MMGM- Sisterhood of Sleuths and Spooky Snacks and Treats

It's

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday
 at 

Always in the Middle 

and #IMWAYR day 

at 

Teach Mentor Texts 

and 

Unleashing Readers

Bertman, Jennifer Chambliss. Sisterhood of Sleuths

October 4th 2022 by Christy Ottaviano Books

ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Maizy is in the middle of a school project with her best friend, Izzy. They are making a film called Shellfish Holmes, and hope to have it chosen to be screened at the town art film theater if it's good enough. They even manage to get a giant lobster costume from her mother's costume and vintage clothing store, Alter Ego. When Maizy has an accident in the costume while biking to the park to film with Izzy, her niggling feeling that everything is not okay with her friendship is confirmed. Izzy, who insists on being called Isabelle, is more concerned with working with a couple of boys in class, even though they are not being true to Maizy's artistic vision. About this time, a box of Nancy Drew mysteries is dropped off at the store, and there's a thirty year old picture of Maizy's grandmother, whom she calls Jacuzzi, with two other women. Her grandmother didn't drop off the box, but the mystery of who did draws in neighbor and former friend Nell. Nell loves fashion, and was planning on doing a retrospective of women's clothing in the twentieth century, which their teacher thinks is a bit ambitious for a ten minute presentation. Maizy is thrown in to working with Nell, as well as Cam. The three start to look into the mystery of Maizy's grandmother, but also the history of the Nancy Drew series and its main author, Mildred Wirt Benson. Jacuzzi is not forthcoming with information about the picture, and denies knowing anyone named "Annette" after one of the books is found to have an inscription to that name from "Susie", which is Jacuzzi's real name. With the help of a librarian who isn't a fan of the books, a suspicious college student named Kelsey, and a professor, the girls get a lot of information. Will it be enough to solve the mystery of the box of books and to provide enough interesting facts for a good school project?

This was a fun and brilliantly concieved mystery which seamlessly incorporated the mythos of Nancy Drew in all of her complexity! It's not essential to know this fictional detective in order to enjoy this book, and I'm hoping to get fans of this author's Book Scavenger series to pick up Sisterhood of Sleuths and THEN guide them gently to the Nancy Drew Diaries. Having read Rubini's Missing Millie Benson: The Secret Case of the Nancy Drew Ghostwriter and Journalist, I knew a lot of the backstory on Benson and Drew, but also learned a lot. I had no idea that the series had been revamped in the late 1950s, partially to remove racist content. Sadly, while this made the books less horribly racist, those overtones persisted. Fascinating!

Aside from the inherent appeal of the Nancy Drew link, there's a lot of good, solid, middle grade angst going on. Izzy is terrible in the way that friends who are going through hard times are often terrible; it's not that she wants to be mean to Maizy, but Maizy is there. Maizy is also dealing with missing her older brother, who has just gone off to college, and she is worried that her grandmother (who first shows up in the story in an orthopedic book; I feel for you, Jacuzzi!) is getting older and perhaps forgetful. Maizy's parents are supportive, although busy. I wish more middle grade books would include major school projects, because they often loom large in middle school lives. 

I loved Alter Ego and a shopping trip there would be fascinating. The town is small enough that the characters are able to bike around and show some autonomy, which I always enjoy. 

Readers who gobbled up Souders' Coop Knows the Scoop, Johnson's The Parker Inheritance, Bowen's The Soccer Trophy Mystery, and other stories that highlight strange and interesting happenings in the past that must be explored will enjoy this fast paced and funny look at a girl who is just trying to figure out a box of books... and her life!

It's a good time to start getting ready for Halloween!

