A Gaggle of Book Reviews

Where the Heart Leads: From the Casebook of Barnaby Adair is the newest historical mystery/romance from bestselling author Stephanie Laurens. If you love a good Regency romance, you’ll adore this novel. If you have never read a romance, but like a good historical fiction novel, or a good historical mystery, you will be surprised by how much you like this book.

I was raised by English majors. I don’t think I met anyone who read romances until I was in my mid-thirties. My family talked about reading “popcorn books”, (aka books that aren’t classified as literary fiction), but they were talking about anything on the bestseller list, people read popular mysteries, or occasionally sci fi/fantasy, but not romances. When I started reading chick lit, and then paranormals, I thought there was a big difference between those and romances. There really isn’t much of a difference at all, and I’m annoyed with myself for dismissing an entire branch of fiction because of this attitude! The storyline, character development, and rich background research in Where the Heart Leads leads to an enchanting story, one that is of higher quality than a lot of “quality” literature.

Where the Heart Leads follows the life of Barnaby Adair, the third son of an earl, through his fourth mystery in Lonndon during the 1830s. Adair works in conjunction with a policeman at Scotland Yard named Stokes. (If you’re up on your good mysteries, think Lord Peter and Parker about 90 years earlier.) Penelope is the sister of a Viscount, and has used her place in society to help others, specifically by running the Foundling House, which helps teaches orphans from the East End skills to help them gain legal employment when they are older. Recently, however, 4 boys have disappeared after the death of their guardian, and before someone from the Foundling House could arrive to pick them up. Penelope is worried about the 4 boys, and convinces Adair to help her find the boys and protect the next East End boys who become orphaned from the same fate.

Laurens writes with such detail that we can almost smell the world of the ton and the opposing world of the East End. The clothes and foods are likewise beautifully detailed, and combined with the depth of character truly pulls you into the story so you can’t put down Where the Heart Leads. Barnaby Adair is a confirmed bachelor – no wife would be happy with him performing his investigations assisting Stokes and the police. Penelope is likewise determined not to marry, as she is insistent that her duty is to the children of the Foundling House, and no husband would agree with her level of involvement there. The two are drawn together in the investigation, and in Penelope’s search for a passionate affair without any strings attached. As they investigate, Scotland Yard officer Stokes and popular milliner Griselda, who grew up in the East End. The two couples work together and with both the local “rozzers” (police) and the East Enders to locate the boys, make them safe, and thwart a burglary scheme.

If you’ve never tried a Regency romance, you will be swept away by Where the Heart Leads! If you are already a romance lover, don’t wait to pick this up, you’ll love it! If you’re a mystery lover, you’ll really enjoy the class struggles and the unique methods of investigation in the 1830s. Stephanie Laurens has created fabulous characters and a world that is lively and fun. I’m looking forward to checking out her other novels, too.

This book was received from the publisher for review

Boxcar Kid by Norma Charles is a new young adult/tween novel about family life during the Westward expansion in Canada. Set at Fraser Mills, a lumber mill in British Columbia, in 1909, Boxcar Kid follows Luc and the Godin starting with their arrival from Quebec. While the novel is written as fiction, the location is real, and the situation could really have happened. Coquitlam, British Columbia grew rapidly in 1909-1910 when French loggers from Quebec moved west to work for Fraser Mills and the growing logging industry.

Luc is the thirteen year old oldest child in the Godin family in Boxcar Kid. Luc has a mother, a father, a twelve year old sister Rita, a five year old sister Clara, and a baby brother named Joseph. We soon realize that there was an older son, Leo, who died in an accident within the previous year. The entire family is excited about the move to Fraser Mills, and eager to see the new home that was built for them by the loggers. However, upon their arrival they learn that the homes were not built, and that the four families that moved to the mill will be sharing an empty boxcar in place of a home.

