Category Archives: Historical

Review: Rise of the Spider by Michael P. Spradlin

Book Review and Content, Historical, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , ,
The Rise of the Spider by Michael P. Spradlin

Rise of the Spider (Web of the Spider #1)
Michael P. Spradlin
Margaret K. McElderry Books
Published September 24, 2024

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About Rise of the Spider

Witness the chilling rise of the Nazi Party through the eyes of a twelve-year-old boy in this first book in the action-packed middle grade series Web of the Spider for fans of I Survived and A Night Divided.

1929, Heroldsberg, Germany. Rolf might only be twelve years old, but he’s old enough to know that things have not been good in his country since the end of the Great War. Half of Germany is out of work, and a new political movement is taking hold that scares him. Every night, Rolf’s father and older brother, Romer, have increasingly heated arguments about politics at the dinner table. And when two members of the new Nazi Party, Hans and Nils, move to town as part of the Hitler Youth, Rolf is uneasy to see how enamored Romer is by their promises of bringing Germany to glory.

Rolf doesn’t trust Hans and Nils for a moment. For all their talk of greatness, they act more like bullies, antagonizing shop owners who are Rolf’s friends and neighbors. Yet Romer becomes increasingly obsessed with their message of division, and Rolf watches in horror as his family fractures even further.

When there is an act of vandalism against a Jewish-owned business in town, Rolf fears Romer might have had something to do with it. Can Rolf find a way to intervene before things get any worse?

My Review

This is a sad book. It’s an important story, as it follows the rise of the Nazis in Germany through the eyes of a twelve-year-old boy who can’t believe it’s happening. He realizes how hateful the rhetoric is and how it contradicts his family’s values and beliefs. But he also witnesses someone close to him embrace those ideas and join the movement.

The book is pretty short, and the writing style is simple enough to make it accessible for younger middle grade readers interested in historical fiction. It’s the opening to a new series that will follow twelve-year-old Rolf’s experience in Heroldsberg, Germany each year leading up to when Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany. Creating a window for younger readers to see how Hitler rose to power is a great idea. It’s a moment of history that isn’t often deeply explored with kids that age, but an important one.

I also appreciated the author’s note at the back of the book in which Spradlin discussed his experience seeing the town of Heroldsberg and how his research affected him. This seems like a great fit for upper elementary-aged readers interested in historical fiction and World War II in particular.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Major characters are white Germans. A few minor characters are Jewish.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Brief reference to church and synagogue services.

Violent Content
Someone sets fire to a local Jewish-owned business. Hitler Youth members intimidate and threaten shop owners and shoppers. A group of them beat up an elderly Jewish man. (The narrator can’t see the blow-by-blow but knows it’s happening.) At a rally, a group of Nazi supporters attack a man who protests against them. The narrator can’t see specifics but is scared.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: Mama’s Chicken and Dumplings by Dionna L. Mann

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Mama’s Chicken and Dumplings
Dionna L. Mann
Margaret Ferguson Books
Published August 6, 2024

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About Mama’s Chicken and Dumplings

Growing up in segregated 1930’s Charlottesville, ten-year-old Allie is determined to find a man for her mama to marry— but not just any man will do!

Allie’s life with Mama isn’t bad, but she knows it could be better if Mama would find someone to marry. Allie’s worst enemy, her NOT-friend Gwen, has a daddy, and Allie wants someone like that—someone to fix things when they break, someone who likes to sing, and has a kind-smile.

So Allie makes a plan—her super secret Man-For-Mama plan. She has a list of candidates with a clear top Mr. Johnson, who owns the antique store. Best of all, Mr. Johnson went to school with Mama, and he wants to get reacquainted! The battle’s half won, and Allie is sure that when he tries Mama’s yummy chicken and dumplings, he’ll be head over heels.

But someone else is interested in Mr. Coles, Allie’s teacher, who’s also Gwen’s uncle! Mama can’t marry him—no way is Allie going to be related to Gwen. On top of it all, Allie’s best friend is moving to Chicago; Allie keeps getting in trouble; and everyone seems to think she’s jealous of Gwen, for some reason. Nothing is going how she planned, but Allie is determined to get things back on track toward the life she knows she and Mama both deserve. . . even if Mama doesn’t agree yet.

