writhing gopher snakes”, and even an “angry rattlesnake”. 

Adult Themes:  There is a Mexican saying: ‘Full bellies and Spanish blood go hand in hand.”  “Those with Spanish blood who have the fairest complexions in the land, are the wealthiest.” The Mexican peasants travel in a train car filled with trash, reeking of rotting fruit and urine to the United States.  Ramona, Esperanza’s mother contracts Valley Fever in California and also has pneumonia.  Esperanza is exposed to prejudice for the first time.  The other Mexicans in the worker’s camp in California are prejudiced against her, because she came from an extremely wealthy background.  The Americans are prejudiced against the Mexicans.  “People here think that all Mexicans are alike.  They think that we are all uneducated, dirty, poor, and unskilled.  It does not occur to them that many have been trained in professions in Mexico.”  There are special sections at the movie theater for Negroes and Mexicans.  The Mexicans can only swim in the pool one day a week, the day before the pool gets cleaned.  “Voluntary Deportation” - the workers are rounded up during raids and put on buses.  The buses are parked at the bus station until late at night with those they captured on board.  Families don’t want to be separated from their loved ones and usually go with them.”  (The Voluntary Deportation Act gave counties the power to send great numbers of Mexicans back to Mexico.  Government officials thought this would solve the unemployment associated with the Great Depression (it didn’t).   Many of those sent to Mexico were native-born United States Citizens and had never even been to Mexico.  This was the largest involuntary migration in the United States up to that time.  Between 1929 and 1935 at least 450,000 Mexicans and Mexican Americans were sent back to Mexico. 

Synopsis

Esperanza is a wealthy thirteen year old girl living on El Rancho de las Rosas in Mexico.  Esperanza’s life is wonderful!  She has everything, a loving father and mother, a beautiful home filled with many possessions and servants to serve her.  Tragically, her father is killed by bandits.  The ranch then becomes the property of her villainous uncles.  One of the uncle’s desires to marry Ramona, her mother.  The proposal is rejected.  Esperanza, and her mother flee, with the help of their servants, to the United States.  They settle in a camp for migrant workers in California.  Esperanza faces many challenges, as she struggles with hard labor, lack of acceptance, financial hardship and loneliness.  Ramona’s illness necessitates a long hospitalization, which leaves Esperanza without any family.  The migrant worker’s strike for better working conditions during this time.  Esperanza is terrified of the “voluntary deportation” and the possibility of being separated from her mother.  Eperanza gracefully manuevers through her difficult circumstances.

As a resident of the State of Arizona, a border state, I was quite surprised to learn of the “Voluntary Deportation” Act of 1929.  This Act gave counties license to send anyone of Mexican descent back to Mexico.  I have had a difficult time comprehending the power that was given to these counties.  I cannot imagine the U.S. Government passing an “official act” which would give them license to raid my home or workplace, because I am of (Italian, German, Swedish, English or Scottish) descent, deprive me of my U.S. Citizenship, and send me to a foreign country, based solely upon my lineage.  This is exactly what happened to many Americans during the 1930’s.  Their families had been in the U.S. for generations, and yet they were sent to Mexico during The Great Depression, because their great-great-grandparents had come from Mexico. 

“Esperanza Rising” begins with a Mexican Proverb which states, “The rich person is richer when he becomes poor, than the poor person when he becomes rich.”  This proverb is the theme of the book.  The book lends itself to discussion with your children regarding: poverty, wealth, labor, loneliness, determination, migrant workers, and immigration.  I would like to read “Esperanza Rising” aloud to my children for the valuable discussions it would provide.

©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 2

Violence: 4

Sexuality: 2

Adult Themes: 3

Title: Inkheart

Author: Cornelia Funke

Ratings Explanation

Language:  Aunt Elinor curses often.  “Elinor swore a lot, and the more upset she was the worse her language became.”  The only words mentioned specifically are “damn” and “bloody hell” and one instance of diety.  Elinor is also referred to as a “fat woman” (offensive language in my house).

Violence:  The villains are from the middle ages.  They use brute force first and may or may not ask questions later.  Dead roosters are their calling card.  They infest the hills surrounding their village base with venomous snakes.  People condemned to death are put in a crypt under the church to die.  Tires are slashed.  Capricorn’s henchmen shoot shotgun rounds at the escaping prisoners.  While Elinor is driving the escape car, she collides with a stone wall.  Farid is bitten by a marten (a furry creature) and his finger bleeds profusely.  Farid hits Flatnose in the forehead with a rock and knocks him unconscious.  Mo is bitten by a dog and his sleeve is covered in blood.  Eleanor holds a shotgun to Basta’s head and threatens to kill him.  Flatnose and Basta are gagged, tied up and the left in the hills.  Basta uses his knife to slit throats and gash faces.  Dustfinger’s face is scarred by Basta’s knife.  Basta cut a pattern into Dustfinger’s face when they both fancied the same girl.  Dustfinger pulls a knife on Mortimer.  Flatnose puts his hand over a woman’s mouth to keep her quiet and she dies.  Farid snares a rabbit and kills it. Farid recalls beatings by the thieves, “they beat me like a dog”.  Tresa and Dustfinger are held captive in dangling nets.  Meggie and Fenoglio are kidnapped by Basta and Flatnose.  Capricorn threatens to wrap “pretty little vipers” around loved one’s necks, he threatens, “You all love something…”.  Capricorn seeks the submission of all.  The Shadow submits to Capricorn.  The Shadow is immortal, invulnerable and as pitiless as Capricorn.   The Shadow kills many.  An execution is planned and they hope the executioner is good with the sword so it will be over quickly.  Meggie kicks Basta in the shins and he drags her back up the stairs by the hair.  Dustfinger has the opportunity to kill Basta and he nearly takes it as he runs the knife over Basta’s flesh.  Elinor punches Cockerell and bloodies his nose.  Mortimer a.k.a. Silvertongue hides in a shallow grave with skeletal remains.