Norma Charles has a wonderful skill for creating characters – each of the main characters jumps off the page, pulling the reader into the story. Facts merge with fiction as we learn about horse care, doctors, schooling, and the object of Luc’s fascination – bicycles! At the beginning of Boxcar Kid, Luc feels worthless – he is nervous around horses after the accident that killed his brother, and his younger sister happily takes his place working with their father. Luc helps a bit with the younger children, but finds himself helping new arrivals, translating between French and English. His academic skills are soon a boon, and a chance for him to help his family and himself.

The world of a lumber mill was completely foreign to me, as was the history of westward expansion in Canada. In Boxcar Kid, Norma Charles does an amazing job of intertwining a wonderful coming-of-age story with a unique historical background. As with Valerie Sherrard’s Three Million Acres of Flame, the story and the characters pull the reader in, and the history lesson sneaks in unexpectedly! Luc, his family, and his friends are wonderful characters – no cardboard cut-outs or stereotypical characters. It feels as if we are peeking through time into the lives of people almost 100 years ago; we see the prejudices against the Chinese, bicycles, and the difficulty of a language barrier that crops up even when moving within the same country.

I loved Boxcar Kid, and recommend it to the 9+ age group of tweens and Young Adult. Parents should know that there is a little flirting, but nothing beyond that. There is some discussion of death, as well as accidents. That said, there is very little violence overall. This is a great read to reinforce the value of family, of being confident in yourself, and in learning some history, too! Boxcar Kid is a wonderful, quick read that kids will enjoy and that can spark some great discussions, too.

This book was received from the publisher for review

Three Million Acres of Flame is the latest Young Adult novel by Canadian author Valerie Sherrard. She has written several other novels for this age range, including Speechless, which we really enjoyed and reviewed here. It’s always wonderful to have a chance to read and review a second book by an author. This time Sherrard has created a fictionalized story that commemorates a part of Canadian history that is often overlooked – the Great Miramichi Fire of 1825. She participated in an interview about the fire, as a part of her book tour. Using a time of crisis and tragedy as a backdrop, Sherrard paints a portrait of a family coping with both big and small problems.

Valerie Sherrard writes some details of the fire in the Author’s note:

The Miramichi Fire took lives [more than 160]. (Among them, a number of my ancestors.) By the time it had run its deadly course, it had burned one fifth of the province – more than three million acres of land. It destroyed buildings, possessions, livestock, and provisions. It left many facing the winter ahead both homeless and impoverished.

The rest of the author note describes in greater detail the facts of the fire and its aftermath. The fictionalized account of the Haverill/Drummond family in Three Million Acres of Flame follows the events of the Miramichi Fire as they really happened, with suspense, fascinating details, and a tender feeling for characters.

At first, the Haverill/Drummond family seems like many families in the 1800s. A widower with a son and a daughter marries a widow with one son, and they try to blend the two families together. Skye is still mourning her mother’s death, feeling that her father married again too quickly. While Skye feels a close bond with her brother Tavish and her father, she wants nothing to do with her new step-mother and new brother Stewart. Skye and her brothers feel like authentic teens – complaining about each other and their parents, teasing, and feeling as if they are the only blended family in the world. Skye goes to school, chatters with her friends about her problems with her step-mother and Stewart, and then does the chores that are needed on a farm. These are warm, normal characters with whom you can easily relate.

The first few chapters lay the groundwork for the rest of Three Million Acres of Flame, molding the characters into unique individuals with their own strengths and before the fire comes. Sherrard helps us understand the world of 1825 – class differences, chores, church, and the town of Newcastle in general. As time passes, Skye starts to grudgingly accept her step-mother and enjoy the warmth and freedom of August. There are day-to-day problems, such as her sadness that her Uncle William (her late mother’s brother) is moving out of their home to work in a logging camp, Tavish developing a crush, and her step-mother is expecting a baby.

Everything changes on October 7, 1825. The dry weather and heat had created the perfect environment for a fire, and the entire population of Newcastle flees from the fire into the Miramichi River that separates their town from neighboring Chatham. Chaos breaks out as separated family members try to find each other, and townsfolk walk the fine line between being in the river deep enough to escape from the flames, but not so deep that you would drown.

