Giving Books: Mystery Series for Young Readers

Dec7

The Milo and Jazz Mysteries by Lewis B. Montgomery.
The Case of the Stinky Socks.
The Case of the Poisoned Pig.
The Case of the Haunted Haunted House.
The Case of the Amazing Zelda.
The Case of the July 4th Jinx.
The Case of the Missing Moose.
The Case of the Purple Pool.
I read the seventh and most recently published book in the series, The Case of the Purple Pool, because it was one of the books nominated for the Cybils in the Early Chapter Books category. Milo and Jazz are detectives-in-training, but even with the benefit of their lessons from Dash Marlowe, Super Sleuth, the two youngsters are stumped when someone turns the neighborhood swimming pool water purple. How? Why? And will it happen again? I figured out the solution to the mystery within pages, but young readers might just have to exercise their brains to solve this one. I think mystery fans ages 6-10 will enjoy this series.

The First Kids Mysteries by Martha Freeman.
The Case of the Rock ‘N’ Roll Dog.
The Case of the Diamond Dog Collar.
10-year old Cammie and 7-year old Tessa have a very important mom and a very lively dog. Hooligan, the dog, lives up to his name and creates havoc wherever he goes. And Mom, well, Mom is the President of the United States. So Cammie and Tessa and Hooligan live in the White House with their mom and dad and Hooligan and Granny and Aunt Jen and her son, Nate, and Granny’s canary who doesn’t have a name—yet. In the Case of the Diamond Dog Collar, Hooligan receives a gift from the president’s dog in a neighboring country, and one of the twelve fake diamonds on the collar goes missing. Cammie and Tessa must put on their detective hats and go to work to find out where the (fake) diamond could be. This series is a little more challenging for readers, so I’d suggest it for ages 9-12, especially if those mystery fans are still prefer shorter books.

Young Cam Jansen Mysteries by David Adler.
Young Cam Jansen and the Dinosaur Game.
Young Cam Jansen and the Missing Cookie.
Young Cam Jansen and the Lost Tooth.
Young Cam Jansen and the Ice Skate Mystery.
Young Cam Jansen and the Baseball Mystery.
Young Cam Jansen and the Pizza Shop Mystery.
Young Cam Jansen and the Library Mystery.
Cam Jansen has a photographic memory, and that’s one of the things that makes her such a good detective. Some people nicknamed her “The Camera” because she remembers things just like a camera, and then they just called her “Cam.” These books are beginning, level two readers for very young readers. If your reader finishes these and wants more Cam Jansen, there are a slew of Cam Jansen mysteries that are in the “Early Chapter Books” category, second to fourth grade reading level.

Then, there are these classic series that still hold the attention of young readers:

The Boxcar Children series.
Encyclopedia Brown series.
Nate the Great series.

Christmas in Northampton, Massachusetts, 1734

Dec7

From A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God by Jonathan Edwards.

And then it was, in the latter part of December, that the spirit of God began extraordinarily to set in, and wonderfully to work amongst us; and there were, very suddenly, one after another, five or six persons, who were to all appearances savingly converted, and some of them wrought upon in a very remarkable manner.

Particularly, I was surprised with the relation of a young woman, who had been one of the greatest company-keepers in the whole town. When she came to me, I had never heard that she was become in any wise serious, but by the conversation I then had with her, it appeared to me, that what she gave an account of, was a glorious work of God’s infinite power and sovereign grace; and that God had given her a new heart, truly broken and sanctified. I could not then doubt of it, and have seen much in my acquaintance with her since to confirm it.

What a wonderful Christmas celebration, even if the Puritans didn’t celebrate Christmas!

Christmas in England, 1939

Dec6

George VI, King of England (the one who is featured in the movie The King’s Speech) quoted (the portion in bold print) from the following poem in his Christmas speech to the British nation in December, 1939.