Williams, Zac. Spooky Snacks and Treats

July 5th 2022 by Gibbs Smith

E ARC provided by the Publisher

I'm a big fan of cookbooks, but my students don't check them out as much as I like. They do like Halloween, however, and this cookbook had a lot of things to recommend it. There are 42 recipes, instead of the ten or so found in something like Tumley's Cool Creepy Food Art (2010), and they are all simple to create, unlike the ones in Farrow's The Official Harry Potter Baking Book (2021) or as I like to call it Impossible Things to Attempt with Bread Dough. 

Since there are so many recipes, they range from punch (Does anyone serve punch at parties any more? Open bowls of liquid? For the first time, this struck me as the strangest idea.) to snacks to more entree like items, such spaghetti arrranged in a horror themed way. There are several different cupcake ideas, and only one involves fondant. 

The ingredients are all fairly easy to obtain, which also works in this book's favor, and I appreciated that there were some fairly common foods that were given a spooky twist. I think I need to make the Haunted House Lasagna, which is basically a pasta dish with pesto and alfredo sauce instead of marinara. I may pass on the grapes in mayonaisse, which is a bit like my mother's beloved Waldorf Salad. 

There is a clear and helpful photograph with each recipe, which is very helpful when trying to present these dishes. You want to make meat loaf into Brain Loves or turn a pasta dish into Worms and Things Salad, this is the book for you. The only thing that might stop me from buying this is that it is spiral bound, and those don't hold up particularly well in the library. If I were ten and had my own copy of this, I would have wanted to make dinner every night! (But my parents probably wouldn't have wanted to eat it.)

Time Slip Tuesday

Time Slip Tuesday is a recurring feature at Charlotte's Library.

Doyle, Roddy. A Greyhound of a Girl. (1 March 2012)
Mary's grandmother Emer is very ill and in the hospital. Her mother, Scarlett, is trying to come to terms with her inevitable death. Mary is sad that her best friend has moved away, but meets the new neighbor, Tansey, an older woman who seems somehow familiar. It turns out that Tansey is really Mary's great grandmother, who died of the flu in the 1920s, and has come back as a ghost to help Emer. When Scarlett finds out about this, she arranges for Emer to get out of the hospital for a little bit, and the four travel back to the farm where Tansey and Emer lived.
Strengths: This is a hugely atmospheric book-- I felt like I was having tea in Mary's Dublin kitchen! I didn't know that Maeve Binchy's books were particularly Irish until I read this. There is something about the cadence and the emphasis on multiple generations of families that is similar. I will look up some of Mr. Doyle's adult books.
Weaknesses This would be a hard sell. It's not a spooky ghost story, it's not quite history, and it's very gently paced. I enjoyed it a lot, though!

Smith, Greg Leitich. Chronal Engine. (20 March 2012)
When their mother gets a prestigious job on a far-flung archaeological dig, Emma, Max and Kyle have to go live with their grandfather, since their father was previously killed in Afghanistan. They haven't seen their grandfather in a long time, although he doesn't live far away, because he has checked out from humanity a bit. When the trio arrive, their grandfather tells them he is having a heart attack and that they must investigae the Chronal Engine, a time travel device, that is in his basement. With the housekeeper, Petra, the siblings are check out fossilized sneaker prints when Emma is kidnapped. They chase her back to the Cretaceous period and have to fight not only the kidnappers but a variety of dinosaurs. Luckily, Max is a huge dinosaur buff and his information saves them, even though it occasionally leads them into trouble. Will the children be able to use the time travel to their advantage... survive the dinosaurs? This seemed the like the first book in a series.
Strengths: If you have students who liked Z Rex, this might be one to have. Lots of action and adventure, and time travel with no excuses, even there are a few questions about procedure in my mind!
Weaknesses: Still having trouble selling time travel, and there wasn't something about this book that just didn't grab me, even though I normally love time travel.

Nonfiction Monday

Nonfiction Monday was started by Anastasia Suen and is hosted today at her Booktalking site today./ Hop over there to see a list of many great nonfiction book reviews!





Lasky, Kathryn. Silk and Venom: Searching for a Dangerous Spider.

