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Book Review & Giveaway: Burying the Sun & Angel on the Square

Burying the Sun *Giveaway Closed*
It’s been a while since I did a giveaway, but this month’s giveaway item is a copy of Angel on the Square, book one in Gloria Whelan’s St. Petersburg series. The giveaway is open only to readers in the US. To enter, leave a comment telling us about your favorite WWII book.

All that was long ago, and until that morning I had thought I would have no chance for my own adventures, only day after day of dreary study and work. With talk of war with Germany, the world was suddenly more exciting.

To fourteen year old Georgi, the idea of war with Germany seems exciting. Though too young to join the army and unable to find a way to sneak in anyway, Georgi throws himself into volunteer work, determined to help protect his country. It isn’t until the Germans begin surrounding Leningrad that reality sinks in. Now Georgi concerns himself with protecting his shrinking circle of family and friends. Can Georgi succeed in bringing himself and those he cares about through a brutal winter as he grows into manhood?

I enjoyed re-reading this book in preparation to write this review (I’m actually not quite finished yet). It’s been several years since I read it, and this time through I’ve been really appreciating the amount of research woven into the story. Gloria Whelan draws you into the lives of the people trapped inside Leningrad during the winter of 1941. A unique angle on the events of WWII.

Author: Gloria Whelan
Audience: Middle Grade–Tween
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 205

Don’t forget to comment for your chance to win Angel on the Square! The winner will be announced next Thursday

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Book Review: Number the Stars

Number the Stars

Then he continued. “I’m sending Inge to you today with the children, and she will be bringing you a carton of cigarettes.”

At her grandparents home in Denmark, Annemarie Johansen can look across the water and see Sweden. When the Nazi’s begin deporting Jews, Annemarie’s best friend, Ellen, comes to live with them. But even masquerading as one of the Johansen’s daughters, Ellen is not safe. After Nazi’s invade their home and question Ellen’s parentage, Annemarie’s parents make plans to visit her Uncle Henrik, who fishes the water between Denmark and Sweden. Her father promises to send Uncle Henrik a carton of cigarettes, and Annemarie realizes they’re talking in code. Cartons of cigarettes are Jews, and they’re talking about Ellen.

I can’t remember if we did this book as a family read-a-loud or listened to it on a road trip, but either way, Number the Stars is the first book I remember “reading” about Jews during WWII. While Lois Lowry is probably best known for her dystopian novel, The Giver, Number the Stars still takes first place for me. It’s another great book for learning about about or supplementing a class on WWII. Or just to read for fun. 🙂

Author: Lowis Lowry
Audience: Middle Grade–Tweens
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 137

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Book Review: Snow Treasure

Snow Treasure

“Look!” Michael could not take his eyes off the beach. “Soldiers marching right up our sled track. How’ll we get down?”

In the winter of 1940, Peter Lundstrom and the other members of his Norwegian village watch helplessly as German soldiers invade their homeland. While there is little they can do about the Nazi’s presence, they determine not to surrender everything quite so easily. Instead of waiting for the invaders to steal their large store of gold, they come up with a dangerous plan to sneak it out of the country. A plan that depends on the courage of young Peter and his friends. The school children of the village begin transporting the gold bullion right past the Germans and hiding it for the adults to move onto Uncle Victor’s boat. Can the children succeed in outwitting the Germans and saving the gold?

This story is one of the first books I distinctly remember listening to during one of our road trips. Since that time we’ve listened to it again, and I’ve read the book once or twice on my own. Snow Treasure is believed to be based on a true story, though the tale has never been proven. Whether true or not, the courage and adventures of Peter Lundstrom and his friends are well worth reading. A wonderful living book to add to your library.

Author: Marie McSwigan
Audience: Middle Grade–Tween
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 156

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Book Review: The Abolitionist

Abolitionist, The When I began contemplating the theme for this month I only knew that I wanted it to tie into Independence Day somehow. I finally decided to do a WWII theme, but with an exception. For the next three Friday’s, I’ll be posting reviews on WWII stories, but today I’m doing a story set in the early 19th century because it captures the essence of freedom so well. Happy (belated) 4th of July! Enjoy.

Anna rushed to speak before she was overcome with fear–fear of consequences, of inconveniences she did not want to consider: “I … I cannot allow you to so mistreat a child and a dependent in your care, be he slave or … or free.”

Anna Ashwell is a young English woman entering adulthood in the early 1800s. Born into a family of abolitionists, she is pleased when her older brother and guardian writes to say that Mr. Wilberforce has succeeded in abolishing the slave trade. However, as she enters society, Anna soon finds that slavery and injustice have not ended. Her heart is gripped by the plight of a young slave boy. Yet, in the face of social pressure and scornful peers, Anna finds her convictions wavering. What, after all, can one girl do?

This story is one of those rare historical fictions that speaks just as eloquently to contemporary issues as to those of yesteryear. As I read I found myself encouraged to stand for what is right no matter what society accepts as socially or politically correct. The story itself is delightful. I had never before read a novel about slavery in England and found The Abolitionist to be a wonderful introduction. The book also contains a sweet love story which even the most sensitive of readers should be able to enjoy. I’m looking forward to sharing this book with my friends.