Sexuality:  Capricorn refers to Meggie as a “pretty little thing” that will come in handy when she is a bit older.  Capricorn has women read out of books by Darius to take care of his  needs.  Basta likes to use snakes to scare women who reject his advances. 

Adult Themes:  Capricorn was subjected to abuse as a child.  “His father, a blacksmith, made him play with hot coals, and sometimes beat him as hard as he beat the iron he forged.  There were more blows if he said ‘I can’t’ or ‘I’ll never do it’.”  Arson.  A trusted authority figure, a policemen, brings escaped prisoners seeking help, back to their captor, Capricorn.  Inkheart is rife with betrayal.

Synopsis

The book’s title is Inkheart “because it’s about a man (Capricorn) whose wicked heart is as black as ink, filled with darkness and evil.”

Meggie is twelve years old.  She and her father, Mortimer, have been constantly on the move since she was three years old.  Mortimer is a book binder.  They are both avid book lovers and voracious readers.  Curiously, Mortimer has never read to Meggie aloud.  One night, an old acquaintance, Dustfinger loiters under the street light in front of their home.  He is invited inside and therein begins the adventure for Meggie.  The trio of Dustfinger, Mortimer and Meggie travel to great-aunt Elinor’s to hide.  Mortimer is found and taken captive by the villains.  Meggie, Elinor and Dustfinger then travel to Capricorn’s hide-out to convince him to free Mortimer.  Meggie’s eyes are opened to her father’s mysterious talent.  When Mortimer reads aloud, the story escapes from the pages of the book, and is transplanted into their world.  Meggie soon discovers that she also possesses the gift.  Meggie discovers how to use her imagination to save her family.

“Inkheart” the movie will be released Friday, January 23rd, 2009.  The movie will no doubt pale in comparison to the book.  They always do.  However, if  the movie is 2/3 what the book is, it will be a fantastic movie!  The bags under my eyes are ENORMOUS today, after reading this book into the wee hours of the morning.  The adventure was captivating!  I was disappointed by the survival of two of  the villians, Basta and Mortola.  However, their existence is a perfect segway into a sequel. 

FYI: Inkheart was first written in German and then translated into English.  The writing style is superb.  As a lover of the printed word, I found the inclusion of book binding history to be fascinating. 

1/27/09  We saw the movie last night and the plot drastically departs from the plot in the book.  My husband, children and I all enjoyed the movie, but it is very loosely based upon the book’s premise.  My children were surprised when I outlined the differences and now they would like the book read aloud to them.

©2009 The Literate Mother

 Language:1

Violence: 5

Sexuality: 4

Adult Themes: 2

Title: Eclipse – Twilight Series, Book 3

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Ratings Explanation

Language: Bella writes a note to Edward – “Screw the protecting me crap.”  She also demands, “What the hell is this all about?”

Violence:   A clash between the werewolves and the Cullen Coven as they try to capture Victoria who treads along the boundary between the Quileute Reservation and the Town of Forks.  Rosalie refers to Bella’s experience in Twilight, where Bella was cornered by four men that were planning to rape her, had Edward not rescued her.  Rosalie recounts her last human experience.  She was violently raped by her wealthy fiance’ and his cluster of friends.  One friend ”…looked me over like I was a horse he was buying.”  The five men raped Rosalie and left her in the street for dead.  Rosalie was rescued by Carlisle and transformed into a vampire.  Rosalie systematically killed all who had raped her.  Jacob’s hand gets sliced by a boning knife while doing dishes with Bella.  Vampires break into Bella’s home and steal belongings that have her scent on them.  The Newborn Vampire Army creates havoc in Seattle with hundreds of unexplained deaths.  Jasper recounts gruesome vampire wars in Mexico.  Bella attends a tribal council with Jacob, where the History of the Quileutes is recounted.  The history includes the vampire’s slaughter of their tribe.  The suicide sacrifice of Taha Aki’s wife, as well as the tribe’s metamorphisis into werewolf protectors.  Jacob physically forces himself upon Bella, kissing her.  Bella breaks her hand punching him in the jaw.  Victoria and Riley, evil vampires, fight Edward and Seth the Werewolf.  The werewolf rips Riley the vampire to pieces and dismembers his body.  Edward kills Victoria.  The Cullen Coven defeat the Newborn Vampire Army.   The Cullen Coven collect the pieces of the dismembered corpses of the vampires and burn them.  A Newborn Vampire girl survives the battle.  She cannot control her thirst.  The Volturi arrive and dispose of the girl.  

Sexuality:  Meyer’s describes the most innocent of kisses in a very slow, sensuous manner.  Charlie, Bella’s father asks her if they are having  sex.  Bella is mortified.  She has never been immoral.  Jacob Black and Edward are described in vivid detail.  ie.) “..six foot seven inches of Jacob’s long body, muscled up the way no normal sixteen-and-a-half-year -old ever had been.  I saw those eyes rake over his tight black t-shirt….”  Werewolves are imprinted to their mate.  They instantly know who their soul mate is when they see them.  Quil imprints when he sees a two year old girl.  (He will be her friend, until she is older and comes to the realization that they are mates.)  Edward tells Bella, “You look…sexy.” Edward lifts her onto a counter to kiss him.   Bella does not want to give up the human experience of sex.  She begins to take her clothes off the seduce Edward.  Edward tells Bella he will not have sex with her until they are married.  She gives him a hard time about protecting his virtue.  He will not back down.  He is protecting her virtue as well.  Bella freezes in a snowstorm.  Jacob has to be the one to warm her up, since werewolves are hot-blooded.  Edward is upset, but sees that he has to allow Jacob to climb in Bella’s sleeping bag to warm her up.  Jacob suggests Bella take her clothes off and she would warm up really fast.  Edward tells Jacob to control his thoughts.  (Edward can read other’s thoughts.)  Jacob and Bella share an intense first kiss. 

