A Doll's Life

Recommended grades 7-10.  Tanya Lee Stone dives into the life of American Sweetheart, Barbie with her unauthorized 'biography, ' The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie: A Doll's History and Her Impact on Us (Viking, 2011).  Stone covers a variety of aspects about the doll everyone loves to hate and hates to love, from the story of her creator, Ruth Handler, to her own development in the last fifty years.  Stone also approaches many of the criticisms Barbie has faced over the years, from her impossible-to-achieve figure, to her Euro-centric hair texture, Stone does not shy away from controversy.  Stone makes her voice quite clear as a researcher, openly explains her interpretations of her sources, and offers the final decision up to her readers; is Barbie to blame for anorexia or to celebrate for encouraging professional women?  In addition to her open tone, Stone includes a detailed list of source notes at the end of the text as well has a brimming bibliography.  The book is filled with black and white photos illustrating Stone's many points and showing Barbie over time.  Additionally, Stone includes a color insert of photos that benefit from full color.  This book is not only informative, it also serves as an excellent conversation starter and a model of good research.  Highly recommended, ****.

Retro Mystery- American Girl Style

Recommended grades 4-6.  The American Girls have gone far out with Julie, a girl living in San Francisco during the groovy 1960's and 70's.  In The Secret Guitar (American Girl Publishing, 2011), part of the Julie Mystery Series, Julie and her friends must find a stolen guitar that belonged to (fictional) rock star, Danny Kendricks.  The guitar is part of a charity auction for a recent oil spill in the San Francisco Bay that is devastating the marine life.  Author Kathryn Reiss drew her inspiration from her own childhood, though as a piece of historical fiction, it is unconvincing.  Reiss creates fictional versions of people and events (Jimi Hendrix, the Exxon oil spill) instead of using their real life counterparts.  This is confusing, and ultimately doesn't achieve what great historical fiction should do- teach readers about actual historical time periods using a combination of fact and fiction.  Reiss's words capture feeling and fiction, and she includes a quick historical afterword connecting the story to history.   Ultimately, the story would have been much more valuable to readers had she written within the true 1960s instead of creating a fictional parallel.  Additional Selection, **

Amelia Lost

Recommended Grades 6-9.  Candace Fleming brings us an eloquent and compassionate biography with Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart (Schwartz & Wade, 2011).  Narration of the infamous female aviator's life is broken up with small vignettes accounting her fateful crash on July 5, 1937.  Though the reader begins the story knowing what will happen, their heart will beat anyway with the beautifully executed narrative flow.  Meticulously researched and well-rounded, Fleming offers many perspectives and allows readers to question common myths about Amelia.  Fleming models historical best practice by openly analyzing her sources and questioning their intent for readers to consider.  She includes an in-depth bibliography and suggestions for further research.  The narrative is also broken up with contextual asides, which serve to inform the reader of technologies that existed in Amelia's time; from the planes she flew to the radio system that was ultimately her downfall.  Along with these contextual asides, Fleming includes captioned photographs of Amelia and the world she lived in--including an interesting look at advertising--so that readers can better understand the influences that surrounded Earhart. A new Amelia comes to light through Fleming's telling, and readers will walk away with a broader understanding of Amelia in her context.  Highly recommended, *****.

Prisoners in the Palace

Recommended Grades 8-12.  Queen Victoria is arguably one of the most well-known monarchs in Western Civilization.  She was the Queen of Great Britain when it was at it's peak of "the Sun Never Setting" and the longest ruling monarch in British history.  But what was her life like before she was the queen?  Michaela Macoll answers just this question in her well-researched historical fiction novel, Prisoners in the Palace (Chronicle Books, 2011).  It turns out, Victoria's life was shockingly similar to that of Cinderella's; she was greedily watched over by a vapid mother and evil stepfather (well, not truly stepfather, but her mother's consort), trapped in the palace doors, locked away from the rest of the world, in an attempt to influence and control her power.  Instead of singing mice and a fairy godmother, Victoria has Liza, the orphan of a knighted family down on her luck.  Liza, the true main character of the story, comes to terms with her dramatic fall from grace, while empowering the young princess to rise to her greatest heights.  Liza is fictional, though Macoll clearly put a great effort into making her, and the rest of the scenarios, as true to history as possible.  She includes excerpts from Victoria's diaries and letters, bringing to life a true teenage girl.  Overall, this is an entertaining, informative, and compassionate telling of British history.  Highly recommended, ****

Friends

Recommended Grades K-3.  It is a deep wish in the human imagination that animals develop the same emotions and relationships that humans do.  Though we know it is a "dog eat dog" world out there, we still desire compassion and connection from our animal friends.  Catherine Thimmesh makes this dream a reality in her narrated photo essay, Friends: True Stories of Extraordinary Animal Friendships (Houghton Mifflin, 2011).  Thimmesh brings together a series of touching photographs of cross-species companions; an orangutan and her pet cat, a piglet and baby lion raised together in Namibia, among others.  The pictures are accompanied by a poem about friendship, using language accessible to younger readings.  Each picture is also accompanied by an in-depth paragraph giving the background of the photograph, meant to be shared with older readers.  Though Thimmesh shows us a variety of heartwarming animal alliances, she is very honest that some of these pals are not pals for life.  She does not sugarcoat the fact that some animals use each other for survival and nothing more, while showing how some animals have formed genuine attachments.  Recommended, ****

Forsythia & Me

Recommended Grades K-2.  Forsythia & Me (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2011) is the touching and hilarious story of Chester and his best friend Forsythia.  'Best' is a title Forsythia wears proudly, as Chester explains to us her many accomplishments, including taming the zoo and bringing all of the animals to tea time!  Ultimately, Chester is the 'best' too, at supporting his friend and their friendship builds them both up to their best ability!  Author Vincent X. Kirsch provides playful illustrations in bright colors and incredible detail.  The colors pop, and the thin-lined characters seem more exaggerated for their minimalist features.  The reader can read this book over and over, finding something new to laugh at in the illustrations, which add depth and meaning to the words.  This book is an excellent and enjoyable lesson in friendship!  Highly recommended, ****

The Phantom Tollbooth

Recommended Grades 5-8.  The Phantom Tollbooth (Yearling, 1969), is an established classic, for good reason!  After fifty years, it remains as fresh, brilliant and relevant as ever.  Author Norton Juster takes us on a brilliant quest through a magical world with our hero Milo.  Milo starts as a boy quite jaded to the world around him.  He doesn't care for school, he doesn't care for play, he doesn't much care for anything.  One day he comes home from another humdrum day at school to find a magic Tollbooth beckoning him to Dictionopolis, a faraway land where thoughts and ideas literally come to life.  He must save the Princesses Rhyme and Reason to bring balance to the kingdom!  Milo himself is not the true hero, it is the embodiment of his curiosity and intelligence that overcome the greatest odds, freeing him to explore the world around him with passion and enthusiasm.  With humorous and descriptive pen-drawn illustrations by Jules Feiffer, Milo's quest becomes our own.  The reader gains a new appreciation for the worlds of thoughts, words, ideas, and equations that we have built around us.  This book is filled with countless jokes and plays-on-words, so it could pose a challenge for some but these young readers, with aid, can cherish the book all the more for overcoming the challenges, just as Milo did!  Highly recommended, *****