Counting on Grace
by Elizabeth Winthrop
Wendy Lamb/Random House, March 2006
ISBN 038574644X

The dust jacket photograph by Lewis Hine of the young girl standing by her loom immediately draws the reader into her life. Grace Forcier is wrenched from school at age 12 to work as a doffer in a Vermont textile mill in 1910. Naturally left-handed, she replaces bobbins on the six looms under her mother’s charge, struggling to redirect her hands to do the right things. When Grace discovers another student studying on Sunday afternoons with their teacher, Miss Lesley, she joins them to write, solve mathematics problems, and read. The three compose an anonymous letter to the National Child Labor Committee, and Grace helps photographer Lewis Hine capture the images of and information about the under-age workers in the mill. Her desire to learn, her craving for justice, and her compassion for those around her shape her incredible determination and resolve. Grace’s voice, like her actions, is strong, and she binds herself to the reader as someone who will work for what is right, knowing others are counting on her. The author’s information about Lewis Hine, as well as her own discovery of the photograph, link the character to history in a poignant story.

—Julie L. Reimer

Gossamer
by Lois Lowry
Houghton Mifflin, April 2006
Ages 9 to 14, 0-6186-8550-2

The balance between anger and peace seems tilted toward hostility at times in this story, yet the unusual creatures acting in the night fight to bring calm to human lives. In the darkness, Littlest One and Thin Elderly stealthily touch objects in the old woman’s house, drawing out fragments of memory to bestow dreams upon the woman and John, the young boy she has accepted as a foster child. John comes to the old woman with extreme hurt and anger, and he fights her kindness with hateful words. The woman’s patience and compassion, along with the dreams of tenderness and love sensitively bestowed on him by Littlest One’s gossamer touch bring about an acceptance of healing and goodness. Littlest’s curiosity about herself and her desire to establish tranquility prevail over the damage inflicted by nightmares and prior human actions. The hopeful nature of this book and the carefully chosen bits of imagination will spur hope and wonder in readers. It also caused me to re-examine the physical things I hold dear, wondering about the memories they hold.

—Julie L. Reimer

Shakespeare's Secret
by Elise Broach
Henry Holt, 2006
Ages 9 to 12, 0-8050-7387-6

Was Shakespeare really the man—and the writer—we think he was? Many scholars and historians have examined this question and there are several theories. Here, author Elise Broach uses the topic as the basis for an involving mystery. Hero, named by her father, a Shakespearean professor, resents having to start at another new school. She's quiet and doesn't like being noticed. She feels as though she never fits in. Her new next-door neighbor, Mrs. Roth, has secrets and shares with Hero that there's a big mystery about Hero's new house. It involves the Murphy Diamond and Anne Boleyn and quite possibly Edward de Vere, who may have been the real Shakespeare. Hero is intrigued and so is the most popular boy in eighth grade, Danny, who enjoys Hero's company. Together, they investigate the mystery of the Murphy Diamond and end up learning a great deal about Shakespeare and British history. It's an involving book, with enjoyable characters, that should have readers digging for more information once the last page has been read.

—Vicki Palmquist

The Summer Sherman Loved Me
by Jane St. Anthony
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006
Ages 10 and up, ISBN 0-374-37289-68

On a warm summer night, her neighbor, Sherman, whispers through her front porch screen, “Margaret, I love you.” Uncertain she wants to be loved by him or be anyone’s girlfriend, Margaret lives through the ordinary and unique ways of being loved: taking a late-night bike ride, watching for Sherman from her yard, enduring interactions with their neighbors, having his pet squirrel named Little Margaret in honor of her, searching for her lost sister, and witnessing a horrific midnight stunt. Typical boy-girl communication and miscommunication occur, harkening back to my own pre-teen years and crushes on boys and my sometimes tumultuous relationship with a mother I desperately loved.  Margaret’s somewhat surprising relationship with her weary mother is of great importance to the story.  Her deep-seeded desire for understanding and acceptance plays out in subtle ways, and Margaret seems to comprehend her mother’s busyness and frustrations on an adult level, even saying to her once, “We’ll talk about things.” Margaret’s talks transport readers to topics and events that need acknowledgment. Share this book with a girlfriend from your past, with a young person you admire, or a motherly figure you love.

