Phyllis Reynolds Naylor is one of my favorite children's authors, so I decided to read Emily's Fortune, which was published last year. The book features a quiet 8-year-old named Emily Wiggins, who at the beginning of the story finds herself suddenly orphaned when her mother is killed in a carriage accident. Emily's Uncle Victor is her closest blood relation, but she does not want to live with him because she knows he is unkind. Emily's Aunt Hildy offers to become her guardian, so Emily boards a stagecoach to travel to Aunt Hildy's home. It is during this journey that Emily's adventures ensue. Despite its tragic beginning, the book is really very funny. For example, Emily's neighbors are named Mrs. Ready, Mrs. Aim, and Mrs. Fire. Emily's fellow passengers on the stagecoach are a riot. I especially enjoyed Petunia and Marigold's shameless flirting with Uncle Victor, and Jock's tendency to get the names of things wrong.
At 146 pages, with plenty of illustrations and large type, this is a short, easy-to-read story that would be a good one to recommend to middle grade students looking for a quick read for a book report due tomorrow.
A Northern Light, by Jennifer Donnelly, is based on a true story. In an author's note, Donnelly explains:
"On July 12, 1906, the body of a young woman named Grace Brown was pulled from the waters of Big Moose Lake in the Adirondack Mountains. The boat she'd been in had been found capsized and floating in a secluded bay. There was no sign of her companion, a young man who'd rented the boat under the name of Carl Grahm. It was feared that he, too, had drowned. Grace Brown's death appeared to be an accident, and neither the men who dragged the lake nor the staff at the hotel where the couple had registered could have forseen that they would soon be embroiled in one of the most sensational murder trials in New York's history." (p. 381)
Donnelly's book is narrated by Mathilda (Mattie) Gokey, a fictional 16-year-old young woman who lives with her family on their farm near the lake where the real Grace Brown died. When the story begins, Mattie's mother has recently died, and as the eldest girl Mattie is forced to take over much of her mother's household and farm responsibilities. Meanwhile, the family is short on cash because Mattie's father has not been able to leave his children to earn money as a logger, as he used to do when his wife was alive.
Mattie has big dreams, though, that do not include staying on the farm. She is a writer and has been accepted to Barnard College in New York City. When the story begins, Mattie is busy making breakfast for her family, but she is also trying to find the courage to ask her father about going to college the following fall. She needs to earn money, so she also wants his permission to take a summer job at one of the local hotels -- the same hotel where Grace Brown and Carl Grahm were staying.
OK, I'm really having fun now! Here is another video booktalk. This one is about The Adventures of Nanny Piggins, by R. A. Spratt.
Here is a link to my original review from January 2011.
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