Library & Literary Miscellany

Rhett Butler’s Peopleby Donald McCaig (2007)

Rhett Butler’s People, the fully authorized prequel/sequel, to Gone with the Wind gives us the story from Rhett Butler’s perspective. McCaig invents the backstory that shapes Rhett–the family black sheep and Southern “almost-but-not-quite” gentleman. Readers get the inside look at how and why Rhett starts, stops, and starts giving a damn. The story also provides justifications for the details that mar Rhett’s character in the original (for example, Rhett’s purported illegitimate son, his arrest for killing a black man, his Klan involvement).

Rhett Butler’s People narrates not just the story of Rhett and Scarlet but also the stories of others whose lives are connected with Rhett’s life. His beloved sister Rosemary, his illegitimate son in New Orleans Tazewell Watling, his free black friend Tunis Bonneau, his schoolmate turned rogue and war hero Andrew Ravanel, and others get expanded space to tell their own stories in McCaig’s novel.

Rhett Butler’s People also covers a wider time frame than Gone With the Wind. We are privy to Rhett’s childhood on a rice plantation before the war begins, his experiences as a blockade runner and soldier during the war, and his life in the Reconstruction Era after the war. All this leads up to choices that he and Scarlett are faced with regarding helping to reconstruct not only their beloved South and also with whether or not to bother reconstructing their relationship.

Overall, reading Rhett Butler’s People provides an entertaining and informative look into the Civil War Era, although, compared with Gone with the Wind, it does give short shrift to the Rhett and Scarlett saga. Still, those who enjoy US historical fiction may find it well worth taking a second look at a long ago damned love story with its added look into the war.

For other modern works that have taken alternative looks at old classics try March by Geraldine Brooks (Little Women) and Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (Jane Eyre). For another alternative look at Gone with the Wind, try The Wind Done Gone by Alice Randall.

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Death Note, Volume 1by Tsugumi Ohba (Author) and Takeshi Obata (Illustrator)

In Death Note, light and dark become confused. Bored-out-of-his-mind Japanese teenager Light Yagami loses his apathy upon picking up the Death Note notebook. The Death Note was dropped into the human world by the equally bored shinigami death god named Ryuk. Ryuk wanted to see what a human would do with the power of the Death Note–the power being the ability to kill any human whose name is written within its pages (see Volume 1 itself for a complete list of rules and regulations for how this is done).

With the power wielded through the Death Note, Light decides to take justice into his own hands and rid the world of evil criminal-by-criminal. As Light sees it, he is “ridding the world of evil and creating a utopia…” over which he will rule. Light has little remorse for those he kills, and he continues to increase his death toll. It’s not long before the authorities become suspicious about the mysterious increase in deaths among the criminal ilk, and Light’s movement of the world toward purported utopia becomes increasingly nefarious as he goes to great lengths to avoid being identified and captured.

The tension rises further still when the authorities hire the renowned-for-his-deeds, anonymous-by-appearance detective “L” to catch the killer of criminals. Light and L begin a battle with each as the other’s nemesis. Each one plans, observes, and re-evaluates next steps based on the actions of the other. Neither one wants to be identified first as being identified would have disastrous repercussions for both of them.

Death Note is a dark and horrifying tale with a main character named Light but lacking itself much light and hope. As for the graphic part of the graphic novel, Ryuk the shinigami’s wide and threatening black mouth and sharp teeth cause chills to run down the spine. Light’s detached, methodical murdering is equally chilling. If the first volume is any indication, themes of the series are going to be morality versus immorality, justice versus injustice, utopia versus dystopia, hero versus monster, good versus evil, courage versus cowardice, and life versus death. Light is an anti-hero that readers will hold their breath for as they wait for him to be caught and then feel conflicted emotions if and when he is.

Death Note is part of the Shonen Jump Advance line, and the series is given a T+ rating (meaning for older teens). For readers who enjoy manga and ethics questions, this may be a series to point them to.

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Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo by Obert Skye (2005)

As fate would have it, I picked up and read Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo, the first in the Leven Thumps series. Foo is “the fantastic realm that allows mankind to hope, imagine and dream,” and it is in peril due to the plans of the evil Sabine. Sabine seeks the Gateway to Foo. When he finds it, he intends to use it to merge Foo and reality and, in so doing, to destroy them both.

