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The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

fernfolio — Sun, 24 May 2009 01:11:28 +0000

In the spring of 1939, a nine-year old girl named Liesel Meminger comes to live with Rosa and Hans Hubermann in their tiny house in Himmel Street, in Molching, a small town near Munich. Having recently survived the death of her younger brother, and separation from her sickly mother, Liesel is angry, defensive, and driven by nightmares. But she recognizes a certain caring and acceptance in her combative and foul-mouthed foster mother, and falls in love with the gentle Hans, who sits up with her every night when the dreams of her brother’s death visit her.
With Hans, Liesel learns to read, starting with her first book, The Gravedigger’s Handbook, which she has taken from the gravedigger’s apprentice who dug her brother’s grave. Though Hans, a housepainter by trade, is not a very good reader himself, he recognizes Liesel’s determination to learn, and agrees to help. Together, they read each night, after Liesel awakens from the nightmares, slowly memorizing the letters of the alphabet, then making their stumbling way through the first chapters of the handbook.
At school, Liesel finds herself in the infant class, ridiculed by the other students for her apparent stupidity, since she has never attended school before. But she makes friends with Rudy Steiner, who also lives in Himmel Street, and they are soon inseparable, playing soccer in the road with the other children, delivering laundry to Rosa’s wealthy customers, stealing fruit and vegetables from outlying farms, avoiding the nasty Frau Diller, owner of the corner store, who idolizes the Fûhrer, and commiserating with each other about their experiences in Hitler’s youth movements.
At first, the war does not encroach too far into Molching and Himmel Street, but then the Hubermann’s son is set to the Russian Front, Rosa begins to lose her customers, and rationing becomes restrictive. Then one day a stranger approaches Hans, and reminds him of an old and dear friend, a Jewish friend, one who taught him how to play the accordion and saved his life during World War I. This old friend’s son, Max Vandenburg, twenty-two, needs a place to hide, and Hans agrees to have the young man come to them in Himmel Street.
So it is that Max moves into the cellar, where he lives in a small space under the stairs during the day, only creeping upstairs to sit by the fire after dark, when the curtains can be closed against curious eyes. Sworn by her papa, Hans, to secrecy, Liesel learns to live two lives, one in the street with Rudy and the other children of Himmel Street, and a second with Max, in the cellar and front room of the Hubermann house. The young girl grows to love Max, a slightly-built young man with a surprisingly pugnacious past, who participates in fist fights each night with the Fûhrer, and cuts out the pages of a copy of Mein Kampf, then paints them white so that he can use the pages to tell his own story, in a book he entitles The Word Shaker.
Narrated by Death, who provides a perspective on the Nazi years that is both poignant and searing, The Book Thief is the story of a handful of ordinary people caught up in madness who manage, despite the odds, to remains true to what is important. Written for young adults, it is a novel that will appeal to students and adults alike.
FernFolio Editor

