Two Junior/Children's Novels: The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place and Number the Stars

 You guys know that I like to read children's lit.  I love the straightforwardness of it, the speed of plot development, and the immediacy of any action from the characters.  Children's authors know their audience has a shorter attention span than many of their elder counterparts...

...so what's my excuse?

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling, by Maryrose Wood

Earlier this year, I recalled a series of books that a friend had recommended for my daughter, The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling, by Maryrose Wood.  (What a name!  What a title!)

I must confess, the language the author uses is fairly highbrow for younger readers but, after a short period of acclimation, clever kids can handle it.  Without divulging too much, we begin this first novel of the series (of six books, I believe) with our protagonist, young Miss Penelope Lumley, who has just left her beloved school behind to become the governess to three children at Ashton Place.  Only it seems that these children are not ordinary in the least; they are positively feral.  As Penelope seeks to both teach and understand these "incorrigibles", she begins to discover that it is not only their past that is entirely mysterious, but that Ashton Place itself holds a treasure trove of secrets.

I listened to this novel as an audiobook rather than reading a hard copy.  What a treat!  Upon finishing it, I immediately placed the five subsequent titles in the series under my "To Read" tag on Libby (my preferred library app).  The mystery, humor, colorful language, and premise itself are sure to delight readers (or listeners) of any age.

Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry

Many, many years ago -some time in the late 90s- I read the book Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry.  This 1990 Newbery Award Winner didn't disappoint when I read it then, and it certainly didn't disappoint when I re-read it this past winter.

Lois Lowry masterfully crafts a concise -yet very poignant story- based on the life of a fictional young Danish girl named Annemarie.  Our heroine is growing up in Denmark under Nazi occupation.  The German soldiers situated all around her neighborhood are intimidating, often bullying those they stop to "question", so Annemarie and her sister have been instructed to avoid them as much as possible.  It isn't until Annemarie's Jewish best friend Ellen catches their attention that things get too close to home.

A fictional retelling of the Danish resistance's success in smuggling nearly the entire population of Jewish citizens out of the country to Sweden, Number the Stars is a story that lingers for its veracity.  I don't wish to ruin the ending for you, but the absolute ingenuity of this silent resistance is nothing short of incredible.  A short novel, yes, but one that reminds us that humanity can indeed be found anywhere.

Two great books for the kids in your life, but certainly don't let them have all the fun.

Happy reading!

Dark Water Daughter, by H.M. Long

Fantasy.  Adventure.  Mystery.  Magic.  Pirates.  Swords.  Ethereal creatures.  Cold AF weather.  

This book has it all.

Enter a strange and magical world of ghistings (ghost-like creatures who inhabit mystical forests), stormsingers (women whose voices have the power to conjure and calm storms on the seas), and swashbucklers (come on, you know this one).  

From the dust jacket:

Mary Firth is a Stormsinger: a woman whose voice can still hurricanes and shatter armadas. Faced with servitude to pirate lord Silvanus Lirr, Mary offers her skills to his arch-rival in exchange for protection - and, more importantly, his help sending Lirr to a watery grave. But her new ally has a vendetta of his own, and Mary's dreams are dark and full of ghistings, spectral creatures who inhabit the ancient forests of her homeland and the figureheads of ships.

Y'all, this book is weird.  And I liked it.  Despite some major lulls in the story, author H.M. Long creates an exciting world to lay the foundations for the first novel of The Winter Sea series.  Some of her characters are likable; some of them are deplorable; some of them fall in between; some you think you'll like/hate, but end up hating/liking.  Set on a series of islands in a frigid sea, the fantasy world Long has created recalls images of the northernmost islands of Scotland, Scandinavia, and even a few locations within the Arctic Circle.  It was a great winter read by the fireplace.

As I mentioned, there were a few major lulls in the story.  I finished it in January (roughly three and a half months ago, at the time of this writing) so, while I cannot recall specific dull points in the novel, I do remember finding it rather long in some parts.  Overall, the book did seem to drag more than I personally would have preferred, though I know that some people really get into the world-building thing.  There were also a few annoying tropes (e.g. What is Mary going to do in this precarious situation?  What about THIS one?  Oh yeah?  How about NOW?) that I felt really took away from the story's progression, but it wasn't bad enough for me to put the book down.  It was mostly just an annoyance until the next good part.

So, will I continue the series?  Sure.  It's not a top priority, per se, but I could see myself completing it.  Ultimately, I feel that any subsequent novels in the series would be better audio books for me.  That way, I can at least be doing dishes while I enjoy a good story in my ear.