Skye’s heart had just started to heal from her mother’s death, and now she has to deal with the deaths of people close to her and the anxiety of not knowing the fate of others. Sherrard writes the novel using the third person, so we can see the aftermath of the fire from Skye’s perspective, as well as her brothers’ perspectives. Once the flames are gone, the inhabitants of Newcastle need to cope with finding places to live and food to eat for the upcoming winter. Sherrard’s storytelling ability is amazing, bringing me to tears several times as I read about the fates of the townspeople and the hardships they had to endure. My heart swelled, though, as I read about the generosity of other Canadians and the townspeople helping each other.

Three Million Acres of Flame is a multi-faceted, intense read. While at first glance it looks like a “disaster book”, it really tells the story of a “normal” family living through extraordinary times. Sherrard doesn’t make her characters infallable, instead she breathes life into them as she shows Skye’s jealous streak, Tavish’s tenderness, and Stewart’s propensity for teasing as we follow a year of their lives. Using strong female and male characters to drive the story, the reader ends up learning about a compelling time in history as well as becoming invested in what happens next for each of the characters. It felt like I had walked into the 1800’s and visited with friends.

I highly recommend Three Million Acres of Flame for the young adult audience (boys and girls), as well as for adults. There are some graphic descriptions of the aftermath of the fire, so I would not suggest it for tweens. While parts of the book are quite sad, this is not a depressing book at all. Valerie Sherrard has done fantastic work with this engrossing novel, it was very difficult to put down!

This book was received from the publisher for review

This book was received from the author for review.
Leonardo’s Shadow: Or, My Astonishing Life as Leonardo da Vinci’s Servant, by Christopher Grey is a wonderful novel written for the Young Adult market, but equally engrossing for adults. There are so many amazing Young Adult novels out there now – adults should not be overlooking the genre!

I have a hard time classifying this as fiction, as Grey researched the character of the servant Giacomo and based the events on notes in da Vinci’s notebooks. I guess it can go in the fiction section, but it should also be cross-referenced to the non-fiction section as well.

In this beautifully written novel, Grey explores the life of Leonardo da Vinci as seen through the eyes of his servant, Giacomo. Giacomo’s first person narrative focuses on the years in which DaVinci is due to paint the Last Supper. Da Vinci rescues Giacomo as a youngster from a mob who believes he is a thief. Giacomo remembers nothing of his prior life, and grows into a teenager as DaVinci’s servant, along with his cook.

Giacomo plays with the other local servants, but what he wants is to be apprenticed to DaVinci. Giacomo learns to draw in secret, and then tries to help da Vinci with the Last Supper so he can finish it before the Duke of Milan brings in another artist (like that upstart Michaelangelo!) tofinish the work.

I am incredibly saddened that I put off reading this book for a bit. I thought it would be one of those dull, dragging historical books. Now I’m recommending it to everyone – the characters simply leap off the page – you can almost imagine them walking around you. Leonardo’s Shadow doesn’t romanticize the unsavory parts of life in the 1400s – it has an incredibly realistic feel to it. The book also adds the bonus of showing us all sides of da Vinci – not just his impressive artwork. DaVinci has a temper, he is vain, and he is not perfect, even though his art is.

If you have an interest in Italy in the 1400s or in DaVinci, or simply wish to try out the amazing books that are now available in the Young Adult genre, I highly recommend reading Leonardo’s Shadow: Or, My Astonishing Life as Leonardo da Vinci’s Servant. A huge thumbs up, and major gratitude to author Christopher Grey for bringing it to my attention!

With young children in the house (our girls are 3, 6, and 8 ), we try to keep them away from the news. They are also sensitive and rather easily scared. However, sometimes you just can’t shield them from everything. We have friends in the military, friends whose dads are overseas, and a grandfather in the news business.

