Under the Egg, by Laura Marx Fitzgerald

Theodora Tenpenny may live in Manhattan, but it's not a glamorous existence for her.  She lives in a ramshackle house with her absent minded math genius mother and her grandfather Jack.  But right on page 4, Jack is killed and leaves Theo only with the dying message of "Look under the egg."

Not much for a 13 year old who is trying to keep it together to go on.  So between gardening, taking care of her chickens and pickling for food, scanning the streets for useful objects and caring for her mother, Theo needs to unravel what her grandfather's wishes were.

Theo is up in her grandfather's art studio one day trying to figure out the mystery when a mouse runs up her leg and she jumps up and spills some rubbing alcohol on one of Jack's paintings - the painting unlike his other paintings.  The egg.  As Theo desperately tries to clean the rubbing alcohol off, the colors smear and smudge and she is devastated at losing this last bit of Jack.  But when she looks closely she realizes that under the egg, a different painting is revealing itself.  Could this be what Jack's dying words were about?

Theo is at a neighborhood diner owned by a friend of Jack's where she forms an unlikely friendship with Bodhi - another 13 year old who has just moved down the block and happens to have Hollywood parents.  Where Theo's existence is positively Little House on the Prairie, Bodhi's is the Jetsons in comparison.  Theo surprisingly lets Bodhi in on the secret painting, and soon with Theo's art history knowledge and Bodhi's internet skills, they are on the trail to the truth.

Woven into the text are explanations of fine art, as well as bits of history involving WWII.  There are also real life bits of NYC living including the Staten Island Ferry, Grace Church, the Met and the Jefferson Market Library.  All of these true things had me actually google Spinney Lane to see if it was one of those Manhattan streets I've walked by a million times but not walked down.

This is a solid summer mystery with a really fantastic sense of place.

The Dragonfly Pool

So every now and again I get a hankering to order some books from the UK. Better covers, different release dates, and all that. This batch included Vivian French's The Bag of Bones, Oliver Jeffers' The Great Paper Caper, and Eva Ibbotson's The Dragon Fly Pool. Now this was a nice box to receive for sure!

I am an unabashed fan of Ibbotson. She is my go-to author for so many students, and the author of books that I read again and again. The Star of Kazaan is a real favourite of mine, and I was wondering how The Dragonfly Pool would sit with me. Well folks, I have a new favourite.

Tally is living with her father and her Aunts in London. Tally's father, Dr. Hamilton, has just been given an offer that he cannot refuse. A scholarship at a boarding school for Tally. His is not a stereotypical doctor's household. They have very little since Dr. Hamilton only charges his patients what he can afford. With Hitler raving on the radio, getting Tally out of London is a priority.

So off to Delderton goes Tally.

When she gets there she is a little surprised. It is not at all like the boarding schools that her cousins told her about. First off, the children are not in uniform. They address their teachers by their first names, and they only have to go to classes if they care to! Delderton is, after all, a progressive school.

Tally's letters home are reassuring to Dr. Hamilton, and she quickly emerges as a leader at the school. When the school Head throws out the fact that they have been invited to a folk dancing festival in Bergania during a school meeting, it is Tally who rallies her fellow students to form a folk dancing group and even make up a dance in order to go. She's not a bully about it either. She just has a way of getting people to agree and get excited about things.

Once the children are in Bergania at the festival they are quickly tossed into a situation that should be too much to handle. It is up to the children, no matter their nationality, to help Prince Karil in his time of need.

I don't want to give too much plot away here, since Ibbotson manages to dodge and weave avoiding predictability all together. Ibbotson's children and adults are all memorable, and even though Tally is the protagonist, there are others that readers may savour just as much (Matteo, perhaps). Friendship, education, class and character are all themes that show up throughout.

I tend to get a chuckle reading about progressive schools since I work at one. Delderton may be a leap or two away from today's progressive schools, but the heart and soul is really there. That the teachers are so caring and allow the students to discover their passions is spot on and a pleasure to read about.

Fans of Ibbotson should love this, as should fans of Creech, Birdsall, and even Cushman. With strong boy and girl characters and a fast moving story, the appeal crosses gender lines as well. A perfect choice for the tweensters during this season of gift-giving!

The Green Glass Sea

So, imagine my surprise upon finishing this and then hearing from my friend Jen, that she had just attended a dinner for this very book! Timely, indeed.

As a Canadian, I really didn't learn much in school about the whole Los Alamos thing, so besides being enjoyable, I found The Green Glass Sea to be quite the learning experience as well.

Dewey and her dad have been making it on their own for a long time. Now that the war is on, however, Dewey's dad's scientific thinking has taken him away from her. First to Nana's place while Daddy was in Chicago, and then to New Mexico. To a place called "the hill" that's not even on a map. Dewey doesn't care so much about the standard issue housing, or the fact that the other kids call her Screwey Dewey...because at least she is back together with Daddy.

The kids on the hill really do have to make it on their own. All of their folks are military or scientists of some kind, and they aren't even allowed to discuss their work with their own families. Dewey and the other kids know that their parents are working on a "gadget", that will hopefully end the war.

This is a quiet and poignant look at the lives of the everyday people who were gathered up to work on "the bomb", as we used to call it. Oppie and Fermi are there, but so are regular families that just happen to have scientist parents.

A particularly thoughtful scene is when Suze's parents take Dewey and Suze out to "trinity" -- the testing site. The desert has turned to green glass. The girls are walking on it and taking chunks of it home. Suze's dad says that it's not "too hot". Let me tell you, as a parent knowing what we know now, my heart was in my throat. Can you imagine?

This quiet character driven story would work well for fans of Peach Hill, A Drowned Maiden's Hair, or even Private Peaceful. As someone said to me, it has a very Stand By Me feel, that translates easily to adults as well.

This is a story that will stay with me.