Iggie's House by Judy Blume

We don’t read a lot of Judy Blume around our house. I think I’m detecting a world-view that makes me cozy with that.

But first, this story. I think it may be, content-wise, one of her best. It takes place in a typical, white suburb right around the time of the Civil-Rights movement. The main character, Winnie, is dismayed her best friend, Iggie, just moved away. Many of her neighbors are dismayed that Iggie’s parents sold their house to a Negro family.

This tale is well-told from the perspective of Winnie, a well-intentioned, but naïve young girl. She befriends the new family, but finds that they are not entirely friendly to her crusading nature. The characters are portrayed realistically, and the story is both believable and engaging.

My first flag drop has to do with Winnie’s perspective on people and family life. For example, “Most kids Winnie knew couldn’t stand their brothers and sisters.”
(Yikes. Maybe I live an alternate universe, but most kids I know do like their siblings, even if they fight.)
Winnie and her new friends both casually disobey their parents in order to eavesdrop (and another time when they want to go swimming without parental consent). When they discuss what they overheard their parents saying, it is done dismissively with comments like: “Why can’t they (the parents) be honest?” There is no respect for the fact their parents wish to protect them. The children have the moral high ground in the race relations issue but Winnie loses the high ground in terms of respect for her parents and toward another adult who exhibits racism.

I found these points to be teaching tools. Pointing these examples out to my kids helped them to read critically. You could leave it at that except….

There is a scene in which Winnie and the 3 children from the new black family are in a tree with binoculars, looking around the neighborhood. Winnie is giving the scoop on the neighbors, and she points out Mrs. Axel, who sunbathes wearing only a towel and phone. I suppose the towel keeps this from an x-rating, but it’s extremely tacky, esp. as she’s pointing this out to 2 boys.

You may not be disappointed if you kept it a read-aloud and skipped that nugget entirely.

SAFETY RATING: 1 Flag

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Chasing the Falconers by Gordon Korman

Fugitives run away from justice. The Falconers run toward it. They are a most unusual pair of fugitives. In addition to being only 15 (Aiden) and 11 years old (Meg), they have never been accused of a crime. They are on the run to avoid being stuck back in juvenile prison, a place where they were kept by the government for their own safety. It was the only place the government could think to keep them where they could change their names and be hidden away from the media circus and notoriety that came from being the children of convicted traitors.

A fire at the juvenile detention center allows them an escape, and they decide to take it and no longer be “helped” by the government but to help their parents by staying out of the system and finding evidence to free their mom and dad.

Their parents were sentenced to life in a Federal prison for helping terrorist cells who used the profiling developed by these two college professors to escape justice themselves. The Falconers, though, were actually recruited by the CIA to work on these profiles that subsequently fell into terrorist hands. Their conviction for treason would never have happened if only the CIA agent who recruited them stepped forward. Strangely, he has disappeared.

Aiden remembers a picture that he took as a kid of this CIA agent: known as “Uncle Frank.” He hid it away in an old treasure box, and they head out to find it, avoid the authorities, all the while being chased by an assassin.

In this Book One of a series, it ends with the first clue being found, the assassin temporarily foiled, and the Falconer children still on the run…

A fun summertime read. The mention of the crimes committed by fellow detainees at the juvenile prison, (manslaughter, grand theft, arson), some bullying, and a punch thrown are minor. (The manslaughter charge is even later explained in the book as an act of self-defense.) The Falconers steal in order to survive but not without great compunction; they have no options as fugitives…

If only there were not the 2 casual uses of Go-, I would have given this a 3 Flag rating...

Rating: 2 Vatican Flags

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Gone-Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright

“My soul, the things children know these days----“ Aunt Hilda sighs in the book.

She’s referring to the fact that her nephew, Davey, knows all about the speed of the earth’s rotation in relation to how it affects the release of a rocket that needs to be set off straight up, according to the rotation and the place the moon will be 4 days from blast-off.

Sigh. I just love these pre-1960’s books. They are as wholesome as a morning’s walk on a deserted beach.

Elizabeth Enright has written a sweet book about a set of cousins who spend the summers together. The two older cousins wander out through the woods one day and discover a collection of big, formerly beautiful homes all deserted and run-down on the edges of a swamp. They discover two quirky old inhabitants of two of the homes: a brother and sister who’ve fallen on hard times and come back to live in these old summer homes. When they were children, they spent the summers here where the swamp used to be a lake. It was a magical time of busy homes, warm summer nights, and long summer vacations.

For cousins Portia and Julian, it’s an exciting place to explore, build a club, and eventually include the rest of the family in.

The only discordant notes in the book are the author’s penchant for referring to the old woman and the old homes as witchy. Also, the book that the children spot on the shelf and think worth of exploration is titled, “Mme. Vavasour’s Gypsy-Witch Fortune Teller.” And to truly upset the modern mentality, the old woman tells a story of how when she was a child, another woman who came to the lake would pick up 2 kittens from a barn-cat litter at the beginning of every summer. She’d care for them all summer long, and then she’d chloroform (euthanize) them at summer’s end. This launched a rescue plan by the children who would then rescue and find homes for the kittens before the end of subsequent summers.

I don’t think it would be an exciting read for reluctant readers, but it’s a good book overall.

Catechism of the Catholic Church:
Fortune telling: 2116

Safety Rating: 2 Vatican Flags

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Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

This is a tween book set in a fairy-tale setting. It is about the most clever re-telling of Cinderella (Ella) I can imagine. And I wish I had because this book is marvelous. Having this author's imagination and story-telling creativity would be a grand gift.

Alas, while I didn't write it, I can highly recommend you read it aloud with your tweens. It spans the tween years with its spunky heroine who doesn't appear, thank goodness, to have qualms about marriage or children or the need to negotiate any equality issues before marriage. She loves her prince, her country, and is willing to sacrifice her own happiness for their sakes.

Ella is cursed by a fairy godmother with the "gift" of obedience, and struggles with this all her life. She has to find a way to conquer it if she is to marry the love of her life.

This book far surpasses the movie. It's a delight.

Rating: 3 Vatican Flags

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