Oldie but a goodie!

There's  a storm brewing and I'm cuddled on the couch completely mesmerized by Susan Cooper's Over Sea Under Stone, the first book in her The Dark is Rising series.  The copyright is 1965, so for some readers this might be considered too out-of-date to be considered for inclusion in their library.  Please don't be so hasty in your thinking.  I love this series of five books...from the first time I discovered it I've been a serious Cooper fan.  First, this is truly an adventure story built around three children, Simon, Jane, and Barney and their mysterious Great Uncle Merry.  Arthurian legends are cleverly woven in the tale of dark vs light, good vs evil where the lines are not always so clearly drawn and a human element is always present.  The race is on to decipher the signs "that wax and wane but do not die" leading to grail, a source of power to fight the powers of the Dark.  The setting is Cornwall and the small fishing village of Trewissick with its secrets kept for over 900 years.  The characters are familiar and bicker as all siblings do and yet pull together to solve a mystery larger than time and legend.  The forces of evil are clear cut and yet there are a few surprises as well, because as long as the Light and Dark has existed men will continue to be swayed toward the false promises of evil.  And it is those complex relationships that remain fresh and contemporary and totally relevant for today.  The layers of setting, characters, plot, and suspense make The Dark is Rising a series I turn to again and again to be entertained, mystified, and awed by the skillful weaving of history, legend, and man's continuing inner battle of Light and Dark. 

Visit Susan Cooper's website at: http://www.thelostland.com/

Dare to be Scared

With all the wild storms and power outages I remembered an awesome book to read by flashlight under the covers.  Dan Poblocki's The Stone Child is guaranteed to have you getting out the monster spray and checking under the bed.  Eddie Fennicks believes it's a dream come true when his family moves to Gatesweed, the hometown of his favorite author Nathaniel Olmstead.  But not everyone in his new hometown is as excited about having a famous author in residence.  Not only are people reluctant to talk about Nathaniel Olmstead  and his mysterious disappearance thirteen years earlier, but he is also  blamed for the local factory being shut down.  Eddie finds a fellow Olmstead enthusiast in Harris May, whose mom owns the local bookstore. After discovering an unpublished book by Nathaniel Olmstead, they set out to solve the mystery of his disappearance.  They are joined in their quest by Maggie Ringer after they are attacked at the library by a gremlin.  Narrowly escaping, they are convinced that the Olmstead Curse is coming true - the monsters in his books are coming to life and taking over the town.  They are the only ones who stand between the monsters and the town of Greensweed!

Will they succeed or will the Olmstead Curse ultimately come true?  I love scary books.  Stephen King and Dean Koontz are two of my favorite authors; so how could Dan Poblocki measure up?  He does it and does it well.  Poblocki's descriptive passages of haunted woods and monsters are fabulous.  The Eddie, Harris, Maggie, and all the characters are very believable and you find yourself rooting for them to win the race to save their families and all they love.  The monsters are the stuff of shadows and nightmares.  I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good mystery and great monsters...just remember to sleep with the lights on!

In reading an interview with Dan Poblocki, his mother retells the story of receiving phone calls from other parents saying that Dan's stories were giving their children nightmares.  He decided to write them down instead.  Check out Dan Poblocki's, The Stone Child, and his other works at his website http://www.danpoblocki.com/

Poblocki, D. (2009). The stone child. New York, NY: Scholastic.

To read pile

 I finally started on my summer to-read-pile of books.  Sophomores at my school read Elie Wiesel's Night and I was looking for a companion novel to go along with it.  The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti works perfectly as a parallel.  Although the story is historical fiction, it is based on actual people and events.  The story is told in flashback from Helmuth Hubener's, a German schoolboy, point-of-view as he awaits execution for crimes again German and Hitler during the years of World War II.  Helmuth's story begins with recollections from 1928 when he was three, growing up with his grandparents, Oma and Opa, his mother, Mutti, and his two older brothers Gerhard and Hans in Hamburg, Germany.  Hitler's political ambitions have begun with the growing patriotism and fanatical promises of a pure Germany where no Jews belong.  Initially, Hitler's promises draw Helmuth into this world of hope and a better life but gradually he sees the rights of people around him threatened and destroyed.  The truth about the war is censored through media propaganda and danger exists all around him.  Anyone can turn him in for his beliefs.  With his strong Mormon faith, Helmuth attempts to spread the truth about the German war machine through his words.

By listening to uncensored radio from the BBC London and spreading the truth in pamphlets secretly placed in telephone booths, on bulletin boards, and even in coat pockets in closets, Helmuth stands up to the Nazi propaganda machine.  All the while, he tries to protect his Mutti, grandparents, and friends from the watchful eyes of loyal Nazi sympathizers.  He is finally betrayed and taken away for interrogation, trial, and imprisonment.  The descriptions of torture and the trial itself take your breath away.  How one seventeen-year-old boy stands up for his beliefs when everyone around him hides in fear is inspiring and yet he is very believable, describing his days in prison leading up to his execution with it's interminable wait for the words, "Come with us. It is time."

The author pulled her story from interviews with Helmuth's childhood friends, brothers, and official records from the time.  In addition, she includes pictures taken during Helmuth's years growing up in Hamburg, his Gestapo pictures, and the room where he was executed by guillotine.  Also included is a timeline of Hitler's rise to power and the war years until Germany's surrender in 1945 with additional resources for further study.

This book, along with Night, is an excellent parallel of the lives of a Jewish boy and a German boy both caught up in the madness of Nazi Germany.  Both are caught in a net of lies and denial, ultimately leading them to examine their belief in God.

Additional works include:
Escape: Children of the Holocaust by Allan Zullo
The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy

Bartoletti, S.C. (2008). The boy who dared. New York City, NY: Scholastic.

Book image. The boy who dared. image retrieved from
    http://www.scbartoletti.com/