Adult Themes:  Bella lies to her father about where she is going so that she can spend the weekend with Edward.  Bella loves both Jacob and Edward.  She can envision her life with each of them.  She has to make a decision and live with the consequences. 

Synopsis

Bella and Edward are back to together again.  Bella laments the passing of time.  Each day is a day she will be older than her non-aging vampire boyfriend, Edward, who was transformed into a vampire, when he was just seventeen.  The last few months of high school rapidly pass as Bella anxiously awaits and woefully dreads graduation.  Bella’s human days are numbered.  She tries to live her final human experiences to the fullest.  Bella has decided that after graduation she will become a vampire; and she desires Edward to be the one to make her immortal.  Edward agrees, if and only if they are married first.  Bella ponders the consequences of her impending decision to become a vampire.  Most poignantly, the impact upon family and friends.  She is fearful of what she may become.

Bella discovers that she is torn between her love for Edward and surprisingly, her unrequited love for her best friend, Jacob.  She wishes she could be divided in two and live both lives.

Meanwhile, Victoria seeks revenge.   She has created an army of “Newborn Vampires”, who are ravaging the city of Seattle.  (Victoria was James, “ The Tracker’s” mate, from the first book, Twilight.  In Twilight, the Cullen Coven dismembered and burned James – the only way to kill a vampire; to save Bella’s life.)  The werewolves and the Cullen Coven unite to fend off the “Newborn Vampire” Army.  Edward and Jacob personally unite to protect Bella.  The Volturi, from book two, New Moon, also make a chilling appearance after the vicious battle is fought.

Meyer’s talent lies in capturing the intense emotions you experience in a first crush/first kiss/first love.  The soap opera quality of the Twilight Series hooks young and younger readers alike, as you consume the drivel to see ”What will happen next?”.   In book three, Bella is finally developing into a more mature character.  She thinks about the ramifications of her impending “immortal” decision.  What will be most identifiable to young readers will be Bella’s torn heart, between her “True Love”, Edward and her “Best Friend”, Jacob.  Bella will always wonder what her life would have been like had she chosen the other. 

Bella Swann, as a role-model to young women is extremely discouraging.  Bella has redeeming character traits.  Bella is a responsible teenager, who competently handles the running of a household.  She grocery shops, prepares meals, and does her laundry, in addition to being an A+ student.  Bella also expresses maturity in relationships with her peers. 

Although, Bella’s relationship with Edward is unhealthy.  Bella has low self-esteem.  (Most teenage girls will identify easily with this.)  Bella is extremely self-deprecating, and she frequently describes Edward as perfect.  She juxtaposes her woeful inadequecies next to his perfection in her thoughts and voice.  Bella constantly diminishes her self-worth and her frequent self- descriptive words are “ordinary” and “regular”. 

The underlying message is, “Bella is of exceptional value, as long as someone of the opposite sex loves her.”  Edward is perfection.  Bella reminds us of his perfection and how lucky she is to have him.  Never does she acknowledge that she deserves to have someone attractive love her.  All of Edward’s controlling behaviors are deemed acceptable, and forgiven, on the premise that he loves her.

Eclipse would definitely be a great book to open discussion regarding self-worth, as well as the importance of virtue in relationships.  Eclipse is more appropriate for high school age readers.

©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 1

Violence:  3

Sexuality: 2

Adult Themes: 2

Title: New Moon

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Series: The Twilight Saga, Book 2

 Ratings Explanation

 Language: 7 instances of “hell” and 6 instances of “damn”.

 Violence: While at the Cullen’s home, Bella cuts her arm and is nearly attacked by Jasper. Edward defends her. Bella encounters Laurent in the forest, a vampire who would very  much like to kill Bella since she smells so good and the Cullens are not around to protect her. Werewolves patrol the forest, save Bella and kill Laurent. Victoria, the vampire mate of James, who Edward killed in Twilight, is stalking Bella. She wants to kill Edward’s mate since Edward killed her mate. Hikers disappear; killed by either Laurent or Victoria. Bella engages in self-destructive behavior in order to hear Edward’s voice in her head. She discovers that when she is in danger, he “speaks” to  her, although he is nowhere near. Bella then tries out motorcycle riding, ending in injuries, and cliff diving, nearly resulting in her drowning. After her near drowning, Edward thinks that Bella is dead and goes to Italy to ask the Volturi to kill him. While in Italy to save Edward, Bella witnesses a roomful of 40 or more tourists who are brought into the Volturi’s lair on a “sightseeing” tour. That, of course, ends poorly for the tourists who become dinner for the Volturi clan. Bella is especially affected by a small, dark woman with a rosary and a cross. As Bella, Edward, and Alice escape, they hear the tourists screaming.

 Sexuality: Edward is actually absent for most of the book, so there isn’t too much kissing, but some of it is a little intense. “…his lips became much more urgent, his free hand twisted into my hair and held my face securely to his. And, though my hands tangled in his hair, too, and though I was clearly beginning to cross his cautious lines, for once he didn’t stop me. His body was cold through the thin quilt, but I crushed myself against him eagerly. “After Edward returns, as in the first book, he stays in Bella’s bed with her most nights. In another scene, “I could feel his marble body against every line of mine.”

 Adult Themes: Bella is so distraught when Edward leaves that she can barely hold herself together. She abandons her other friends and just barely functions. Charley wants her to see a therapist, but she refuses. Jacob loves Bella, but to her he is only a best friend. She knows she is leading him on, but can’t stay away from him because he fills the void left by Edward. Alice steals two cars while in Italy. Bella deceives her father by having Edward in her room at night.