Nominated for the 2011 Cybils by Jone MacCulloch.

Scientist Greta Binford studies spiders, and is especially interested in the highly poisonous Loxosceles, or Brown Recluse spider. She travels all over to find a sizeable population of them to study, searching through abandoned houses, in trees and bushes, and eventually finds some in the Dominican Republic. This book follows her investigation, and provides a lot of facts about spiders and the study of spiders along the way, illustrating this information with fantastic close-up photographs.

Strengths: Spiders are a topic that my nonfiction lovers frequently will pick up, but many of my books are so long that they look at the pictures more than read the text. This presents the information within the context of the story of Binford's search, which makes it much more interesting. Definitely will add this, which will be a good companion to the Scientists in the Field series.

Weaknesses: Again, the horizontal rather than vertical format makes it seem like a book for younger students, and there is a slightly strange "golly gee!", simplistic feel to the writing, which surprised me greatly, since Lasky writes so much for middle grades.

Moore, Christopher. From Then to Now: A Short History of the World.

Nominated for the 2011 Cybils by Betsy Bird.

Sure enough, this book starts with prehistoric hunter-gatherers and over 182 pages works its way to the present day. It goes at breakneck speed, covering the highlights of all of history, in the same way that I used to give one lecture a year on all of Roman history-- fifty minutes of holding on to your hat! While this book is slightly Euro/Amerocentric, it does cover the history of other parts of the world, and that is very helpful in putting into context what happened in history. When I took history in school, World History and US History were two separate subjects, and I've always struggled with creating a world history timeline in my head. This was very helpful in that respect. In fact, I only have two objections to this book; the illustrations immediately took me back to the Scott Foresman Wide Horizons and Open Roads basal readers that we had in elementary school, and I am not sure how many students will want to pick this book up, in part because of the cover illustration. (The illustrator is Polish, and in the 1960s, when the basal readers were produced, there was an influx of illustrators from Poland. Any connection? )

Must admit that we are on spring break this week and I have been a complete and total sloth. I read four books over the weekend, two of which were NOT middle grade. Before I got so sucked into blogging, I generally used breaks to read vast quantities of Nora Roberts' books. I try to be a little better now! The main problem this weekend was that none of the children had shoes, and I spent much more time cleaning things than I wanted to.

People ask how I have time to read so much. The answer is simple-- I let the housework slide as much as humanly possible. And I don't cook much. And the four teenagers know I am always here if they need me but normally spend most of their time sleeping! And, as I tell my students, I don't have time to watch t.v.!

Time Slip Tuesday

Time Slip Tuesday is a recurring feature at Charlotte's Library. This is also a good day to announce that my students and I have managed to figure out HOW to time travel. It involves an old date due stamp, but we have yet to find the right stamp pad to activate it, so we haven't managed to travel anywhere yet. And we can only travel between 1992 and 1997. Oh, well. Perhaps I should ask Verizon about the unlimited Time Travel Plan for my phone!

Bedard, Michael. The Green Man
ARC from Netgalley.com
Ophelia, who prefers to be called “O”, is sent to live with her ailing aunt Emily for the summer while her father is in Italy. In a small English town, Emily runs a dusty old bookshop that is in as bad a condition as she is. The books are dusty and outdated, the shop in disrepair, and the business not bringing in enough money. O tries to get her aunt to eat more healthy food, stop smoking, and make small changes to the bookstore. During this all, she is plagued by horrible dreams of a demonic magic show, and eventually finds out that it is an event from Emily’s memory, and Emily is afraid that something bad will occur on August 8, the anniversary of this event. When a descendant of a local artist offers to sell a rare collection of books about magic to Emily, the two hope that this will be the salvation of the book shop, but it might also be their undoing!
Strengths: Much like the book Flightsend, I enjoyed the English setting of this one. A bookshop! Poets! That part was fabulous. I enjoyed the book very much.
Weaknesses: The demonic magic show was a bit odd. Certainly, it gives more meat to the plot, but it also makes it hard to find an audience for the book. It’s not exactly scary, but readers who want a story about running a bookshop in England might not want the scary parts. It’s rather Gothic, and there’s not as much call for that.