Fortunately, for the inhabitants of Foo and reality, Leven Thumps is alive and well in Oklahoma. All his life fourteen-year-old Leven has always considered himself to be pretty ordinary, aside from the white streak in his hair. One day, however, he discovers his power to manipulate fate in quite an electrifying manner. Since Leven’s Grandfather was the one who created the Gateway, Leven is the only one with the power to destroy the Gateway and to save Foo.

Unfortunately, Leven has not had a great deal (okay, any) affirmation thus far in his life and a great deal of Sabine’s power lies in his Shadows. Sabine’s Shadows have the ability to fill people’s minds with discouragement and self-doubt, and they are hell-bent on getting Leven to believe that he is powerless to help save Foo.

As with many fine fantasy quests, the reluctant hero needs some urging, encouraging, and assistance from faithful companions. Joining Leven are Winter, another child with a special gift and past connections to Foo; Clover, a sycophant with a bottomless pocket of mutant candy and a penchant for inserting English idioms where they don’t quite fit; and Geth, a powerful Foo royal turned minuscule earth toothpick who trusts Fate to bring the four of them together and to help them succeed in their quest (and to change him back out of toothpick form).

Skye’s protagonists complete their quest with little violence and lots of friendship, wit, and adventure. Plus, there’s the promise of more of the same to come. As such, Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo is likely to attract many fantasy fans, particularly those who like the underdog turned boy-hero type stories.

Indeed, Leven’s story breathes life into the boy-hero saves an otherworld quest. Foo is a reality whose existence is essential for human dreams and imagination, and its literary existence sparks consideration of and augments appreciation of dreaming and imagination. In reality, our dreams do sometimes get beaten down so often that they begin to die, but Obert Skye and Leven Thumps suggest that we need to keep believing and not give up on our dreams so as to keep them alive and well and with a chance for coming true.

And if you want to explore more about Foo before or after reading the book, visit the Leven Thumps Website. And if you still can’t get enough of Leven Thumps, then as fate (and the publishing industry) would have it, more of Leven’s adventures have been published Leven Thumps and the Whispered Secret (2006) and Leven Thumps and the Eyes of the Want (2007) with the promise of others on the way soon (Leven Thumps and the Wrath of Ezra (September 2008).

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Adam Canfield of the Slash by Michael Winerip

Adam Canfield likes to stay involved–he’s involved in sports, music (the baritone), sundry clubs and quiz bowls, the voluntary/mandatory class to prepare state exams (in which he learns critical skills such as sharpening number 2 pencils). Even though Adam is already quite possibly the most programmed kid ever to walk the halls of Harris Elementary/Middle School, he has agreed to yet another commitment. He has agreed to be co-editor of the Harris paper, the Slash (it doesn’t take much coaxing considering that he has a bit of a crush on the other editor, his friend Jennifer).

The Slash has a reputation as a quality school newspaper to uphold, and Adam and Jennifer work hard to print interesting, relevant, and candid articles for and about their community. To accomplish this, they include articles covering everything from an exposé on a seedy law banning “accessory structures” (which includes basketball hoops), to a missing wooden cow reward offer, to a dental smiling contest, to a feature on the school janitor, to a mysterious gift to the school left by a benefactor for “general improvements”.

While all of these articles contribute to the plot, it is the latter story that ends up driving much of the novel’s action and discourse regarding truth, journalistic ethics, local corruption, and the prevarications of the mass media. Adam explains some hard truths of journalism to a young protegé who admires his work: “It’s not your job to write what Phyllis wants…Our job as reporters is to tell the truth as we see it. It has to be backed by facts, but that’s what good newspapers do. That’s why people read newspapers. They trust reporters to be honest about what they see…you are the public’s eyes and ears…” Phyllis and a few of the other adults in the book would have the Slash full of lies. Even as Adam and Jennifer face adult wrath and potential expulsion, they make difficult decisions about truth and compromise.

