Historical Fiction Mystery: Sherlock, Lupin and Me: The Dark Lady by Irene Adler

Sherlock, Lupin and Me  by Irene Adler, is a lovely middle-grade novel about a younger version of the trio.   Irene Adler is vacationing with her mother and their butler in the small seaside resort of San Malo during the summer of 1870. Wanting for some excitement, Irene wanders off and finds Sherlock reading a book. Sherlock takes her down to the harbor where he introduces her to Lupin. The trio set sail to Ascroft Manor, a deserted home along the beach, where they spend their days playing games and putting on elaborate plays. That is until they discover a body of a man along the beach and Irene spots someone in a blue cloak watching them after they find the body. Concerned for their safety, the trio decide that they must figure out how the man died, if only to protect themselves from someone coming after them too.  

I really enjoyed Sherlock, Lupin and Me and the introduction to the younger versions of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes and master thief Arsene Lupin.  Sadly, I didn't know much about Irene Adler or Arsene Lupin before reading the story, but gained some insights into the characters. I think having Irene narrate the story worked for me somehow.   Plus, after some sleuthing of my own, I found out that Irene Adler was a ficitonal character in "A Scandal in Bohemia" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  How cool is that? Despite Irene being seen as not behaving in a way that is "appropriate for a lady,"  she maintained her head strong attitude, even putting Sherlock in his place by forcing him to use his "good manners and polite smiles." Irene does come off as disobeidient and uncontrollable, but perhaps it was because she was so very bored.  Left in the company of a mother who would rather be playing cards and a butler, without friends to entertain her, she was bound to go off looking for some excitement herself. I so enjoyed the battle of wits that Irene and Sherlock had with one another, it was quite amusing.  Throughout the story, Irene makes all these little remarks like, "I found out years later...,"   alluding to what lies ahead in the future for these three characters within the series and also as adults.  For those familiar more with the stories of Sir Conan Doyle, this probably will make more sense.  I found it added to the mystery of the future sequels and how the steadfast trio's story will progress.  I also want to find out how the author resolves the trio continuing to solve mysteries if Irene has to leave San Malo at the end of the summer.   There are so many directions that I see this story being able to go though.  I would be remiss if I didn't mention the beautiful illustrations by Iacopo Bruno.  He illustrated The Spindlers, Iron Hearted Violet, The School for Good and Evil, Jinx, and The Actual Truthful Adventures of Becky Thatcher, to name a few.   Overall, a wonderful introduction to Sherlock, Lupin and Irene Adler.  

I received a review copy from the publisher for consideration for the 2014 Cybils award in Middle Grade fiction.  

Historical Realistic Fiction WWII: The End of the Line by Sharon E. McKay

The End of the Line begins in Amsterdam during the Fall of 1942, a little girl and her young mother are about to get on a tram.  They have been told to search for a woman with a green hat who will take the young girl to safety.  At the same time, brothers Hans and Lars are getting ready to start their day working on the tram.  Hans is the driver and Lars collects the tickets, they never expect to cross paths.  The young girls name is Beatrix, her mother is discovered to be Jewish and is taken off the tram by Nazi soldiers.    Lars tells the soldiers that the girl is his niece.  The two elderly brothers have made Beatrix their responsibility to keep safe and hidden. The brothers aren't prepared to take care of a five year old, they never married and have no experience with children.  Desperate they turn the only place that they can, to their neighbor and deceased mothers best friend, Mrs. Vos.  Taking Beatrix into their homes places them all in great danger, for if they are discovered they all risk being sent to a prison camp like Beatrix's mother.    