Hood, Ann. Little Lion (The Treasure Chest #2)
Having traveled back and visited Clara Barton in the first book, Felix and Maisie find themselves living with their mother, who is divorcing their father. All the two want to do is go home, and they figure that if they can somehow go back in time again, maybe they can keep their family together. With the help of their great aunt Maisie, they locate a family artifact that helps them go back... to Saint Croix in 1772. There they meet a young Alexander Hamilton and determine that he is the one to whom they should give a silver coin dated 1794, but they need to pick their time wisely in order to be believed. This involves traveling on a ship back to New York. Only when they come to terms with what is going on in the present day are they able to return.
Strengths: This would be a nice introduction to time travel for younger readers. I missed a little by not reading the one about Clara Barton, and I may have to pick that one up, since I researched her in the 4th grade for a Wax Museum!
Weaknesses: A little young for middle school, and fundamentally at odds with my philosophy of time travel. I know, I know-- it doesn't really exist, but if it did, it would be caused by something as simple as a stamp pad! This book takes 47 pages for them to figure out how to go back again. And then they didn't have proper time traveling outfits! If it took that long, they could have cobbled something together.

Apparently, I am reading WAY too many time travel books! Still need to find a shawl for my outfit and post a picture of me ready to hurtle into the past. Or the future! (I can only go as far as 2015 with my current date due stamper!

Nonfiction Monday-- Blizzard of Glass

Walker, Sally M. Blizzard of Glass: The Halifax Explosion of 1917.

In December of 1917, several ships containing hazardous chemicals in the harbor of Halifax collided. The resulting explosion was the biggest man made one until Hiroshima. Not only did the heat and shock waves destroy all of the buildings nearby, but the resultant tsunami also caused major damage. Thousands died. The devastation was incalculable, and this book does an excellent job of explaining this for middle grade readers-- after an introduction of how things aligned for this to occur, the catastrophe is followed through what happened to the members of several families. Maps, copious period photographs, and well-researched information and harrowing tales of survival make this a book that many readers will enjoy.

Thanks to Deb Marshall, of Just Deb for recommending this! One of our school volunteers, a former history teacher, really enjoyed it as well!

Turner, Pamela S. The Frog Scientist.

Like the honeybees in The Hive Detectives, the frog population in the US has been at risk for years. Not only are the numbers decreasing, but there has been a decided increase in the number of frog mutations that are turning up. One scientist, Tyrone Hayes, has dedicated his life to finding out what chemicals may be harming frogs. One of the most common chemicals that farmers use and that ends up in the pond water is atrazine, and Hayes has determined that this chemical often feminizes male frogs, leaving them unable to procreate, which may be one big reason behind the drop in population. This book details how he goes about his research, describing days in the field and at the labs, and also discusses the long term ramifications of this research.

Strengths: This series was recommended to me by my public librarian, and it is a very good one with lots of information. The books are engagingly presented in an easy to read but informative way.

Weaknesses: Again, the picture book format orientation of this series may work to its disadvantage in the middle school setting. Might take some arm twisting to get students to read them, but I will definitely be purchasing some when I have the money.

There's a new Nonfiction Monday page by Ms. Suen, and today's roundup is hosted at The Swimmer Writer.

Middle Grade Monday can be found at Shannon Whitney Messenger's blog.