My Review

Earlier this year, I read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, and it made me realize how little literature I’ve read set before the Civil Rights Act written by Black authors. It seems wild to me now that I’ve noticed it. When I saw this novel, I decided reading it would be a great opportunity to add some more perspective.

I love Allie’s voice. She’s precocious and smart. Her friendship with Jewel is incredibly sweet. The girls support one another and share such a close bond. It was easy to empathize with Allie’s grief when Jewel moves away.

I think the story also has great layering in terms of showing the difference between Allie’s perspective on what’s happening and making the larger picture, or what the adults see going on, available to readers to pick up between the lines. Some of those moments made me laugh. A few were pretty poignant.

One of the things I enjoyed a lot is that Allie is a musician who plays the flute. She also often describes her experiences in terms of sounds, so the story contains a lot of onomatopoeia. The sounds were well-described, so I knew exactly what the descriptions meant. I thought that was a cool way to showcase Allie’s connection to sound as a musician and add a fun element to the story.

All in all, this is a delightful debut. I am really excited to see what Dionna Mann writes in the future. I have a feeling I’ll be picking up any subsequent novels she writes as well as recommending this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Major characters are Black.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Allie is trying to start a romance between her mom and a local businessman.

Spiritual Content
References to attending church. A couple of scenes take place after the service.

Violent Content
Two girls get into a fistfight after one swipes a toy belonging to the other.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday

I’m sharing this post as a part of a weekly round-up of middle-grade posts called Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday. Check out other blogs with posts about middle-grade books today on Marvelous Middle-Grade Mondays at Always in the Middle with Greg Pattridge.

Review: The Medici Heist by Caitlin Schneiderhan

Book Review and Content, Historical, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , ,

The Medici Heist
Caitlin Schneiderhan
Feiwel & Friends
Published August 6, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Medici Heist

Welcome to Florence, 1517, a world of intrigue, opulence, secrets, and murder. The Medici family rules the city from their seat of wealth, but the people of Florence remember the few decades they spent as a Republic, free from the Medicis and their puppet Pope, Leo X.

Sharp-witted seventeen-year-old con-woman Rosa Cellini has plans for the Pope and the Medicis – and, more specifically, the mountain of indulgence money they’ve been extorting from the people of Tuscany. To pull off the Renaissance’s greatest robbery, she’ll recruit a team of capable Sarra the tinkerer, Khalid the fighter, and Giacomo, the irrepressible master of disguise. To top it all off, and to smooth their entrance into the fortress-like Palazzo Medici, Rosa even enlists the reluctant help of famed artist and local misanthrope, Michelangelo.

Old secrets resurface and tensions in the gang flare as the authorities draw closer and the Medicis’ noose pulls tighter around Tuscany itself. What began as a robbery becomes a bid to save Florence from certain destruction – if Rosa and company don’t destroy each other first.

Get ready for an absolute swashbuckling riot, beginning with a ‘mud’ pie to the Pope’s face, and ending with a climatic heist that would give Danny Ocean a run for his money. Bursting with snark, innuendo and action, Medici Heist is your next un-put-downable obsession.

My Review

I can definitely see the comparisons to Ocean’s 11 with this book. It does have a heist in which a team of people, each with a particular area of expertise, work together to steal something, and their motives are not always what they seem. Instead of being a modern-day tale, this one is set in sixteenth-century Italy, though.

I’ve read several novels written by screenplay writers, and it’s going to sound weird, but I am starting to feel like I can tell when it happens. There are certain things that I keep running into in these books. In some scenes in The Medici Heist, I felt like what I was reading would make a cool movie scene, but it didn’t always translate well to a novel format.

For example, the opening scene begins from the perspective of a child who barely appears in the rest of the book. There is some circular storytelling, where toward the end, we reference the significance of that moment again, but it was strange to start a novel from the viewpoint of a character who never does anything important or even really appears on scene again in the book. But I could see a movie opening that way much more easily.