  

The End of the Line is reported to be based on real events.  It illustrates how parents during World War II were concerned for the safety of their children. Like the young mother in the story, they often sent their children to live with family, out of the country, or in this case left them in the arms of strangers. McKay shows the impact of the Nazi occupation in Holland, how people lived in fear of being accused of being Jewish, taken away to a prison camp and the loss of their basic freedom.  As the war progressed across the seasons and years, McKay delves into the economic hardships by showing how Lars and Hans try to find food, keep their home warm all while ensuring that Beatrix is safe.  Their are many dangers they face, including a young Nazi solider on the tram who Beatrix accidentally speaks Yiddish to, concerns that one of their neighbors might turn them in, and fear when a neighbor who was helping them is taken from her home.  Throughout, The End of the Line is a story about kindness, the resilience of people and a hopeful story to add to a study on World War II and the Holocaust.  I enjoyed the alternating chapters between Beatrix and her mother and then Hans and Lars.  My favorite was those that included Mrs. Vos, she possessed such inner strength and was the most courageous.  I also enjoyed that following Holland's liberation in 1945, all of the main characters futures were explained, leaving no questions unresolved.  Included at the beginning of the story is a description of "When Strangers Were Saviors," and an Afterword that provides the historical details of the war.  

I received a review copy from the publisher for free via NetGalley for consideration for the 2014 Cybils award in Middle Grade Fiction.  

MG Realistic Fiction: Abby Spencer Goes to Bollywood by Varsha Bajaj

Abby Spencer's teacher asks the question, "what's the one thing you want most in your life?"  At first, she responds excitement, but what she really wants is to meet the father she never really knew.  She knows very little about him, other than that he lives in India.  Abby's mother told her they dated, but her dad returned to India before finding out that she was pregnant.  Abby's mom did try to contact him writing many letters, but she never was able to track him down.  After a severe allergic reaction to coconut, Abby and her mother question whether they should try to find him again even just to find out some medical information, like is he allergic to coconut too?  After some Internet searches, Abby learns her father is a famous Bollywood actor in India and he wants her to come to visit him.  Abby then ventures to India to learn more about her father and hopefully get answers to why he never contacted her or her mother.  

Through Abby the reader is able to experience traveling to a new country and a new culture.  I had the pleasure of living in Egypt for a number of years and couldn't help noticing the similarities between Bajaj's descriptions of Mumbai and my time in Egypt.  India and Egypt share a huge distinction between the wealthy and poor, and Bajaj's descriptions of Mumbai were reflective of my own experiences of the extreme contradictions I noticed while traveling around Egypt.  There are these mansion size homes with beautiful flowering trees, situated right next to homes the size of a small tool shed.   I think she also accurately captured the feel of Mumbai in the way she described the people and food that Abby experience's in the story.  Bajaj's descriptions of Tandori chicken and yogurt made me miss the Baldi bread and Koshari (a mix of lentils, rice and beans) that  I ate while in Egypt.  At the same time, Bajaj provides a wonderful story about a girl trying to learn more about her father and understand her new found heritage and the culture of India.    

MG Realistic Fiction: Finding Ruby Starling by Karen Rivers

Have you ever gone on Google to look up your name, just to see what shows up?  Well,  Ruth Quayle did a search looking for any images of herself online, only to find images of a girl named Ruby Starling.  Ruth lives with her family in the United States, and Ruby lives in England with her mother.  The images of Ruth and Ruby look shockingly similar, so much so that they could be twins.  Ruth reaches out to Ruby in an email to let her know that she might be her twin.  At first, Ruby thinks that Ruth is some crazy stalker, but slowly the two begin to connect and realize that what they thought was improbable might just be true.  

Finding Ruby Starling is told through a series of emails, letters, and Tumblr poems. Most of the emails are sent between Ruth and Ruby, but there are also some to and from their friends and parents.  I found this style of writing interesting but a little long in places.   I would have enjoyed things more if the ending would have included some dialogue of the two together.  It felt incomplete having them continue with emailing even after they met, somehow I was expecting some long conversations. Others, however might not mind this as much as I did.   Finding Ruby Starling has a very MG feel to it and I particularly enjoyed the British versus American slang. I especially liked Ruth's poetry and Buddhist quotes that her and her father share.  My favorite lines were when Ruth was discussing being a leaf on a river ..."not being a path, but being a river.  It means we are all the leaves being pushed along by rivers and we feel like we can't control what happens to us.  But we are also the river!  All the stuff we think and feel and hate and love and stuff is what decides if the river is a terrifying whitewater rapids or just a gentle stream that is perfect for wading where we can bob along in the sunshine, all happy and pretty and safe!"      

