Keep Going By Keeping Together

It was a frequent topic of conversation.  When it was not being directly referenced, our way of life mirrored the past experience.  We used everything.  Very little was discarded.  Somethings were made from nothings. We had a huge vegetable garden.  Food was preserved.  If you left a room after dark, you turned off the light.  Water was never left running, ever.  Purchases were made with cash or not made at all.

The lessons learned during The Great Depression after the Stock Market Crash by my mother, then nine-years-old, and my father, at ten-years-old, carried forth into their adult lives. You don't forget those circumstances, but truthfully, I never heard either of them complain about those lean years.  In a tender tribute based upon the childhood of her grandmother, Home In The Woods (Nancy Paulsen Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, October 1, 2019) written and illustrated by Eliza Wheeler allows readers to see the strength and worth of familial love and ingenuity.  Season by season the impossible becomes probable.

This is my family.
Marv (8)
Rich (10)
Ray (14)
Mum (34)
Bea (12)
Dal (2)
Eva (3 mo.)
Lowell (4)
This is me.
Marvel (6)

Marvel's family has lost a father and a husband and their home.  It's summer.  They find a dilapidated, one-room shack in the woods.  There is a nearby outhouse.  Their mother reasons they might find glad surprises inside this barely standing house.  Inside is a table, a couple of empty wooden crates, an oven, potbelly stove, and some box springs. Amazingly enough two of the siblings locate a trap door.  It leads to a cellar with shelves filled with glass jars, a pail, a stack of cloth rags and a hand pump that works, giving them fresh clean water.

As the children and their mother work to clean and ready the shack for living, two other siblings make another discovery.  The dirt on the forest floor after years of falling leaves is dark and fertile; perfect for gardening.  To the children the woods reveal animal pathways, a creek brimming with trout, and lush berry patches.

Autumn signals the need for other tasks.  Words are written on paper slips and siblings complete the assigned work stated on the slips they select randomly.  For money their mother walks into town to assist other families with their household jobs.  The root cellar shelves are slowly filled with the fruits (and vegetables) of their labors.  Only able to afford essentials during visits to town, the siblings, now home, invent their own game of buying whatever they want.

Like the woods outside their home, winter brings indoor activities except for Ray and Marv who daily hunt in the snow and cold.  Success makes for a lively celebratory feast.  A mother watches outside a window deep into the chilly night as her children lay nestled next to her.

The first fresh breaths of spring announce new hope.  Homemade goods are exchanged for milk and eggs at a nearby farm.  Wildflowers and returning birds decorate the woods with color and song.  As Marvel looks at the shack, she marvels at the changes the seasons can bring on the outside and on the inside of her.


The voice of six-year-old Marvel reveals truth in short, poignant thoughts and sentences.  Three different voices are heard when Eliza Wheeler includes dialogue four times.  It raises the authenticity of those moments.  During each of the seasons, we are aware of all the activities inside and outside the home through beautifully described events, simple but eloquent. It's as if we are members of this family.  Here is a passage.

Bea huddles in the lamp's glow.
Mum teaches her that scraps,
put together,
make colored patchwork.

I huddle by the warm stove.
Rich teaches me that letters,
put together, make words . . .
and words, put together, 
make stories.


As you look at the front of the dust jacket, you find yourself drawn into the scene by the delicate details and natural framing of the woods.  Although the family is engaged in chores, there is a sense of peace and accomplishment, too.  The tree trunk you see on the left, continues on the other side of the spine.  When you open the jacket, the continuation is flawless.  The foreground remains darker and brighter and the background fades to near white as your eyes move left.  This space provides an opportunity to talk about this book and Eliza Wheeler's Miss Maple's Seeds.  The title text is slightly raised and varnished.

Beneath the jacket, the book case gives us another view of the shack.  It is winter.  Marv and Ray are walking away from their home to go hunting, their footprints leaving a path in the snow.  We are standing farther back from the clearing as a panoramic view spreads out across both the back and the front of the case.  You get a very real sense of the stillness, cold and probably the crunch of footsteps in the snow.

On the opening and closing endpapers, in soft shades of green, Eliza Wheeler, artist, has created a bird's eye view of the shack and surrounding woods.  Important places and points of interest are labeled.  Many of these spaces are visited by the children and their mother in Marvel's story.

