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The Splintered Light by Ginger Johnson

Giving thought to how the world, the universe, we live in was created with so many varied elements of sound, light, taste, smell, invention, and shape is not a bad exercise in gratitude and appreciation for the vibrancy and diversity of our world. Ginger Johnson’s The Splintered Light leads the reader on a journey of pondering the immense creativity and inventiveness of a God who could create this world ex nihilo, out of nothing. And yet it’s a story, not a sermon, as Ishmael, the protagonist of this story, learns more about the Commons, a place where the different halls (schools) of Color, Sound, Gustation, Manufactory, Scent, Shape and Motion work together to create posticums, worlds for the colonization of their creators.

“Posticum means ‘back door.’ It’s a room for creation that opens up in the stone wall of the Commons. Back home is a posticum, too, but you’d never know it. Color Master told me it was one of the first. All the oldest posticums are worn out and run-down and only have oval sheep and round chickens. The sheep and chickens in the newer posticums are more refined. Plus, they have all kinds of other creatures as well. That’s how you know the age of posticums.”

Ishmael only left home to find his brother Luc and bring him back to help Mam and the family on the farm, but when he does find Luc in the Commons, Luc is unwilling to leave. And Ishmael himself is fascinated by the new sights and possibilities he glimpses in the many halls and schools of the Commons. The Hall of Hue, where Luc lives and works, also welcomes Ishmael as an apprentice of exceptional promise, but Ishmael is determined to return home and to bring Luc with him, after just one more day, and then another, and then another . . .

It’s hardly an insult to say of this debut novel that when I reached the end I was disappointed that there wasn’t more. I really would like to know what happened to Ishmael and his friends after the posticum closed and the stones rested. Maybe I should use my own creativity and imagine it for myself.

At any rate, I’m looking forward to whatever might come next from this talented new writer, and I really like the fact that she sprinkles lines from one of my favorite poems throughout this book about the diverse and variegated world(s) in which we live and breathe and move and have our being:

Pied Beauty by Gerard Manly Hopkins

Glory be to God for dappled things –
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.

And this TED talk that I saw the other day seems to serendipitously belong alongside The Splintered Light:

Oh, today is the official publication date for The Splintered Light.

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This book may be nominated for a Cybils Award, but the views expressed here are strictly my own and do not reflect or determine the judging panel’s opinions.

The Dragon of Lonely Island by Rebecca Rupp

Hannah, Zachary, and Sarah Emily are spending the summer at Great-Aunt Mehitabel’s house on Lonely Island. Only Great-Aunt Mehitabel is not home. She does send a note, however, encouraging the children to enjoy their stay and to explore Drake’s Hill when they have the opportunity. She also sends them a key to the mysterious Tower Room. Where is the Tower Room, and why is it locked? What will the children find when they hike to Drake’s Hill? And what could they learn by seeing the world’s through someone else’s eyes and someone else’s stories?

So the eponymous dragon is a three-headed dragon, one body with three separate personalities. And all three dragons have a story to tell, one for each of the children that suits his or her need for growth and wisdom for the summer. It’s not overtly preachy, but it is well-written with suitable lessons in character development for each of the children. The book reminded me of Grace Lin’s Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and Starry River of the Sky, except that I liked Rupp’s dragons-that-tell-stories better than I did Lin’s folklorish stories interspersed with a realistic narrative. I found Lin’s books confusing, even though they are award-winning and favorites with many readers. Maybe Rupp’s book appeals to a younger audience, say third and fourth grades, and maybe my mind is stuck there, too.

Anyway, there’s a sequel, The Return of the Dragon, and I’m looking forward to reading it as soon as I can get my hands on a copy. I looked up the author, Rebecca Rupp, and she has a PhD in cell biology. How does a person with a doctorate in cell biology end up writing children’s fantasy? Now, that would be an interesting story. Oh, she’s also a homeschooler and has written some books about homeschooling. From a National Geographic contributors bio:

Rebecca Rupp: “I prefer Mac to PC, fountain pens to ballpoints, vanilla to chocolate, and almost anything to lima beans. When not writing, I garden, bicycle, kayak, volunteer at the library, and sit on the back porch of our house in far northern Vermont and gaze longingly at Canada, particularly after listening to the evening news.”