My girls are also fascinated with the American Girl dolls and books, and we are currently studying the American Revolution with our small homeschooling group. We had listened to the book on tape version of The Night Flyers (American Girl History Mysteries), and had briefly discussed other past wars and the current conflict. So, when the local librarian put out a display of war-themed books to honor Pearl Harbor Day, I picked up a few. We choose to focus on the homefront for now, as the front lines are too disturbing for the children in our house.

We introduced the subject with the book The War, by Anais Vaugelade. This is the story about a prince, two countries at war, and an attempt to end a long-standing war (”The war had lasted for so long that no one could remember why it had begun”). The title war is imaginary (it is between the reds and the blues, no real countries), but characters do die, so it is not treating the topic too lightly. This is overall a book that focuses on trying to get people together rather than continue a war, and the prince who doesn’t want to fight ends up as the hero. While this is not an easy subject to discuss, this book does an admirable job of assisting with the conversation. It definitely brought up several conversations here. The death in the book is sad but accidental, and it did not lead to nightmares, even with my very sensitive children.

Not long after listening to The Night Flyers, we read The Letter Home, by Timothy Decker is a simply illustrated book about a letter home from a father in WWI to his son. The boy waits for the letter, and the father (a WWI medic) writes home with postcard-sized sketches of his experience. The words are rather vague about the experience. You can either think of this as an invitation to explain more about WWI, a happy situation where you can sketch out as much as you feel comfortable about the messiness of war, or you can wait until your children are older and more able to understand the details of WWI that are danced around in the book. We chose the first two options, but can understand the third choice as well. It would be helpful to have some concept of WWI – but that can be detailed or simply an explanation of different technology. The idea of pigeon messengers instead of cell phones and email was a wonderful discussion in our house!

The next two books on the topic of war focus on the homefront of World War II – the first is more upsetting, the second more vague and heartwarming. I would suggest reading them in that order, as I’m not comfortable ending a reading session with an upsetting book.

We have friends whose grandmother was in one of the Interment Camps for Japanese Americans during WWII, and the book Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki and illustrated by Dom Lee is one of the few books I have seen on the subject. It isn’t a comfortable topic, but my children are very alert to discrimination, and were fascinated with this book. The book starts by explaining that the Camps weren’t like home or like overnight camp, but does so without going into sensational details. The narrator of Baseball Saved Us is a young boy who describes the situation – no one has a job or anything to do, so people are arguing. The boy’s father decides to build a baseball field, and others within the camp come together to work with him, as the man in the guardhouse watches. The narrator practices hard, and hits a home run, but it isn’t a pat ending. He goes back home from the Camp after the War, and he is still teased, but he manages to recreate some friendships through baseball.

Baseball Saved Us is a beautifully illustrated book about a disturbing topic. My daughters found it fascinating, and it is a book that would be of interest to boys and girls – especially any child who likes baseball! However, the subject matter is not an easy one, and while this is of great interest to adults, you need to be aware of how your children will react to the racism and teasing in the book. My kids were more worried about the boy being teased than anything else, but other children may take home a different message.

A much gentler discussion of the homefront during World War II is in Coming On Home Soon by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by E.B. Lewis. In the book, the mother leaves her daughter with the grandmother to earn money. Their discussion brings up the racism of the time: “They’re hiring colored women in Chicago since all the men are off fighting in the war.” Ada Ruth (the young girl) writes letters to her mother as she waits with her grandmother and a kitten who has adopted them. She is disappointed each time the postman walks past their house without a letter from her mother, but her grandmother keeps her busy, and time passes. Finally the postman comes with a letter: “Money falling from it when Grandma steams it open and the first line – Tell Ada Ruth I’ll be coming on home soon“, and the joy in the face of the grandmother and Ada Ruth is enough to bring tears to your eyes.