—Julie L. Reimer

Adam Canfield of the Slash
by Michael Winerip
Candlewick Press, 2005
Ages 9 and up, ISBN 0-7636-2340-7

What a terrific book! Funny, serious, and challenging, this book chronicles Adam Canfield, who is over-scheduled and overwhelmed by his life and his responsibilities at school. Constantly seeking to be at his next "appointment" on time, this eighth-grader reluctantly agreed to be co-editor of Harris Elementary/Middle School's newspaper, The Slash. Jennifer, his level-headed and conscientious partner in editing, just might be interesting to Adam—he hasn't quite decided. But he knows that he loves investigative reporting. He's itching for a juicy story that will provide the thrill of the hunt. A series of circumstances lead the reporters on The Slash to an ethical dilemma—several of them—and it's a page-turner that reveals how the co-editors and their staff deal with potential articles about the strong-armed principal, the kind-hearted janitor, a smile contest, and rezoning. One suspects that Michael Winerip, veteran journalist with the New York Times, has experienced cub reporters like third-grade Phoebe who is gung-ho to report human interest stories. Unwilling to admit that she might be capable of good journalism, Adam must be persuaded by her demonstrated skills. Laugh-out-loud funny, this book subtly leads the reader to think about the choices that face us daily while providing a solid story with well-developed characters.

—Vicki Palmquist

The Revealers
by Doug Wilhelm
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2003
ISBN 0-37436-255-6 hardcoverDoug Wilhelm

Elliot Gekewicz is a nerd who is picked on by almost everyone. He relates everything he does to dinosaurs and their behavior. Catalina has moved from the Philippines with her father because of his work, leaving her mom back in her home country. Russell Trainor’s life becomes intertwined with theirs because of bullies. All three are such possible characters they could step out of a middle school! Tired of the taunts, teasing, and threats of the more popular, larger and fierce bullies at their middle school, they manipulate technology to send messages – to the whole school. Stories about bullies, stories about their lives are shared with everyone. Think of the possibilities of telling the truth to bring about awareness of an awful issue! They continue submitting stories shared by other students at the school until there’s a big problem. Can honesty fight the cruelty of others?

Abel's Island
by William Steig
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1985
ISBN 0-37440-016-4 paperback

Abelard Hassam di Chirico Flint, Abel for short, leaves a cave during a storm to look for his wife’s white scarf. He ended up getting washed down a waterfall and into a river by the flood. He finds himself on what he thinks is an uninhabited island, and he becomes a very persistent mouse. In order to make his way off the island, he devises ways to cross the river.

Abel’s Island explained a lot about love and how strong love can be about your family. It is also about where you are and where you are going. Abel makes himself use all the things around him to be happy and feel at home, knowing that he will probably live there for a long time. A rotten, hollow log becomes his home. He transforms the clay around him into statues of his parents and his wife, providing him with happiness.

Read this book to learn about how resourceful you can be, even when you’re living in a place you don’t know.

Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs
by Betty G. Birney, illus. by Matt Phelan
Atheneum, 2005
ISBN 0-6898-7136-8

Eben McAllister lives in Sassafras Springs , Missouri and is always reading about the Seven Wonders of the World . Eben’s dad says that if Eben can find seven wonders in Sassafras Springs, he will let Eben go to Colorado to see some cousins.  

As a reader, you’ll like the anticipation of discovering a new wonder or story in every chapter. One of those comes from a girl named Rae Ellen Hubble who annoys Eben by following him on the roads. Her uncle, Dutch Hubble, was once a seaman who got a job on a ship called the S.S. Phantom. During a terrible storm, the captain would not change the ship’s course to land a long way away. He declines a spirit’s offer of assistance, and the ship sinks. Dutch survives and finds a bottle with a ship in it. The ship’s name: the S.S. Phantom.

One non-wonder will make you laugh! A person named Coogie Jackson asks Eben to come and see what he has for a wonder. Coogie tells a story about a tornado that supposedly blew this outhouse around the world. Facts in Coogie’s story make Eben wonder about the truth of it.  Eben believed the whole story until Coogie and his friend push over the outhouse (with Eben inside it) that was not really a wonder.

One of the most amazing wonders that Eben finds is a piece of cloth with the name Buddy on it. It is significant because it was woven by a blind woman whose way of getting around, a system of clothes lines, is changed for the worse by a trickster named Buddy. The woman claims that she will weave the name of the culprit by listening to her loom. She wove the name Buddy into the loom, and since then, Buddy has done nothing but good. You'll be surprised to learn who Buddy grew up to be.

After reading the about the wonders Eben finds, search for seven wonders where you live!