On Story Bent

"When Bartholomew, Remember, and Mary Allerton and their parents first step down from the Mayflower after sixty days at sea, they never dream that life in the New World will be so hard. Many in their Plymouth Colony won't make it through the winter, and the colony's first harvest is possible only with the help of two friends, Samoset and Squanto. Richly detailed paintings show how the pilgrims lived after landing at Plymouth, through the dark winter and into the busy days of spring, summer, and fall. Culminating with the excitement of the original Thanksgiving feast, Three Young Pilgrims  makes history come alive." (from the back cover) If I had to choose one book about the pilgrims, this would be it. Absolute top favorite. I loved it as a child and I love it now. (And yes, my daughter enjoyed it too.) Beautifully illustrated and told perfectly, the author touches on all the salient points -- the voyage, the hunger and sickness, the loss even children had to face, and...

 "When Pa decided at the last moment to set out for California to claim his share of the fabled gold, Minnie just knew she couldn't bear being left behind in quiet old St. Joe with her spinster Aunt Addie. The trail west was a trail of bones, she'd heard, but regardless, one bright sunshiny morning Minnie Weldon took leave of her pretty blue and white bedroom with its Rob Peter quilt and starched curtains and stowed away behind the flour barrel in the big covered wagon.  "Minnie took a gamble, a rash one at that, and Pa nearly turned back when she finally climbed out of the wagon. But it also won Minnie a whole new life in the vast freedom of the prairies, the arduous crossing of the Rockies, and at last the descent into the wild hurly-burly of San Francisco at the height of the Gold Rush. There, for a time, Minnie had to survive by her wits alone and in the process of doing so amassed her own crock of gold." (from the dust jacket) I distinctly remember reading T...

I'm SO excited about these!! Ok, so this is a little departure from my normal model, but I'm about to loan these out and wanted to write this up while I still had them. So far I did the in-depth page by page skim for tone and content thing, but they were definitely so good that some day I'd like to read them personally and write up proper individual reviews. They're lighthearted -- actually very well written -- entertaining action mysteries. Relevant, but historically respectful (I'm a big stickler on that, especially when it comes to the ancient world where they had such different thought paradigms etc), not corny, and definitely not stuffy. They're FUN! :)  It's challenging to find good Egyptian historical fiction period, so this is just a win win win and you can understand my excitement. Really hoping my little history class will enjoy them!  So far there are four in the series: 1) Mystery of the Egyptian Scroll 2) Mystery of the Egyptian Amulet 3) Zet an...