Winerip does attempt to balance the number of treacherous, nasty adults with the number of truthful, helpful adults. For every Mrs. Marris of his story he includes a Mr. Brooks. Mrs. Marris, the principal, charges them to always be sure to print stories that help “propel the Good Ship Harris forward” and not the kind that “poke holes in our bow, so to speak–bad stories, unhelpful stories, negative stories.”As Adam begins to despair in the face of so much treachery and obfuscation of the truth, his Latin-spouting, World Domination game creating, history teacher Mr. Brooks tells him, “…history certainly teaches us that treachery lurks around every corner. And yet, against all odds, despite every form of human stupidity, we Homo Sapiens are still here.”

While many (nor most, I hope) middle school editors will not be faced with the daunting task of exposing their principals avarice, all editors face decisions about what facts belong in the story and what can be omitted without sacrificing its truth. Adam Canfield of the Slash champions truth. Along the way, Winerip also satirizes the overprogrammed lives of many young people today and the prescribed nature of standardized testing.

For those who are involved in their own school papers or for those who like stories about principled young kids who stand up to and overcome adult deceit, then Adam Canfield of the Slash is a solid choice. Also, for those who like Winerip’s first book, more of Adam’s adventures with the Slash are now available in Adam Canfield, Watch Your Back! (Adam Canfield of the Slash)(2007).

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The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander (2004)

“My name is Mikhail Semyonov. I live in Lake Forest village, Illinois state, the United States of America. I am ninety-four years old. I was born in Russia before the revolution. I was born in Tula province and my name then was not Mikhail or even Misha, as I am known here in America. No, my real name–the one given to me at birth–was Leonid Sednyov, and I was known as Leonka. Please forgive my years of lies, but now I tell you the truth.”

So begins Misha’s recounting of the real story of his emigration from Russia to the United States. Robert Alexander’s The Kitchen Boy unfolds Misha’s story by degrees–at times moving painstakingly slowly and at times rushing towards its inevitable, tragic conclusion of the assassination of the Romanov royals by the Bolsheviks.

After decades of silence, Misha tape records his story of the events surrounding the Romanov’s execution for his granddaughter to listen to upon his death; in his recording, he continues to weave together lies and truth. The guilt he feels over surviving that night when his beloved Romanovs met their deaths is palpable and becomes increasingly understandable as his narration unfolds.

Misha declares himself to have been the kitchen boy for the Romanov family for their last years through their final days in the House of Special Purpose in Yekaterinburg. In this role, he was charged with the task of carrying smuggling notes between the Romanovs and their purported rescuers. Their subsequent deaths mark his failure in this charge.

The recording reveals that for the remainder of his life he lives in the shadow of their deaths, repeatedly replaying the events of that night and questioning his actions prior to that night trying to deduce how he could have acted differently to save them. He says, “I am the last living witness and I alone know what really happened that awful night…just as I alone know where the bodies of the two missing children are…”

Misha’s story–The Kitchen Boy–is a story full of history, tragedy, guilt, love, and forgiveness. I would particularly recommend it for those interested in learning more about Russian history in general and the Russian Revolution of 1917 in particular or for those who enjoy stories full of mystery and conspiracy. Plus, Alexander throws in a twist at the end regarding the fate of the missing Romanovs. Robert Alexander is also the author of Rasputin’s Daughter and The Romanov Bride.

To find other books that center around theorizing and/or extrapolating on the Romanov’s execution and the missing children, try selecting one of the works from the annotated list of books over at Royalty.nu.

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Since today is Wednesday…

The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt (2007)

“Toads, beetles, bats.”

Let me tell you, The Wednesday Wars Schmidt depicts the life of a Shakespeare-reading, cross-country running seventh grade boy in the Vietnam Era about as well as it’s possible to depict any historical situation through fiction. Schmidt masterfully mixes Holling Hoodhood’s personal trials and rites of passage through seventh grade with the nation and the world’s trials. Holling’s life is full of tensions of all kinds–familial, school, cultural, and religious. It is due to Holling’s religious orientation–as a Presbyterian among a class of Catholic and Jewish students–that he finds himself alone in Mrs. Baker’s classroom every Wednesday afternoon when the other kids head off to attend to their religious studies.