The Six by K.B. Hoyle

This first book in the Gateway Chronicles, a fantasy adventure series by author K.B. Hoyle, The Six definitely contains echoes of Narnia and Tolkien: a gateway to another world, gnomes, fairies, elves, talking animals (sort of), and war against The Shadow, to name just a few. But it’s a good story in its own right, not overly derivative and full of world-building detail and creativity that make the novel a delight to read.

Some of the more creative aspects and characters of the land of Alitheia:

A god-like being, Pateros, who incarnates as a huge bear or sometimes an eagle or sometimes a stag.

Narks, creatures with double personalities, one person in the daytime and another during the night.

A magical teacher whose cottage stays in one place while the door is able to be moved about to provide access wherever the bearer might go.

Silent, telepathic communication with animals.

Gifts of discernment, camouflage, and musical finding of lost things for the teenagers who travel to Alitheia. Oh, and a quill that prophesies.

Actually, there’s rather a motif of camouflage and hiding and keeping secrets and how that “gift” can be used for good or for evil. Also, the importance of honesty and trust and how trust can be broken is another theme that runs through the story. The Six are a group of six thirteen year olds who find themselves thrown together at a family summer camp. Their difficulties and successes in initiating and maintaining friendships among the group are another theme that weaves through the action in the novel.

Don’t be worried, however, that this book is all heavy philosophical themes and sermons. The action and plot elements are certainly adequate and intriguing enough to carry the reader along to the end. And I wanted more by the time I came to that end, so I’m looking forward to reading Ms. HOyle’s second book in the Gateway Chronicles series, The Oracle.

Mr Yowder and the Train Robbers by Glen Rounds

I just read through Mr. Yowder and the Train Robbers, a book I ordered on impulse from a used book seller online. What a delight! Mr. Xenon Zebulon Yowder, “the World’s Bestest and Fastest Sign Painter,” gets a summer job painting elephants on the sides of buildings, and when he goes for a vacation after completing the job, he gets mixed up with a bunch of rattlesnakes and with some ornery, thieving outlaws. The story ends in a surprise, and it’s all done in less than fifty pages, so it’s the perfect book for reluctant or beginning readers who need a quick pay-off.

And did I mention that it’s funny? Mr. Yowder reminds me of a western McBroom, the protagonist of a series of tall tales by Sid Fleischman. And I also thought about Mr. Pine and the Mixed-up Signs by Leonard Kessler, maybe just because of the sign-painting and the humor. Mr. Yowder and the Train Robbers is a bit fantastical—Mr. Yowder can talk to snakes and teach them tricks—but it’s mostly a Western tall tale with a dry humor that will tickle the funny bone of those readers who have the same sense of humor as the teller of the tale.

I have the book Mr. Yowder and the Steamboat. Now I want to add the other Mr. Yowder books to my library:

Mr. Yowder and the Lion Roar Capsules
Mr. Yowder and the Giant Bull Snake
Mr. Yowder and the Bull Wagon

Ooooh, I see that there’s a collection of three of the Mr. Yowder tales in one book: Mr. Yowder, the Peripatetic Sign Painter: Three Tall Tales. I need that one, too. I love that the title uses the word “peripatetic”—an excellent word.

My library system has none of the Mr. Yowder books, and only three books by Glen Rounds, an excellent author of tall tales and stories of horses and of the old West.

The Danger Gang and the Pirates of Borneo by Stephen Bramucci

I really didn’t think this was going to be “my type of humor” as I began this book, but the more I read the more I enjoyed it. I even chuckled out loud a few times, and for me that’s major.

