MMGM-- Tree. Table. Book. and Kid-Ventors

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Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
 at 

Always in the Middle 

and #IMWAYR day 

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Unleashing Readers

Lowry, Lois. Tree. Table. Book.

April 23, 2024 by Clarion Books 

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Sophia Winslow lives on a street of older homes in New Hampshire, and her busy parents operate a real estate company out of their breezeway. Her good friend Ralphie Mariani lives across the street with his five brothers and sisters, his doctor father and mother who is a really good cook, and Oliver Vorhees, who is slightly younger, lives down the street with his hardworking single mother. Next door to Sophia is her best friend, 88-year-old Sophie Gershowitz, who came to the US from Poland after World War II and has lived in her house for 68 years. When Sophia overhears that Sophie's son Aaron is coming for a visit and plans to have his mother underrgo cognitive testing because she's slipping more and more, Sophia knows she must spring into action before her best friend is spirited away to live in an old folks' home in Akron, Ohio. She borrows a Merck manual from Ralphie and tries to give Sophia her own version of cognitive tests. It's clear from other occurrences that Sophie is having some problems; she leaves a tea kettle on the stove, and it burns, and when she and Sophia drive to WalMart to get a new one, they get lost coming back. While Sophie has great long term memories and can tell Sophia things that happened in 1961, she can't pass a three word retention test, no matter what Sophia does. Hoping that practice will help, Sophia tries again and again. During one of these sessions, she gives her friend three words; tree, table, and book. These three words spark deep memories of Sophie's life in Poland as a child, and she relates three stories that she hasn't told anyone, not even her son. Sophia feels that someone who has suffered so much shouldn't have to leave her best friend and go into "an old people institution", and she thinks vaguely about setting Sophie up in the abandoned house that's for sale across the street, but when she, Ralphie, and Oliver sneak in to check it out, Oliver, whose description seems to place him on the autism spectrum, opines that trying to do this would not constitute TLC (tender loving care). As sad as she is to lose her friend, Sophia knows that this is true, and prepares to say goodbye to Sophie as her son and parents work to clean out the house and put it on the market. At least Sophia's parents allow her to have a cell phone so that she can talk to her friend once a week for as long as it is possible. 

Strengths: There's no good way to adequately describe this book; it's a simple story, but in Lowry's hands turns into something profound and heartwrenching. Having seen my mother struggle with Parkinson's dementia and watched my father painfully try to "make her better" by quizzing her on the date and various other things, I could definitely understand Sophia's pain. I was also glad that Sophia's son was able to step in, get her tested, and take her to be near him in a setting that would keep her safe, and that while Sophie didn't like it, she, too, saw the necessity of the move. The stories, which I won't even synopsize because I can't do them justice, were poignant and telling, and I almost wish we had heard more about Sophia's time in Poland, or her life in the US as a young mother. Somehow the saddest part of the book, for me, was the description of Sophia's house and furnishings, including her worn out Formica table. Time runs roughshod over everything, doesn't it? 
Weaknesses: The young Sophia is quirky in the same way that Anastasia Krupnik was, with her obsessions with nutrition and grammar, and I'm not sure how much that will resonate with modern young readers. I also was not a huge fan of the cover. 
What I really think: I'll have to purchase this one, because it will resonate with the right reader. Middle school is definitely a time when many students have to deal with the decline of their grandparents, and this is an accessible look at how this might unfold. This hit painfully close to home, as I have many friends and relatives in their 80s. Lowry is herself 86, with an almost fifty year career of writing intriguing books for young readers. 

Pew, Kailie and Wright, Shannon (illus.). 

Kid-ventors: 35 Real Kids and their Amazing Inventions

April 23, 2024 by Feiwel & Friends 

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Does your school participate in the Invention Convention? You might want to have this book on hand to motivate students by having them read about children who had good ideas. The chapters are divided into different categories of innovations, including Solving Daily Problems, Helping Others, Technology, The Environment, and Fun Inventions. There are some inventors that are well known, like Benjamin Franklin and Steve Wozniak, but most are ordinary kids who just had good ideas, like KK Gregory and her 1990s Wristies. The brief bios are listed in chronological order and discuss the product as well as the inventor, and I enjoyed hearing what happened the people went on to do later in life. At the end of the chapters, there are more topics discussed, like prototypes, production and marketing, and STEM communities. The book ends with information on how to be an inventor, a glossary, and source list. The book is illustrated with pictures in the style seen on the cover, and might be black and white; I've recently switched from a tablet e reader to a digital paper one, so will have to look at a finished copy. There's a wide range of products, from ones we all know, like Braille, to ones I have never heard of, like Le Glue and a prosthetic arm that shoots glitter!

Strengths: Invention Convention was always rather stressful for my children, and seeing examples of needs that young people felt need to be met would have been inspiring. There's a nice assortment of time periods, and places in the world where people lived, as well as a variety of different inventions. 
Weaknesses: I'm always a fan of seeing photographs when they exist, although there are no doubt copyright issues that are hard to work out. The illustrations were charming, however. 
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who enjoyed Temporelli, Gozzi, and Innocente's When Everything Went Wrong: 10 Real Stories of Inventors Who Didn't Give Up! , or Nelson, MacIssac, and Ritchie's See It, Dream It, Do It: How 25 People Just Like You Found Their Dream Jobs.