FernFolio » science

The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron

fernfolio — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 14:43:38 +0000

Ten year-old Lucky Trimble lives with her guardian Brigitte in a cobbled-together trailer home on the edge of Hard Pan, California, population 43. Perched in the Mojave Desert, on the site of an old gold mining town, Hard Pan is home to an odd collection of individuals who have known hard times. The Captain, a former airline pilot, has lost his family and his career. Short Sammy, who lives in an old water tank, only gave up drinking when his wife left him, and took his dog with her. Mrs. Prender is grandmother to five-year old Miles, who wanders around Hard Pan asking for cookies, but really looking for affection. Ten-year old Lincoln, who is fascinated by knots, but who parents want him to grow up to be president of the United States. Since there are no businesses in Hard Pan, there are no jobs; everyone who lives in the town relies on government assistance and receives monthly food allocations.
Life for Lucky is both wonderful and terrible. She loves Hard Pan, the only home she has ever known, her friends, Lincoln, and Short Sammy, and her dog, HMS Beagle. She loves Brigitte, the French woman who came to look after her following her mother’s death. But she is afraid that Brigitte wants to go home to Paris and her mother and sisters, and hates the feelings of sadness, uncertainty and powerlessness that this fear has created in her. So Lucky is trying her best to prepare for any eventuality, by always carrying her survival kit and by attempting to find her higher power.
Lucky has learned a lot about the importance of her higher power by eavesdropping on the meetings held at the Found Object Wind Chime Museum and Visitor Centre, meetings held by Alcoholics’ Anonymous, Smokers’ Anonymous, Gamblers’ Anonymous and Overeaters Anonymous. After she has finished her regular job of cleaning up the museum patio of beer cans, cigarette butts and candy wrappers, Lucky puts her ear to a hole in the wall and listens to stories about how people found their higher power, that power that allowed them to take back control of their lives. Lucky figures that, if she can just find higher power, she will be able to find herself a real family, either by convincing Brigitte to stay in Hard Pan, or by locating a proper mother.
The Higher Power of Lucky is a the story of a girl who delights in the small joys and friendships and beauty of her broken-down town at the end of the road, yet fears that she will lose everything she loves. So she sets out to secure her world, as best she can, and discovers that home and family are sometimes closer than you realize. Author Susan Patron’s writing is simple, evocative and poetic. Her weaving of Charles Darwin’s voyages and discoveries, of Twelve-Step Programs, and of Brigitte’s French endearments and syntax, of Tarantula Hawk Wasps, and of the history and traditions of knots into Lucky’s story combine to create a tale that will stay with the reader long after the last page has been read.
The Higher Power of Lucky won the 2007 Newbury Medal.
FernFolio Editor

Loch by Paul Zindal

fernfolio — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 13:21:44 +0000

Fifteen-year old Luke, and his younger sister Zaidee, have spent most of their lives moving around with their marine biologist father, Dr. Sam Perkins. Sam works for the wealthy and controversial Anthony Cavenger, who travels the world in pursuit of mythological creatures – yetis, dragons, sasquatches and sea monsters. This time, Cavenger’s hunt has brought the Perkins to the shores of Lake Alban, near New York’s famous Lake Champlain, where the multimillionaire plans to find irrefutable proof of the water monster whom locales have whispered about for decades.
For Luke and Zaidee, this latest adventure allows them to spend time aboard Cavenger’s search vessel, helping their father and trying to bridge the emotional gaps created by their mother’s recent death from cancer. Once an internationally renowned scientist, Dr. Sam’s job with Cavenger has jeopardised his professional reputation and eaten away at his spirit. Though worried about his father, Luke is happy to renew his friendship with Sarah, and to spend time out on the water with her and his sister Zaidee.
Luke and Zaidee and Sarah are all aboard Cavenger’s boats the day that the search team sweeps Lake Alban for signs of the water monster, and all of them are witness to the horrifying events that take place when Cavenger orders great nets to be lowered into the lake in hopes of cornering and capturing the creature. Once he sees what lurks in the depths of Lake Alban, even the death of one of his crew won’t stop Cavenger’s hunt.
Frightened by what has happened, Dr. Sam orders Luke and Zaidee off the lake but they rapidly get bored of the trailer and their computer games, and decide to sneak in a little fishing from the family bass boat. Then Luke notices some scrape marks near the shore at the far end of Lake Alban, and makes a discovery that will change his and Zaidee’s and, ultimately, Dr. Sam’s lives forever.
Written by famed author Paul Zindal, who also wrote such classics as The Pigman and The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, Loch is a terrific tale about two young people who discover that distance between fantasy and science, and fear and love, is not nearly as great as you might have imagined.
FernFolio Editor