God Knows by Minnie Louise Haskins

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night. And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

'Eleanor Roosevelt, King George VI, Queen Elizabeth in London, England, 10/23/1942' photo (c) 1942, The U.S. National Archives - license: http://www.flickr.com/commons/usage/
So heart be still:
What need our little life
Our human life to know,
If God hath comprehension?
In all the dizzy strife
Of things both high and low,
God hideth His intention.
God knows. His will
Is best. The stretch of years
Which wind ahead, so dim
To our imperfect vision,
Are clear to God. Our fears
Are premature; In Him,
All time hath full provision.
Then rest: until
God moves to lift the veil
From our impatient eyes,
When, as the sweeter features
Of Life’s stern face we hail,
Fair beyond all surmise
God’s thought around His creatures
Our mind shall fill.

The photo is a 1942 picture of King George VI, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Queen Elizabeth, George’s wife.

1943: Books and Literature

Dec5

French pilot and author Antoine de St. Exupery publishes The Little Prince, the story of a pilot who crashes and meets a little boy from outer space.

Quotes from The Little Prince:
Voici mon secret. Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur. L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.
“Here is my secret. It is very simple: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

Les hommes ont oublié cette vérité, dit le renard. Mais tu ne dois pas l’oublier. Tu deviens responsable pour toujours de ce que tu as apprivoisé.
“Men have forgotten this truth,” said the fox. “But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.”

“You risk tears if you let yourself be tamed.”

Also in 1943, Oxford scholar C. S. Lewis makes a series of radio broadcasts that will be adapted as a book, Mere Christianity.

Quotes from Mere Christianity:
“God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself.”

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

Also published in 1943:
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.
Perelandra by C.S. Lewis.
The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis.
Being and Nothingness by Jean-Paul Sartre.

Popular in 1943:
The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas. One of my favorites. Marcellus is a proud Roman citizen and soldier until he encounters Jesus in Palestine and is forever changed.
Guadalcanal Diary by Richard Tregaskis. In the summer and fall of 1942, American Marines landed on the South Pacific island of Guadalcanal and fought their way across the island. Tregaskis, a journalist, tells the story of Guadalcanal in a primary source account.
Our Hearts Were Young and Gay by Cornelia Otis Skinner and Emily Kimbrough. Two American college age women tell the tale of their 1920 tour of Europe.

Christmas at Home and Abroad, 1943

Dec5

In 1943, Bing Crosby has another hit Christmas song with “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” written by Kim Gannon, Walter Kent and Buck Ram. The soldiers fighting the war all over the world and their families at home listened to this song and “White Christmas” and longed for the end of the war with all the troops safely at home.

1943: Events and Inventions

Dec5

January 31, 1943. The German Sixth Army surrenders to the Russians at Stalingrad after the Russian winter an snow decimates the Germans and saps their will to fight.

April, 1943. German troops massacre the remaining Jews inside the Warsaw ghetto in Poland, those who haven’t already been sent to extermination camps at Auschwitz and other locations. About 60.000 Jews were still in the ghetto at the beginning of April, and these survivors resist the German butchery with fierce resistance. But the Jews defiance is doomed to failure and largely unreported in the rest of the world. Read Mila 18 by Leon Uris for a complete fictional account of the bravery and tragedy of the Jewish resistance inside the Warsaw Ghetto.

May 12, 1943. The German and Italian armies in North Africa surrender to the Allies.

June 10, 1943. Hungarian hypnotist and journalist, Ladislao Biro,in Argentina with his brother Georg, a chemist, patents a revolutionary new writing instrument, the ballpoint pen. In 1950 Marcel Bich bought the patent from Bíró for the pen, which soon became the main product of his Bic company.

'German Panzer IV Tank' photo (c) 2009, Simon - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

July 13, 1943. After a huge tank battle at Kursk in the Soviet Union in which 1500 German and Soviet tanks fight at close range, the Germans are driven back and Adolf Hitler himself orders a withdrawal.

July 9, 1943. U.S. troops invade Italy at the tip of Sicily, and on July 22 the troops reach and take Palermo in the northwest corner of Sicily. German defenders of Sicily retreat into Italy, and the Sicilians for the most part welcome the Americans.