 Synopsis

In the second installment of the Twilight Saga, Bella and Edward are very much in love. An unfortunate accident in which Bella is nearly attacked by Edward’s “brother” Jasper, emphasizes the differences between them and the potential danger Bella is exposed to when she is around his vampire family. In an effort to protect her, Edward leaves Forks and abandons Bella. Alone and seriously depressed, Bella begins hanging out with Jacob, an old family friend. With Jacob’s help, Bella begins to heal from losing Edward, but Jacob has a dark secret of his own. When Edward  believes that Bella is dead, he goes to Italy to ask the Volturi to kill him. Only seeing Bella in the flesh will convince him that she is still alive, but the Volturi do not take kindly to humans who know their secret. Can they escape Italy alive and together?

With Edward gone, Bella is a mess. I worry a little that young girls will think that this is how you are supposed to feel, and act, when your boyfriend breaks up with you.

The story is a page turner. Of the four books, this one is probably the least sensual since Edward is gone for the majority of the book. Still, not a series for young girls. My recommended age is high school.

©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 1

Violence: 4

Sexuality: 3

Adult Themes: 3

Title:  Twilight

Author:  Stephenie Meyer

#1 New York Times Bestseller

Ratings Explanation

Language: References to rapidly uttered profanities spoken by the vampires – unintelligible to the human ear.  Bella claims Forks is her personal hell.

Violence:  The preface foreshadows Bella’s hopelessness as the hunter saunters toward her to kill her.  A van hits ice in the school parking lot and slides toward her.  If not for Edward’s stealth, she would have been crushed.  Blood typing in science class.  Every student has to prick their finger with a lancet.  Bella has a nightmare of Jacob the Werewolf and Edward the Vampire squaring off to fight.  Bella researches vampires and discovers the Romanian Varacolaci, a powerful undead human being who could appear as a beautiful, pale-skinned human, the Slovak Nelapsi, a creature so strong and fast it could massacre an entire village in the single hour after midnight.  Bella takes a girl’s shopping trip to Port Angeles.  She leaves their company in search of a book store.  Bella is herded and surrounded by four raucous men in a deserted industrial area.  Bella is terrified and knows there is no escape.  Fortunately, she is saved by Edward.  Although, thanks to Edward’s mind-reading capabilities, it is obvious that Bella would have been a victim of rape.  Edward confirms that he is indeed a vampire.  He warns Bella not to go into the woods alone.  There are things far more dangerous than him out there.  Edward describes how vampires hunt their prey.  “….we give ourselves over to our senses….govern less with our minds.  Especially our sense of smell.”  Edward tells Bella that he could have easily killed her when they first met.  “There was only one other frail human there – so easily dealt with.”  Edward also recounts how he was turned into a vampire.  He recounts the grisly description of Carlisle’s transformation from human to vampire.  Violence recounted from the 1600’s - the deaths of many innocent people.  Carlisle attacks a deer and his thirst is quenched, he vows to drink the blood of animals and not humans.  James the tracker desires Bella’s blood.  Alice describes how to become a vampire to Bella.  The bite, the incapacitating venom, and the blood-lust that ensue.  James attacks Bella.  Bella receives a crushing blow to the chest, her head crunches into the mirrors.  James steps on her leg, snapping the bone.  The glass from the mirrors, rips her scalp open and the blood soaks her.  James bites her hand and the venom begins to spread.  James is destroyed, meaning, torn into pieces by the Cullen Coven of vampires and burned.

Sexuality:  Twilight is a very sensual book.  Every interaction between Bella and Edward is amplified and described in a slow, sensuous manner.  Edward is described in repetitive detail, denoting his beautifully chiseled marble face etc.  ie) “Again, the fabric clung to his perfectly muscled chest.  It was a tribute to his face that it kept my eyes away from his body.”  Edward watches Bella sleep each night.  Eventually, he sleeps holding her in his arms in her bed.  As Edward is in her room, Bella notes that her father is in the house.  Bella watches as a waitress coyly suggests to Edward “Isn’t there anything I can get you?”   Intense first kiss, with Bella’s human reaction lacking in self-control as she wraps herself around Edward.  Bella curiously asks if vampires can have sex.

Adult Themes: Vampires – The Cold Ones, Blood Drinkers.  Bella deals with the complications of divorced parents.  Bella’s mother lives with her boyfriend, Phil.  Bella deliberately and unnecessarily takes cold medicine to knock herself out – gratuitous drug use.

Synopsis

Isabella Swan is seventeen years old.  “Bella’s” parents are divorced.  Mid-school year, Bella chooses to move to Forks, Washington, where her father resides.  Bella’s father, Charlie, is a single father, who is also the Chief of Police.  Bella leads her mother to believe that she really wants to move to Forks, when she would rather stay in Phoenix.  However, Bella believes her mother will be happier traveling with her boyfriend, Phil, to Florida for Baseball Spring Training.  Phil is an amatuer baseball player, working toward his big break.  Bella sacrifices her comfort for her mother’s happiness.

Bella arrives in Forks with little enthusiasm for her new life.  She quickly begins to realize life in Forks will be anything but dismal.  Her father purchases a “historic truck” for her to drive – forty years new.  Bella is showered with male attention as the “new girl” at Forks High School.  She finds that her pale complexion is an asset in Forks, Washington.  Bella is unaccustomed to so much male attention.  She is mutually humored and stunned by the attempts for her attentions.