Rendered in

dip pens, India ink, watercolor, acrylics, and pastel pencils

all the illustrations, in intricate, fine lines and superb use of light and shadow, portray people and places in which readers, regardless of the time period, can identify.  Many of the images are full-page pictures, double-page pictures, visuals crossing the gutter to fashion a column for text or another picture or small illustrations grouped on a single page.  In addition to the narrative text, Eliza Wheeler adds explanatory short captions.  The facial expressions viewed are those of people you wish to know.  In a word, every page turn discloses, exquisiteness.

One of my many, many favorite illustrations spans two pages.  It is probably very late at night or early in the morning during a bitter winter.  On the left we are inside the shack.  The children are stretched out from their mother, Mum, who leans against the window holding the youngest child.  All eight are under a quilt.  We can see the faces of five children.  The other two have their heads at the other end of the bed.  All we see are their feet covered in socks.  Light from the stars and moon shine on the mother's upturned face. Eliza Wheeler cleverly takes the wall on the inside of the shack and turns it into the outside wall as it crosses the gutter.  Drifts of snow sparkle under the stars among the trees in the woods.  Here is the final sentence in the passage for this picture.

But Mum stays awake
into the night . . .

. . . whispering
to
the 
stars.


This book is filled with hope and potential.  For all who read Home In The Woods written and illustrated by Eliza Wheeler you can see how resilience leads to success, and how hope guided by love leads the way.  The potential found here is for a multitude of discussions with readers.  On the final page in an Author's Note Eliza Wheeler speaks about the inspiration for this book, her grandmother, Marvel.  Today four of the children are still alive including Marvel.  Eliza Wheeler also invites readers to talk about their family stories.  I highly recommend this book for your professional and personal book collections.

To learn more about Eliza Wheeler and her other work, please visit her website by following the link attached to her name.  There are multiple resources related to this book.  Eliza Wheeler has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter.  At the publisher's website you can view the title page.  I know you will love reading this article in the Southwest Journal about the journey to write this book.  I did.  I might have been a bit teary, too, at the end.

UPDATE:  On December 10, 2019 Eliza Wheeler visited PictureBookBuilders to chat about this book.  It's a wonderful post with loads of information.

UPDATE:  Eliza Wheeler uploaded two videos about this book.  I believe you will enjoy them.

Deserted In The Desert

If you've ever been lost it's not a very good feeling.  Your surroundings, if you happen to be in the woods, start to look the same no matter which way you turn.  You have a hard time finding something familiar.  If you are traveling by car, fortunately with advancements in technology, you can usually find your way back on track.  Even with a road atlas, the highways and streets will eventually make sense.  You can discover your mistake.

As a child being separated from an adult, even if it started as a hide-and-seek game, can become terrifying.  The sense of detachment is overwhelming.  In Jen White's debut novel, Survival Strategies Of The Almost Brave (Farrar Straus Giroux, June 9, 2015) two sisters are deliberately left alone at a gas station somewhere in the southwest.

Survival Strategy#1:
FAKE IT

FAKE IT.
That's definitely number one in my notebook.  All people do it.  Faking it could save your life.

Twelve-year-old Liberty and her eight-year-old sister, Billie, have come out from the restroom at a gas station to find the camper truck and their father missing.  A truly horrifying incident earlier in the morning has both girls on edge.  There are parts of them hoping their dad will return but knowing he probably won't.

Three months earlier their mom was struck by a car after leaving the hospital having completed her last shift.  Their mom's best friend and boss, Julie, is taking care of the girls when she happens to find their dad's address among their mom's things.  It has been six years since they have seen him.  Believing it would be best for the sisters to be with a parent, Julie leaves them in the care of their well- known photographer dad.  They have been traveling around the southwest from one picturesque place to another.

Using skills like animals acquired from watching endless hours of Hunter and Hunted and faithfully written in her notebook, Liberty determines the creepy gas station attendant and the newly arrived cowboy-looking man are not to be trusted.  She and Billie run for their lives.  After nearly being discovered outside, they hide in the backseat of a car loaded with clothing hanging from a bar.  At least for now they are leaving the gas station in safety.

Every chapter is more gripping than the previous chapter.  Bits and pieces of the time with their mom and the months with their dad are woven into their struggles to get home, to secure stability.  A harrowing night spent outside a hotel coupled with an equally frantic episode in the morning has them on the run again.