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

fernfolio — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:06:48 +0000

The arrival late one night of a mysterious stranger sets off alarm bells in twelve-year old Meggie’s head. But Mo, her gentle bookbinder father, lets the odd little man into their farmhouse and sends his daughter back to bed. Instead, she listens at the door while Dustfinger, for that is the stranger’s name, warns her father that Capricorn is closing in and urges him to give himself up rather than be captured.
Early the next morning Mo awakens Meggie and tells her to get dressed while he finishes packing. As they are leaving the farmhouse, Dustfinger appears, pack in hand, and asks for a ride, reminding Mo, when he hesitates, that he wants to avoid meeting Capricorn every bit as much as Meggie’s father. Soon the three are settled into Mo’s old camper van heading south toward the home of Elinor, Meggie’s mother’s aunt. Meggie asks her father about this Capricorn, who seems determined to find Mo. Dustfinger is surprised she doesn’t know, and, over her father’s objections, tells her that Capricorn is the kind of man who spreads fear like the plague and who enjoys taking what he wants from those own it. And Mo has something that Capricorn wants, a book.
Elinor lives with her books in a large house surrounded by park land. Obsessed by the pursuit, acquisition and protection of rare, beautiful and valuable books, Elinor welcomes Mo’s arrival, eager to set him to work on rebinding worn volumes, putting them in “new dresses”. Mo gives the book that Capricorn is hunting into Elinor’s safe keeping, and asks her to hide it. He warns the older woman that he has read numerous reports of copies of this book being stolen from book dealers and collectors.
Meggie is filled with curiosity about Elinor, this aunt whom she has never before met nor heard of, relative to her mother who left on a long adventure when she was three and who has never been heard from since. Mo has told his daughter many stories about her mother, stories she thinks he might have invented just like the fairy tales he created for her when she was small. When asked, he says that, to his knowledge, his wife is alive but simply not able to come home.
Instead of taking off when they reach Elinor’s, Dustfinger lingers, creeping around the house and gardens, and whispering questions to Meggie about Mo’s plans for the book. A gifted juggler and fire-eater, Dustfinger invites Meggie to an evening performance on the lawn outside the house.
During that performance, Capricorn’s men break into Elinor’s house, capture Mo and threaten to find and harm Meggie, forcing him to reveal the hiding place of the book. As Elinor restrains Meggie from running to her father and keeps them from being detected, Capricorn’s men put Mo into the back of their car and drive away.
Meggie is devastated by her father’s capture and determined to go looking for him. Overwhelmed by her grief, Dustfinger and Elinor try to comfort her by telling the girl that Mo will soon be released. Then Meggie discovers Elinor reading the book, the one that Capricorn’s men had come in search of, and realizes that her great-aunt had switched the book for another of about the same size and shape, and that neither Mo nor his kidnappers noticed the substitution. When Dustfinger learns of the switch, he admits that he might know where Mo has been taken, and offers to lead Meggie there. Elinor insists on accompanying the girl and the little fire-eater, and soon the three unlikely accomplices find themselves driving up a narrow winding road toward the abandoned village that Capricorn has made his base.
The search for Mo and the book turns out to be far more dangerous and complicated than Meggie could ever have imagined, for it seems that Mo possesses a talent for reading that is both wonderful and frightening, a talent that Capricorn intends to use for his own evil ends.
Beautifully written by acclaimed German children’s author Cornelia Funke, Inkheart is an adventure fantasy about the magic and power of books. Published in 2003, it is already a classic of children’s literature, one is bound to capture the imagination of students from grade 5.
FernFolio Editor

Endymion Spring by Matthew Skelton

fernfolio — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 00:52:26 +0000

Blake Winters is not happy to find himself in Oxford, dragged there by his mother who is doing research in the ancient libraries its university colleges. He misses his father, who has remained in Canada, and worries that his parents’ separation will lead to divorce. Accompanied by his younger sister, Duck, Blake spends hours in the library at St. Jerome’s College, under the sometimes watchful eye of its librarian, while his mother works on her research.
One day, as he idly runs his fingers along the spines of the books, a book reaches out and swats at Blake. Take aback, the boy picks up the book from the floor where it falls, and notes it is a small and ordinary-looking on the outside, that it bears the name, or title, Endymion Spring, and that its pages appear to be blank. Then, as he flips through the book, he comes across a single page of writing, a riddle, one that his rather annoying little sister does not seem to be able to see.
Blake is immediately drawn to the book, which nestles into his hand and has revealed a secret riddle to him and him alone, and contemplates, briefly, slipping the book into his backpack and taking it with him. When he later meets a kindly old former professor of his mother’s, Blake asks the question that has been burning in his mind since his strange experience in the library, “What is Endymion Spring?” His words so shock and trouble the old man, that Blake begins to realize that the nondescript little book is potentially very dangerous and that, if it fell into the wrong hands, could cause unimaginable disaster. But, when he returns in secret to the library to find and take the book, the Blake discovers that the library has been ransacked. Could someone else be looking for Endymion Spring?
Slowly, the story of Endymion Spring, a small brown leather-bound book and the name of a young apprentice to Johann Gutenberg, inventor of the first printing press, is revealed. In 1452, the young Endymion is living happily in the household of his master Johann Gutenberg, when Johann Fust, a mysterious and rather sinister old friend of Gutenberg’s, arrives to stay bearing a wooden chest carved with dragons and sealed with metal clasps which Fust claims will poison anyone who attempts to break them. Awakened one night by the sound of talking, Endymion spies upon Fust and his servant Peter, and stumbles upon Fust’s terrible secret, one that so frightens him that he realizes he will have to sacrifice all that he has and is to steals the contents of the wooden chest and hide them where Fust and his minions will never find them.
Matthew Skelton’s Endymion Spring is a wonderful adventure about a book that chooses an ordinary young boy as its champion in the battle between good and evil. It intertwines the Oxford of the present day with the medieval towns of Mainz and Oxford, and captures wonderfully both the ancient city of colleges and spires, and the sights and sounds and tastes and smells of 15th century Europe. This book is sure to appeal to fans of Harry Potter and Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials!
Fern Folio Editor