'Conference of the Big Three at Yalta' photo (c) 2008, Marion Doss - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/July 25, 1943. King Victor Emmanuel III and the Fascist Council reject and overthrow Benito Mussolini in Italy and replace him with Marshal Pietro Badoglio. Two days later, Badoglio dissolves the Fascist government and tries to negotiate a peace with the Allies while still trying to placate the Nazis who are scattered in force throughout Italy. Mussolini goes into hiding.

August 2, 1943. The Allies bomb the port of Hamburg, Germany, reducing its shipyards and factories to rubble.

October 13, 1943. Italy surrenders to the Allies and declares war on its former ally, Germany.

November, 1943. Allied leaders Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin meet in Tehran, Iran to coordinate war strategy and plan for the aftermath of the war.

Sunday Salon: Books Read in November, 2011

Dec4

Easy Readers for Cybils:
Good Luck, Anna Hibiscus by Atinuke. Cybils nominee: Early Chapter Books.
Have Fun, Anna Hibiscus! by Atinuke. Cybils nominee: Early Chapter Books.
No. 1 Car Spotter by Atinuke. Cybils nominee: Early Chapter Books.
Tugg and Teeny: Jungle Surprises by J. Patrick Lewis. Cybils nominee: Early Chapter Books.
Almost Zero: A Dyamonde Daniel Book by Nikki Grimes. Cybils nominee: Early Chapter Books. Semicolon review here.
Daisy Dawson at the Beach by Steve Voake. Cybils nominee: Early Chapter Books.
The Greatest Sheep in History by Frances Watts. Cybils nominee: Early Chapter Books. Semicolon review here.
Zapato Power: Freddie Ramos Zooms to the Rescue by Jacqueline Jules. Cybils nominee: Early Chapter Books. Semicolon review here.
Like Pickle Juice on a Cookie by Julie Sternberg. Cybils nominee: Early Chapter Books.
The Case of the Diamond Dog Collar by Martha Freeman. Cybils nominee: Early Chapter Books.
The Tricky Tooth by Fran Manushkin. Cybils nominee: Early Chapter Books.
Clementine and the Family Meeting by Sara Pennypacker. Cybils nominee: Early Chapter Books.
Invisible Inkling by Emily Jenkins. Cybils nominee: Early Chapter Books.
Toys Come Home: Being the Early Experiences of an Intelligent Stingray, a Brave Buffalo, and a Brand-New Someone Called Plastic by Emily Jenkins. Cybils nominee: Early Chapter Books.
Scab for Treasurer? by Trudi Trueit. Cybils nominee: Early Chapter Books.
The Trouble With Chickens by Doreen Cronin. Cybils nominee: Early Chapter Books.
Marty McGuire by Kate Messner. Cybils nominee: Early Chapter Books.
The Snow Queen by Sara Lowes. Cybils nominee: Early Chapter Books.
Marvin Monster’s Monsterific Adventures by Tabatha Jean D’Agata. Cybils nominee: Early Chapter Books.
Sammy Squirrel and Rodney Raccoon To the Rescue by Duane Lawrence. Cybils nominee: Early Chapter Books. Semicolon review here.
Sophie the Zillionaire by Lara Bergen. Cybils nominee: Early Chapter Books.
Splat the Cat: Good Night, Sleep Tight by Rob Scotton. Cybils nominee: Easy Readers.
Max Spaniel: Best in Show by Dana M. Rau. Cybils nominee: Easy Readers.
Butterflies by Nic Bishop. Cybils nominee: Easy Readers.
Dinosaurs Don’t, Dinosaurs Do by Steven Bjorkman. Cybils nominee: Easy Readers.
The Lion and the Mice by Ed and Rebecca Emberley. Cybils nominee: Easy Readers.
Katie Woo Has the Flu by Fran Manushkin. Cybils nominee: Easy Readers.
I Broke My Trunk by Mo Willems. Cybils nominee: Easy Readers.
Happy Pig Day by Mo Willems. Cybils nominee: Easy Readers.
Should I Share My Ice Cream? by Mo Willems. Cybils nominee: Easy Readers. Semicolon review for all three Mo Willems’ books here.
Silly Lilly in What Will I Be Today by Agnes Rosenstiehl. Cybils nominee: Easy Readers.
Patrick in a Teddy Bear’s Picnic and Other Stories by Geoffrey Hayes. Cybils nominee: Easy Readers.
A Green, Green Garden by Mercer Mayer. Cybils nominee: Easy Readers.

