The Greenglass House, by Kate Milford

Our brains seem to want comparisons.  Every time a new book comes out, editorial blurbs sing, “For fans of….”, or “Blank meets blank in this striking new novel…”  I am both attracted to and wary of these comparisons, because they often create a false hope.  After all, a significant amount of connection to a story comes by what we bring to it.  I was first struck by the gorgeous cover of The Greenglass House, by Kate Milford and then I started hearing the buzz.  I started to hear talk of The Westing Game . Now, if you don’t already know, any time someone asks me what my favorite book of all time is, The Westing Game slides quickly from my mouth.  No questions asked. Over the adult titles that I have swooned about, the Newberys I have loved, the picture books that spawned the art that is matted and framed on my walls, The Westing Game is still firmly on the tippy top of the pile.  So the talk worried me a bit.

Silly me.

Milo and his family have just settled in for the holidays at their inn, The Greenglass House.  The guests have all departed, school is out for a couple of weeks, and it’s officially family time.  Imagine Milo’s surprise when the bell rings to alert the family that a guest is ready to come up the hill in the rail car called the Whilforber Whirlwind. Situated on the top of Whilforber Hill, the inn is somewhat iconic in their town.  Nagspeake is a smugglers’ town, and Milo’s parents are as likely to get paid in goods by the folks passing through as they are money. But smugglers have seasons and the winter holidays are not smuggler time.  Who could be coming to stay now?

Milo and his family are even more surprised when the bell keeps ringing!  More than one guest?  What is going on?

After the passel of guests shows up, Milo’s folks call on their regular help to come and help with meals and rooms and such.  Since it is break, the cook brings her kids and even though  Milo has never met Meddy before, the two get along famously even starting to role play using Odd Trails -- a game Milo’s own dad played when he was young.  Milo’s personal character Negret comes in handy when guest’s belongings start disappearing.  

This is such an atmospheric, multi layered story -- I just can’t say enough about it.  When you put all of the aspects of the story into writing, they can seem overwhelming.  We have the mythos of the town, the rules of the game, the mysterious guests, the criminality afoot, Milo’s own adoption story and sense of self, the lore of the house...it goes on and on.  But in Milford’s deft hands all are perfectly balanced and unfurled just so.  I started to slow down as I read this one, because I didn’t want it to end.  I ache to see this on the big screen, and am anxiously awaiting the first real snow of the season so I can hunker down and treat myself all over again!

The Great Unexpected, by Sharon Creech

Naomi lives in the small town of Blackbird Tree.  It is not named because of the shape of its trees, however, but for the many blackbirds that live in those trees.  Blackbird Tree is a bit of a tragic place, where most of the children have experienced some sort of loss.  Naomi is unsurprisingly a bit of a pessimist.  After losing her mother as an infant, and her father in a tragic accident, she has been in the care of Joe and Nula.  But she has always felt a little off kilter about the whole thing.  What if someone comes to take her away?  What if bad things instead of good things start coming out of the donkey's ear from the story that Joe tells?

One fateful day, a boy falls out of a tree right in front of Naomi.  She's not sure if he's real or not-real, so she is happy when her friend Lizzie comes by and lets her know that she can indeed see this boy laying unconscious on the ground.  Where Naomi dwells in the quiet places, Lizzie fills the air with her words, which can be both comforting and bothersome at once.  She fusses over the boy when he comes to, and worries after "Finn boy" who says that he is staying up on the hill with the dim Dimmenses.

Finn has awoken something in Naomi, and she finds that she cannot stop thinking about him.  Each time she runs into him she asks Finn about his life, but he would much prefer to talk to Naomi about hers.  He seems odd, however, visiting the folks in town that others normally steer clear of - folks like Crazy Cora, or Witch Wiggins.  When Finn asks Naomi where he can find Elizabeth Scatterding, who just happens to be Naomi's Lizzie, she finds herself consumed with jealousy.

Meanwhile over in Ireland, Sybil and her caretaker Miss Pilpenny are plotting revenge.  Living at Rook's Orchard, Sybil has enlisted the help of a solicitor to help her with the perfect plan.  There is a Finn boy who used to live there, as well.