All of these books will inspire conversation. Some of them will require explanations (ie: we don’t call people with dark skin colored now), and all are beautifully illustrated with words that spring to life. In our house, all of the children were interested in the books, but on different levels. The preschooler really just liked the pretty pictures. The eight year old was fascinated with the history, and the six year old picked up some from each level. Parts of the books were emotionally hard for me as the adult reader, but all were worth reading.

My daughters and I just finished a homeschool coop where we focused on the American Revolution. That sparked their interest in other historical times, and we have fed into with the American Girl historical novels and mysteries. In keeping with our “3 picture books and 1-2 chapters” bedtime routine, I’ve found some lovely historical chapter books. We had listened to Addy: An American Girl/Boxed Set (American Girls Collection) as an audiobook, and the girls have now become fascinated with the Civil War as well. We aren’t officially studying the Civil War, but we have found 3 lovely quilt books that describe 3 different ways quilts helped people during the Civil War. I’m interested in delving into more quilt history, myself after reading these!

Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt by Deborah Hopkinson was a Reading Rainbow book, and one can easily see why. The illustrations are beautiful, and the text flows clearly. This is based on a true story (something that is well appreciated in our house!), and describes a young slave who is taken from her home to a new plantation. She has a hard time in the fields, and she is rescued by another slave who brings her inside to sew with her. Once Sweet Clara is inside the house, she learns about escaping to freedom – and the perils of not knowing the way and getting caught. She starts collecting scraps, and she creates a quilt which acts as a map. The quilt shows the way from their plantation to the Ohio River, which will carry them up to Canada and freedom. This is a beautiful story, with the perfect mix of sad and sweet appropriate for a story about slavery.

Deborah Hopkinson also wrote Under the Quilt of Night, which has illustrations by James E. Ransome. This is another story of slaves and freedom, but rather than using the quilt as a map, these quilts help the slaves find the safe houses in the Underground Railroad. The story tells of a family escaping, from the point of view of a young girl. They are told to look for quilts that have been set out to dry – quilts are usually designed with red in the center of the pattern, but if the home is part of the Underground Railroad, the quilt will have black in the center. We were amazed – both by the wonder of the text and the beauty of the illustrations, but also by that new knowledge. We all went searching around our home for the myriad of quilts made for us, and it was true! They all had red or reddish centers if they had that type of pattern. Wow. Very cool book and information!

After reading about slaves escaping to freedom, I wanted to read a book about the white families involved in the Civil War. I didn’t want to read a book that glorified the war, just a simple book about how it affected regular people. I found that book in The Promise Quilt by Candice F. Ransome, Illustrations by Ellen Beier. When the war calls her father away from their farm in Virginia, Addie, her brother, and her mother try to make do – the soldiers take their food and damage their land, but they just wait and hope for father to return. The illustrations and text do an amazing job of showing the sadness in the little girl, but in a way that makes the listeners feel drawn into the story, not overwhelmed. There is one picture that stays in my mind – Addie is looking out the window into the rain, with the soldiers walking through their farm reflected in the glass.

Addie’s father dies in the war, and a woman in Pennsylvania sends them a letter and his red flannel shirt, which Addie wears to keep warm, and help her remember him. When it is time for school to start, they cannot because the soldiers burned down the building. Addie and her mother work together with the woman in Pennsylvania to arrange to raffle a quilt made by Addie’s mother to pay for schoolbooks and other supplies. This book shows the courage of the people in the rural areas whose land was trampled by solders in Grey and Blue, and the good that can happen when people from the North and South work together. Like in Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt, the quilt Addie’s mother makes (called “Lee’s Surrender”) is a real quilt pattern. There are also a few pages at the end of the book which explain more about the Civil War and the setting of the book.

I highly recommend all 3 books. My 3 daughters (9, 7, 3 1/2) enjoyed all three as well, so they translate well to different ages. I will be going back to the library to get these books when we officially study the civil war, too!

You’ll want to check out our new quilt book review, plus homeschooling lesson ideas, too!

