Come on in, the water’s fine.

After All, You're Callie Boone, by Winnie Mack, is about a girl with a secret dream. So secret, she's never told her best friend about it. This turns out to have been a wise decision, as Amy Higgins has decided to have a new best friend and makes fun of Callie at every opportunity. Who knows what she would say if she knew about Callie’s secret wish to compete as a diver on the United States Olympic Team someday?

Not only has Amy thrown Callie over, but Callie’s family keeps getting weirder and crazier. Her grandmother spends most of her time in her nightgown and watching game shows; her uncle has moved in and brought a bunch of ferrets with him as part of his latest get-rich plan; her dad is fighting his low-cholesterol diet every step of the way; her former-drill-instructor mother seems distant; and her big brother is constantly getting in trouble for shooting off his mouth.

After a very public belly flop off the high board in front of Amy and the rest of the world, Callie is banned from the local outdoor pool for rule-breaking. She is also convinced that, at the age of eleven, life as she knows it is over, and that she will never recover from the humiliation. Then Hoot shows up. The new boy in the neighborhood decides that Callie is the perfect person to show him around, and Callie can’t seem to disabuse him of the notion. He even begins to accompany her to the indoor aquatic center in town, where Callie’s dad trains her as a diver. As the summer progresses, Callie learns about true friendship and loyalty, and what it means to stand by your friends, even when it is the most difficult.

Inside Out and Back Again, by Thanhha Lai

When I was in sixth or seventh grade, my family sponsored a family of refugees from Laos. If I remember correctly, there were two parents and three children (two boys and a girl?). This, added to our family of two parents and three daughters, made for a crowded house for a week or so until our church found an apartment or house for them. We had such a good time, though! I had a great deal of fun teaching the children English words using Richard Scarry's well-labeled picture books. Looking back, I see my incredible selfishness in not asking them what the words would be in Lao or French. I remember being concerned that they were missing home, but I had only the vaguest idea of what a refugee was or why they were in the United States.

Reading Inside Out and Back Again makes me long for the ability to go back in time to show that family true listening compassion instead of just bold eagerness. Kim Ha (in Asian fashion, the family name is first, the given name is second) is ten years old when her family is uprooted from her life in war-torn Viet Nam and taken to Alabama. She and her three brothers and her mother are able to stay together. Only her oldest brother--an engineering student at college before they left Viet Nam--speaks English with any fluency, but Ha must go to school anyway. There she is bullied and harassed by some of the students and ignored by most of the rest. A few brave souls befriend her, and she begins to feel smart again.

This novel in poetic prose really brought home to me how hard it must be to move to a new country. No matter how smart you are, no matter how educated, moving to a place where you can't even ask how to get to the grocery store reduces you to stupidity in the eyes of your new neighbors. Ha's experiences are based on the author's own life when she moved from Viet Nam to Alabama in 1975, and the style of her writing is so free of the extraneous as to be abrupt in places, but sometimes our emotions and our thoughts are abrupt. In an interview with Publishers Weekly (June 20, 2011), Lai says the writing style is "meant to reflect in English what it's like to think in Vietnamese."

Touch Blue, by Cynthia Lord

Faced with losing their school due to lack of sufficient students, the residents of the island town of Bethsaida, Maine, concoct the idea of taking in foster children to boost their school-age population. The family of Tess Brooks has agreed to foster thirteen-year-old Aaron, who was separated from his alcoholic mother at the age of five. His grandmother raised him for six years, but then she died, leaving him to foster care. In the last two years, he's been in two different homes. Tess is worried he won't like them or that they won't like him, and her days of living on the island will be over.

Her interactions with trumpet-playing Aaron change her focus. She realizes that children like Aaron have lost far more than she would if she had to move to the mainland. Instead of wanting him to stay for the sake of her home and school, she begins to want to help him find the life he wants, even if it is with his mother or a different foster family.