Wednesdays with Mrs. Baker at first seem like cruel and unusual punishment. She sets him to tasks such as reading Shakespeare, carrying cream puffs, pounding dust out of chalky erasers, and cleaning the pet rats’ cages (the rats being named Sycorax and Caliban). Yet, while Holling does suggest more than once that Mrs. Baker most definitely hates his guts, he comes to realize that there’s more to her than her teacher exterior suggests. Mrs. Baker ends up teaching him not only about Shakespeare, diagramming sentences, and proper running form but also about cultural understanding and appreciation and about caring for others outside one’s own family.

Holling’s own family come across as rather cold and distant. His father cares mainly for his architectural contracts and his status as Chamber of Commerce Businessman of 1967. His mother does a lot of cooking lima beans and submitting to his father’s mandates. His sister spends her time listening to the Beatle’s, joining campaigns, rebelling against her father’s expectations, and finding herself.

Holling’s friends, on the other hand, make sacrifices for him more than once and come through for him when he’s feeling down and out. Holling Hoodhood has an authentic seventh-grade narrative voice. At times, he appears extremely ignorant and at other times he seems wise beyond his years. The Wednesday Wars stands as a strong story about friendship, baseball, wartime, cultural differences, and the impact that caring teachers can have on the next generation. It’s a well-written book that many kids will enjoy reading…really.

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Wild About Books by Judy Sierra; illustrated by Marc Brown (2004)

Even though Wild About Books (published 2004) has been around the zoo a time or two, I wanted to highlight it as a fun picture book about the love of reading.

Plus, who can resist the book’s heroine, librarian Molly McGrew? Not I, said the librarian. Wild About Books opens with McGrew’s accidental appearance at the zoo with her bookmobile. Even though it was not her intended destination, it proves fortuitous as the animals embrace her books with an unprecedented passion, all stampeding to reading:

Forsaking their niches, their nests, and their nooks,
They went simply wild, about wonderful books

There’s a little reminder that librarians are here to serve “Molly filled their requests, always eager to please.” There’s a humorous lesson about treating books right “for the boa constrictor squeezed Crictor too tight.” There’s even a plug for authors as tasmanian devils found books so exciting that they soon “had given up fighting for writing.” What’s more, there’s the excitement of a new branch library opening up–the Zoobrary.

Wild About Books is dedicated to Dr. Seuss, and Sierra’s vivid, lively, improbable rhymes have traces of Seuss’s originality. Regardless of how outlandish Seuss’s premises were (a cat in a hat, green eggs and ham, a grinch who stole Christmas), he revolutionized beginning readers in attempts to make reading more palatable and engaging for children. Sierra’s premise (animals wild about reading) is equally outlandish but also wildly engaging and frequently laugh-out-loud funny. Marc Brown’s bold paintings lend credence to the unprecedented happenings. On each full page spread, Brown masterfully mixes up colors, texture, and perspectives to provide a feel of the excitement and fun that goes along with reading.

Together, Judy Sierra and Marc Brown created a fun book for animal, book, poetry, humor, and library lovers alike. There’s something for every animal to enjoy at the Zoobrary, and there’s something for every reader to enjoy in Wild About Books. Scholastic developed a lesson plan with activities around Wild About Books. Random House provides a book synopsis as well as a listing of all of the awards the book has won.

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Ingo by Helen Dunmore (2006 US hardcover; 2008 US paperback)

“Ingo’s a place that has many names, ” says Granny Carne. “You can call it Mer, Mare, or Meor…Earth and Ingo don’t mix, even though we live side by side. Earth and Ingo aren’t always friends…”

Despite Granny Carne’s words, in Helen Dunmore’s fantastic fantasy Earth and Ingo do mix–with consequences. Ingo is set partially above ground in modern day Cornwall and partially below the surface of the water in Ingo.

Ingo features Sapphire Trewhella (also known as Saph or Sapphy). Sapphy takes after her father, Matthew Trewhella, in that she has always been drawn to the sea. She recalls, “Dad used to say that the sea doesn’t hate you and it doesn’t love you. It’s up to you to learn its ways and keep yourself safe.”

It’s “Dad used to say” because her father has disappeared. His boat, the Peggy Gordon, was found without him in it, and he is presumed drowned. Sapphy, however, suspects her father’s disappearance has something to do with Ingo. She recalls her father singing, “I wish I was away in Ingo; Far across the briny sea, Sailing over deepest waters; Where love nor care never trouble me…”

Her father’s disappearance certainly troubles her and causes trouble for her family. Her mother is forced to work all the time at her waitressing job and, consequently, her older brother Conor and Sapphy spend much time by themselves.