When Ronald Zupan’s parents are kidnapped by Zeetan Z, the world’s most ruthless pirate, while they are exploring the jungles of Borneo, Ronald and his rather unadventurous butler, Jeeves, are called to the rescue. Ronald’s fencing opponent, Julianne Sato, and his pet cobra, Carter, are also enlisted to form the Danger Gang, a fearless foursome indeed.

Ronald learns some lessons in humility and respect for others. Jeeves learns courage and perseverance. Julianne becomes a leader, and the snake, Carter, saves the day once or twice. All in all, this fantastic and perilous story is rather frothy, but worth the ride nevertheless.

A few quotes to whet your appetite for this fun-filled adventure:

“‘Julianne, you are possibly the sharpest sidekick that I’ve ever met,’ I said.
‘That’s because I’m not a sidekick,’ she called over the noise. ‘I’m your partner.'”

“There are times in any master adventurer’s life when all eyes are watching him and he has to do something bold and brilliant.”

“Doubtful friends are worse than enemies, and fire ants are the worst of all.”

“The more people you care about, the more there is to scare you in the world. And yet, if you didn’t care about people, there would be nothing worth protecting.”

“He who endures will conquer. So will he who never gets stung by a blister beetle.”

“That’s what partners in dazzling schemes and grand adventures do. They stick together.”

“That’s the thing about thrilling adventures. They change you, whether you know it or not.”

The Ice Sea Pirates by Frida Nilsson

According to the author blurb in the back of my book, “Frida Nilsson is a leading Swedish author who won the Astrid Lindgren Prize in 2014. Her books have been translated and published worldwide and nominated for multiple awards including the prestigious Youth Literature Prize in Germany. The Ice Sea Pirates has been nominated for five major awards, including the August Prize, and won of [sic] three of them.”

Well, I can see the virtues of The Ice Sea Pirates. The plot hangs together well. The characters, especially Siri the heroine and protagonist, are engaging and believable. The themes of courage and compassion for all living things are woven into the story and into the journey that Siri makes to rescue her little sister, Miki, who has been kidnapped by evil pirates. The ending is good, even if it is somewhat ambiguous and bittersweet.

Nevertheless, it seems to me that something is lost in the translation. Siri, although she is mostly a brave and likable character, goes on long crying jags at crucial moments in the story:

“I cried. I cried so hard my chest hurt.” (p.80)
“A woman came past as I sat weeping by the water.” (p.83)
“But I just carried on crying and for a long time we just sat there, me sobbing and Nanni with her hand on my back. She tried to comfort me several times but it didn’t work.” (p.100)
“And I wept about everything, about the boxes and the hat and the dice, about people who made purses out of mermaids, about everyone who took more than they needed.” (p.197)
“I burst out crying. It went on and on; I didn’t even try to hold back the tears.” (p.230)
“It made me so sad and angry that a huge lump grew in my throat and I gritted my teeth against the tears.” (p.266)
“Watching this made me feel ill and I wept to see the wounds on the wolf’s hide. . . I couldn’t stop crying.” (p.292)
“That night I lay in bed and wept.” (p.302)
“I didn’t answer, just went on crying.” (p.303)

I probably missed or skimmed over a few crying episodes. Not that crying isn’t the proper response to many of the cruel and sad experiences that Siri has in the book, but the frequency seems excessive. Maybe it’s a Swedish thing?

In addition to the excess of tears, there’s a certain ambivalence about how animals are treated, how they should be treated, whether wild animals are dangerous or friendly, and just the attitude toward animals, especially wolves, in general. Are the animals in the story to be used for food or not? Are the wolves to be feared or tamed? Siri has a heart for the animals that she encounters that are being used or mistreated, but even though she doesn’t approve of what one hunter does to catch wolves, Siri eats the wolf meat when she is hungry anyway. She repeats the adage that one should never take more from “nature” than one needs, but there is no resolution in the end with the pirates and the hunters and the slavers, just an armed truce.