Cynthia Lord has written Tess's voice so clearly, we readily believe her change of heart and mind over the two months the story covers. We see her superstitious mind become more rational, feel her anxiety turn into compassion.

Little Joe, by Sandra Neil Wallace

All over the country, children raise animals for showing at county and state fairs. For some, this simply means they compete, win ribbons (or not), and take their animals home to try again next year. For others, the competition is a means of advertising their animals' qualities in order to get top dollar in a sale which occurs before the fair is even over.

Imagine you are a nine-year-old boy. Your first show animal is an Angus bull which you helped to pull into the world when he got stuck on the way out of his mama. You spend nine months nurturing the bull, watching him grow from a gangly new-born into a nine-hundred-plus pound animal who trusts you and follows you around. You know that in the fall, you will be showing him, hoping for the blue ribbon, but dreading the inevitable separation as he is sold for beef or breeding. Either way, he won't be yours anymore.

Eli Stegner is nine years old. His father gives him the bull calf born on Christmas Eve to be his first show animal. As the months pass, Eli learns how to break Little Joe to halter, how to feed him for health and for bulk, and how to train him for the show ring. Along the way, he has to deal with his "hardened up" father, an obnoxious neighbor, and a know-it-all little sister.

Debut author Wallace has given us a novel full of wonder and heartache, but with enough of the distraction a real nine-year-old boy would encounter that we are not in dread as the end approaches. That end leaves a few dangling ends and questions, but I am not certain middle-grade readers will even notice them.

Belly Up, by Stuart Gibbs

Theodore Roosevelt Fitzroy has had a great life so far. The only child of a primate biologist and a wildlife photographer, Teddy spent the first ten years of his life in Africa. His mother studied the gorillas of the Congo and his father photographed them. When civil war broke out, the family came back to the United States and found themselves working for and living at FunJungle, a new state-of-the-art zoo/conservation facility.

When the zoo's hippo mascot is discovered dead in its pool, bored and curious Teddy sneaks in to observe the autopsy. Unseen by the veterinarian and the zoo's administrator, he learns that the hippo's death is no accident and that the zoo is going to cover it up in the interest of preserving its image and bottom line. Teddy determines to investigate the hippo's death himself, but quickly realizes that there are those in the zoo who will do anything to protect their own secrets.

Written from the perspective of a twelve-year-old boy, introspection is kept to a low level while the action clips along at a good pace with an occasional lull to allow the reader to catch his/her breath and see if any clues are to be had in the text. Stuart Gibbs has put forth a good debut novel which conveys enough in its descriptions to make the reader pant along with Teddy in the Texas heat. Please beware there are a couple of instances with mild cuss words (a**, h***).

Non-Fiction: Colonial

Colonial Voices: Hear Them Speak, by Kay Winters, illustrated by Larry Day--The near universal opinion in my household (or at any rate, the independent readers therein) was that this is a beautiful book about the Boston Tea Party. Beautiful and boring. The illustrations by Larry Day are very nice, but the text assumes too much knowledge on the part of the reader, and is too spare. Generally speaking, I appreciate authors who use as few words as possible to get their points across, especially in children's books. In this case, however, Kay Winters was downright miserly in her use of language. The text is set in irregular columns, as though it is trying to look like poetry. But it doesn't read like poetry. Ms. Winters uses a different character point of view on each two-page spread and focuses mostly on how the characters are feeling as opposed to why. The whole book--text and illustration alike--fails to convey the urgent energy which must have accompanied the build up to this cathartic event in Colonial America. For a historical non-fiction book, remarkably little history is imparted.

