Book Review: Eleven

It's another "Brooke Review!" One more book for you to enjoy!
-Miss Constance

By Patricia Reilly Giff

Wendy Lamb Books, 2008

What do you do when the person you trusted the most turns out to have a hidden past? Sam has always lived with his loving Grandpa Mack for as long as he can remember. On the eve of his eleventh birthday, Sam sneaks into the attic to hunt for presents, but instead finds a newspaper clipping with a photo of a missing child. Sam recognizes the kid in the photo -- it's of himself as a toddler. Is Mack really Sam's grandpa? Sam is troubled by strange dreams that feature the number eleven -- could they be fragments of a forgotten past?

Grandpa Mack and Sam are very close -- they share a love of woodworking and similar personality traits, and Sam just can't believe that his whole life might be a lie. Sam would like to know more, but there's one big obstacle in his way -- he has a learning disability, and cannot read very well. Enter the smart new girl at school, spunky redheaded Caroline, who agrees to help Sam research his past, under one condition: her family moves a lot, so he must promise not to become her friend. As the date of Caroline's departure looms, she and Sam come closer to solving the puzzle of Sam's past, and closer to each other as well. The answers come at the end, but it reveals not so much the what of Sam's early childhood as much as the why of the way things are now.

Giff (author of the Newbery Honor-winning Pictures of Hollis Woods) is a master at showing the way kids internalize their struggles, and how clueless the adults around them can sometimes be. Sam and Caroline's journey into friendship and family is a quiet study of an ordinary kid facing some pretty extraordinary questions about his past, and the strength that can result afterwards.

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Also see:

Patricia Reilly Giff's website

Book Review: Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow

by Jessica Day George

Published by Bloomsbury USA, 2008

You think your mom's hard on you? This girl's mother didn't even want to give her a name. The ninth child of a poor woodcutter, the girl grows up only to be known as pika, the Norse term for "the lass," but she's destined for greater things. At the age of nine, she frees a magical white reindeer from a trap, and in thanks, it grants her the ability to talk to animals. When she turns seventeen, a large white bear, or isbjørn, appears at her family's door. He promises that her family will soon grow wealthy and live in comfort, but only under one condition -- she must promise to live with him in a palace made of ice for one year.

The lass agrees to go, but she is soon surrounded by mysteries. What do the mysterious carvings on the palace walls mean? Is the isbjørn under the spell of an evil troll? Who is the silent person who enters her room every night? There are many magical creatures who are servants in the palace -- a faun, a gargoyle, and a selkie -- but they won't, or can't, answer her questions. Can the lass find out the secret behind the enchanted palace, or will her curiosity get her into even more trouble?

George's novel is a sweet retelling of the Scandinavian folktale East of the Sun, West of the Moon. Her language is spare and streamlined, making this a good fantasy for elementary-aged kids, and a good read-aloud for even younger kids (don't worry, there's a pronunciation guide for the Norse words in the back). George (who wrote last year's Dragon Slippers, a comic fantasy novel) has studied Old Norse, and she loads her story with enough details of traditional Scandinavian culture to satisfy even the most die-hard Jan Brett fan. If you're a folklore purist, you can rest assured -- her story stays remarkably close to the original tale (I was especially happy to see the inclusion of the Four Winds, something that has been frequently left out of other versions of this story.)

Although I was a bit frustrated at times by how long it took the lass to figure out what was going on (oh, you'll figure out where those palace wall carvings came from a good twenty pages before she does), most kids will find the pacing just right. A fun pick for animal lovers, fairy tales, happy endings, and anyone who is ready for spring after a way-too-long winter.

Click here to reserve this book at the library

Also see:
Jessica Day George's website