It’s a book worth reading, especially if you are interested in Swedish children’s literature or pirate stories or “northerness”, but in the end it’s one I would only recommend to a select few readers who have a special interest in those topics.

The List by Patricia Forde

The List is a rather illogical ecological dystopian story about a future Earth in which the survivors of a disaster, caused by global warming/climate change, congregate in the city of Ark. In Ark, language is limited to an approved list of only 500 words, since the corruption of language and advertising and slick persuasion made Earth’s inhabitants ignore the warnings of eco-prophets who told the people that the planet was warming and apocalypse was imminent.

“Then came the Melting. The ice that turned to water and flooded the planet, the sea devouring everything in its path. Towns and villages swallowed whole. The old technology destroyed. Animals extinct. And all the written word gone.”

Letta, however, is apprentice to the official Wordsmith, the person charged with retrieving and preserving all of the old words, to hold them in reserve for a day when it will be safe again to allow people to use a multitude of words. When mankind has again learned to use words responsibly and wisely, then the Wordsmith and his apprentice will have the words, stored away where they can do no harm in the meantime.

The villain in this story is loopy; he thinks that taking away from people the power of speech will somehow make them wise and discerning, unable to be fooled by false persuasive speeches and writings. Or maybe he just thinks he is right, everyone else is wrong, and so taking away words will force the people to obey him. But if they have no power to speak, no words, how will they know anything? How will they obey if they don’t even understand what they are being told to do?

The ending of this one is a set-up for a sequel, so expect book two to follow shortly. The List is Irish author Patricia Forde’s debut novel. Fellow Irish author Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl series) blurbed The List as “the fantasy book of the year.” So, opinions may vary.

Skeleton Tree by Kim Ventrella

This one falls into the category of really odd and quirky middle grade fiction, but readable, if you can get past the premise: a skeleton emerges from the soil in Stanly’s backyard. Only Stanly, his friend Jaxon, Stanly’s little sister Miren, and the Kyrgyzstani babysitter, Ms. Francine, can actually see the skeleton tree, at least most of the time, and Miren calls the skeleton Princy.

Weeeell, as Jack Benny used to say, that’s a lot to take in: a dancing skeleton who may or may not be making Miren’s illness better —or worse. And Stanly wants to take a picture of “Princy”, win a prize, and force his estranged dad to pay attention to his deserted family. Stanly’s and Jaxon’s friendship is a lovely bit of business: Jaxon has OCD, and Stanly simply accepts Jaxon’s fence-post counting and food pickiness as a part of his friend’s personality.

I really liked parts of this book: Stanly’s relationship with his little sister, protective even when he was annoyed with her brattiness; Jaxon and Stanly and their friendship; the total weirdness of having a skeleton growing in a tree in your backyard. However, the sadness of Miren’s illness, the dad’s neglect of his family, and Stanly’s mom’s very difficult financial and living situation finally got to me, and I really didn’t want to finish the book, even though I had to know what would happen to Stanly and Miren and Princy.

Also, I know it’s so minor as to be nitpicking, but I really think Stanly should be spelled with an “e”, “Stanley”. It just looks wrong the way it is in this book.

Two Polish setting tales

The Wolf Hour by Sara Lewis Holmes

The Dollmaker of Krakow by R.M. Romero.

Ms. Holmes gives us a story of pigs (three little ones plus a mama pig), wolves, and a girl with a red cap, fusing together the folklore of the Polish forest, the Puszcza, with the tales of the city, of magic flutes and stolen, enchanted girls. It’s a book that talks about the roles we are expected to fill and the changes that we can make if we have the courage to do so. Girls are not supposed to be woodcutters, but Magia, the red-capped girl, knows that becoming a woodcutter like her father is what she is meant to be. And wolves are meant to be the villains of the story, but what if the little pigs are the real tricksters and bad guys, luring the wolves to their doom?

