Thomas, Shelley Moore. The Seven Tales of Trinket.

Thomas, Shelley Moore.  The Seven Tales of Trinket.  Farrar Strauss see Macmillan Children's Publishing Group.                  369p      $16.99   978-0-374-36745-9         2012    elem/ms                E-BN                         Fairy tale                                

Eleven-year-old Trinket sets out to find her missing father after the death of her mother.  Following a tattered map that once belonged to her storyteller father, she sets out with Thomas, the neighboring pig boy.  Through her adventures, Trinket gathers stories to eventually follow her father’s profession.
She meets a fortunetelling gypsy girl, rescues a baby from selkies and returns it to its mother, faces a banshee to receive a message from her mother, outsmarts the Faerie Queen, travels beyond the grave on Hallowe’en, and saves a loyal hound from death.  But her seventh tale answers her question about her father and why he did not return to the family.
 

The stories rely heavily upon Celtic folklore, as the author explains in the author’s note.  These tales gathered by Trinket provide a bridge between fiction and story-collection titles.  They also provide an alternative to typical fairy tales.

Middle grade and middle-school students will enjoy this title (grades 4-8).  

Storytelling                                                                                                                                                                --Joan Theal

 

Thomas, Erin. Haze.

Thomas, Erin.     Haze. Orca  175p  $9.95 978-1-4598-0070-0       ms/hs Series: Orca Sports     Good  Realistic Fiction

When Jeremy is injured the day after telling Bram about a death caused by hazing, Bram turns sleuth in an attempt to solve the mystery.      With its fast-moving plot and its easy-to-read format, Haze is a good choice for a student who wants to escape for a while.  It is set in a private school in Connecticut, where the rich can hide crimes with the snap of a finger, this story offers an interesting mystery to solve. 

Who killed Marcus Tam, or was it a tragic death caused by careless underage drinking?  At the gym one evening after swim practice, "wannabe" swimmer Bram hears an unbelievable story involving hazing at an initiation party for the members of the school’s swim team, as well as a possible cover-up.  Was the swim coach somehow involved in the hazing incident?  The day after Jeremy reveals his thoughts to Bram, he is hit by a car in a brutal hit and run!  Bram does not want to believe the coach is involved, but Jeremy’s sister Abby, who happens to be Bram’s former girlfriend, is convinced that he was somehow responsible for her brother’s accident.  Swimmers Steven and Nate try to intimidate Bram into backing off from investigating, and when this doesn’t work, they step up their game. 

This is an interesting premise, but unfortunately, there are gaps that are difficult to reconcile and characters’ roles that are underdeveloped.  For example, the reader might wonder how a 9th-grade student could figure out that the weights in a weight room could hide evidence that would help Bram figure out who was responsible for Tam’s death, but that is exactly what happens.  From that point on, there are a lot of unbelievable developments that might lead young readers to say, "Yeah, sure".  Nevertheless, the ending is dramatic, and the reader will be entertained.

There is a small grammatical error on page 71.  "He raised a hand to Droid and I..." should be "He raised a hand to Droid and me..."  "Me" is the object of the preposition "to".    

Mystery, Murder-Fiction, Swimming-Fiction       --Martha Squaresky

Thomas, Peggy. For The Birds: Life of Rory Tory Peterson.

Thomas, Peggy.    For The Birds: Life of Rory Tory Peterson.      Boyd's Mills/Calkins Creek    40p   $16.95  978-1-59078-764-9  elm/ms           E-BN Biography   

The text in this exceptional biography of naturalist Roger Tory Peterson is sparse and well written, but it is the illustrations that make the book so outstanding.    They are extremely lifelike, vibrant, and in keeping with Peterson’s paintings.  Telling the life story of naturalist and bird identification guide creator Roger Tory Peterson, Peggy Thomas instills an immediacy and entices children to learn more.  Peterson's quirks as a child lead to his successes as an adult.  This volume explains how he became interested in observing wildlife, especially birds, and the ways he used his experiences to change the way identification guides were written.

But what really makes this volume exceptional are the illustrations.  Laura Jacques’ paintings are so lifelike and vibrant that they almost appear to be photographs.  Her paintings and drawings of birds mimic those of Peterson and almost fly off the page.

Put the illustrations and the text together, and what you have is a beautiful, memorable biography with a clear and resounding environmental message.  This is a must-have for all grades.              -- Joan Theal