Historical Mystery MG Fiction: Unstoppable Octobia May by Sharon G. Flake

Octobia May lives in the boarding house her Aunt Shuma runs during the 1950's. Aunt Shuma is a progressive women and lets Octobia have free reign to explore the neighborhood, wear pants and gives her what they call "freedom." All the residents of the boarding house are like family to Octobia May, that is except Mr. Davenport. Octobia knows Mr. Davenport is a vampire and she is determined to prove it to everyone else. But, Octobia is also known for having an over active imagination, and everyone knows about her dreams of being a writer and solving mysteries. When a women is killed, Octobia and her friend Jonah start following Mr. Davenport around searching for clues, what they uncover is a mystery.

Octobia sees things with a child like view. She talks about “having been dead once herself”, and is overly fascinated with the idea that Mr. Davenport is a vampire. Mr. Davenport is certainly a mysterious, shady character but there really doesn't seem to be a reason for Octobia to believe he is a vampire. She also drops the idea when the plot of bank robbery and murder begins to unfold, so I'm not particularly sure why the idea was included in the overall plot. However, there were many things to love about Octobia. She is a very high spirited girl, I enjoyed her love for exploration and ventures into the graveyard by her Aunt's house. Octobia also has a wonderful imagination and perhaps Fluke wanted to illustrate her loneliness by having her create this imaginary idea of him being a vampire.  Octobia does create these imaginary servant friends, and entertains herself by talking to the graves of the Before Girls. Another aspect that stands out is Octobia's friendship with Jonah, which was very sweet. I especially enjoyed when she helped him win a bet by kissing him on the cheek. Octobia had a knack for dragging Jonah along as she followed Mr. Davenport, often getting him into such trouble with his mother. I also enjoyed that Octobia had this never take no attitude and helps her new neighbor Bessie overcome her shyness, despite Bessie's father not trusting Octobia. Overall, Unstoppable Octobia May was an enjoyable read containing lots of historical details about racism and inequality, as well as a diverse set of characters to include Holocaust survivors and a child of mixed race.

I received a review copy from the publisher for free via NetGalley for 
consideration for the 2014 Cybils award in Middle Grade Fiction.  

Shelby Bach Blog Tour: Exclusive Content from Madame Benne's Book

Shelby Bach is having a blog tour with never-before-seen content related to The Ever Afters series. So far, we've seen Lena and Chase's orientation letters, which included all the Tales that occurred within the last five generations in their family and a yummy recipe for Fey Fudge. Today, I'm very excited to be featuring a slightly singed page from Madame Benne's Book with an excerpt.  

From Madame Benne: Genius Inventor or Fey Traitor? - “Chapter 13: Her Legacy”

           Ultimately, Madame Benne's transgressions against the Fey—her own paternal
grandmother’s people—were forgotten. Most Fey who lived during that time have passed
from this world to the next, and even her remaining contemporaries have acknowledged
that she improved upon the secret magicks she stole from the Seelie court.
          Her inventions have changed forever the entire magical world, not only the
Characters she loved and the Fey she scorned. Rings of return—once an escape of last
resort due to their dangerous unpredictability—are now given to many young travelers of
magical descent so that they may have a quick return home. Magic mirrors have become
not just a standard issue in Characters' Tales but are now the main method of
communication between the monarchs of the Seelie and Unseelie courts. The Glass
Mountain Madame Benne used to capture Baba Yaga is now used on Atlantis as the only
prison able to contain The Snow Queen, the most powerful and dangerous sorceress in
history.
         With these advancements alone, the legacy of Madame Benne is assured, but the
great tragedy is what magical items we may have lost. As we have discussed in previous
chapters, Madame Benne was a very controversial figure in her lifetime.  Even at her
death in 1203 A.D., the scope and magnitude of her inventions were far eclipsed by the
scandal of a lone individual creating new magical items outside the royal Fey guilds.
Several generations passed before her genius was recognized.  As a result, some of her advancements were willfully ignored at the end of her life.  The magical mirrors created by Madame Benne herself are still considered to have the best quality and to be the most precious, as no one has successfully recreated her formula.  The "golden apples" that keep the Canon from aging are closely guarded; without Madame Benne’s records, Characters have never successfully duplicated them.  The Glass Mountain, though rumored to have been remodeled by its current occupant, has not revealed half its secrets in the nine and half centuries since Madame Benne crafted it.
         We are not without hope however.  Legend has it that Madame Benne preserved
her knowledge in two items: her spell book—described by her contemporaries as having
a wooden cover, painted gold and marked by her symbol—passed through many hands
after it was stolen from her descendants. It was last seen in the hands of the gnome
magician, Calicaei, in the seventeenth century.  The golden harp, the first of its kind,
invented by Madame Benne for musical pleasure and relied on in later years as an
assistant, was once in the possession of the human Queen of England, Elizabeth I, also a
Character.  It famously passed from through royal and noble Character hands until it
vanished during the French Revolution. If these items can be recovered, Madame Benne's
full legacy can be restored.