Creech has woven together a magical story about family and friendship and the ties that bind.  Each character, no matter how seemingly small is tied to another, and readers will find themselves spell bound from considering the ways in which this is possible in their own lives.   Naomi herself often wonders about the connections between people and places - 


"But I thought about all the things that had to have spun into place in order for us to be alive and for us to be right there, right then.  I thought about the few things we thought we knew and the billions of things we couldn't know, all spinning, whirling out there somehow."  (p 223 arc)


The Great Unexpected is a story that defies categorization in terms of story and of audience.  Found within its pages are mystery and magic, old and young, boys and girls, rich and poor.  I just finished it an hour ago, and I already want to read it again!

I, Emma Freke by Elizabeth Atkinson

Emma Freke doesn’t have it easy.Why couldn’t her mother have at least said her name aloud before naming her: “am a freak”?That is exactly how Emma feels.She doesn’t fit in with her expressive Italian mom, Donatella, who likes to leave out the fact that she has a daughter while she is meeting potential suitors.Her Nonno, who lives with them above their bead shop, is either asleep in his chair or out walking the dog. And you can imagine what school can be like for a 5’ 10’’ tall 11-year-old with her name.

Donatella, in a rare instance of maternal action, gives Emma a thoughtful birthday gift this year. Home-schooling! Donatella says that Emma’s Nonno will help out with the teaching by bringing Emma to the library daily, as home-schooled kids generally do.Emma realizes that the materials her mom gave her to use are a bit dated, so she enlists the librarian Stevie, to suggest some more recent workbooks at a higher grade-level. Stevie makes a few phonecalls, and Emma isn’t really surprised to hear that Donatella didn’t exactly go through the proper channels to get Emma into home-schooling in the first place. This makes Emma think on something that her neighbor and best friend Penelope planted in her brain…maybe Emma, like Penelope, is actually adopted. It would explain a few things. She doesn’t look like her mom or her other relatives, and she certainly doesn’t act like them.

No such luck. In an unexpected turn of events, Emma is soon whisked off to the Freke family reunion. She knows that her own father who she has never met will not be there due to a rift in his own family relations, but maybe Emma will find some sense of place in her namesake family.

Elizabeth Atkinson has written a story about family and finding your place in it. What is a family, after all? Can you ever fight how you fit in yours? What traits do you pull from the folks who raise you, and what do you get from genetics? It’s also a story about finding your voice, your courage and your confidence. Diversity of all sorts is woven into the story, from Phoebe’s lesbian moms, and Phoebe’s own Liberian decent, to Emma’s own inter-generational family and her cousin Fred’s non-conformity. Feeling like the square peg is very understandable for tweens, and readers will be charmed by Emma’s journey.

Waiting for Normal

Addie has it tougher than most other kids, that is for sure. Her parents have split, and she is living with Mommers in the trailer that her step dad Dwight has given to them. When you think of trailers, you would probably think of a cute little trailer park with those wind daisies and picket fences? That's what Addie was thinking of when she heard about moving to the trailer. She was quite surprised to see it on an urban corner of Schenectady, with a gas station on one side, and an empty lot on the other. Not exactly paradise.

But Addie is the kind of kid that makes the best of things. She befriends the workers at the gas station (Soula and Elliot), and manages to make some friends at her new school.

She's not too surprised when Mommers starts staying out late. Sometimes she's gone for days, but Addie knows that her mom is working hard at getting a job. It's better than having her in the trailer chain smoking, surfing the Internet or watching Jeannette for the Judgement on TV. Addie also knows how to take care of herself. How to make food stretch. How to fool her Grandpa when he comes checking in.

Every now and then she gets to see Dwight and her half sisters. The thing is, they are all living in a mansion up in Lake George with Hannah. It's hard to Addie to be there for the weekend and then come back to an empty trailer.

Leslie Connor has written a touching story about a neglected girl who gets by. Addie's attitude is almost to good to be true. She rarely gets angry with her mother, even when a big old rage might be good for her. The outer characters of Soula and Elliot are scene stealers and really made this title come to life. I'd love to hang out in their gas station any day!