When one day Sapphy cannot find Conor, she fears that he has disappeared just like her father. She heads out to the cove to look for him, and she finds him talking to Elvira the mermaid. This leads to her encounter with Faro the merman who takes her on a journey under the sea. On this journey, she lets go of Earth completely and becomes a part of Ingo.

Sapphy and Conor are welcomed into Ingo because they each have a little Mer in them (long story that goes into family lore about the disappearance of a previous Matthew Trewhella), but Sapphy seems to have even a little more than her brother. Her draw to the sea becomes increasingly strong after she’s been a part of it. Not-too-subtle warning signals such as a new found taste for salting her water and consuming anchovies begin to alarm Conor while her mother appears largely ignorant of all goings on. With Conor’s help, Sapphy struggles to resist the pull of Ingo.

Yet, despite her resistance, Sapphy continues to find Ingo and Faro seductive. When she’s in Ingo, nothing else seems to matter–not time, not Conor, not Earth, not humanity in general. When she’s not in Ingo but back on Earth, she finds so many troubles weighing her down–she feels in her bones that her father is still alive but he’s made no attempt to contact her, her mother has given up on her father coming back and is becoming romantically involved with a diver named Roger (a diver who’s getting increasingly close to encroaching upon Ingo), and her mother is dead set against her getting a dog (when Sapphy already has the perfect one picked out!).

Ingo takes on the struggle between two worlds, between two types of people, between two ways of life. The struggle between Ingo and Earth has its parallel struggle within Sapphy’s family where the impetuousness of Sapphy and her father frequently clashes with the practical nature of Conor and her mother. This struggle comes to the fore in the latter part of Ingo when Roger decides he wants to dive in areas where, unbeknownst to him, he is not welcomed.

Dunmore’s characters are flawed yet still developing and changing just as the world is flawed yet still developing and changing (the latter we have the privilege to participate in changing). Ingo is top-notch fantasy while also speaking to family dynamics, individual choices, willpower, self-discovery, and imagination.

Ingo–with its tagline “In a world without air all you breathe is adventure”–will likely be popular with middle grade fantasy fans of both genders. Ingo is Book One in a planned tetralogy–Ingo, The Tide Knot, The Deep, and The Crossing of Ingo (the final two are more difficult to attain from within the US since HarperCollins just published the US edition of The Tide Knot in January 2008). For more on the series immediately, visit Helen Dunmore’s site or Harper Collin’s Ingo site (including a video book trailer). The pull of Ingo is strong, who can resist?

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The Glass Castle: A Memoir (Alex Awards (Awards)) by Jeannette Walls (2005)

“I was sitting in a taxi, wondering if I had overdressed for the evening, when I looked out the window and saw Mom rooting through a dumpster.”

Jeannette Walls’ memoir, The Glass Castle, may begin with her adult self viewing her mother rooting through a dumpster but much of the book covers the period of her life leading up to that scene. Walls spends much of her youth waiting for her father to build her family the Glass Castle. Finally, as an adult with her father deceased, she ends up just writing about it instead. The result is The Glass Castle–Walls’ story of growing up as the daughter of Rex and Rose Mary Walls with three siblings and multiple homes and relocations and a will to survive.

She relates her family’s migrations from the Arizona desert to the rural mining town of Welch, West Virginia to the urban mecca New York City. She relates her father Rex’s brilliance and passion for life, for learning, for dreaming, for alcohol… She relates her mother’s passion for painting. And she relates the creative machinations she and her siblings (and, on a good day, sometimes her mother) derive to ensure the family’s little income gets spent on groceries instead of alcohol.

The book spans a wide period, from Jeannette’s earliest memories to her adult life. At the age of three, Jeannette burns herself badly while boiling hot dogs by herself. She calmly rationalizes the incident to an incredulous hospital staff:

“It was easy…You just put the hot dogs in the water and boil them. It wasn’t like there was some complicated recipe that you had to be old enough to follow.”