Bella experiences her “First Crush/First Love”, with Edward Cullen.  She experiences her first kiss, as well as the intense longings and desires that accompany first love.  Bella discovers that Edward is not just another high school student.  Edward and his “siblings”, are a coven of vampires, who pose as high school students in their quest for co-existence with humans.  They drink the blood of animals instead of humans in order to stave off their thirst for human blood.  Bella is cautiously introduced into Edward’s World  - A World of Vampires.  As Bella participates in a Cullen Family game of baseball, another coven of vampires happens upon the Cullens.  Bella, as the only human, has her life threatened.  James, the leader of the opposing coven is a “tracker”, a hunter, with an insatiable desire for Bella’s blood.  An intense game of ”Hunter and Prey” ensues as the Cullen’s conspire to keep Bella alive and out of James’ grasp.

I first read this book two years ago when a few twelve and thirteen year old girls in my neighborhood told me “I just had to read Twilight”.  I admit, I was intrigued by the plot.  I had to find out how a vampire/human relationship could ever work out.  Meyer’s writing style leaves much to be desired.  Her descriptions are repetitive and unimaginative.  The strength of Meyer’s lies is her ability to capture the intense emotions that a person experiences in their “First Crush/First Kiss/First Love”.  The love story of Bella and Edward is the intense draw for so many young women.  The unattainable uber-attractive male who is just as enamored with the average female as she is with him is a universal desire.  This resounds with every female.  As I re-read Twilight this month, I have been quite surprised to recently see so many 4th and 5th grade readers devouring the Twilight Series.  The Twilight Series is more appropriate for a 9th-12th grade “young adult” reader.  Twilight lends itself to discussing many issues with your young reader: personal safety, drug abuse, theft, honesty, defining self-worth, boundaries in relationships and early sexuality.

©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 1

Violence: 2

Sexuality: 0

Adult Themes: 2

Title: The Misadventures of Benjamin Bartholomew Piff: You Wish

Author: Jason Lethcoe

Ratings Explanation

Language: Only one reference to “Profanity Production” in the Curseworks Factory. “In spite of the heavy walls, Ben blushes when he hears the foul curses that were emanating from the room.”

Violence: Ms. Pinch raises her hand to Ben as if to strike him and stops at the last minute. In one of the footnotes a factory worker flies a chair after too much drinking at the pub. He ascends three thousand feet and his body is never recovered. Simon Spinchley is turned into a spider. There is a scaly, dragonlike monster the Curseworks Factory has built. During the battle sequence, hideous creatures screech curses, which emit a horrible green acid that burns. The fanged jaws of a creature crack the windshield. Many of the flying chairs crash during battle, and death is imminent. The Jinns swing giant scimitars like sickles through the Spider Monkeys. Ben is shot by a magical curse-covered arrow. He is immediately in agonizing pain as the liquid fire courses through his veins.

Adult Themes: Ben’s parents die in a plane crash. He recalls how great his life had been before he became an orphan. He recalls being told about their deaths. Ben misses his parents terribly. He finds himself in an orphanage under the watch and care of cruel adults. Later in the story, Mr. Thornblood, the President of the Curseworks Factory, who has a history of being very manipulative, slyly tries to persuade Ben to give his wish to him.

Synopsis

Benjamin Bartholomew Piff is an orphan. Ben he has been living for the past year at “Pinch’s Home for Wayward Boys”, a dilapidated orphanage managed by the cruel spinster, Ms. Eliza Pinch and “The Disciplinarian”, and cook, Mr. Roach. Ben plots his escape and is foiled. Ben then receives a cake from his kind case worker, to celebrate his 11th birthday. Ms. Pinch snatches the cake from Ben and Mr. Roach locks the cake in the refrigerator. Later that night, after Ben has spent hours scrubbing pots with a toothbrush, he unlocks the cake from the refrigerator, lights the candles and makes a birthday wish….and follows the rules for Birthday Wishing:

1. The wish must be made with the eyes closed.

2. Every candle on the birthday cake must be blown out in one breath.

3. The wish must never, ever be spoken aloud.

Ben wishes for the most dangerous wish of all…unlimited wishes. He is thrilled with his clever wish, until he learns he has completely disrupted the fragile balance in the magical realm of wishes and curses. Ben is then recruited by the Wishworks Factory President, Candlewick, to be trained for battle against the Curseworks Factory and their evil army of henchmen. The battle ensues as Wishworks fights to regain power.

The old adage, “Be careful what you wish for…. ” is brought to life in “The Misadventures of Benjamin Bartholomew Piff You Wish”. This story will interest 4th – 6th grade readers as they read on their own.  Please don’t forget to read the hilarious footnotes! The book’s gem, “Forgiveness is the sweetest revenge”.

©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 1

Violence: 5

Sexuality: 3 

Adult Themes: 4

Title:  House of the Scorpion

Author:  Nancy Farmer

National Honor Book/2003 Newbery Honor Book/Printz Honor Book

Ratings Explanation

Language:  Two of the words of profanity used throughout the book mean nothing to us, but are future words of profanity.  “Crotting” which means anything to do with “eejits”.  The other,”Eejits” are people, clones or animals who are injected with a drug that blunts their intelligence or have an implant in their brain.  They are not considered human.  They can do repetitive tasks, but cannot think for themselves.  ie.)If the eejits are not told to drink water, they will die of thirst.  There are minimal references to the Country of Opium as hell. 

