Gr 4-6–Fans of the “Guardians of Ga’Hoole” series (Scholastic) and those who ate up Lone Wolf (Scholastic, 2009), the first book in this series, will be eager to learn the fate of mother grizzly bear Thunderheart’s beloved adopted-wolf-son, Faolan, who was born with a d
It seems unfair to 11-year-old Georgie Mason that in Indiana’s summer heat she can’t go swimming or even to the movies for fear of catching polio. It is “simply and horribly unbelievable,” however, that her teenage neighbor Phyllis is living in an iron lung, viewing the world
Gabrielle Schramm is an inquisitive fourteen year-old girl living in 1933 Germany when Hitler comes to power. Gaby’s father is chairman of the Department of Photoastronomy at the University of Berlin, and her mother is a pianist. Her family has a comfortable life in Berlin that includes a nice
During a hot summer in 1952, 11-year-old Georgia Louise Mason’s family moves to a new neighborhood in Indiana. Her brother, Emmett, loves astronomy and basketball and doesn’t mind, but she misses her old friends, though everything has changed since the outbreak of polio. She keeps track
In this thoughtful historical novel, Lasky (the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series) chronicles Hitler's rise to power in 1932 Berlin through the intelligent narration of 13-year-old Gaby. The action proves sluggish initially, though it establishes Gaby as a voracious reader growing up in an intell
During the height of the 1950s polio epidemic, Georgie obsesses about the disease. She knows the symptoms (all three stages); tallies the number of new cases in her hometown; and notes the deaths. Imagine her fascination when her family moves and she discovers that her new teenage neighbor, Phyllis,
Gaby Schramm (b. 1919) is a child of privilege: her father, a professor at the University of Berlin, is Einstein’s good friend; the Schramms’ social circle includes celebrated Jewish newspaper columnist Baba Blumenthal and her highly placed connections. In 1932, political turmoil is lead
Silk & Venom: Searching for a Dangerous Spider by Kathryn Lasky; photos by Christopher G. Knight Intermediate, Middle School Candlewick 64 pp. 2/11 978-0-7636-4222-8 $16.99 After presenting a brief but informative overview of spider fundamentals, Lasky shadows arachn
Gr 6-10–Lasky’s novel, set in Berlin in 1932, opens with an author’s note that provides historical background. Gaby Schramm, 13, is an avid reader of world literature, and annoyed that her math teacher confiscates her books. Her unease grows when brown-shirted SA troops of Hitler&r
ASHES, by Kathryn Lasky (Viking 9780670011575). In 1932 Berlin, blond 13-year-old Gabriella looks like the Aryan purists’ ideal, but her strongly anti-Fascist family is derisively called “white Jews,” and her astrophysicist father is friends with Einstein, whose theory of relativi
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