Taming Horrible Harry by Lili Chartrand

fernfolio — Thu, 24 May 2007 23:25:09 +0000

Horrible Harry and his monster friends spend their days terrifying anyone who wanders into the forest. But when Harry tries to scare one little girl, she is so preoccupied by what she is looking at that she doesn’t hear him! After he does frighten her away, Harry picks up the thing she has left behind and discovers that it’s filled with wonderful pictures. But it’s only when he shows the thing to his friend, Dolores Del Dragon, that Harry learns it is a book. Dolores teaches Harry that the black marks next to the pictures are letters, that letters make words, that words make sentences, and that sentences make stories!
Read Taming Horrible Harry to find out how learning to read changes first Harry and then his monster friends! Beautifully illustrated by Rogé (I particularly love all the eyeballs and the flowers with teeth!), this book is a terrific reminder of the transformative power of literature!
FernFolio Editor

Children have used KidPix, and pastels and construction paper, to create new monsters for Harry’s forest! Click on the images to enlarge them.

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

fernfolio — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 13:55:47 +0000

Eleven year-old Jess Aaron’s life is a hard one. The family farm can’t support them, so he and his four sisters and parents struggle to make ends meet on what his father can earn working in construction. They are a poor family in a community of poor families; money is tight and there is rarely any left over for anything beyond the bare necessities. Jess, an artist and a dreamer, is expected to help out at home with the milking and with chopping wood for the stove. His parents cannot understand his preoccupation with drawing and are irritated, at times, by the fact that he draws “the way some people drink whiskey”. Jess’ life at school is no better; he has few friends among his classmates, and cannot imagine how he is going to survive another eight years.
The arrival of Leslie Burke in Jess’ life changes everything. The daughter of well-educated, freethinking hippy writers, whom she calls Bill and Judy, Leslie dresses and talks and acts in ways that at first shock and then attract Jess. When he defends her against their schoolmates, Jess and Leslie begin to be friends, but their friendship really blossoms after they find Terabithia, a stretch of land in the woods that they reach by swinging across a creek on an old length of rope. Leslie decides that she and Jess will be king and queen of Terabithia. Drawing upon her favourite books and stories, she opens for him the world of the imagination. Through Leslie, Jess realises that he is not alone in his need to feed his heart and mind and spirit. In Leslie, Jess finds the other half of his soul.
When tragedy strikes, Jess must re-evaluate all that he is and all that his friendship with Leslie has taught him. He discovers within him the strength and courage and purpose to take her lessons and make them his own.
It has been many years since I last read Katherine Paterson’s Bridge to Terabithia. I am struck, again, by the power and beauty of this story. It is one to be read and discussed and wept over.
FernFolio Editor