I like that the story has an ensemble cast (this might make it a good choice for readers who enjoyed Six of Crows) and that each character has a secret or hidden objective or motive that comes into play as the heist takes place. I also enjoyed the way that Rosa and Sarra’s relationship evolves. They were once as close as sisters and then drifted apart. They begin the story with very different feelings about the past which they have to work through. I loved how that worked out in the book and the way it impacted the overall story.

On the whole, this one started a bit slow for me, but around chapter nine or ten, I started investing more in the characters and their relationships. Readers who enjoy historical fiction or heist adventures will want to check this one out.

Content Notes for The Medici Heist

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Two characters are gay. Main characters are Italian.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
A very enthusiastic kiss between husband and wife at a wedding. The observer describes them gazing at each other lustily during the ceremony. Kissing between two young men.

Spiritual Content
The Pope and a Cardinal are characters in the book, though he’s not very admirable ones. Characters visit a chapel to pray in several scenes. One worries that going against the Pope, God’s mouthpiece, means going against God, but hopes that God understands their reasons.

Violent Content
Situations of peril. Battle violence. A fire destroys a building. Riots erupt in the streets one night.

Drug Content
Several characters are (or appear) drunk. Soldiers try to arrest two drunk men who are fighting. In the end, they’re simply escorted somewhere to sober up.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Review: The Winnie-the-Pooh Collection by A. A. Milne and Ernest Shepard

Book Review and Content, Historical, Middle Grade 8-12, Poetry, , , ,

The Winnie-the-Pooh Collection
A. A. Milne
Illustrated by Ernest Shepard
Aladdin Books
Published August 6, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About The Winnie-the-Pooh Collection

With gorgeously redesigned covers and the original black-and-white interior illustrations by Ernest Shepard, these beautiful editions of the four Winnie-the-Pooh books by A.A. Milne are now together in a collectible hardcover boxed set—sure to delight new and old fans alike!

Explore the Hundred Acre Wood with everyone’s favorite bear-of-very-little-brain, Winnie-the-Pooh!

In Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner, meet Pooh, Christopher Robin, and the other residents of the forest, including the timid Piglet, the downcast Eeyore, the impatient Rabbit, the loquacious Owl, the always bouncing Tigger, and newcomers Kanga and Roo. In each chapter, they have a new adventure, from searching for honey or celebrating birthdays to hunting Heffalumps or navigating new friendships.

Rounding out the collection are two books of children’s When We Were Very Young —in which we meet Mr. Edward Bear, the character that inspired Winnie-the-Pooh—and Now We Are Six, in which Pooh and Christopher Robin make frequent appearances. These playful and imaginative verses explore the joys and pains of growing up, the antics of peculiar characters, quiet afternoons in nature, memorable animal friends, and more.

Mini-Reviews of Each Book in the Collection

There are four books in this collection that feature the original illustrations inside the books. The book covers are completely new. The cover illustrations are new, and are pretty simplified.

Reading Milne’s classic works is a great way to slow down and reconnect to a child’s view of the world. I love the original artwork—it was really fun just flipping through the books to look at the illustrations.

This would make a great gift for a family with younger kids or early middle grade readers.

Winnie-the-Pooh

This book introduces readers to Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Christopher Robin, and their familiar friends. Each chapter reads like a self-contained adventure and is written as though it’s a story being told to a young boy named Christopher Robin about his very own stuffed bear, Winnie-the-Pooh.

I’ve read at least part of the book before, so this was partly a reread for me, but it was fun to revisit these characters and their stories. The dialogue contains a lot of wordplay or interpretations of words that feel very childlike.

Perhaps the only moment that stood out to me as something to think about is when Pooh gets stuck in Rabbit’s front door in the first chapter. Christopher Robin says they’ll have to wait a week for him to “get thin again.” I don’t know that anyone said anything directly shaming to Pooh. They sort of shrug and go along with the situation, but readers sensitive to body image issues or shaming might find that scene uncomfortable.

The House at Pooh Corner

If you’re a Tigger fan, this is the book you want to read, as it’s the only one in which he appears. Early in the collection, Tigger appears in the Hundred Acre Wood, and the rest of the group has to figure out what to make of their bouncy new friend.

The stories in The House at Pooh Corner are loosely connected, but each volume could be read independently. This volume also contains a lot of poetry or “hums” as Pooh calls them. Shepard’s charming illustrations appear on almost every page, too.

