Posted by Sarah
Categories: Fiction, Review, Younger Readers
Tags:Good Read Aloud, Marguerite De Angeli, Out of Print
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Lydia, a girl in an Amish family, wants to go to Lancaster with her father like her older brother and sister. She can go as soon as her hooked rug is finished, but after a certain disaster I won’t mention so it isn’t spoiled, Lydia feels her chances are ruined for a long time.
This is a fairly short book with a fairly simple plot with fairly interesting speech. In regard to the latter, the Amish speak a mixture of German and English. I suppose this book might be hard to read aloud with their kind of talk, but I think it might make a good read aloud otherwise. Henner’s Lydia might be aimed for children younger than I am, but it’s alright. Not one of my favorites, though. If you’re looking for a simple, somewhat educational book to relax with, this book might be for you!
Posted by Becca
Categories: Adventure, All Ages, Fiction, Review
Tags:Animals, Dogs, Funny, Jack Stoneley, Out of Print, Sad
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A mixed breed puppy is born in an abandoned house. Its mother had been left, tied to the house, for a neighbor to pick up when her owners moved away. But she chewed her rope and ran back into the house before the neighbor could get there. The puppy ends up as the only surviver of her litter. The house is eventually set on fire to get it out of the way of a building company. After escaping through the chimney, the mother dog and her puppy are found on the roof and rescued by a worker. The man takes the two dogs home for his wife to care for. She immediately falls in love with them and persuades her husband to keep them. But the mother dog has other plans. She is determined to find her way back to her previous owners. On the way back to the old house, she gets lost and ends up getting shot by some shepherds. The puppy is now alone in the world. Throughout the rest of the story, she earns the name “Scruffy,” joins up with a pack of dogs, and unwittingly helps to wreck a car.
This is a great book about a dog who started out as a stray and ended up famous. I’ve read it multiple times and it still remains on my favorite list. The pack of dogs get into many adventures, including blowing up a traffic sign, “guarding” a lady, and rescuing a boot—thought to be a puppy by a deaf collie—from getting run over. The last part of the story is true. Jack Stoneley actually wrote the articles that are talked about in the book. “Scruffy” was originally titled “The Tuesday Dog.”
Posted by Becca
Categories: Fiction, Picture Books, Review, Younger Readers
Tags:Clyde Robert Bulla, Easy Read, Good Read Aloud, Out of Print, Quick Read
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Torr, a young boy, has been abandoned at a miller’s house because his mother can no longer care for him. The miller and his wife adopt the him readily, thinking that Torr will be useful around the mill later in his life. One night, however, the miller and his wife wake up to the sound of Torr singing outside. After being reprimanded for singing in the middle of the night, and maybe waking up the entire village, Torr goes out into the woods to sing. His fame as a singer spreads and he ends up at the queen’s palace. But he cannot sing in her presence, so he is sent back to the village. Torr is driven out of the village, too, and forced to wander.
This is a rather nice story, as Clyde Robert Bulla’s usually are. It’s a little longer than some picture books, but it’s still short. I enjoyed this story very much.
Posted by Becca
Categories: All Ages, Fiction, Review
Tags:Animals, Dogs, Geese, Good Read Aloud, Horses, Jim Kjelgaard, Mules, Out of Print, Quick Read
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To start with, this book is made up of three unrelated short stories. The first, A Dog Remembers is about a large, friendly dog named Brad that comes to town one day with his master. The townspeople joke about Brad, saying that the dog is a lion. When Brad’s master is killed by another dog, Brad gets the blame. After all, he’s a big dog. Throughout the story, Brad tries to avoid the other dog and later on tries to find another master.
The second story is called The Black Horse. Jed Hale, lured by his employer’s reward of five hundred dollars, sets out to capture a wild black horse. This is no easy task. The horse is a said to be a killer and Jed has been crippled since childhood. Jed finally trails the horse to a ravine that is blocked on one side by an impassable swamp. The horse gets scared by a landslide and jumps into the swamp. Jed, not willing to leave the horse, must rescue it all by himself.
The last story The Lake and the Lonely Exiles is (surprise, surprise) about another dog. This dog lives on a farm and is quite happy. Then the farmer goes away on vacation, leaving the farm to a caretaker. The dog, who looks like a wolf, is blamed for killing sheep. Rather than kill the dog, the caretaker does what he thinks is the easy way out and dumps the dog on a lonely road. The dog ends up near a lake and adopts an injured goose as a companion.
I can’t decide which story I like the most. There are only two animal characters that have names. In the first story there’s Brad and in the third there is a mule named Adolph Hitler. I don’t believe that there is any bad language in any of these stories. This is a short book, but it is also very enjoyable.
Posted by Jordan
Categories: All Ages, Fiction, Older Readers, Review
Tags:Animals, Bears, Cats, Dogs, Donkeys, Elephants, Frogs, Funny, Good Read Aloud, Mark Twain, Out of Print
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This book is collection of several short stories by Mark Twain. The highlights include the title story, about a man who bets on a frog jumping race; and The Bad Little Boy, a cynical tale of a boy who is very bad, and yet has the best of luck.
If you like your humor a bit on the cynical side (I do), this one is for you. Otherwise, you’ll probably dislike these five stories. The link to Amazon is a different book, with several more stories in it. I don’t know what they are, but it was the only one I could find.
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