Violence:  Matt as a six year old child breaks a glass window and climbs out.  Matt’s foot is sliced open.  He is taken to the Alacran Mansion, where he is gently cared for until they realize he is a clone.  Matt is then thrown out of the house onto the lawn and left for the day until he is discovered to be El Patron’s clone.  Matt is then locked up.  There is no bathroom.  He tries to urinate quietly and the bucket tips over.  Rosa threatens to kill Matt.  Rosa takes his clothes, the bathroom bucket and slowly starves Matt.  Rosa has sawdust thrown into the room – deep litter.  Matt throws an orange at Tom’s face.  Tom shoots Matt with a pea shooter.  Rosa is turned into an eejit when Matt is found malnourished with a skin condition.  Matt and the bodyguard, Tam Lin come upon a dead man lying in the field, a worker, who died of thirst.  The eejit is left in the field like a piece of trash.  Tom unsuccessfully tries to drown Maria’s dog, Furball.  Tom uses laudunum, which is opium dissolved in alcohol to kill Furball.  Furball’s death is blamed on Matt.  Tom takes Maria and Matt to the estate’s hospital where McGregor’s clone is strapped to a bed, writhing in pain.  His eyes and liver have been transplanted.  When the eejits die, they are turned into compost to fertilize the opium fields.  Felicia unleashes a venomous tirade to Tom how she wants to kill Matt.  Matt discovers the eejit pens, where they sleep in filth.  The eejits are exposed to carbon dioxide from the wastelands on still nights and are commanded to sleep in the fields, so they don’t die.  The army of bodyguards consists of wanted international criminals.  Tam Lin, El Patron’s personal bodyguard, was a Scottish Nationalist who accidentally blew up twenty kids on a school bus, instead of the Prime Minister and Prince Charlie in London.  Matt tries to escape when El Patron has a heart attack and needs a new heart.  Matt is tackled by a guard and strapped to a bed.  Matt is poisoned by Celia with foxglove and arsenic to make his heart too unstable to transplant – which saves his life.  Matt barely escapes the Farm Patrol into Aztlanos, formerly Mexico.  Fidelito recounts his parents being killed by the Farm Patrol’s stun guns.  The orphans are beaten for not producing enough each day.  They are fed plankton feed, which makes the boys sick and gives them skin conditions.  The Keepers are drug addicts and traffickers of laudunum.  Matt is beaten by a keeper and he and Chacho are thrown into the boneyard to die.  El Patron dies and determines that a toast to him be made at the wake with a special wine he has saved for the occasion.  The wine is poisoned and kills everyone but Tam Lin, Mr. Ortega, and Celia who decided not to toast the old man.  They are all buried with El Patron.  El Patron worshipped the Pharoahs of old, who were buried with their possessions. 

Sexuality:  Tom, a vicious boy, who torments Matt, is the son of a competing drug lord, MacGregor.  While Tom’s mother, Felicia, was married to El Patron’s great-grandson.  Felicia ran off with Macregor, only it didn’t work out because El Patron doesn’t like people taking his possessions.  El Patron had Felicia brought back to the Alacran Estate.  However, Felicia’s husband, Mr. Alacran, did not want Felicia back.  El Patron didn’t care.  Felicia was the Property of El Patron.  Rosa has a lover, Willum the Chief Doctor for the Alacran Household.  Maria, the young daughter of Senator Mendoza sneaks food to Matt and spends the night in the locked room. 

Adult Themes:  Human beings are cloned for transplants, or to be workers in the poppy fields. The minds of the clones are destroyed at birth.  The coyotes who smuggle Mexicans into the U.S. and vice versa lead the illegals straight to the Farm Patrol in the country of Opium, where they are injected and turned into eejits.  The eejits are essentially slaves to the Country of Opium.  The boys in Aztlanos are all orphans of parents who have been turned into eejits, while searching for a better life in the U.S. or Aztlanos.  The orphans are kept as slave workers by the Border Patrol in Aztlanos. 

Synopsis

One hundred years from now, Matteo Alacran’ will be harvested.  Matteo is a clone of El Patron, a powerful drug lord.  El Patron is the undisputed ruler of a new country called Opium, which lies on a narrow strip of land between what was once Mexico and the United States.  Matt’s first cells grew and divided in a petri dish.  The cells were then placed into the womb of a cow, where Matt grew from a fetus into a baby.  Matt is now like any other boy, except those in Opium do not consider him human.  He is considered a monster, an “eejit”.  Celia, a cook for El Patron, cares for Matt.  El Patron loves Matt, because Matt is El Patron.  In fact, Matt is the eighth El Patron clone to be born.  The other seven have been sacrificed for El Patron.  Their youthful organs transplanted into El Patron to enable him to live for nearly a century and a half. 

Matt struggles to understand his existence.  El Patron lavishes a privately tutored education upon Matt.  Matt’s perspective of the world changes as he sees the cruel reality of Opium.  Matt is continually threatened by the evil, power-hungry family, friends and army of bodyguards who surround El Patron and his amassed property.  They are all El Patron’s property.  Matt’s only chance of survival is to escape from the Alacran Estate in Opium.  His escape from Alacran is no guarantee of freedom.  Matt discovers his intense desire to live as he confronts adversity.

Ironically, the day I began reading this book, I was stung by a scorpion hiding in the sheets of my bed as I drifted off to sleep – one of the perils of living in a desert.  Farmer’s plot was innovative and intense.  This is one of the most powerful and thought-provoking books I have read.  The story is a coming-of-age story that weaves today’s ethical, scientific, political and socioeconomic issues into an amazing tapestry that becomes a powerful story of survival. 

©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 0

Violence :0

Sexuality: 0

Adult Themes: 0 

Title:  Clementine

Author: Sara PennyPacker

Illustrator: Marla Frazee

2007 Boston Globe/Horn Book Honor book/Winner of the 2007 Bank Street/Josette Frank Award/Child Magazine Best Book of the Year

Ratings Explanation

None applicable

Synopsis

Clementine has a really bad week.  In a Ramona Quimby Fashion, trouble finds Clementine everyday.   Monday, Clementine is sent to the principal’s office for helping Margaret cut her hair.  Tuesday,  Margaret’s mother is angry with Clementine, and Margaret is forbidden to play with her.  Wednesday, Clementine finds herself back in the principal’s office.  Thursday, Clementine is shunned by Margaret.  Friday, Clementine’s teacher is cranky with her and she continues to be shunned by Margaret and Margaret’s new best friend.  Saturday, Clementine thinks her mother wants to only keep the easy child, and she is not the easy child.  Clementine redeems herself by the end of the week.  