Scat by Carl Hiaasen

fernfolio — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:12:01 +0000

Dragged on a day-long field trip to the Black Vine swamp in Florida’s everglades by Mrs. Starch, their terror of a science teacher, Nick Waters, his friend Marta Gonzalaz, and the rest of their class from Truman School scramble to record the names of plants and animals knowing full well that they will be tested on their knowledge. But the field trip ends abruptly when a wildfire breaks out and everyone is ordered back to the buses by Mrs. Starch who then disappears into the fire zone.
Though Dr. Dressler, the school’s headmaster, claims that he has received a letter from Mrs. Starch requesting a leave of absence due to a family crisis, Nick is suspicious. He happens to know that Mrs. Starch doesn’t have any family. So Nick decides to nose around and get to the bottom of his teacher’s sudden disappearance, one that is in marked contrast to her usual perfect attendance. Anything is better than sitting around worrying why his soldier father hasn’t sent his daily e-mails from Iraq.
Accompanied by a reluctant Marta, Nick checks out Mrs. Starch’s house, which turns out to be every bit as creepy as students have rumoured, and gets caught inside her house by a strange man named Twilly. Things heat up when the local fire investigator decides that the fire at Black Vine swamp was deliberately set, and police start questioning students in Nick’s class, particularly Duane Smoke Scrod Jr, who happens to be on probation for two previous convictions for arson.
But how does the Red Diamond Energy Corporation pen, found at the scene of the fire tie into the story, and did Marta and Nick actually hear a panther scream in Black Vine swamp just before the fire broke out?
Carl Hiaasen’s Scat is a terrific story about some kids and their teacher who join forces with a mysterious environmentalist to expose the illegal activities of an oil company and save an environmentally threaten animal. Written with humour and passion, this adventure is a sure winner!
FernFolio Editor

Feather Brain by Maureen Bush

fernfolio — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 18:17:17 +0000

Ten year-old Lucas Clarke loves dinosaurs, so when he comes across a website advertising a dinosaur-making kit for $19.95, he digs out the last of his birthday money and sends away for it. Lucas is disappointed what arrives in the mail. The small test tube filled with a clear liquid seems to prove his mother’s warning that you never know what you’ll get when you order over the internet. But, when he’s ready to start the papier maché layer of his next dinosaur model, of a Stegosaurus, Lucas opens the test tube and adds a couple of drops of the liquid to his glue and water mixture, and what happens next shocks and delights him. When it is painted and dried, the Stegosaurus comes to life, and Lucas is thrilled to find himself the owner of a model-sized little herbivore who loves eating tender blades of new grass and crocus bulbs.
Unfortunately, Lucas’ experiences at school aren’t quite so happy. Since moving to the school over a year before, he has been the chief victim of the class bully, a nasty piece of work named Kyle. After a particularly unpleasant run in with him, Lucas decides to build a second dinosaur model, one that will help him get even with the bully. He chooses the most vicious feathered dinosaur he knows of, a sinornithosaurus, and labours hard to get the details exactly right. Lucas’ new model exceeds his expectations; perfect in every way, it is the best model of a dinosaur that he has ever made. But the new dinosaur rapidly proves to be more than Lucas can handle, and the instructions on the test tube that created it seem to suggest that he’s now got a problem for life!
Feather Brain is a fun and smart story about dinosaurs, bullies, and getting more than your wished for. A great book for students in Grades 4 to 6!
FernFolio Editor