A Wrinkle in Time: Madeleine L'Engle

This is the story of Margaret Murry (called Meg) and her younger brother Charles Wallace Murry, and their friend, Calvin. Calvin just shows up one day, out of the blue. Calvin is two years older than Meg, and Charles Wallace is much younger than either of them, but the three children become friends almost immediately.

As the story opens, Meg is very unhappy because she is having trouble in school; she is acting out in classes and is mad at everyone. The real problem is that her father has been missing for over a year, and no one will tell her why, not even her mother. Meg's mother doesn't know where her husband is, and she is trying to hold the family together. Charles Wallace is too young to go to school, and people think that he is mentally slow, and he lets them think that so they will leave him alone.   

My thoughts:

The author just jumps into the story and lets the characters tell the story without excessive exposition. That worked well for me. Meg is the point of view character but she does not narrate the story. I loved all three of the main characters, once I got to know them. They had flaws; we all have flaws, even as adults. But they learned from their experiences.

I did not know what to expect from this book. Before I read it, I assumed that it was a fantasy and a time travel book. After reading it, I think it is science fantasy and I did not get any sense of time travel in it. There were a few times when I had difficulty suspending disbelief. Regardless, none of that impacted my enjoyment of the story. Once I got into the book, I was focused most on the characters and character development.

This book is very short, under 200 pages. By the time I was 40 or 50 pages in, I was totally caught up in the story and did not want to stop reading. That, and the fact that I cared about the characters, even when I did not exactly understand what was going on, were my favorite parts.

This is the first book in the Time Quintet; I have a very nice edition of the second book, so I will be reading it sometime.

The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street: Karina Yan Glaser

The Vanderbeekers live in Harlem, in an apartment that takes up two floors of an old brownstone. There are five Vanderbeeker children; the youngest child is almost five and the oldest two girls are twins, 12 years old. Mr. and Mrs. Vanderbeeker struggle to make ends meet.

Eleven days before the end of the year, the Vanderbeekers are notified that the lease on their apartment will not be renewed; they have to be out by the end of the year. Thus packing and looking for a new place has to be done at the same time as Christmas preparations and celebrations. There is no explanation from their landlord, Mr. Beiderman, as to why they have to leave, although they have had a strained relationship with him for years. When the children learn that they have to move, they are all very upset. They love their neighborhood and their home. The children come up with a plan to convince Mr. Beiderman to let them stay.

I decided to read this book after seeing Cath's review at Read-warbler last December. It is a middle grade children's book set at Christmas, and a very lovely read. I was mainly attracted to the setting; it did not hurt that the family lived in two floors of a brownstone building. And that the book had illustrations, including a map of the neighborhood. 

I loved the characterizations of the children especially; in a family of five children, each had a distinct personality. The ages were 4 and three quarters, 7, 9, and 12 year old twins. My favorite character was Oliver: the middle child, the only boy, and the avid reader in the family.

This is the first in a series of seven books about the family. I don't know how realistic this is or if that matters for children's fiction, but I was caught up in the story and was emotionally invested in the ending, so it worked well for me.

This is a great read for Christmastime. And, because the book is aimed at children, it was a fast and easy read, even at over 300 pages.

 -----------------------------

Publisher:  Clarion Books, 2018 (orig. pub. 2017)
Length:      311 pages
Format:      Trade paper
Series:       The Vanderbeekers #1
Setting:      Harlem, New York City, New York.
Genre:       Children's book
Source:      Purchased in 2023.

Short Story Wednesday: The Ghost of Opalina by Peggy Bacon

This was another book I read for the R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril event. The Ghost of Opalina is a children's fantasy, made up of a series of linked stories that Opalina, the ghost cat, tells to the children of the house that she has lived in for all of her nine lives. None of these stories are scary, and Opalina never behaves maliciously. She does protect those she cares about.

The book begins with a family, Mr. and Mrs. Finley and their three children, moving to a house in the country with lots of land, gardens, barns and such. They arrive in the summer, and the children have all their days free to explore. Their parents have set up a play room for them in a section of the house that has no electricity. One evening they stay in the room until after dusk, and when it gets dark in the room they see a glowing form in an old stuffed chair in the room. This is Opalina, a beautiful white cat, who announces to them that she is a ghost and can only be seen at night. They beg her to tell them about the various families that have lived in the house since she was there.

The unique aspect of this children's book is that the stories give the reader a picture of the house and the way people lived over two centuries, from 1750 up to 1966, the year the Finley family moved in. The first story is First Life, 1750: "The Mice, the Mouser and the Mean Young Man." The last story is Ninth Life, 1966: "Trick or Treat." The book was published in 1967. Most of the stories are from 20 to 40 pages in length.

This was a fun and entertaining read, although certainly aimed at children. I see it as a perfect book for reading aloud to children of any age. I was particularly drawn to the book because it is illustrated by the author. And a book featuring a cat is always of interest. 

Many reviewers at Goodreads mention that they loved this book as a child and were thrilled to find an affordable copy. For many years this book was only available for high prices online.

I first heard of this book at Staircase Wit. Constance's post also has more information about the author and illustrator, Peggy Bacon.

Children's Books with a Christmas Theme

When my son was young, we bought quite a few illustrated children's books. We used the library a lot too, naturally. We had access to a used book store and a lovely woman who worked there would look out for great illustrated kid's books for us. And we ended up with a collection of illustrated children's books for all age levels.

The Church Mice series of picture books by Graham Oakley were a big favorite. These books are about a group of church mice, led by Arthur and Humphrey, and Sampson, the church cat. The first book came out in 1972. The books are picture books, with very detailed illustrations, but they have quite a bit of text also. I would say we have them all, but I think several have come out since 1990.

The Church Mice at Christmas features the church mice raffling off Sampson the cat to raise money to have a Christmas party. The stories are always very complex and this one is no exception. Goodreads describes each book in the series as "a picture book for young children" but really they are so much more and appeal to adults also.

At Graham Oakley's website, see this page with illustrations from the book. Oakley writes and illustrates the books.



Next are the Father Christmas books by Raymond Briggs.  We always thought of these as children's books and my son enjoyed them, but I read many comments online that they present too negative a picture of Father Christmas for kids.

Raymond Briggs is a well-known British illustrator and graphic novelist. Among other awards, he received two Kate Greenaway Medals for distinguished illustration.






Per the article on Raymond Briggs at Wikipedia:

Father Christmas (1973) and its sequel Father Christmas Goes on Holiday (1975) both feature a curmudgeonly Father Christmas who complains incessantly about the "blooming snow". For the former, he won his second Greenaway. Much later they were jointly adapted as a film entitled Father Christmas.

The second book is not truly a Christmas book, as it is about what Father Christmas does when he takes a break. He goes to France, Scotland, and Las Vegas. The story is more complex.






The last book I am featuring is one purchased for myself, fairly recently, just because I really like the author, Daniel Pinkwater. Pinkwater is the author of one of my favorite children's books ever, The Wuggie Norple Story.

Daniel Pinkwater is a very prolific writer of children's and young adult books, so I don't know what is typical for him. A lot of his books are funny and quirky.

This Christmas book, however, is a sweet story about a family of wolves who venture close to a small town at Christmas. The book is illustrated by his wife, Jill Pinkwater.

An excerpt from the book:

   We didn't see any humans. They were inside the wooden things with the light shining out through the holes, and the glittering lights on the outsides and the smoke coming out and the snow on top.
   We didn't see the humans, but we could hear them. They were singing. We listened. It was nice. I thought, even if they are dangerous, they are animals, just like we are. Then we threw back our heads and sitting on the hillside above the place where the humans live, we wolves sang, too.