Clementine is a 3rd Grade Level Book.  If you enjoyed Beverly Cleary’s  Ramona Books you will enjoy introducing your young reader to the Clementine series as well.  You will groan aloud as trouble finds Clementine each day.

©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 0 

Violence: 3 

Sexuality: 1 

Adult Themes: 0

Title:  Princess Academy

Author:  Shannon Hale

2006 Newbery Honor Book

Ratings Explanation

Violence:  Miri’s mother is hurt in the quarry while she is pregnant with Miri.  Miri is born early and her mother dies a week later.  Marda’s leg is broken as a cart in the quarry rolls back down the mountain and crushes her leg.  The teenage girls in the village are forcibly taken to the Princess Academy.  The tutor, Olana is an extremely strict teacher.  She punishes them with palm lashings and deprives them of meals.  Olana also locks them in a cold, dark closet inhabited by a rat.  The rat tries to nest in Miri’s hair, as she lies on the cold stone floor for hours.   Miri tries to run away as the bandits take the academy hostage.  She is tackled by a bandit.  Knut, the school caretaker has his arm broken by the bandits.  A bandit catches Olana by the throat and shoves her against the wall.  Dan, a bandit, lifts Esa from the ground by her neck and threatens to make sure she never speaks again.  Dan tells Onor, both bandits there will be “plenty of time for killing later”.  A bandit stuffs his cap in one of a girl’s mouth.  Dan gags Miri and pulls her by the hair.  He then threatens to slit her throat.  As the girls try to escape, Dan grabs Miri and tells her, “I’ll see you broken and dead.”  Dan and Miri fall off a cliff onto a ledge together.  Dan clenches Miri’s leg until Miri’s father strikes him on the forehead with a mallet.  He then falls to his death.

Sexuality:  Miri and Peder dance, hold hands and kiss.  Miri has butterflies when she thinks of Peder and envisions marrying Prince Steffan, who looks just like Peder.  

Synopsis

Miri is named after a flower that grows on Mount Eskel.  Miri is a fourteen year old girl, that lives in a village near the top of Mount Eskel.  The village quarries linder, a unique, highly-prized, pale stone used to build palaces.  At age eight, the children in the village begin to work in the quarry.  Miri’s father, a widower, has forbidden her to work in the quarry.  However, Marda, her older sister gets to work in the quarry.  Miri longs to be a part of the unifying song and speech of the quarry workers.  Instead, Miri spends her days tending to the goats and caring for their home.

A delegate of the King of Danlander arrives in the village and declares the priests have read the omens and divined the home of the prince’s future bride as Mount Eskel.  All teenage girls younger than the prince are required to attend a makeshift Princess Academy for one year to prepare for royal life.  The young women begin their education and their perspective is forever changed. The girls become fierce competitors for ”Academy Princess”, the valedictorian of the class.  The entire academy is then held hostage by violent bandits, hoping to ransom the future princess.  Miri finds a way to outwit the bandits, using a unique gift.  A new princess is chosen and Miri learns that real love is based on friendship.  Miri is a strong and determined young woman.  Miri realizes that the application of her education, will ultimately increase the quality of life for her village.

This book is not the predictable fairy-tale you envision from the title, “Princess Academy”.  This book is a multi-layered story about a young girl’s education, relationships and the meaning of family.  Her perspective of the world completely changes through the course of the story.  I found myself cheering Miri on in her quest for knowledge.  “Princess Academy” is a breath of fresh air and an inspiring book for young females to read.

©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 1 

Violence: 3 

Sexual Content: 0 

Adult Themes: 2  

Title: Frankenstein

Author: Mary Shelley

Rating Explanation

Language: Several instances of profanity

Violence: The creature commits 3 murders. An innocent woman is executed for a crime she did not commit. The creature is shot and wounded. While this sounds quite violent, there are no gory details or descriptions.

Adult Themes:  Victor Frankenstein creates a living being and immediately abandons him. Although he receives no affection or acceptance from Victor, the creature witnesses in others the goodness and sympathy humans are capable of. When he is shunned by these good people, the creature blames his creator and society for rejecting him and driving him to his crimes. The creature’s rage and vengeance lead him to murder and misery.  Is Victor responsible for his creation’s crimes because he neglected to instruct the creature on how to live in a civilized society? What responsibility does the creature have for his own actions?

Synopsis

 Mary Shelley’s classic Gothic tale follows Victor Frankenstein and his obsession to create life. Once this is achieved, Victor is disgusted by what he has created and abandons his creature. The creature longs for human affection and acceptance, but is shunned by all. Miserable and alone, he vows to ruin Victor’s life and make him as wretched as he  is.

One of my favorite things about this book is the language. Although telling a gruesome tale, the prose is beautiful. Here is one of my favorite passages. “Did you not call this a glorious expedition? and wherefore was it glorious? Not because the way was smooth and placid as a southern sea, but because it was full of dangers and terror; because, at every new incident, your fortitude was to be called forth and your courage exhibited; because danger and death surrounded, and these dangers you were to brave and overcome. For this was it a glorious, for this was it an honourable undertaking.”

What do I need to say about this classic? Read it. It is well worth your time.

©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 0 

Violence: 2 

Sexual Content: 2 

Adult Themes: 1 

Title:  Fairest

Author:  Gail Carson Levine

Ratings Explanation

Violence:  King Oscaro is accidentally hit in the head by a large metal ring while attending a sporting event.  The impact causes him to slip in and out of consciousness for weeks.  Uju hurls a dagger into an ogre’s throat.  Aza is given a poisonous apple, which nearly causes her death.  Aza fights the evil villain, Skulni in the mirror. 