This is the longest book in the set of four.

When We Were Very Young

This collection of poems celebrates childhood and imagination with poems about Christopher Robin or other children. Some invert childhood experiences. For example, in one poem, the child tells his mother not to venture off by herself. When she does, she gets lost and has to be returned to the child.

In one poem, Pooh examines his body and feels bad for its stout shape. Then, he reads a book that names a stout king as handsome and feels better about himself. One poem tells about a boy who imagines sailing to South America to wave to the “Indians.” In the final poem, Christopher Robin says his prayers before bed.

Now We are Six

Now We Are Six includes a mix of poetry that ranges from sweet reflections on childhood (playing with an imaginary friend) to stories with a moral message (a king whose advisor doesn’t follow any directions is replaced by a beggar at the gate who asks for aid).

Though Winnie-the-Pooh isn’t named directly in the poems here, he appears in the charming illustrations. Milne does warn in his introduction (my favorite part of the whole book, actually) that Pooh wandered through the pages and sat down on some of them. I suppose that’s his way of telling readers to look for him in the illustrations, which is cute.

Like the other books in the collection, this volume delivers nostalgia for childhood and shows a love for those days when so many experiences were fresh and new.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 6 to 10.

Representation
Human characters are white. Most characters are animals.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
None.

Spiritual Content
Some poems and stories have elements of fantasy. In one poem, Christopher says his prayers, asking God’s blessing on his parents, Nanny, and himself.

Violent Content
In one chapter of Winnie-the-Pooh, Pooh and Piglet dig a trap and hope to catch a heffalump. In one chapter, rain floods the wood, and Piglet needs to be rescued from a tree. One poem vaguely references colonialism. In it, a boy imagines sailing to South America and visiting or dismissing the “Indians” as he pleases.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this collection in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday

I’m sharing this post as a part of a weekly round-up of middle-grade posts called Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday. Check out other blogs with posts about middle-grade books today on Marvelous Middle-Grade Mondays at Always in the Middle with Greg Pattridge.

Review: Focus. Click. Wind. by Amanda West Lewis

Book Review and Content, Historical, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , ,

Focus. Click. Wind.
Amanda West Lewis
House of Anansi
Published August 1, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Focus. Click. Wind.

What if your country is involved in an unjust war, and you’ve lost trust in your own government?

It’s 1968, and the Vietnam War has brought new urgency to the life of Billie Taylor, a seventeen-year-old aspiring photojournalist. Billie is no stranger to risky situations, but when she attends a student protest at Columbia University with her college boyfriend, and the US is caught up in violent political upheaval, her mother decides to move the two of them to Canada.

Furious at being dragged away from her beloved New York City to live in a backwater called Toronto, Billie doesn’t take her exile lightly. As her mother opens their home to draft evaders and deserters, Billie’s activism grows in new ways. She discovers an underground network of political protesters and like minds in a radical group based in Rochdale College, the world’s first “free” university. And the stakes rise when she is exposed to horrific images from Vietnam of the victims of Agent Orange – a chemical being secretly manufactured in a small town just north of Toronto.

My Review

For some reason when I first picked up this book, I mistook it for nonfiction. I’m not sure if I skimmed the cover copy and author bio so quickly that the two merged together (there are similar elements in them)? I don’t know. At any rate, sometime during my reading, I realized it was a novel about the Vietnam War resistance movement in the 1960s.

This is a time period that I don’t know a lot about. I used to blame this on my history classes in school, because we never went beyond World War II and some light information about the Civil Rights movement during February. I’m not old enough for that to make any sense, but I do live in Florida, so there ya go, I guess.

Anyway, so I read this novel without a strong understanding of the history to which it refers. I’ve known a few veterans of the Vietnam War, and it did make me think of things they’ve endured or talked about because of the war. One believes his children’s health issues stem from his exposure to Agent Orange. Two more were addicted to drugs and alcohol following their military service. So, I’ve definitely seen some of the effects mentioned in the book.

The writing is super compelling. The story is told in present tense, and it begins with the main character, Billie, at a student protest at Columbia. I loved the way she uses her photographs to tell the story of what she’s experiencing. I thought the descriptions of her taking photographs and developing them were very engaging.