Waiting for Normal is a moving tween read. Many readers who think that their lives are "too normal" or "too boring" will curl up with this one and end up with quite a lot to think about.

Kimchi and Calamari

Joseph Calderaro is turning 14. What can possibly happen on his birthday to bum him out? Well...starting the day off with burnt PopTarts is a sign. Then with 10 minutes left in social studies, Mrs. Peroutka drops the bomb in the form of the assignment "Tracing Your Past: A Heritage Essay". The essay is to be 1500 words long, and here it is May already. But the word count is not Joseph's biggest problem. He's adopted. What the heck does he know about his heritage.

Joseph thinks that maybe his mother's famous birthday dinner will save his spirits a bit. The eggplant Parmesan does go down nicely, but once the presents come out there is more trouble. Joseph's dad gives him a corno. You know...the Italian gold horn that keeps away the malocchio? Aside from the fact that no self respecting 14-year-old is going to walk around with that kind of gold chain, Joseph just doesn't know how to break it to his parents that he's not Italian...he's Korean. At least that is how he feels at that moment.

Joseph goes on to explore his past without the knowledge of his parents. Along the way, a new Korean family moves into town, and Joseph's parents nudge him over to try and help him out with his identity. But when Joseph is with Yongsu and his family, he doesn't even feel Korean.

So where does this leave Joseph? If he's not really Korean, and not really Italian, what is he?

Rose Kent does a bang-up job of finding the voice of a 14-year-old boy. Joseph's struggles with his parents and his identity are equal measure growing pains and adoption pains. Books about adopted kids are always tricky, because the fact of the matter is, every adoptee feels a bit different. In my own family, my father and his brother and sister were all adopted, and they all had very different reactions to finding out and toward the idea of a search for birth parents. Kent lets readers in on not only the world of adoption, but quite a bit of information about Italian and Korean culture. Joseph is such a great character and is so easy to relate to that readers will cheer for him as he finds his way.

Hannah West

Hannah and her mom are technically homeless in that they don't have a place of their own. They spend their time house-sitting for others, and are currently residing in Seattle's swanky Belltown Towers. Hannah is an animal lover are quickly finds a job dog-walking for neighbour Dorothy. Between living up on the 11th floor, and her dog-walking gig, Hannah gets to notice a lot of what is happening around town!

The big news is the art heists that are taking place in Hannah's new neighbourhood and even in the Belltown Towers! Can Hannah and her mystery obsessed best friend Lily figure out who is stealing the Mimi Hansen paintings? The task gets both easier and more difficult when Mimi's daughter shows up as one of Hannah's classmates!

Now, girl detectives are nothing new (hello....Nancy Drew), but there is something about Hannah that suggests staying power. Add to this the fact that Hannah is an adopted Chinese daughter to a single white mother, and author Linda Johns is writing to a demographic that has seen itself little outside of books about adoption. This book is not about adoption, which in my mind, is exactly why I will put it into the eager little hands of my numerous patrons who are adopted Chinese girls. And into the hands of every other mystery obsessed tweener!

The Higher Power of Lucky

So...a little slow to the boat on this one. A shame about the whole scrotum mess. What a beautiful book.

Lucky is living in Hard Pan (pop. 34) with her legal guardian Brigitte, friend Lincoln, pest Miles and a few other characters. She has one of the few paying jobs in town: sweeping up the patios after the anonymous people's meetings. The drinkers, gamblers, and smokers all leave behind different things that the members of the other groups would not likely enjoy seeing. Lucky tends to listen in on the meetings. She especially likes hearing about folks hitting rock bottom, finding their Higher Power, and getting their lives together.

Lucky wishes she could find her Higher Power too. Ever since her mother's tragic death, Lucky has felt like she was searching.

Newbery winning author Susan Patron has written a lyrical novel about that chasm between kids and adults. How easily we misunderstand each other. Nuances of language which are seemingly so obvious to grown-ups are generally misinterpreted by the younger set. With memorable characters like Lucky and Lincoln Clinton Kennedy Carter, The Higher Power of Lucky is a slice of life book that will appeal to fans of each little bird that sings and The Beloved Dearlies.