Could I resist a book about the travels of a beautiful illuminated book? No, I couldn’t.
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks It’s 1996. Hanna Heath is a young Australian book conservator, asked to work on the famous Sarajevo Haggadah. This book, which really exists, tells the story of Passover, and is a very rare example of a Jewish illuminated book. As Hannah takes apart the book to remove its horrid nineteenth century binding and examines all its pages, she finds various artifacts in it – a white hair, a butterfly wing, a red stain, and salt. Hanna’s journey around the world to find out what these things are is interspersed with the stories of how the artifacts came to be there and the people of all three monotheistic religions who cared for the book over the centuries. There’s a reason this book has been a bestseller – it’s got good characters, fascinating settings around the world and through history, and a compelling plot.
Princess Ben by Catherine Gilbert Murdock I loved Murdock’s first book, Dairy Queen, and when all the reviews of this fairy-tale like book were so positive – well, I had to read it. Princess Benevolence is the niece of the childless king, and lives with her father and mother in a cottage outside the castle. She’s shy and plump and uninterested in courtly life and politics. Then the king and her mother are killed and her father disappears, probably at the hand of the neighboring kingdom of Drachensbett, which has always wanted their land. The unlikable and terribly proper Queen Sophia brings Ben to the castle for some forcible princess training, so that she can be married off to someone who will protect their tiny mountain kingdom. When Ben finds a secret room with a magic book, she dozes through her official lessons and stays up late at night to learn magic and raid the pantry. Only after humiliating herself at a grand ball does she realize how serious the threat to her country is – but will she be in time to save it? Ben is a likeable heroine far out of the usual princess mold, even for the growing genre of feminist princess books. The author said in an interview that Ben uses her own strengths rather than traditional male strengths to win the day, also notable. There’s a lot to think about packed into this book, as well as a fabulously surprising plot and Princess Ben herself.
Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon
Easy to Love, Difficult to Discipline: the 7 Basic Skills for Turning Conflict into Cooperation by Becky A. Bailey Real discipline needs to start with the parents, and start with love. Bailey starts by going over seven key “Powers for Self-Control” that are then applied to the seven discipline skills. For example, one of the seven powers is “Attention: What you focus on, you get more of.” Applied to discipline, therefore, you need to focus on how you want your child to behave, not what he or she is doing wrong, and be assertive about it. Although she’s absolutely right that parents need to look at their own behavior first, I found this first section a little condescending, as well as high on the touchy-feely to content ratio. If you’re short on time, read the headlines and bullets in this section and save full reading for the meatier section later on where she dissects typical problems and how to address them. She divides difficulties into adult and child-based problems – areas where your child isn’t doing what you want, versus where you aren’t doing what your child wants. She has helpful advice on effective praise (an area where I’m always looking for help, since so much typical praise, such as “Good boy” and “Good job” has been shown to be counterproductive. ) Very helpful are the fill-in-the blank conversations that occur throughout the book, as well as a good-sized section of anecdotes by problem to help you review. She also provides a seven-week program, where you focus on one or two skills a week and build up. This is a lot of practical and well-researched parenting help. 
Snack Time by the Barenaked Ladies The BNL seem to be following the happy trend of making children’s albums. This is a delightful effort, featuring such songs as the opening Western-style number, “Seven Ate Nine,” with lyrics explaining all the difficulties that we’ll face without the number nine, such as vampires – “without their canines, how will they suck?” Mr. FP has also been heard around the house singing about allergies and the wolves howling at the moon, courtesy of this album. and I are particularly fond of the Silly Alphabet Song, where every letter is represented by a word which starts with the right letter but the wrong sound. “A is for aisle, B is for bdellium/ C is for czar and if you see him, would’ja mind tellin’ him?” points out, for BNL fans, that this album doesn’t have the great jamming sessions of his favorite BNL fans. However, it does have good, catchy tunes good for all ages and lyrics clever enough for older children and adults. I’m afraid it will be a long, long time before Mr. FP will want to listen to anything else in the car.
Hush by Donna Jo Napoli Melkorka has been raised princess of a small kingdom in Ireland. While the priest tries to convince her father to outlaw slavery, she has always looked down on slaves and believed slavery necessary and permanent. Then she and her little sister, Bridget, are kidnapped. They are taken on board a Russian slave ship and soon far beyond anything Melkorka has ever seen. Her mother had told her often that she needed to learn to hush; and, when they were riding off secretly to hopeful safety, not to tell anyone who she is. So Mel hushes, using silence as both sword and shield. This isn’t exactly a beach read, nor, with its stark depiction of slavery and rape, is it for young children. For teens and up, though, it’s a moving story. Mel’s difficult personal journey is balanced with the excitement of exploring the known world of A.D. 900. An author’s note at the end explains that this is her back story for a princess Melkorka who is mentioned briefly in an ancient saga of Iceland.
It’s All Too Much by Peter Walsh
alibrarymama 