Don’t forget to check out the rest of the Ever After Series Blog Tour Stops 

November 3 – Middle Grade Mafioso
November 4 – From the Mixed-Up Files
November 5 – Log Cabin Library
November 6 – Amanda K. Thompson Blog
November 7 – Novels, News, and Notes
November 8 – Green Bean Teen Queen

Shelby Bach was born in Houston, Texas and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina, but while writing THE EVER AFTERS, she moved almost as many times as her main character. She came up with the idea for the series right before she left New York City, and she finished the first book, OF GIANTS AND ICE, in Montana—the second, OF WITCHES AND WIND, back in Charlotte. Driving up the West Coast to research the settings for the third book, OF SORCERY AND SNOW, Shelby fell in love with Portland, Oregon and settled there. She would love to set up a Door Trek system in her apartment to visit her family and friends around the country, but she makes due with much slower and less fictional transportation. These days, while finishing up the fourth and final book, she also works part time for a real-life afterschool program. It is strangely similar to the one where her stories are set—except the students study math instead of fairytales.

            

  

Nickel Bay Nick by Dean Pitchford

Sam has been hanging out by the Nickel Bay railroad station breaking windows, it's not the first time that he has done something that can get him in trouble. Usually, it's things that eighth graders Jaxon or Ivy suggest, like stealing his dad's car to go for a ride. But, it wasn't really stealing cause Sam only borrowed the keys from his dad and Jaxon drove. Sam has his reasons for breaking the windows, when he was three and a half his mom moved away to follow her dream of being a Nashville star, at four he had a heart transplant, and now his dad's bakery isn't doing so well and they fight all the time over his dad's new girlfriend. Yet, the reason Sam's swinging rocks on Christmas is he found a wedding picture of his mom getting remarried. All the noise he is making causes the police to investigate, and Sam is quickly running away. He ends up in his neighbor Mr. Wells yard climbing up a tree trunk, only to be startled by a dog in the window. As Sam falls, he is drags lights, the rain gutters and smashes the decorations on the porch. Mr. Wells now wants Sam to work for him paying off his debt. Initially, it is cleaning up the mess he caused, but Sam soon learns that Mr. Wells has secrets of his own. Mr. Wells has been keeping track of Sam's crimes around the neighborhood and he uses this information as leverage to have him help with a special project. Mr. Wells it turns out is the infamous Nickel Bay Nick, a good Samaritan that gives out money each year in the town, but this year Sam will have to take over that role.

Sam is a very unhappy kid who at first glance comes off very unlikeable. He dines and dashes, helps his friend steal his dad's car and commits vandalism. His attitude down right stinks. Once he meets Mr. Wells, Sam has met his match. Mr. Wells has a file with all of Sam's bad deeds in it, he even knows all about Sam's family life and he isn't afraid to blackmail him to get what he wants. He puts Sam to task to redeem himself. I especially enjoyed the training and missions that Mr. Wells chooses for Sam to complete. The more tasks that Sam completes, the more he understands about giving selflessly to those around him.  He learns that he might have misjudged his father and comes to realize the true meaning of friendship.  Nickel Bay Nick has a very engaging plot, one filled with secrets and mysteries to solve, but also plenty of action and humor.  Pitchford also includes a very nice subplot of who Mr. Wells is and how and why he became Nickel Bay Nick.