What I Saw and How I Lied

Author: Judy Blundell

Publisher: New York: Scholastic Press 2008
ISBN- 978-0439903462
pages: 284
Author's website

Classification: Young Adult Fiction
Genre: Historical fiction
Media Type: Book

Grade level: 8-adult

Reader's annotation:

Summary: Evie (Evelyn) is a typical teenager right after WWII. Her step-father comes home from the war, she practices smoking with chocolate cigarettes and hangs out with friend Margie. She and her mom lived with Joe’s mother in a house that is now too small. Joe came back and opened several appliance stores and seems to be doing well, following the American dream. After avoiding some phone calls, dad says, “let’s go to Florida for a vacation, so what if school starts next week”. They go to Palm Beach only to find it sweltering and almost completely shut down. They discover one open hotel which is for sale and a few other guests that they become friends with. Wishing she was included with the adults and feeling quite grown up Evie meets Joe, also back from the war, and instantly falls for him. Convinced they have a future together Evie is thrilled to spend days with him understanding that her mother must come also to chaperone. Her father starts working out a business deal with the other guest to buy the hotel, its his big break. Everything is wonderful until a secret is revealed and it all falls apart. Then Evie doesn’t know what is really true anymore or who she can trust. As she works her way through her memories, armed with new information, she gains a new understanding for the nature of people and grows up really fast. Greed, jealousy, passion, adultery, it is all there.

Evaluation: Excellent book about perception, growing up, loyalty, and what is right. Told in the first person, Evie’s perspective will ring true with teens and the girls will easily relate to her desires even set in a different time period.
National Book Award winner

The Ruby in the Smoke: A Sally Lockhart Mystery

Author: Philip Pullman

Publisher: New York: Knopf 2008
ISBN- 978-0375845161
pages: 230
Author's website

Classification: Young Adult Fiction
Genre: Mystery
Media Type: Book

Grade level: 7-Adult

Reader's annotation: Sally has just found out her father is dead, she is now alone in Victorian London, the mysterious ruby that belongs to her now missing. A story of intrigue, opium addicts, new friends, and cryptic clues to unravel.

Summary: Sally Lockhart is almost an adult, but she had her father to look after her until recently when he vanished somewhere in Asia and is now found dead. The news saddens her but leaves her with questions that don’t seem to be answered. The lawyers are clearly keeping something from her but she doesn’t know what to do. Then one of the clerks, Jim, gives her some information which leads her into the search for a giant ruby. Along the way she meets Fred and his sister Rosa who are struggling to get a daguerreotype business going. Sally finds she can help them with their business and they help her escape the attempts on her life, rescue someone from the clutches of opium, and ultimately find the ruby.

Evaluation: Not in the least bit like Pullman’s Dark Materials series, this book is more a combination English mystery and Nancy Drew story. It is lots of fun, especially the setting in a Dicken's style Victorian London, this story keeps moving all the way to the end. The twists and turns and intrigue make the story interesting and non-formulaic.

Series: Sally Lockhart Quartet - book 1

Flygirl

Author: Sherri L. Smith

Publisher: New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons 2009
ISBN-978-0399247095
pages: 256
Author's website

Classification: Young Adult Fiction
Genre: Historical fiction
Media Type: Book

Grade level: 7-Adult

Reader's annotation: Ida Mae loves to fly planes and desperately wants to serve her country after the US enters WWII, but she has two problems, she’s a woman and she’s black. Somehow she figures out a way to get in the air.

Summary: Within the first few pages we know that 17-year-old Ida Mae is a light skinned African American(Negro in those days), who is working extra to earn travel fare from Louisiana to Chicago where she will be allowed to get her pilot’s license. It is the day Pearl Harbor was bombed, then her brother enlists in the army and the stage is set. Skip ahead two years when Ida Mae manages to pass for a white woman and join the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) program. Although she is doing something she loves, living a life of deception can be difficult.

For those who would like to see the real story, the PBS series from WGBH Boston, American Experience has an episode entitled “Fly Girls” made in 1999 that features interviews and archival footage of women from the WASP program.

