Martindale's Musings

Lord, C. (2006). Rules . New York: Scholastic Press. ISBN 978-1-4287-3809-6 (Follett bdg.) Plot Summary: Summer just started, her best friend is in California visiting her dad, and a new girl her age just moved next door.  Catherine has a younger brother, David, that has Autism. Catherine is torn between the life she wishes she had, with a “non broken” brother, and her current life where she is her brother’s protector.  Her family doesn’t always see the problem with his disability, but as a way to help him in different aspects in life, she has created a book of rules. Rules that David doesn’t understand, at at times, he doesn’t know that they are not set in stone. She befriends Jason, a boy her age, in the OT facility waiting room where her brother goes for his therapy, while helping him with creating word cards that he uses to communicate with others.  Jason sees past her excuse of not dancing when she declines his invitation to attend a dance at the communi...

Fiction, Fantasy, & Graphic Novels I'm so excited to be reading the next set of books. I already read a lot of YA fiction, it's the Graphic Novels that I'm excited about...

Bradley, K. B. (2015). The war that saved my life . New York: Dial Books for Young Readers. ISBN   978-0-8037-4081-5 Plot Summary: Ada does not know how old she is, she knows that her mother hates her because of her club foot, which doesn’t allow her to walk and isn’t allowed to go outside. Her brother, Jamie, is about to be able to enter school, when the single parent family hears the news of the speculated bombings as.  Their mentally abusive mother mentions being able to send off Jamie in the evacuee trains to wait in safety in the English countryside. Ada knows she can’t stay behind. She begins working in a physical therapy of sorts to become strong enough to walk and be able to go with Jamie on the train. Jamie and Ada are the last set of children to be “picked” once the trains arrive at the English countryside and even then, the organizer had to coax an old single woman, Susan, to take them in.  Susan respects the children, cares for their well being and...

Williams-Garcia, R. (2010). One crazy summer . New York: HarperCollins/Amistad. ISBN 978-0-06-076089-2 Plot Summary: Delphine and her two sisters, Vonetta & Fern, were abandoned by their mother, Cecile, seven years ago shortly after Fern was born. The girls were raised by their father and their grandmother, Big Ma. It’s summertime 1968, and the girls are sent to Oakland, CA on their first plane ride to visit their mother.  Cecile meets them at the airport to pick them up, but seems bothered and uninterested. Delphine now knows she’ll have to take care of her sisters, this is not the vacation they envisioned while in New York. Instead of caring for her daughters, Cecile sends the girls daily to eat breakfast at the Black Panther's People Center, and then tells them to stay out of the house until dinnertime, when she’ll send them to pick up takeout to eat on a sheet on the living room floor.  Delphine learns a lot about what identity is, about her mother, the Blac...

Cushman, K. (1996). The midwife's apprentice . New York: HarperTrophy. ISBN 0-06-440630-X. Plot Summary: Set in the Middle Ages, a young girl with no known age, maybe 12 or 13, or given name aside from “Brat” by the different villages she visits,  immerses herself in a dung pile to keep herself warm overnight. She is found the next day by boys who start calling her “Beetle” for a dung beetle, the town’s midwife, Jane Sharp, stops the teasing and allows her to do chores for her in exchange for food. As time goes on, the midwife brings her along to help in birthing children and in different errands. Beetle starts to believe more of herself and what she can accomplish and gives herself the name of “Alyce.”  Alyce has to deal with setbacks in her journey to officially become the Midwife’s apprentice, and this discourages her and she runs away. She finds refuge and work in a different town, when she runs into a friend from her previous village. She has to learn to bel...

Holm, J. L. (2010). Turtle in paradise . New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-375-83688-6 Plot Summary: Turtle’s mom is a live-in housekeeper for people in 1935 during the Great Depression, time are hard for everyone. She is able to find a job with a lady, but she isn’t allowed to have her daughter with her, so she sends 11 year old Turtle to Key West to live with her unsuspecting aunt and cousins.   Turtle arrives to Florida which she considers the place hot and people to be strange. Turtle learns a bit about her family history as she learns that she truly is like a turtle, hard outer shell, soft inside. Analysis: Turtle has learned about how she doesn’t want to be as a grown up from her mom in her short 11 years of life. She believes that her mom is a dreamer and expects a “Hollywood” story for her life.  Turtle and her cat are sent to live with her aunt in Key West after her mom gets a job as a housekeeper with a lady that doesn’t like kids. Mom convinces...

Our next assigned book reviews are on the genre of Historical Fiction. I have to say that I was able to do most of my reading during Spring Break, and so far, this is my most FAVORITE genre. I love being able to get some "insight" on what was going on in the world during the time of the setting of the book, and I was able to put a bit of what I know to use too! Do YOU like Historical Fiction? ~a

Fleming, C. (2005). Our Eleanor : A scrapbook look at Eleanor Roosevelt's remarkable life . New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. ISBN 978-1-4156-3427-1 Plot Summary: Fleming creates a scrapbook to tell about Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s life.  Eleanor’s story starts with a bit about her parents and her birth certificate and ends with her death. This biography is set much like a timeline of her life and is illustrated with photographs, newspaper clippings, quote boxes, letters, and copies of files, a true scrapbook, yet organized in a matter of topics. Analysis: “Scrapbook Look at Eleanor Roosevelt’s Remarkable Life” is a very fitting title for this biography.  The way that this scrapbook is set up and organized is such a great way to learn about Eleanor Roosevelt.  Readers can flip the pages of this book and find the topic on the spread to be full of information, great images, and most of the time, a bit of humor.  Mrs. E. Roosevelt wa...

Freedman, R. (2004). The voice that challenged a nation : Marian Anderson and the struggle for equal rights . New York: Clarion Books. ISBN 978-1-4155-9962-4 Plot Summary: Freedman tells the story of a young girl named Marian who sings in church and lives in the United States during a time of civil right inequality. As a woman Marian becomes a world famous contralto singer with a voice that conductor Arturo Toscanini said, "is heard once in a hundred years.” Freedman includes many photographs , newspaper clippings and reproductions of concert programs in his biography. Analysis: This biography of Marian Anderson is a great example of how some of the great influencers of the civil rights movement were not spokesperson’s by nature, but ‘real’ men and women living within the constraints of segregation in the United States.  Marian was a young girl of 6 years old when she started showing a special interest in singing. She began her career as a singer in her church...

Bryant, J., & Sweet, M. (2014). The right word Roget and his thesaurus . Grand Rapids Michigan: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers. ISBN 978-1-4674-4422-4 Plot Summary: Bryant & Sweet work together to tell the story about Roget’s life and how he came to write and publish his famed thesaurus.  The story starts when Roget is a young boy and his family suffers from his father’s death. Change occurs, and the one thing that Roget can run to is books. He in fact starts to write his own books; but not books of stories, books of lists. His life is represented with Sweet’s illustrations; created with watercolors, collages, and mixed media, really help tell the story of this man’s life. He became a man well known and liked by his peers. He went on to publish his original book of word lists in 1852, and wanted it to be used by people in all runs of life, not just doctors, politicians, and the like.   Analysis: This picture book biography follows Roget’s life as h...