People, places and incidents, several angry guests, a waitress, a boy obsessed with Star Wars, a hidden tunnel in a hedge, a bullying brother, a tattoo-covered truck driver, a woman with a horde of unusual pets, a failed escape, injuries and lack of water, one at a time stack against the two girls like a handful of cards in a losing game.  Every attempt to communicate with Julie is met with silence.  In the heartbreaking final chapters, a place brings everything into focus for Liberty.  All the shattered fragments form to fill her heart with certainty and hope.


When finishing this book for the first time one word rang like a bell in my mind, intense.  There are many skillful means employed by Jen White to create this acute sense of needing to turn the pages.  Each chapter is a numbered survival strategy.  The titles, Beware of "Skip To My Lou", Panic Is Not Your Friend, Hide or Beware of Sharks, give us a hint as to what we might experience in each one.  We are privy to Liberty's thought process for every decision she makes to keep her and Billie safe.  The addition of dialogue between Billie and Liberty and the girls and the other people heightens the tension.

Fairly early we know something has happened causing the girls to be in this predicament.  Through flashbacks about their mother and father, White builds the action to a point where the event is revealed but it is not until nearly the end.  Instead of giving specific names to her cast of characters Liberty gives them descriptive names, Shiny Head, Lavender Lady or Spoon Guy.  This is a realistic approach as the girls have no idea who anyone truly is.  It creates an atmosphere of being alone.  Here are a few sample passages from the book.

After living in a camper for the past two months, San Diego felt light-years away.  Like we had slipped through a crack in the atmosphere and dipped ourselves into this strange summer, sticky with newness.  And still after everything, we were alone.  Just the two of us roasting in clay on this quiet, dusty road.

Not even for a second did I believe that.  Maybe it was the way his voice crept up my spine and stayed there.  Pebbles and stones cut into my hands and knees.  Before I came here, I though desert sand was like beach sand, but it wasn't.  It's hard and dry and rocky.  Nothing at all like the beach.  Dry brush scratched my face, and my dirty T-shirt blended in perfectly with the weeds that were as high as my body.  Camouflaged.


Survival Strategies Of The Almost Brave written by Jen White is an outstanding middle grade novel.  It is a gripping portrait of sisters trying to cope with grief, navigate a precarious relationship with an unstable parent and outlast the circumstances in which they find themselves.  I predict this book will rarely be on the shelves, passed from reader to reader.

To learn more about Jen White, the story behind this story and more, please visit her website by following the link attached to her name.  At the publisher's website you can read the first chapter.  Here is a seventeen page Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards Aligned Presentation Packet for an author visit.  It's a fantastic teacher's guide.  Here is a link to a reader's guide with discussion questions.  Teacher librarian extraordinaire, John Schumacher, hosted Jen White on his blog, Watch. Connect. Read.

Homonyms, Rules, Numbers and One Dog

Sometimes you are so taken with what you are reading hours pass by without you even moving a single inch.  The characters' story has become intertwined with every breath you take.  When the final page is read you know this is one of those books, rich and rare, which needs to be shared.

Yesterday morning I finished such a book. As I was thinking about it during the day, this tweet appeared in my feed.

Lifetime readers are created one book at a time.
— Kylene Beers (@KyleneBeers) October 19, 2014

 I am certain this book will create a lifetime reader.

I
The First Part
Who I Am---
A Girl Named
Rose (Rows)
I am Rose Howard and my first name has a homonym.
To be accurate, it has a homophone, which is a word that's pronounced the same as another word but spelled differently.  My homophone name is Rows.

This is how Ann M. Martin, Newbery Honor winning author of A Corner of the Universe, begins her newly released title, Rain Reign (Feiwel and Friends).  Continuing in this first chapter Rose introduces us to her fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Kushel, her aide, Mrs. Leibler, her father, Wesley Howard, and her Uncle, Weldon Howard.  Rose has been diagnosed with high-functioning autism, Asperger's syndrome.  Her best friend is her dog, Rain.

Rose has a passion for collecting homonyms, following rules and using numbers to define people, places, events and help her cope with stress.  Her father works as a mechanic at the shop near their home and is a frequent patron of the local pub, The Luck of the Irish.  One evening on his way home from The Luck of the Irish, he finds a dog with no identification, giving it to Rose as a gift.  It was raining that night, so Rose named her Rain.  The two of them know Wesley Howard's moods, having learned to navigate around them with care.