My husband loves history. He becomes animated about any historical topic. We discuss links between fiction and history, and we cover a lot of history while homeschooling (this year’s focus is the American Revolution).

However, most children’s books about historical topics are not that much fun to read. They don’t engage the audience, and they either have so much text that it is overwhelming, or so little that there really isn’t much point in reading it. We recently found two great books about historical topics which presented them in a way that was fun for everyone – the audience AND the reader.

Sleds on Boston Common: A Story from the American Revolution, by Louise Borden, illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker is a fictionalization of a true story during the American Revolution. This book is a bit heavy on the text, but it gives you the background about just how many British soldiers were in Boston in the winter of 1774-5 (1 soldier for ever 5 citizens). The main character is Henry, a young boy who just received a homemade sled for his birthday. At lunch, he and his brothers and sister go to Boston Common to use his new sled on the sled run before classes resume. However, when they arrive at the Common, they find that the troops have broken the ice on the ponds (so no ice skating), broken down the snow forts, and pitched tents and placed cooking fires on the sled run.

“For over a hundred years the Common belonged to everyone in Boston. Now it was covered by the barracks of General Gage’s troops.” General Thomas Gage was the Royal Governor of Massachusetts, and he was not well loved – he was enforcing a blockade on the harbor, and there were tough times during that winter. Henry and his siblings walked through the tents, keeping track of what they saw and heard for the Sons of Liberty. As they walk, they see General Gage, and he is speaking kindly to the troops, he “looked like a man who would listen, a good man, a man like my father.”

Henry goes up to General Gage, and requests that he listen to a town boy’s complaint. He explains the problem, and General Gage says that his children are in England, but they would also want to sled and skate if they were there. He instructs his troops to let the children sled (and move things from the sledding run) and leave the ice unbroken on one of the ponds for sledding.

The illustrations of this book match perfectly with the time period depicted, and the last pictures of the children sledding are wonderful, and evoke memories from anyone who has ever gone down a hill on a sled! The book finishes with a description of the beginning of the American Revolution, and has an Author’s note about what is true and what is fictionalized.

The Bus Ride that Changed History: The Story of Rosa Parks, by Pamela Duncan Edwards, illustrated by Danny Shanahan is a book written in a completely different style. This book is written in a rhyming, repetitive form, so each page builds on the next (as in “the house that Jack built” or “there was an old woman who swallowed a fly”). However, in this book there are modern-day children asking and answering questions about Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights movement that unfolded because of her bravery.

The book starts with:

This is a law forbidding

black people to sit next to white people on buses
which was overturned because one woman was brave

The book continues as it describes the segregation, and the inequality and bullying that were a part of the segregation laws. The modern-day children who are discussing the laws (in little speech bubbles outside of the rhyming pattern), ask and answer the questions that most children would have while reading the book (which is lovely, because otherwise the designated reader would have to find the answers somewhere!).

This is Rosa Parks, who said “No!” to
the driver who told her to move for the white man
left standing near the seats of black passengers riding
the bus in Montgomery,

where they enforced a law forbidding
blacks to sit next to whites on buses
which was overturned because one woman was brave

The book then explains the bus boycott, the beginning of the civil rights movement and Dr. Marting Luther King, Jr., and the Supreme Court overturning the segregation laws. It gives children information without overwhelming them, nor by dumbing it down. There is also a time line at the end of the book which outlines Rosa Parks’ life. The pictures are perfect for the text – detailed, but almost cartoonish so they are not intimidating for the children.

We recommend Sleds on Boston Common: A Story from the American Revolution for boys and girls ages 6-11 or so, our 3 year old was not interested in the longer sections of text, but the older two were fascinated by the look into the lives of children in history.

We would recommend The Bus Ride that Changed History: The Story of Rosa Parks for boys and girls ages 3-10 or so. When I was writing up this review, my 3 year old came over and said, “will you read me the story of the woman who was brave?” It’s a wonderful book for beginning or continuing the discussion on civil rights.