Author: Elisabeth Allen
Audience: Tweens and up
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 329

Which book(s) do you feel embodies the concept of freedom?

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Book Review: Captain Blood

Captain BloodAt the beginning of this book, Peter Blood is sticking to his plan of abandoning his life of adventure and becoming a physician. This resolution is destroyed when he goes to tend the wounds of a rebel and is arrested, subjected to a sham trial and sold into slavery. Thus cast back into a life of action and adventure, Peter leads a band of slaves in escaping, seizes a Spanish boat and becomes a pirate. But despite his new role as a buccaneer, the memory of Arabella Bishop (his ex-master’s niece), causes him to retain his honor. What will happen when, in a chance reunion, his love is spurned by the woman enshrined in his heart?

After friends lent us an old black-and-white film of this story (it was part of the Errol Flynn collection), I was excited to find the book available for free on my kindle. I was even more excited to find that the book and movie matched each other perfectly for quite a long time. After a while, the book began sharing adventures not shown in the movie. The third quarter of the story dragged a bit, but over all the story trotted right a long with the distinct style of an old-fashioned adventure novel. Both style and story bear some resemblance to The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Prisoner of Zenda, yet the tale is unique from both.

Author: Rafael Sabatini
Audience: Young Adult–Adult
Genre: Adventure
Pages: 296

What’s your favorite old-fashioned adventure story?

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Book Review: Supervillain of the Day

Supervillain of the DayEarth is experiencing an outbreak of superviallains, and no superheroes exist to stop them. Only London is mysteriously free of these superhuman monsters, and reporter Jeffrey Floyd intends to find out why. He forms a shaky partnership with Adams, a Scotland Yard police sergeant, and the two combine their skills to hunt for supervillains. What sinister plots are being hatched in the seeming calm? And what is Floyd hiding?

I downloaded this book during a free promotional on Amazon because I wanted to support the writer, who is a homeschooled author. After reading some good reviews I figured I had nothing to lose even though it’s not the type of story I normally enjoy. To my surprise, I did enjoy reading it. In my opinion, Floyd’s character made the story worth reading. He’s dorky and nerdy, yet persistent and heroic at the same time. A quick read, it was perfect for a night when I was tired and ready to relax. It was also good enough that I have paid for the three sequels and I’ll be buying book five when it comes out.

Author: Katie Lynn Daniels
Audience: Tweens to Young Adults
Genre: Science Fiction

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Book Review: Tales of the Heartily Homeschooled

Tales of the Heartily HomeschooledBeing homeschooled keeps life interesting and spending so much time as a family provides the opportunity to make lots of memories. Now multiply that times 8 or 12 kids. In this book, Carolyn Currey and Rachel Starr Thomson, oldest children in large homeschooling families, share the hilarious situations their clans have encountered. From a tipping Christmas tree, to exploding vacuum cleaners, to elf eating hobbits, life in the Currey and Thomson households is never dull.

I purchased this book as a gift for a friend and wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I knew Rachel’s writing from her Seventh World Trilogy, but this kind of book is a completely different concept. It was the little preview I got on my kindle that sold me. I read the stories out loud to my family and we laughed through them. The rest of the book did not disappoint. Every story was well written and almost all of them were laugh-out-loud funny as well as relatable (even if, like me, you’re not part of a large family). I highly recommend this book to read yourself, and to give as a gift (my friend loved it too ;)).

Authors: Carolyn Currey and Rachel Starr Thomson
Audience: All Ages
Genre: Non-Fiction/Humor
Pages: 216

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Book Review: Code Orange

Code OrangeWith the flurry of activities surrounding grandma’s funeral, a lot of my normal activities got sidelined. One of those activities was selecting the theme for book reviews this month. As a result, this month’s theme is “Miscellaneous.” 😛 I’m going to pull out some reviews jotted down in my notebook. Hopefully by next month my schedule will be sorted out enough to come up with a proper theme. Anyone have suggestions for patriotic novels? Now here’s this week’s review.

~*~

Mitty Blake is not at all interested in scholarly pursuits. The mere mention of a term paper on infectious disease is enough to send his brain into lock-down. In a last ditch effort to turn something in, he wanders into his mother’s book room and opens an old medical book. Inside he finds an envelope containing 100 year old smallpox scabs. In the following days, Mitty learns that because he handled the scabs, the smallpox virus could be incubating in his body. Once he becomes infection, he could cause the deaths of people across the country. What should he do?

I have had this book on my mental to-read list ever since hearing the author talk about it several years ago. It did not disappoint. While Mitty’s initial immature choices can be a bit frustrating, he is a likable and ultimately heroic character. Despite his distaste for school he is smart and resourceful. I appreciated his views on self-sacrifice and heroism. For those of you who, like me, prefer to avoid boy/girl stuff, there is a slight subplot in that area, but the farthest it goes is a brief, undescribed kiss on page 83. Definitely a unique and suspenseful story.

Author: Caroline Cooney
Audience: Young Adults
Genre: Suspense
Pages: 200