Some YA Titles

Lewis, Stewart. You Have Seven Messages.
Luna lives with her film producer father and younger brother Tile in New York City, where they are struggling with the death of Luna's mother a year earlier. Luna has lots going on in her life-- a crush on a neighbor, Oliver, snooty girls at school, and her own budding career as an art photographer-- but when she finds her mother's cell phone and goes through the messages, she find out that her mother's glamorous life held many secrets. With Oliver's help, she tracks down the people on the messages and comes to terms with what really happened with her mother's death.
Strengths: Good writing, lots of quotable lines, and an original story.
Weaknesses: Spoiler: Luna's mother was having an affair, and Luna deals with this much better than most young teens would. A lot of this was unbelievable to me-- Luna's show of photographs, her jet setting relatives, the fact that her mother named her brother Tile. Almost more of an adult book-- if Luna had been in her early twenties I could see this more.

Hoffman, Mary. David.
The "milk brother" of Michaelangelo, Gabriele, moves to Florence to work with his famous sculptor brother. Upon his arrival, he is taken in by a young widow who finds his perfect physical form appealing. When Angelo returns, Gabriele starts to work with him preparing stone for sculptures, but soon is a much sought out artist's model. Angelo uses him for his famous statue of David. There is a lot of political intrigue, and the widow is pregnant and marries a wealthy man whom Gabriele finds annoying. Told from the point of view of Gabriele when he is in his 80s, this is a very rich picture of life during this time period.
Strengths: Interesting, well-written, and well-researched.
Weaknesses: Again, more of an adult book. While nothing is graphic, the attraction that the Florentine women and men have for Gabriele is definitley discussed.

Some good books, but hard sells

This Bill Wallace title from 1994, Blackwater Swamp, has a terrible cover. It's also a bit hard to get into-- Wallace spends a lot of time talking about how the main character moved around and has trouble making friends before jumping into a suspenseful mysteries with a number of nice twists. Ted and his family are living on the bayou in Louisiana, and there is a "witch" living nearby, as well as several local juvenile delinquents, one of whom befriends Ted and steals his autographed copy of Robert's Scared Stiff, which was sort of funny. I'd start students with something by this author like Trapped in Death Cave, and recommend this one without showing them the cover!

Received Karen Schwabach's The Hope Chest in my blogger exchange from Semicolonblog.com. I really liked the tale of a young girl in 1920 who travels to New York City in search of her sister, who is working as a Suffragist and has been ostracized by the family. Violet finds letters that her sister Chloe has sent her, but which her parents have hidden. When she gets to New York, she finds that Chloe has moved on, but with the help of Myrtle, an orphaned African-American girl, she finds her sister's coworkers and travels to Nashville where she is part of a Suffragist rally. A little written about period of history, and well done.


Erratum. The Other Book. Inkeheart. Endymion Spring. And now David Michael Slater's The Book of Nonsense. Sigh. I am so tired of evil books with controlling powers that I fear I will not do this one justice. Dex and Daphna's mother was killed shortly after their birth, while looking for unusual books. They are being raised by a family friend and their father, who continues their mother's work. Daphna has found a new antiquarian book store and spends a lot of time there-- before she visits with her father when he tries to sell a book he found and emerges from his encounter with the evil Mr. Rash not quite himself. Daphna must go and read for Mr. Rash, who is blind, and starts to uncover an evil plot that involving The First Tongue, a language which, if know in its entirety, can grant the speaker unlimited power. There's a lot of action and adventure; perfectly fine fantasy and I will look into obtaining the other four in the series. (For EFreak, the ISBNs for the book are
ISBN-13: 978-1-933767-00-0 ISBN-10: 1-933767-00-6)


Still, irked by two things. BAD LATIN ALERT: Page 123- Videre per alterum, which is translated as "to see through others". Per takes the accusative, but alterum is both neuter and singular. Alteros is what is needed. People, people. I know I am the only one who will find this error, but I haven't taught Latin for 15 years! Call up a university department of Latin, please. They will be thrilled to help you!


And really? The publisher is Children's Brains are Yummy, and their motto is "Creating the banned books of tomorrow." Okay. The name is disturbing, and the motto somehow ... just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. But it's Friday, and I may just be tired and cranky.