Sexual Content: The newlywed, Queen Ivi flirtatiously touches Prince Ijori’s cheek.  While traveling back to the castle, Prince Ijori and Aza spend the night together clasping hands.  They also share a kiss.  Aza bathes with gnome ladies in the lake.  The gnome ladies skin is wrinkled and leathery, so they do not seem naked to Aza.

Adult Themes:  Queen Ivi is intensely jealous of anyone she sees as a potential threat.  Queen Ivi is also very concerned about Prince Ijori’s attentions being directed towards Aza.

Synopsis

Aza has the most amazing voice in the Kingdom of Ayortha.  Aza can “illuse”, which is throw her voice while singing.  Singing is one of the two prized qualities in Ayortha, a kingdom that communicates through song.  However, Aza does not possess the other prized quality, which is beauty.  In fact, she is deemed ugly.  Aza is hidden in the shadows at the Featherbed, an inn her family runs.  Through fortuitous circumstances, she becomes the lady-in-waiting to the new queen.  Aza has to step into the limelight as her new role requires.   The new,  jealous Queen Ivi threatens Aza and she performs a dangerous task for the queen.  Aza learns where her real value lies as she begins the journey to save herself, the queen and the Kingdom of Ayortha, as the pursuit for beauty results in disaster.

This book is a great way to introduce youth to the consequences of basing their self-worth on their appearance.  The consequences are amplified and therefore appear ridiculous.  This book would be a great way to open up a discussion which would help your child to decide what they will value?  (Be prepared to break into song.)    

©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 0 

Violence: 3 

Sexuality: 0 

Adult Themes: 2 

Title:  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Harry Potter Series – Book One

Author: J.K. Rowling

Ratings Explanation

Violence:  The story of Harry’s parents death is recounted.  Cousin Dudley is cursed with a pig’s tail.  A troll sneaks into Hogwarts and creates havoc.  Harry and Ron attempt to rescue Hermione and take on the troll.  Ron puts a spell on the troll’s club and it hits the troll on the head which knocks him out.  A baby dragon nips and bites fingers.  A three-headed monstrous dog scares Harry, Hermione and Ron and almost bites off Professor Snape’s leg.  Harry is nearly killed playing Quidditch, as he falls from the sky.  Hermione puts a “full body bind” spell on Neville and he falls to the floor.  A large plant, “Devil’s Snare” nearly suffocates Harry and Ron to death.  The Chess Queen knocks Ron unconscious with her stone arm.  The most chilling and violent scene is when Harry comes upon Voldemort, a “slithering shadow” as he has just killed the innocent, a unicorn.  Harry sees Voldemort lower his head over the wound in the animal’s side and drink its blood.  Harry encounters Voldemort again, who has taken over Quirrell’s body as they wrestle for the Sorcerer’s Stone.

Adult Themes:  Harry is grossly neglected by the Dursley’s.  Age old battle of good vs. evil.  The evil states there is no good vs. evil, only power and those too weak to see it.

Synopsis

Harry Potter is an orphan.  His parents were killed by the evil villian, Voldemort, while he was still a baby.  Harry is unaware of who he really is.  Professor Dumbledore leaves Harry, as a baby, on his relative’s doorstep, where he spends the first eleven years of his life living with his aunt, uncle and cousin.  The Dursley’s treat Harry horribly.  He is neglected.  He sleeps in a tiny closet at the bottom of the stairs.  On Harry’s eleventh birthday, he is hit with a barrage of letters informing him of his acceptance at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  His life changes as he attends Hogwarts and discovers who he really is – a famous child whom Voldemort could not kill.  Harry makes friends and enemies as he learns about the world of wizardry.  Harry has a chilling encounter with Voldemort as they vie for the Sorcerer’s Stone.

Each year, an entirely new group of children are introduced to reading the Harry Potter Series.  Ansel, my fourth grader, and I read this together aloud in a week’s time, by alternating paragraphs.   (Grab that glass of water.)  I found myself tempted to open the book while he was still at school.  This first book whet the appetite of both my young readers.  Unbeknownst to me, my first grader, Helena was often listening while playing in the same room.  We are currently reading book two aloud and Helena persistently asks when we can read the next chapter.  I believe I am now locked into reading the entire series aloud.  This first book was action packed and I thoroughly enjoyed Rowling’s sense of humor.

{FYI:  I have an unofficial tally of “orphan” hero’s and heroine’s in literature…..add this book to your own personal list.}

©2009 The Literate Mother

Language: 4  

Violence: 2  

Sexual Content: 0 

Adult Themes: 3 

Title:  The Great Gilly Hopkins

Author:  Katherine Paterson

Ratings Explanation

Language:  Gilly’s speech is laden with hell and damn for shock value, as she tries to ruffle her religious foster mother.  She also liberally uses derogatory terms regarding race - ”colored” and  learning disabilities – “retarded”.

Violence:  Gilly fights a group of boys on the playground and is sent to the principal’s office.

Adult Themes:  Gilly is a child who is neglected by her real mother.  She is very lonely and desires to be wanted and loved.  She recounts her sad history of foster families.

Synopsis

Galadriel Hopkins “Gilly” is an eleven year old foster child, who has been bouncing through foster families her entire life.   Gilly wants a home of her own.  She wants her mother, Courtney Rutherford Hopkins to come get her.  Gilly finds herself assigned to yet another foster family.  Maime Trotter already cares for a foster child, W.E.  (William Ernest), a young boy with a learning disability.  Gilly is disgusted by the new situation.  She claims Maime Trotter is illiterate, W.E. is retarded, and is stunned to learn she will be sharing dinner each night with Mr. Randolph, an older, blind, black gentleman.  Gilly then steals cash from Mr. Randolph and Maime Trotter, packs her bags and heads for the bus station.  She tries to purchase a one way ticket to California to be with her mother.  Gilly is caught at the bus station and Maime Trotter does not press charges.  Gilly then writes a letter to her mother negatively de