Paralyzed by fear

The Leanin' Dog, by K. A. Nuzum--Dessa Dean is eleven years old. She and her father live in the woods, trapping, hunting, and fishing for their food. As the book opens, Dessa Dean is trying to work up the courage to step off the porch, into the snow. Fear holds her back. We learn that a while back her mother, a diabetic, fell into a coma and froze in the snowy woods while Dessa Dean looked on helplessly. Her own ear-tips were deadened by frost-bite by the time her father discovered her sitting by Josie's body. Since he brought her home, Dessa Dean has been unable to leave the house, not even to go to the outhouse. She stays inside, cooking, cleaning, and doing all the things her mother used to do, in addition to her schoolwork. One day, while her father is out hunting and checking his traps, there comes a scratching at the cabin door.

Dessa Dean opens the door to discover a dog, a beautiful fudge-colored dog, favoring one leg as she runs off the porch and back to the woods. The book chronicles Dessa Dean's efforts to befriend the dog and the dog's efforts to protect Dessa Dean. It is beautifully written, although I think younger readers will be a bit put off by the lengthy descriptions of Dessa Dean's meal preparations. These things are important, though, as they show us how little Dessa Dean and her father have and how hard they have to work for everything they do have. When disaster strikes, we have a deeper understanding of the devastation. This book is on the Children's list, but older children and teens will have a better appreciation for the details and themes.

Warning: Audio Book Ahead!

A Dog on His Own, by Mary Jane Auch--I downloaded this book from the library's website (www.lex.lib.sc.us). It's not very long, and I listened to it over the course of three hours in the car today. The narrator is lively without being annoying, and it was a very pleasant accompaniment to my errands.

K-10 (so named by his mother, who believed he was "a step above other dogs") is a stray who likes to think he enjoys being on his own. His life experiences have led him to believe that humans cannot be trusted, they will always leave you in one way or another. The action kicks off as he is being brought to yet another shelter from which he hopes to either escape or be adopted so he can then escape from the new family. As he waits to be noticed by adoptive families, he coaches another dog on how to get attention, and that dog is placed. K-10 finds that for the first time in his life, he is spending a second night in a shelter. The next day, he meets Pearl and Peppy. The new friends plot their escape.

Once out in the open, K-10 slowly comes to realize that he has never been entirely on his own for any real length of time, and he is unsure how to proceed. Through the help of Pearl and even tiny Peppy, he figures out his place in the world.

The story is very engaging, but do be prepared for a certain amount of gore. There are descriptions of roadkill and a pair of dog bullies take down a rabbit and eat it. Otherwise, it is appropriate (and even of interest) to elementary and younger middle-school students.

Non-Fiction: Triumphant

When the Wolves Returned: Restoring Nature's Balance in Yellowstone, by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent, photographs by Dan Hartman and Cassie Hartman--This beautiful photo-essay depicts Yellowstone National Park, past and present, as its caretakers struggle to keep the park healthy and appealing to tourists. In the early days, the few tourists had free rein of the park. Before the mass-production of automobiles, Yellowstone was difficult to get to, so the effect of people hunting bears and feeding the wildlife was slight. People enjoyed interacting with the elk and deer, so park officials hired hunters to get rid of the wolves which also liked to, ahem, interact with the elk and deer.

The author does a marvelous job explaining the effects the elimination of the wolves caused. The elk and deer populations grew larger and larger, but bad winters caused many to starve to death. The pronghorn population fell as more coyotes moved in and killed pronghorn fawns. Foxes and other small predators lost ground to the coyotes. Trees and shrubs were endangered by the growing elk and deer populations. Losing trees caused the beavers to fail. Since the beavers were no longer building dams to create small ponds, animals who relied on the ponds for their homes were displaced and began struggling to survive.

After sudying this startling chain of events, scientists decided to bring the wolves back to Yellowstone. In 1995 and 1996, wolves were brought in from Canada. They were released in seven groups, which have now increased to about twelve. Nature's balance seems to be restoring itself as the elks have stabilized, the coyotes have been reduced to a manageable level, and the trees and shrubs are growing again. Hooray for the wolves!