Due to several misunderstandings with the bus driver, Rose needs to be driven to and picked up from Hartford Elementary School.  Her Uncle, who works for a construction company doing their computer work, has an arrangement so he can do this for Rose.  Apparent in their conversations and time spent together on the weekends is his compassion for Rose.

Even the daily occurrences in the classroom, Rose's take on the days with the adults and students, pale in comparison to what happens when Hurricane Susan moves up the eastern coast and heads inland to Hartford, New York.  During the storm toward morning, Rose's dad lets Rain outside without her wearing her collar.  Rain is missing when Rose wakes up.

The devastation left in the wake of the hurricane, the lost homes, the lack of electricity and use of phones, the flooding and destruction to vegetation (trees) and the roads, will take weeks to restore any sense of normal.  For Rose, a life without Rain seems like no life at all.  She methodically devises a plan.  With the help of Uncle Weldon good and not so good things happen.  Rose, her dad and uncle need to make some decisions; life-changing choices affecting the lives of each of them.


Having Rose tell this story in her own words, orderly with precision, is a wonderful technique employed by Ann M. Martin.  It allows readers to experience Rose's world as closely as we can giving us insights into autism.  It also explores the reactions of people to Rose as she perceives them.

 Divided into four sections, The First Part, The Part About the Hurricane, The Next Part and The Hard Part, with forty-nine succinct chapters we are able to easily connect to the rhythm of life in Hartford, New York. By including the homonyms in parentheses and the number values assigned to Rose's thought processes as well as her need for rules and routine, we have a clear image of Rose Howard in our minds.  Rose's descriptions of the characters now and her knowledge of their pasts, give us a greater understanding of their actions.  We don't like how Rose is treated but we can see how events and choices made could lead to the circumstances in which she lives.

Here are some sample passages from the book.

When Rain and I are at home alone together, we sit inside or on the front porch and Rain puts one (won) of her front feet (feat) in (inn) my lap.  I rub her toes (tows), and she gazes into my blue (blew) eyes with her eyes, which are the color of a chocolate bar.  After a while, she starts to fall asleep.  Her brown eyes squint shut until they're completely closed.  At bedtime she crawls under the covers with me.  If I wake up during the night, I find that Rain has smashed her body against mine and rested her head across my neck.

Her head is resting on her front paws (pause), but her eyes are alert.
"Bye," I say to my uncle, and because I like him, I lean back inside the truck before I close the door, and I look directly into his eyes.  "Thank you for the ride," I say clearly.
Uncle Weldon smiles at me. "You're welcome.  I'll see you tomorrow." Finger crosses, heart touches.
My uncle waves to my father through the windshield and turns the truck around.
"You're not at work," I say to my father.
"Nope, not at work. Very observant."
This might (mite) be (bee) sarcasm, which is like mockery.

Rain is not there.  I call her name again.  Then I step onto the porch in my bare feet.  I stand at the top of the steps and call, "Rain! Rain! Rain! Rain!" into the gray morning.
The only sound I hear is dripping.
I begin to breathe very fast.
I think this is a sign of panic.
"Two, three, five, seven, eleven," I say. "Two, three, five, seven, eleven."


Just like life Rain Reign written by Ann M. Martin is heartbreaking and heartwarming.  Once you start this, you won't be able to put it down.  Readers will feel complete empathy for Rose Howard and her beautiful soul.  This book is a must read and should find a place on every bookshelf.

Ann M. Martin dedicates this book

In memory of sweet Sadie,
March 11, 1998-October 7, 2013

Sadie was her beloved dog.  In an author's note at the end she explains the inspiration for this book as well as the assistance she received.  If you follow the link embedded in the title, the publisher has created a special page for this book with excerpts and a discussion guide.  Publisher's Weekly provides Q & A with Ann M. Martin in an informative post.  Readers also might be interested in this article from ELLE magazine, Writing About Autism and Remembering 'The Babysitter's Club': A Q & A With Ann M. Martin.

Update November 21, 2014 Macmillan has released a discussion guide for this title.

Ghostly Guides And Gifts

Many a time growing up I waited with my mother for my father to arrive.  He would have been called away from his job in a small town near our small town.  My mother needed his key.  We had been locked out of our house or our car.  This unwelcome ability has to be genetic.