Children’s and Young Adult Fiction:
Dave at Night by Gail Carson Levine. Semicolon review here.
The Night of the Burning: Devorah’s Story by Linda Press Wulf.
Choosing Up Sides by John Ritter.
The Storyteller’s Daughter by Jean Thesman.
Chief Sunrise, John McGraw, and Me by Timothy Tocher.
Small Acts of Amazing Courage by Gloria Whelan. Cybils nominee: Middle Grade Fiction. Nominated by Rebecca Herman.Semicolon review here.
Losing Faith by Denise Jaden. Nominated and shortlisted for the INSPY Awards, Literature for Young People category.
Crosswire by Dotti Enderle.
Cry of the Giraffe by Judie Oron. Definitely for older YA.
Orchards by Holly Thompson.
How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr. Review coming soon.

Adult Fiction:
Pattern of Wounds by J. Mark Bertrand.
When She Woke by Hilary Jordan. My review at Breakpoint.
Gifts of War by Mackenzie Ford.

Nonfiction:
Unplanned: The dramatic true story of a former Planned Parenthood leader’s eye-opening journey across the life line by Abby Johnson with Cindy Lambert. Semicolon review here.
The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared by Alice Ozma.
Tales of an African Vet by Dr. Roy Aronson. Review coming soon.

Poem Written in Response to Today’s Discussion of Postmodern and Emergent Thinking

Dec4

'Door Victualing Yard' photo (c) 2010, Tony Takitani - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/The question cries out for an answer,
The reason to seek is to find.
We knock that the door may be opened,
And not for the echo inside.

If the answer is not forthcoming,
If the seeker does not find a door,
We must look till the light shines upon us,
And knock till the op’ning appears.

In the other direction lies madness,
To believe that there may be a door,
To talk to hear ourselves chatter,
Forever and ever more.

Christmas in Germany, 1915

Dec4

Richard Hannay, the narrator in John Buchan’s spy novel Greenmantle, is an English spy inside Germany at Christmas, 1915, World War I.

“It was the 23rd day of December, and even in war time one had a sort of feel of Christmas. You could see girls carrying evergreens, and when we stopped at a station the soldiers on leave had all the air of holiday making. The middle of Germany was a cheerier place than Berlin or the western parts. I liked the look of the old peasants, and the women in their neat Sunday best, but I noticed, too, how pinched they were.”

Pinched because they were hungry. The British blockade of Germany in the North Atlantic meant that Germans were short of cloth, machinery, raw materials, and even food that was removed from ships sailing to Germany before the ships reached a German port. Germany responded to the British blockade with its own policy of “unrestricted submarine warfare,” and we all know what came next. The Americans entered the war.

My head was beginning to swim, but I made one more effort.
“There is food in my rucksack—biscuits and ham and chocolate. Pray take it for your use. And here is some money to buy Christmas fare for the little ones.” And I gave her some of the German notes.
After that my recollection becomes dim. She helped me up a ladder to the garret, undressed me, and gave me a thick coarse nightgown. I seem to remember that she kissed my hand, and that she was crying. “The good Lord has sent you,” she said. “Now the little ones will have their prayers answered and the Christkindl will not pass by our door.”

Christmas in Connecticut, 1942

Dec3

The hit song of 1942 is Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, sung by Bing Crosby in the movie Holiday Inn. Crosby first sang the song on Christmas Day, 1941 on an NBC radio show. But the song took off in late 1942, and it’s credited as the best-selling single of all time, with estimated sales in excess of 50 million copies worldwide.