Non-Fiction: Eye-Opening

Farmer George Plants a Nation, by Peggy Thomas, paintings by Layne Johnson--What comes to mind when you think of George Washington? Dollar bills? First president of the United States? Statue of a big guy on a big horse? Commander in Chief of the Continental Army in the American Revolution? He is most famous for these things but, as Peggy Thomas states, "...he was a general only for eight and a half years and held the office of president for eight years." That accounts for sixteen and a half years. But he died at the age of 67. What was he doing the rest of the time?

He was a farmer. And not just your run-of-the-mill, eking-out-a-living, farmer. He was successful. More than that, he was curious. What made which crops grow best? How could one increase the efficiency of one's farm operation? He experimented with crop rotation and with building machines. His home plantation, Mount Vernon thrived under his care, and over the years he increased its acreage from two thousand to more than eight thousand. Even as general and president, "No matter where he was, George's thoughts were never far from home. ...General George found time to write lengthy letters to his farm managers back home. The longest was sixteen pages!"

Peggy Thomas uses quotes from many of Washington's letters and farm records to supplement her own text. The quotes are well-chosen to highlight the beautiful paintings of Layne Johnson. All in all, a wonderful book.

Non-Fiction: Breathtaking

Breakfast in the Rainforest: A Visit With Mountain Gorillas, by Richard Sobol, is a beautiful photo-essay of a journey through Uganda. Mr. Sobol starts in Kampala, Uganda's capital, and makes his way southwest to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. His photographs of the people and the land are stunning. His text shows a real respect and appreciation for the Ugandan people who are the sole defense of the extremely endangered mountain gorilla population. Rangers estimate there are only about 650 mountain gorillas left in the forests of Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. These three countries in eastern Africa converge at the edge of Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, only about 30 miles from the Bwindi Park. There are two different tribes of gorillas, one in each park. The story of Mr. Sobol's excursion to visit the gorilla's is told in the first person, present tense, lending a sense of immediacy and intimacy to the book. I recommend students to pick this one up and read it carefully and study the photos, as the world they portray is far enough from our own as to seem completely alien.

Non-Fiction: Thrilling

Women Daredevils: Thrills, Chills, and Frills, by Julie Cummins and illustrated by Cheryl Harness--We've all heard of the daredevils. Those crazy, thrill-addicted people who will do anything for an adreneline rush, even at the potential cost of their own lives. Over one hundred years ago, those people were almost exclusively male. Almost. Women Daredevils introduces us to fourteen performers who didn't let long skirts and petticoats hamper their adventuresome spirits. From a human cannonball to a pair of biplane wing-walkers, these women chose risk instead of sure safety. They flew through the air, went over Niagara Falls, trained tigers, and did stunts on bicycles which would have made Evel Knievel flinch. This book uses bright illustrations, some of which seem to be painted/drawn from portrait photographs, lending a historical feeling which would not have been evident with strictly action pictures. Those action pictures are more cartoony, but with a depth of emotion which leaves the reader in no doubt about the danger these women were in. The text doesn't shy away from the danger, either, pointing out the various injuries sustained by many of the women. None of them let injury or fear stop her. As Georgia "Tiny" Broadwick said, "Ha! I don't call it pluck. I call it joy. There's no real fun except far up in the air."

Non-Fiction: Awesome

Lady Liberty: A Biography, by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by Matt Tavares--The history of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor is told in ten distinct voices, from the French law professor who dreamed of giving a gift to the American people to the sculptor who created the gift; from the American newspaper man instrumental in funding the gift's construction to the workers who built it. The dream was so long in being fulfilled and took the vision and labor of so many to be realized, it is amazing the Statue of Liberty was ever completed. The French law professor was Edouard-Rene Lefebvre de Laboulaye, and in the summer of 1865 he first voiced his desire to gift a monument to the United States to celebrate their Centenniel. Auguste Bartholdi was the sculptor who heard Laboulaye's idea. Bartholdi was immediately captivated by the idea and worked for ten years to create a design while France waited for the rule of Napoleon III to end and for the opportunity to begin raising funds to finance the project. The Statue would not be completed and dedicated until 1886, more than twenty years after Laboulaye and Bartholdi began their quest. Laboulaye died in 1883, and so did not live to see his dream realized.

