Book Reviews

Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25, Author: Richard Paul Evans. Simon Pulse/Mercury Ink, 2011; 326 pages. For advanced readers. Fiction-Magical Realism. This book was the 2016 Vinny Award Winner, an award given by the 7th & 8th grade students of Faith Christian School to the winner of our Book March Madness contest. Do you have a reluctant reader? If there is one book I can choose to offer to one of my reluctant readers, this is the one. I have gone through several copies of these books because they are so heavily read by our students. Former students ...

The Boys in the Boat – Adapted for Young Readers, Author: Daniel James Brown. Blue Bear Endeavors, 2015; 221 pages. For advanced readers. Non-fiction. This book was the 2017 Vinny Award Winner, an award given by the 7th & 8th grade students of Faith Christian School to the winner of our Book March Madness contest. This book is adapted for school age children after it had enormous success as an adult non-fiction book reaching #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list. The material and story is one that can easily be enjoyed and understood by young readers and ...

Pax  - by Sara Pennypacker How many children have found a young, vulnerable animal in the wild and wanted to keep it as a pet?  That is background to the book Pax by Sara Pennypacker.  Peter finds a kit fox and takes it home.  The two establish a love for one another and grow very close. Peter and Pax have it all.  Until war comes and Peter's father must go off to the war. Now Peter must move in with his grandfather and Pax must be released back into the wild.   The book follows the common storyline of the ...

Set during the recovery portion of the Depression,  Hitch does a great job of introducing the reader to work of the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps).  President Franklin Roosevelt was known for his alphabet soup of government programs aimed at helping turn the American economy around and putting people to work.  In this book, the main character Moss Trawnly is 17 and finds himself trying to find work to support his mother and siblings because his absentee father is too stubborn to "take a government handout" and work in the WPA. This book is well-written and the action keeps moving throughout.  My ...

My students and I are about to step back in history to study the Depression.  Part of our studies lead us to learning about the "New Deal" and and President Franklin D. Roosevelt.  Since President Roosevelt was affected by his contracting of polio, I wanted students to have a better understanding of the disease, the challenges it brings, and the treatments for polio.  A great book that does this is the autobiography by the author Peg Kehret, Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio.  After writing many other children's books, Mrs. Kehret decided to write her own story and how ...