Is My Dog a Wolf? : How Your Pet Compares to Its Wild Cousin

By Jenni Bidner

(2010) ISBN 9781579907327

For anyone who has a number of basic questions about the canine member of the family, this book is a valuable treasure.  The information that this volume provides includes answers to questions commonly heard as well as to questions about Fido’s behavior we lived with without realizing we had them.  And while some questions while in themselves are not exciting, they do have answers that are surprising and interesting.

Readers of various ages, and certainly readers of the tween age, will enjoy this great little book very much and gain a great deal from it.  Inasmuch as oftentimes tweens are stepping into higher levels of responsibility in their family groups, including the greater degree of care that they have of family pets, it would be a greatly aid to take a look at this work.

Oh, yes, this book is recommended and certainly for anyone who wants to find out the answer to the title question.   

Sally Ride, First American Woman in Space

By Carole Ann Camp

(1997) ISBN 0894908294

Being a biography of Sally Ride, this book provides the reader with more than enough information about this individual in order to arrive at an easy understanding how she chose her lifework and prepared for it.  It is important to keep in mind that this volume is much more than a book about one individual.  There is also an enormous amount of valuable information provided about the space program in general.

This work is quite detailed for a relatively short work but done in such a manner that the interest of the reader is always well maintained. The respect shown towards the privacy of the subject is noted and the writer is to be highly commended for this consideration towards Ms. Ride.  In a biographic work, when the individual is still living, it seems the better practice to withhold some unnecessary details.  This book follows this guideline quite well.  Even with all the information contained, this is a book that is easy to follow and will be a big help to young researchers including tween readers and scholars.

Meet Thomas Jefferson

By Marvin Barrett

(1967) ISBN 0375812113

This is a well rounded picture of a person very important to anyone researching the history of our country,  Since tweens often times do study this area of history, this book can prove to be a highly tool for them in their research endeavors. This book starts off with a good clear and interesting recounting of the family background of Thomas Jefferson.

Life was definitely not one of glamour and endless socializing.  The father of Jefferson was a farmer, with land to his name it is true, but a farmer nevertheless and he passed away when Jefferson was only fourteen years of age.  Jefferson then had many responsibilities handed to him which he carried out well and continued his education and he involved himself at a very young age in the political side of life. This behavior was risky inasmuch as by doing so Jefferson and his friends incurred the wrath of the King of England.  Jefferson, in becoming the author of the Declaration of Independence, ran the real danger of the English army sending soldiers for him.  When this actually occurred Jefferson did manage to escape them.  When the war ended, Jefferson continued involving himself in the life of politics and he eventually became the Third President of the United States.

This book places an emphasis on the fact, often alluded in the majority of works on Jefferson, that Jefferson was a strong opponent of the existence of slavery.  This is an issue that this book’s readers, most especially its tween readers, may like to research further.  The illustrations are very helpful to the reader in presenting good clues to the life of Jefferson and his world.

On My Honor

By Marion Dane Bauer

(1955, 1986) ISBN 0899194397

One can only hope that young readers, especially tweens, will take time to glance through this book and then proceed to travel through the pages of this interesting tale.  The subject is a serious one and the lesson learned while achieved is valuable for both the book’s characters as well as for readers who will learn it in this second hand fashion.  What is learned with this reading may actually serve as a lifesaver in the future.

After promising his father, on his honor, to refrain from risky behavior Joel proceeds to fall under the influence of a risk taker and tragedy strikes.  This aspect of the story is of course heartbreaking but its telling can be invaluable for young readers of this story and readers will see Joel going through the grieving process.  Joel starts out making much use of rationalization to a great extent as he tries initially to cope with the consequences of his life choices.  However when Joel does decide to reach out, although in anger, and by blaming another person, does resolution begin to be reached.  This story also demonstrates clearly the great value of one’s family in coping with the pain of loss.

The Newbery Honor (1955) award was well deserved.

And Then There Were None

By Agatha Christie

(1939) ISBN 0312330871

This is one of the most intriguing of the books that have the fortune to be included in the mystery genre.  Written by one of the major masters of mystery books, this tale has been presented on the stage and on the screen.  The most satisfying means of enjoying this story however is in the reading of it.

Reading the recounting of how ten people invited to an island by an unknown host are then killed one by one, by person or persons unknown, and with each upcoming death, all the remaining guests, by now fully unwilling guests, the level of terror climbs higher and higher.  It does not seem to matter what means the guests take to protect themselves.  They can’t seem to hide or to protect themselves and forming alliances with one another is totally out the question inasmuch as no one can conjure up sufficient trust of one another.  This book truly presents the ultimate in pleasurable reading for hardcore mystery genre aficionados.

What makes this particular mystery so perfect is that at the end, it is almost impossible to guess the identity of the person responsible for the deaths.  It is clearly established that there are no survivors and even the police detectives are baffled.  Christie however is not that heartless and there is an explanation that makes perfect once the reader is led to it in a postscript.

Tweens can especially have a wonderful time reading this well written murder classic and in the process will have the opportunity to learn a great deal about human motivations that are quite complex.

Little House in the Big Woods

By Laura Ingalls Wilder

(1932. 1994) ISBN 0064400018

On this return visit, decades after the first reading, the reader is just as charmed by Laura Ingalls and her family and their world as happened in the first visit.  Memories of specific incidents may have faded but the warmth of the Ingalls family circle has maintained itself over time and this reading after years of absence has been even more pleasurable by this revisit.  While one can realize that this recounting of American pioneer days is somewhat romanticized, this shortcoming is a minor detail swept along to the side due to the overall strengths of the writing by Ingalls.  The details about just how a family survived on the American frontier that Ingalls includes are just the right amount of information and never lead one to boredom.  The illustrations are quite welcome in getting a better understanding of the times of Laura and her family.  The modern reader is aided quite a bit by these illustrations of a historical time.

During this delightful re-reading of this book, one of the things that struck this reader for the first time was the sense of humor that Ingalls employs in her storytelling.  This has added further to the appreciation of this author’s work by this returning visitor to her childhood memories.  As a child the humorous aspect of Ingalls’ writing was not recognized in anywhere near the same degree.  Perhaps today’s readers, especially tween readers, may also undergo the same experience if as they progress in their lifetimes they also decide to pay a return visit to the Ingalls family.  With so much wealth to bestow on their readers may the Ingalls and their loved ones continue to thrive!

The Spell of the Sorcerer’s Skull

By John Bellairs

(1984) ISBN 0803701225

In the midst of a February fun get away, Johnny Dixon and his companion, Professor Roderick Childermass, find themselves stranded when the professor’s vehicle loses a battle with the snow.  Their only choice is to take shelter in the closest inn and that chance decision will color their lives for the next few months and lead to a life or death situation.

The first thing that happens when the travelers settle down for a quiet night is that they learn the innkeeper has in his possession a clock with the name Childermass engraved on it.  Johnny and the professor accept the offer to take a look at this timepiece.  As they view this clock, the professor states that the dollhouse portion of the clock is a replicate of the Childermass parlor and that the figure in this dollhouse parlor represents an uncle who died mysteriously within the actual family parlor of the family home in Vermont.  There is an accidental touching of a skull that is the contained within the clock’s parlor.  This incident leads in a short time to Johnny having to reach out for help from others when the professor turns up missing, nowhere to be found.

With the help of several friends, Johnny succeeds in finally locating the professor but not before several scary moments which include encounters with witches and warlocks.  Johnny finds he must not leave much to chance.  Not to be overlooked is the diligent library research work in which Johnny and his friends engage in during their search for the actual location of the missing professor.