All of this, and the story of the construction, are compressed into a scant fifteen or so pages of text. The formatting is almost poetic, and the vocabulary appropriate for elementary and middle-school children alike. The illustrations are soft and clear, showing the dream of each individual associated with the production of the Statue of Liberty. I am not ashamed to admit I got teary more than once as I read Lady Liberty.

Non-Fiction: Inspiring

I, Matthew Henson: Polar Explorer, by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Eric Velasquez--When I was in school and learned about the discovery of the North Pole and the conflicting stories of Admiral Peary and Doctor Cook, I never once heard the name of Matthew Henson. I first heard of him two or three years ago as I pulled biographies of African-Americans for Black History Month. He was given a chapter in a book about several African-Americans who had made great achievements. Sooooo, I was overjoyed to see I, Matthew Henson on the SCBAN list.

If you are not familiar with him, Matthew Henson was a black man born in 1866. After his parents died, he ran away to sea at the age of 13 and became a cabin boy. He sailed to five continents, learned numerous languages, and many trades. When his captain died, he had trouble finding work with white crews who would treat him as an equal. He quit the sea to become a stock boy (man?) in a men's store. This is where he met Robert Peary and changed the course of his life. For the next twenty years, Henson sailed with Peary, first as Peary's personal valet, then as trusted fellow explorer. They took seven trips to the Arctic before finally reaching the North Pole.

I, Matthew Henson stops on that triumphant note. The text leading up to that moment is driving and determined, and the illustrations, while in seemingly fuzzy pastels, reflect that determination with strong lines and colors. I was positively inspired by the whole package, and will be pushing it most heartily into the hands of readers, eager and otherwise.

Ghostly adventures

All the Lovely Bad Ones, by Mary Downing Hahn, is (if you'll forgive the expression) a haunting story. Travis and Corey are a brother and sister sent to spend the summer with their grandmother at her Vermont inn. Upon learning that the inn is supposedly haunted, they pester their grandmother for information and she states that in the three years she has run the place, she has never had a ghostly encounter of any kind. When some guests indicate they would be thrilled to witness otherworldly activity, Travis and Corey set out to give it to them. Their pranks attract the attention of visitors both earthly and not. The Inn at Fox Hill is flooded with guests and ghost hunters who find themselves under attack by ghostly pranksters.

Travis and Corey are frightened at what they have begun, but when the spirits approach them directly, they learn just what went on at Fox Hill to cause the dead to be restless. Determined to set things to rights, brother and sister begin bringing to light the horrors visited on the children who occupied Fox Hill in the mid-nineteenth century. As the truth comes out, the search for a solution takes on more urgency.

I spook easily, so I am not a fan of ghost or horror stories, either in print or on screen, and I am glad I read this one during daylight. I am, however, unequivocally glad I read it. Travis and Corey are believable, and the history of the fictional Fox Hill is credible. There is nothing in it I would feel uncomfortable letting a third-grader read, but it will also appeal to older children who simply like a good ghost story.

The pain of parental separation

The Totally Made-up Civil War Diary of Amanda MacLeish, by Claudia Mills, opens with the line, "Only in our house, thought Amanda MacLeish, could a Friday night family Monopoly game turn into the Civil War." The scene is painful, and any child who has ever suffered through watching his or her family disintegrate in front of them will identify with Amanda and her older sister. Her parents' separation isn't the only thing which goes wrong in Amanda's life. Her sister becomes more sulky than ever, her best friend seems to pull back from her, and she fails to stand up for another friend who suffers the insults of a racist. The only thing which seems to be going right is the Civil War diary assignment from her fifth-grade teacher. Amanda finds ways to weave the contemplation of her personal life into the diary entries for her fictional counterpart, a Maryland girl whose two brothers have chosen opposite sides in the Civil War. Writing the entries helps her to work through the emotions stirred up by her parents' separation and the other events in her life.