Evaluation: This is a fictional account set in a very real historical setting which the author clarifies at the end of the book. Smith has a very engaging writing style, leaving just enough unsaid to keep you wanting more, bringing in details of wartime on the home front. Both girls and boys will enjoy this book.

Here Lies the Librarian

Author: Richard Peck

Publisher: Dial Books 2006
ISBN-978-0803730809
pages: 160

Classification: Young Adult Fiction
Genre: Historical fiction
Topics: coming of age, humorous
Media Type: Book

Grade level: 6+

Reader's annotation: Back when cars were pretty scarce, a teen and her older brother are living on their own trying to keep the family garage going in a small mid-Western town. But everything changes when the librarians’ car breaks down.

Summary: The almost gruesome opening, a tornado torn-up cemetery, introduces us to the two main characters Jake and PeeWee (Eleanor), living on their own since their parent’s death, and the fact that after the town librarian fell down dead on the job, she has never been replaced. It is a simpler time, especially in small rural towns with one room school houses and just a few cars. Jake runs the garage left by their parents and PeeWee would rather help out there than look like a girl and go to school. But then one day a car full of library students from the city, who are out for a drive, have a need for the services of the garage. The attention Jake and PeeWee get from Irene does not go unnoticed and soon they are anxiously awaiting another visit. As their friendship develops Irene becomes a mentor to PeeWee and an encourager to Jake . The librarians manage to shake up the town with their modern ideas of what a library should include as well as their involvement in the first drag car race of the times.

Evaluation: I little bit of history and a lot of old-fashioned fun keep this story from just feeling dated. The tie-in the the first drag races at the end adds to the relevance. It is a time in American history we don’t read about much, but the main character’s search for her identity is timeless. Peck plays with language so there are quite witty conversations which add to the enjoyment of the book.

The Book Thief

Author: Markus Zusak

Publisher: New York: Knopf 2006
ISBN-9780375831003
pages: 560

Classification: Young Adult Fiction
Genre: Historical fiction
Topics: holocaust, coming of age
Media Type: Book

Grade level: 10-Adult

Reader's annotation: As Liesel, her family, friends and Death live through World War II they find distractions in the stories that Liesel reads from the books she has stolen.

Summary: Narrated by Death, this is the story of a foster girl and her anti-Nazi family living in a small town in Germany as Hitler gains control and war erupts in Europe. Liesel’s first stolen book happens almost by accident after the funeral of her little brother. Although her foster parents are disappointed when her mother arrives with only one child, a girl not a boy as promised, they take her in and grow to love her. Struggling to make ends meet doing whatever they can, life in the working class neighborhood is hard-bitten and caustic. The opportunities for more stolen books keep presenting themselves to Liesel and her collection grows. She makes life bearable for herself and those around her including Max, the Jew they are hiding, with the diversion of the books and their stories. There are many “asides” from Death, some that clarify things and others that confuse, which may make it difficult for less strong readers to follow. is heart-wrenching and spell-binding.

Evaluation: This book can be very intense, with the backdrop of the Nazi’s growing control and WWII. The poetic style of Death’s narration is beautiful and thought provoking. Definitely a must-read and make sure you have your box of tissues.

Blaze of Silver

Author: K.M. Grant
Publisher: Walker Books for Young Readers 2007
ISBN- 978-0802797377
pages: 288

Classification: Young Adult Fiction
Genre: Historical Fiction
Topics: horses, Crusades, friendship, adventure
Media Type: Book

Grade level: 7-11


Reader's annotation: The Earl of Heartslove is charged with delivering part of the ransom to free King Richard to the German Emperor when he is double-crossed by his Saracen friend. Can he and Ellie save the King?

