Shelly's Book Blog

No Castles Here was A.C.E. Bauer's first novel, and I liked it even better than Come Fall. No Castles Here features 11-year-old Augie Boretski, a boy who is small for his age and not much of a reader. He lives with his mother in a run-down neighborhood of Camden, New Jersey, and seems to spend quite a bit of his time dodging Dwaine, who delights in bullying him. One day Augie takes refuge in a shop, only to discover that it is a bookstore. He finds a book that has a changing picture on the front cover. The stories in the book are the source of magic in this otherwise realistic tale, and I love how they interweave themselves into Augie's world.

Come Fall, by A.C.E. Bauer, is the first I've read by this author, and I have already checked out another of her books (No Castles Here) to read. Come Fall combines contemporary realistic fiction, set in a middle school and complete with complex, interesting characters, with the magical world of Oberon and Titania, king and queen of Faery, from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The fairies sub-plot is handled with a light touch, and kids who are not familiar witih Shakespeare's play will not suffer for their ignorance.

The main character is 7th grade orphan Salman Page (named after famous, or infamous, depending on your point of view) author Salman Rushdie. He is the new kid in school, and 8th grader Lu Zimmer is assigned to be his designated buddy. The third main character, Blos Pease, is a social outcast, probably a result of his asperger's-like traits. These three kids form a rather unusual threesome at school and eventually become friends, even though that outcome seems very unlikely at the beginning of the story. I believe this book would fall into the "magical realism" genre, and I find that I like it very much. 

Sphinx's Queen is the sequel to Sphinx's Princess, and it continues the story of Nefertiti and her quest to live her life on her own terms. I think Friesner may end up giving Rick Riordan a run for his money, as her books certainly appeal to the same audience (OK, more girls than boys, I suppose). In these two books, she smoothly blends information about ancient Egypt into a narrative with plenty of action and likeable characters. The ending is, perhaps, not quite credible, but it was certainly the feel-good solution I was hoping for!

Finally, I finished The Cricket in Times Square, by George Selden, this morning. This is another I have chosen for my summer book club. It is a cute story about a cricket named Chester and his friends, a mouse (Tucker) and a cat (Harry). They live at a newsstand at New York's Times Square subway station. The family who own and run the stand are the Bellinis -- Mama, Papa, and Mario. It is Mario who takes in Chester as a pet, after finding him lost and alone near the newsstand. The story is sweet and I enjoyed reading about these animals' adventures. I especially enjoyed hearing about Chester's extraordinary musical ability. There is one thing about this story that concerns me, though, and that is the two Chinese men from whom Mario buys a cage for Chester.  These two absolutely reek of stereotype.  The book was written in 1960, so I suppose the use of this kind of stock character may not have raised as many eyebrows as it does today. I don't think Selden intented any negative comment on these characters. They are kind to Mario, selling him the cricket cage for next to nothing and feeding him a sumptuous meal. Perhaps this will be a good topic for discussion at the book club.