Ms. Mills has definitely made Amanda's mother the heavy in the piece, using her less-than-sunny nature as a reason for Mr. MacLeish's lack of effort to put his family back together and his quick turn to another woman. Obviously the speed with which his affections are maneuvered is evidence of his own weakness, but most kids, especially daddy's girls, won't necessarily catch that. Amanda is ten years old, and I wouldn't recommend this book to any child less than that age. And as a parent, if I knew my child was reading or had read the book, I would definitely take the opportunity to discuss the frailties of both adult MacLeishes.

Divorce from the child's point of view

42 Miles, by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer, is the story of Ellen/Joey/JoEllen. At twelve years old, the only life she has ever really known consists of shuttling between her mom's house during the week and her dad's house on the weekends. She's had big changes in her life in the last year: her grandfather died, her grandmother moved to Florida, her dad moved from his old house just four blocks away to his parents' old farmhouse in the country, she has started middle school, she has had to begin wearing glasses. Her story, told in free-verse, highlights the differences of her split lives. Her parents named her after themselves, Joseph and Eleanor, but have never agreed what to call her. Her mother calls her Ellen, her dad calls her Joey. Ellen lives in the city, going to school, playing the saxophone, listening to street music, working in the second-hand shop owned by her best friend's mother. Joey lives in the country, wandering the woods with her cousin, going to church with her father's family, listening to bluegrass, mucking out stables.

Just before her thirteenth birthday, she decides that she will do her best to combine her two lives. She insists on having one birthday party instead of two. She makes the decision to be called JoEllen by everyone. She invites her city friends to sleepover in the country and invites her cousin to visit her in the city. She cuts her long hair and donates it for cancer patients. She even stands up to the school bully.

I enjoyed this peek into the life of a child of divorce. JoEllen doesn't seem whiny about her separate lives, merely a bit frustrated and uncertain. The catalyst for change comes about in the form of a Language Arts assignment--an autobiography project.

But I don't know which life to describe,
Joey's or Ellen's,
and it's not as if Mom and Dad
share stories of my childhood
over the birthday candles each spring
or even
inhale the same air
if they can avoid it.

This assignment
makes running the seven-minute mile
in gym class
seem painless by comparison.

As she researches, though, she realizes:

...they don't see in me
the mirror image of their mistakes--
or even what they hated in each other--
but the best that
each of them had to offer.

Golllllly!

At first glance, The Gollywhopper Games, by Jody Feldman, is strictly an homage to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl. The basic plot is certainly similar: boy competes with less-deserving children for a prize which will set his family on the path to prosperity. There are other similarities, but the main device used in Gollywhopper is puzzle-solving.

Gil Goodson's father was fired from his position at Golly Games for suspected embezzlement. When the verdict of "not-guilty" was handed down at the trial, many of the people in town thought Mr. Goodson had merely gotten away with the crime. Eighteen months after his father was fired and a year after he was acquitted, Gil is still suffering slights and bullying at school and around town. Some still consider him the son of a thief and a cheater. The real embezzler has never been identified.

When Golly Games announces a major contest to celebrate its 50-year anniversary, Gil is determined to compete. The rules state contestants may not be the children of Golly employees or of someone who has worked for Golly in the last year. Gil's father was fired over a year ago, so Gil is eligible. He prepares himself for the games by compiling a file of Golly trivia covering its entire history. He studies it until he has it practically memorized.

The day of the games, Gil lines up with thousands of others outside the local stadium hoping for a place in the competition. Of course, he gets in. Then, he has to answer multiple trivia questions to earn a spot as a semi-finalist, then as a finalist. Of course, he makes it to the final ten, then the final five. His team-mates in the final ten competition includes the son of another former Golly employee who left the company at about the same time as Gil's father; the son of a wealthy man who "bought" an instant-win ticket so his son didn't have to stand in line; the daughter of an over-protective mother; and a seemingly dim-witted girl who is using the Games as her opportunity to get noticed on television.