Summary: Set in the 12th century, the conclusion of the trilogy, where William de Granville, Earl of Heartslove, ladies Ellie and Marissa and their Saracen friend Kamil discover what loyalty and friendship really mean. Back in England after fighting in the Holy Wars, life at the manor is peaceful and relaxing. Kamil, the Saracen friend who returned from the East with them has settled into manor life as if he was born there. Marissa carries a torch for Will though she knows he doesn’t feel that way about her. Ellie is getting over the death of her fiance, Gavin, who was Will’s brother. They all love their horses and much of life centers on their riding. But someone back in the Holy Land has other plans for Kamil which starts with Ahmal’s delivery of a beautiful horse that King Richard had promised Gavin. The action starts when most of the manor sets off to deliver ransom money to the Emperor of Germany for the release of King Richard. Thinking he is serving his motherland, Kamil is double-crossed by Ahmal, as he is convinced to steal the money, only to discover it is all set up by his old enemy, assassin Old Man of the Mountain. Will Kamil be able to help his imprisoned friends Will and Ellie? Will they be able to save the King? The action-packed story will keep you on the edge of your seat as the twists and turns take you to its conclusion.

Evaluation: Horse lovers will enjoy this series as the main characters’ horses are their companions and much of the story revolves around the animals. Thoughtful issues dealing with revenge, loyalty, and friendship are the themes of this concluding book which makes for a satisfying ending.
Series: Book 3 de Granville Trilogy; Book 1 - Blood Red Horse, Book 2 - Green Jasper

The Endless Steppe

Author: Esther Rudomin Hautzig

Publisher: New York: Harper & Row 1968
ISBN-978-0694056088
pages: 243

Classification: Young Adult Fiction
Genre: Biography
Topics: WWII, coming of age
Media Type: Book

Grade level: 5-Adult

Reader's annotation: During WWII Esther and her family were removed from their comfortable house in Poland and exiled to the harsh Asian Steppes until the war ended. Esther recounts the way they make do and find some creative ways to survive.

Summary: This is Esther’s autobiography of the period when her family was forced out of their home in Poland to live an exiled life on the Russian Siberian Steppe during WWII. Life is pretty grim there, first in the crowded barracks filling their days with the back-breaking work at the gypsum mine, and eventually in their own dirt floored hut, farming potatoes to keep from starving to death. Esther eventually goes to school, makes some friends and even becomes entrepreneurial with her knitting business. Though she has been separated from her father for several years, she is afraid to leave this place and go back to the unknown destruction of Poland after the war is over.

Evaluation: The reader will be impressed with her ability to stay so positive in such poverty and find the beauty in life that keeps her going. Girls will enjoy the compassion to the human spirit that is brought out in them when they read her story and will keep her in their minds afterwards.

47

Author: Walter Mosely

Publisher: New York: Little Brown, 2005
ISBN-978-0316110358
pages: 232
Author's website

Classification: Young Adult Fiction
Genre: Historical fiction
Topics: slavery, SciFi, friendship
Media Type: Book

Grade level:7-Adult

Reader's annotation: Slave #47, a young boy doomed to picking cotton until he dies, meets Tall John, a mysterious stranger claiming to come from a different planet. Together they find new meanings to the concept of freedom.

Summary: There were 98 slaves on the Corinthian Plantation, each named by their number. When one died another just took its place. This is the story of a young boy as he takes position 47 under a cruel slave master in pre-Civil War south, doomed to work in the cotton fields for his entire life. Having been raised by one of the kitchen slaves and allowed to live in relative luxury in the barn his transition to the hard labor of cotton picking was difficult. One day, Tall John, shows up on the plantation. The reader understands him to be a runaway slave but he spins a tale of supernatural powers and tells 47 he was sent there to help him. Tall John is welcomed into the slave community and works with them in the fields. There is a bit of magic around Tall John as he entertains, encourages, and brings confidence and self-worth to the slaves as they toil in the fields. What I took as to be the imagination of 47 in a historical setting as he recounted the almost magical things that led them to rebellion, other reviewers have called science fiction. Tall John does do things and has special healing powers that don’t seem to be able to be explained. The mix between the two genres, historical and science fiction is interesting and casts a surreal quality to the story.

Evaluation: This is a different take on a Southern plantation slave story than I have seen before. There are some very graphic sections of the cruelty, something that made me squeamish but I bet teens would love it. You will find themselves thinking about statements Tall John made long after the story is finished.