Billie has some memories of her father using drugs and being involved in a drug deal that goes badly. She remembers hiding under a table with her mother while someone has a gun. Her mom responds to this by deciding she will never allow another person who uses drugs to live in her house. As Billie forms connections to others who protest the Vietnam War, she meets a lot of people who use drugs.

Though this is set in the 60s and the prevalent use of drugs, especially marijuana, seems realistic, I found myself wishing that the author explored some of the nuances of addiction as a disorder and maybe at least questioned her mom’s hardline position. The story really isn’t about that issue, though, and the author leaves that territory unexplored.

All in all, I think the writing was spectacular. It’s got some mature content which won’t be suitable for every reader. I’ve detailed that below.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 17 up.

Representation
Major characters are white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme language used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
A couple of scenes show explicit sex between boy and girl. In one scene, two boys try to convince a girl to have sex with them and another girl. She refuses.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
When Billie was a child, her dad was involved in a drug deal that went awry. She and her mother hid under a table while guns and conflict happened. Descriptions of warfare and the devastation caused by Agent Orange.

Drug Content
Characters drink alcohol and smoke a lot of weed. The story briefly states that a lot of soldiers become addicted to heroin because the government is handing it out to them to help them deal with the horrors of war.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support this blog. I received a free copy of FOCUS. CLICK. WIND. in exchange for my honest review. All opinions my own.

Review: Code Name Kingfisher by Liz Kessler

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Code Name Kingfisher
Liz Kessler
Aladdin Books
Published May 7, 2024

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Code Name Kingfisher

When Liv finds a secret box from her grandmother’s childhood she uncovers an extraordinary war-time story of bravery, betrayal and daring defiance. A story that will change Liv and her family forever…
 
Holland, 1942. The world is at war and as the Nazis’ power grows, Jewish families are in terrible danger. Twelve-year-old Mila and her older sister Hannie are sent to live with a family in another city with new identities and the strict instruction not to tell anyone that they are Jewish.
 
Hannie, determined to fight back, is swept into the Dutch resistance as an undercover agent Code Name Kingfisher.  And though Mila does her best to make friends and keep out of trouble, there is danger at every turn and the sisters are soon left questioning who they can trust…

My Review

I can’t remember if I had this book on my radar for May earlier this year, but when I received a copy from the publisher, I was pretty excited about it. I love the bright colors of the cover and the way it incorporates a kingfisher bird into the image. It also shows the personality of both Mila and Hannie, the sisters at the center of the story.

The book follows four different points of view. It begins with Liv, a girl living in modern-day England who discovers the person she considered her best friend isn’t such a great friend. We also meet Mila, a Jewish girl forced into hiding by the Nazi occupation of Holland. We meet her sister Hannie through the letters she writes to her family about her work with the Dutch resistance movement. Mila’s friend Willem narrates a handful of chapters at some critical moments in the story.

As Liv struggles to deal with the shift in social connections and bullying at school, she discovers some papers in her grandmother’s attic that hint at her grandmother’s past, which she has refused to talk about to anyone. To Liv’s surprise, her grandmother begins to open up to her.

I love the sweet relationship between Liv and her grandmother and the surprising way that it unfolds. I also love the alternating viewpoints and the way Hannie’s, Mila’s, and Willem’s chapters reveal information from the past.

Code Name Kingfisher is perfect for historical fiction fans, especially those looking for more stories about World War II. The contemporary sections will appeal to those readers, too, and I think there’s enough story taking place in the present to keep contemporary readers engaged.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Representation
Mila and Hannie are Jewish. Liv is Jewish on her dad’s side of the family.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
A teenage girl has a crush on a teen boy. It’s pretty peripheral to the story.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
References to oppressive laws passed against Jews by the Nazis. References to arrests and deportations to work camps. Hannie believes her parents are probably dead. Characters experiences heightened fear when faced with Nazi soldiers, but salute and greet them as part of undercover identities.

In one scene late in the book, a boy hears a soldier shoot someone. He sees the person’s body afterward.

Drug Content
Characters, including teenagers, smoke cigarettes.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.