I've lost count of the number of times I have had to jimmy a window, crawling through tiny openings and dropping down unsafe distances, card doorways and become best friends with the local locksmith.  Locks and keys are my downfall.  My new best friends are deadbolt keypad locks.  Never are keys as important as when they are lost or fail to work properly.

The word key, besides its obvious function, can be defined as instrumental or pivotal in a variety of situations; the legend on a map, the way to recognize or categorize items, or decode a language or series of symbols.  In Edith Cohn's debut novel, Spirit's Key (Farrar Straus Giroux), the value of household keys is crucial to the survival of many.  There is more to unlock in this story than doors though; superstition, magic and mystery wrap themselves around Bald Island like natural elements.

When I get home from school, every cabinet in the kitchen has been thrown open.  There's a mess in the living room, too.

Twelve-year-old Spirit Holden's father has been going through the stacks of boxes, floor to ceiling, in every room of their home.  He believes in being overly-prepared for every possible situation which may or may not occur on their island.  His gift, being able to see someone's future by holding the key to their house, has lately been in need of assistance or what he calls, mumbo jumbo.  A neighbor is due to arrive soon and he decides to use candles to create the appropriate atmosphere.

On this day many thoughts swirl around in Spirit's mind, her father's waning talent, the late arrival of her own abilities (generations of Holden's have been able to predict the future) and the absence of her dog, Sky.  It's been fourteen days since Sky's death and the sorrow weighs heavily on her heart.  Six years ago, when she and her father came to the island, Sky, an island dog, a baldie, was found ill beneath their house.  After nursing him back to health, none of the islanders accepted him or understood, as Spirit did, his gentle nature.  Island legends told for centuries named the wild dogs as evil spirits.

Now another baldie has been found dead near their neighbor's home, away from the forest where they normally live.  Even stranger is the unexplained illness of the man who found the dead baldie.  As more people become sick and additional baldies are found dead, Spirit feels compelled to discover the truth before decisions based upon superstition and lack of knowledge endanger the entire population.  She will not be alone in her search; Sky is back.


Edith Cohn certainly knows how to create a page-turner.  The descriptions of the physical setting reflect her childhood adventures on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  Unexplained packages and notes, the uncanny appearance of a bald eagle plus the power of Sky's grave site introduce marvelous moments of magic. Quirky characters with unusual names, whose thoughts, conversations and actions captivate, create a unique, memorable narrative.  Some you will love, others you will grow to understand and a few are the kinds to be avoided.

Cohn propels the storyline forward with multiple (thirty) short chapters.  Each ends with a moment which carries into the next seamlessly.  This is why many, if not most, readers will find themselves reading this in a single sitting, even if it means staying up far into the early hours of the morning.  Here are some sample passages taken from the book.

Dad takes a sip of coffee, then picks up Mr. Selnick's key again.  He closes his eyes and begins to rock.  Back and forth.  Back and forth.  Then he shakes like he's cold, shivering until he jumps up and drops the key on the table like it burned him.
"There's danger ahead."
"Dag-nab-it! I knew that baldie paws up in my yard was an omen." Mr. Selnick shakes his finger at the air.  "I told my wife: The devil's after us."
"Get Jolie and the kids.  Pack your bags."
"What?" Mr. Selnick looks dumbfounded.
Dad walks to the door.  "You have to leave the island."  He stares hard at Mr. Selnick. "Tonight."

" 'Course, child.  Don't you believe in miracles?"
I dreamed Sky came back from the dead.  It seemed like a miracle.  "I believe in dreams."
"Wonderful! A dream and a miracle are sisters-practically twins. ..."


As I read through Spirit's Key written by Edith Cohn, like a desert survivor finally finding a cool drink of water, I could not help but think how many guys and gals are going to love this book.  It has heart-stopping action, suspense, and just enough fantasy.  The pacing is pure perfection.  The relationships between family members and neighbors provide individual food for thought and the opportunity for great discussions in the classroom, book groups and for families using this as a daily read aloud.  I advise you to give it a place on your professional and personal bookshelves.  Oh...and you might want to have more than one copy on hand.

To discover more about Edith Cohn and the writing of this book please follow the link embedded in her name.  There is so much to read on her website and blog.  This link to the publisher's website provides you the first chapter to read.  Here is a link to the Let's Get Busy podcast hosted by Matthew C. Winner, elementary teacher librarian, where he chats with Edith Cohn about this book.