Entries Categorized as 'Review'

Snow Dog

Our rating: ****

Link Stevens is a trapper in the Gander mountains. He comes to his small cabin every year with his five dogs. This year, his new dog Queen runs away to have her puppies. However, she and all but one puppy are killed by a ferocious black wolf. The one surviving puppy stays in the wilderness and grows up wild. Meanwhile, Link wonders what happened to his dog. Not until a year later does he find the puppy and name him Chiri. But Link wonders if Chiri will stay with him, or go back to the wild.

Hmm, what do you think? Snow Dog is quite predictable, but the story is exciting. Kjelgaard makes up for being predictable with a breathless, can’t-put-the-book-down-for-the-suspense type of ending. The sequel, Wild Trek, is better, but you’ll understand it more if you read Snow Dog first.

On the Banks of Plum Creek

Our rating: ****

The Ingalls family has moved from Kansas to Minnesota. They live in a house of sod until Pa builds a beautiful wooden house. Unfortunately, the money put into the materials for the house is completely dependent upon their growing wheat crop. When a cloud of millions of huge grasshoppers land, the crops are eaten and destroyed in a matter of days.

The Little House books are a very enjoyable series, and they make good read-alouds. It’s amazing to see how people lived during that time period. On the Banks of Plum Creek always stood out from the others in my mind as a child, and I especially remembered the part when Laura goes wading in the deep mud in the creek, and comes out with leeches (or bloodsuckers) all over her legs. (Yuck!)

The Story of Helen Keller

Our rating: *****

Since two years old, Helen Keller had been blind and deaf. She could not speak, either. Her mother and father have tried several places, but it seems impossible that she will ever be let out of her unhearing, unseeing, and unspeaking world. Finally, Perkins Institution for the Blind sent a young woman — Miss Anne Sullivan. Will Miss Sullivan be able to help Helen? With discipline, love, trials, and break-throughs, this is the story of Helen Keller.

I like this book a lot. There are a few parts that may be startling or sad to some of you, but I don’t think I had much trouble at all the second time through. I’m not sure if I was upset or sad at those parts the first time I read it, because that was a long time ago. Helen Keller wrote an autobiography called The Story of My Life. I haven’t read it, but I think we own it. Well, The Story of Helen Keller is a great book! The summary may not sound very interesting, but please read this book! Lorena A. Hickok does a good job. Tired of me talking about how good this book is? Then please read it!

A Nose for Trouble

Our rating: *****

Tom Rainse has just returned to Tanner’s Mountain, and things are much different from when he left. New game laws limit how much hunting you can do, and poachers are everywhere. Threatened by a poacher named The Black Elk, Tom becomes a game warden. Along with Smoky, the bloodhound his friend Bill Tolliver gave him, Tom must track down The Black Elk and stop the poaching once and for all.

Here’s a thriller with something for everybody. The mystery has several twists and turns, the ending is unexpected, and the characters are great. For those of you who won’t read A Nose for Trouble unless I say so, this book is far from being about the dog! It’s very much about the people in the mountains, and their choices to obey or disobey the new hunting laws. Sadly, this book is out of print, but your local library may have it.

Little Men

Our rating: ****½

When Jo inherits Plumfield from her gruff Aunt March, she and her husband, Professor Bhaer, set up a school for young boys. The following story is about the various adventures at Plumfield concerning the orphaned Nat, wild Dan, mischievous Tommy, and many others.

As the sequel to Little Women, this book certainly lives up to its expectations. A great book. Plumfield is a happy home where pillow-fighting and banister-sliding is allowed, but when it comes to matters of the heart, genuine love is to be found in all.