Actually, I thought the setting for this story was somewhere in a magical Poland, but maybe it’s Ukraine or even Russia. Wherever it is set, the tale is dark and creepy but with just enough humor and lightness that it’s perfectly appropriate for middle grade readers who like a bit of scariness and suspense mixed into their fantasy reading. Fans of the TV series Once Upon a Time or Grimm might take to this twisted version of fairy tale world.

The Dollmaker of Krakow is partially set in Poland, World War II Poland, but also in a mythical Kingdom of the Dolls where events mirror to some extent the event in Poland. The evil rats have invaded the Land of the Dolls and enslaved all of the dolls, so when the doll Karolina tries to escape, she finds herself blown the wind into World War II Poland and living in the shop of the The Dollmaker. Karolina and the man known as the Dollmaker become friends with a Jewish violinist, Jozef, and his daughter, Rena, and from that friendship come danger and an opportunity to influence the course of events both in our world and in the Land of the Dolls.

Again, it’s a Holocaust tale, so it’s dark and rather scary, but there is a sense of hope that one person—or one doll— can be brave enough and persevering enough to make a difference and shine some light into that darkness.

Rules for Thieves by Alexandra Ott

Thieves have been rather popular in middle grade fantasy fiction for the past few years. The “thieves” are usually Oliver Twist or Artful Dodger types, lovable scapegraces who come out of poverty and sometimes end up as princes or kings or long lost sons of rich families. And mostly the thieves are boys. (Megan Whalen Turner’s Thief series, Jonathan Auxier’s Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes, The Dungeoneers by John David Anderson, The False Prince by Jennifer Nielsen, Jupiter Pirates series by Jason Fry, Chronicles of Egg by Geoff Rodkey, and many more that I’m not thinking of, I’m sure.)

Twelve year old Alli Rosco fits the prototype in some ways. She’s an orphan who never really suited any of the many families looking to adopt, but she didn’t like any of them either. Her mother abandoned her on the orphanage doorstep at the age of three, and Alli has been trying ever since to forget her mother and the brother who didn’t get sent to the orphanage. And she’s also been trying to escape from the orphanage, from any adoptive parents foolish enough to take her home for a trial run, from all of the rules and fences that orphanage life is all about.

But when Alli does escape, she finds that life on the streets is not so easy. And she learns that she can’t trust anyone, but also she can’t live without trusting someone. In fact, Alli must trust a thief, maybe even become a thief, if she is going to survive. She may have to commit herself to follow the rules of the Thieves’ Guild if she wants to remain free of the orphanage, but is that a trade-off she’s willing to make?

Alli is spunky, independent, resourceful, and outspoken, but she also has her own code of conduct that gets tested and crowded by the necessities of survival on the streets. At first, she’s not sure she should steal at all, but she soon realizes that in order to eat she will have to take food from market stalls. The trash cans are not an adequate source of nourishment. Then, Alli get caught in a situation in which she must choose to join the Thieves Guild and become a professional thief or choose to die a slow and painful death. She chooses the Guild, but not without some qualms. What is all of this thieving doing to her soul?

This debut novel by an Oklahoma author has a lot of action and character development, but it also tries to deal with the deeper questions inherent in a story where thieves are the protagonists, the “good guys” to some extent. Is it really fine to steal from the rich, just not the poor? How do you decide who’s rich and who’s poor? Is violence or at least the threat of violence an inexorable part of being a thief? If so, where does one draw the line? Do haughty, selfish rich people deserve to die protecting their valuables? If they do, is it the thief’s fault or the owner’s? Is there “always a price” for everything you get in life? What if someone else ends up paying the price for your survival?

Perhaps the sequel to Rules for Thieves, Shadow Thieves, will answer some of those questions as Alli “must risk everything to save her new family from a rogue organization that is threatening the Thieves Guild’s existence—and the lives of all its members.” I’m looking forward to reading it when it comes out in June, 2018.