They compete against another five-member team for the chance to be the final five. Each of Gil's team-mates contributes their own special talents, skills, and knowledge to solving the five puzzles which will propel them to the final round. Once there, they are eliminated one by one until there are only two players left. A spectacular twist recalls the other three for an unexpected, "do-over", winner-take-all round.

Readers are invited to solve the puzzles along with the contestants, although we don't have all information for some of them. I saw the answer to the BIG puzzle long before the mystery was solved by the characters, but did not feel cheated or otherwise let down by the foreknowledge.

I found myself leaning forward, urging Gil and his team-mate/competitors on as they figured their way to the end in a battle of wits which could end in the exoneration of Gil's father and certainly in untold riches for his family. And that's the difference between The Gollywhopper Games and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Charlie just kind of sat back and waited to see what would happen. Charlie got lucky. Gil pursues, solves, and takes an active approach toward resolving his family's dilemma. Gil doesn't just finish first; he wins.

Chapter Book, ahoy!

Regardless of the title of this post, this book is not about ships, pirates, or the Navy. It is, instead, about a girl whose father is in the Army. He gets sent on a Tour of Duty for 100 Days and 99 Nights. Written by Alan Madison, 100 Days is in the first person, and tries hard to sound like the language and thoughts of a seven or eight year old girl. Think a more intelligent Junie B. Jones.

Unfortunately, the voice used by Mr. Madison didn't ring true for me. I have known many seven and eight year old girls (and boys, for that matter), and none of them would have used the words "possessions" or "Southern drawl", nor would they have made observations about their mothers' "weak smile." There were many of these grown-up sounding turns of phrase and use of vocabulary which interrupted my suspension of disbelief.

Esmerelda Swishback McCarther, Esme to everyone, is our protagonist. In addition to her Army-sergeant father, she has a reporter mother and a little brother, Ike. In her travels around the world with her family, Esme has acquired an extensive "bedzoo" of stuffed animals covering the alphabet from A to Z.

--except for X because there is no animal I have found that begins with that troublesome letter. The only words I know that even start that way are xylophone, x-ray, and x-actly.

  When her father gets his orders to go away for three months, Esme and her family are saddened. Her mother...

...must have been crying and looked like she was going to start to cry again, but she didn't. It was her duty not to cry in front of us. So I did my duty and I didn't cry in front of Ike, and since I didn't--Ike didn't.

 Without Daddy there to guide the family through its daily routine, the family feels out of sorts. Ike gets into a fight at school with his best friend, and the principal calls Esme into her office along with Ike. Ms. Pershing "would prefer not to worry your mom about this. Is this something you two can solve?" (Honestly, can you imagine a principal saying this to an eight-year-old and her five-year-old brother?) At any rate, during their walk home from school, Ike admits he "broke his duty" when he broke the rules. This leads both children to confess to each other how much they miss their dad.

At school, Esme learns about the "Home Front" of WW II, and wishes there was something she and her classmates could do to help. They discuss and discard many ideas before settling on a few that they feel will make a difference to help the troops fighting overseas. The kids and their families accomplish quite a few of their goals, thanks to Esme's inspiration and persistence.

However, even when she has a bad dream and can't go back to sleep, Esme still cannot voice her feelings to her mother. Her mother tells her she's a hero for all she's done and for how brave she's been and that she deserves a medal. Esme says,

"I don't want a medal. I just want..." And I stopped, barely letting "want" dribble out. I figured that saying what I wanted wasn't necessary and wouldn't be at all brave.

Her mother doesn't prompt her to finish, instead saying, "Before you know it he'll be the one tucking you in." Eleven pages later, he is.

On the whole? A nice book. But, with all its flaws, not one which deserves the South Carolina Book Award, in any category.