Even at three, Jeannette affirms her self-sufficiency, her strong will to survive, and her defense of her parents despite their questionable actions. These trends continue as she grows from a resilient child into a resilient woman. Interspersed with the nuclear family issues are the stories of abuse and trauma outside the home–caused by bullies, other relatives, poverty in general.

Years pass as the Walls family waits for Rex to place his family before alcohol and to build the Glass Castle he has promised them. They have all seen the masterful architectural plans that he has drawn up. When the family settles in West Virginia, Jeannette and the other kids further display their faith in their father by digging a hole to serve as the foundation for the castle.

Over time, instead of becoming a foundation for the Glass Castle, the hole becomes the Walls family’s private landfill in lieu of paying money for municipal garbage removal. And over time, the family’s faith in Rex similarly gets trashed. By the day Jeannette embarks for New York, she admits to herself and to her father that she doesn’t believe he’ll ever build The Glass Castle. She can no longer answer “No” with any conviction to Rex’s repeated question, “Have I ever let you down?”

The Walls children find that life in New York is not without its challenges (particularly after Rex and Rose Mary follow them there and embark upon a life of chronic peripateticism and periodic homelessness, conditions which their children work to mitigate normally to no avail). Yet, through it all, they stick together even as they continue to develop as individuals.

The Glass Castle is a striking memoir of human imperfection, human strength, and familial bonds. Page-by-page Jeannette Walls paints a picture of a flawed family whose love for each other somehow remains true. For her memoir’s masterful blend of individuality and community, of love and disgust, of despair and hope, of fallibility and perseverance, The Glass Castle has deservedly won an Alex Award and more than a few admiring readers (of which I am one).

If you’re looking for other memoirs that look deep into individual and family identity, a few suggestions include: Debra Marquart’s The Horizontal World: Growing Up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere: a Memoir, Francine du Plessix Gray’s Them: A Memoir of Parents, Julia Scheeres’ Jesus Land: A Memoir, J. R. Moehringer’s The Tender Bar, Mary-Ann Tirone Smith’s Girls of Tender Age: A Memoir, Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club: A Memoir, Nicole Lea Helget’s The Summer of Ordinary Ways: A Memoir, and Rick Bragg’s All over but the Shoutin’.

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Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen (2007)

* reviewed based on an advance reading copy

“Generations of Waverleys had tended this garden. Their history was in the soil, but so was their future. Something was about to happen, something the garden wasn’t ready to tell her yet. She would have to keep a sharp eye out.”

Claire Waverley surmises that her life is about to change, and she is correct. Her sister Sydney is about to return to town. Regardless of how hard they have or have not tried, the Waverley women-who in the time span of this story consist of Claire, Sydney, Bay, and Evanelle–have not escaped their heritage as Waverleys. In small town Bascom, North Carolina, the Waverley family has always been viewed with suspicion for their odd prescience and for the mystical garden with the equally foresighted apple tree growing in it.

Each infamous Waverley woman has coped with public suspicion in her own way—Claire through closing herself off from others, Sydney through leaving, Bay through ignorance of anything amiss, and Evanelle by embracing it. As Garden Spells opens, many years have passed since Sydney’s flight from Bascom. At Sydney’s return to Bascom (with her five-year-old daughter Bay in tow) following her flight from an abusive husband, the Waverley women slowly begin to rebuild their relationships with each other and with the outside world.

It takes prodding from Evanelle, the eldest remaining Waverley, and from Bay, the youngest to help the two sisters Claire and Sydney to let go of their past hurts and their fear of public scrutiny and to embrace their special skills. Claire’s skills run to cooking and creating dishes that have powerful affects on people’s emotions and lives. Sydney’s gift is cutting hair.

Claire exerts careful controls over every aspect of her life, her love-life included. She’s afraid of letting herself love. She reasons that in loving she opens herself up to the possibility of getting hurt if those she loves end up leaving (like her mother and then her sister did). As Sydney says, “She just doesn’t like when she can’t control things. Some people don’t know how to fall in love, like not knowing how to swim. They panic first when they jump in. Then they figure it out.” Both Claire and Sydney spend the book figuring it out with the help of family, friends, neighbors, and other miscellaneous Bascom denizens (including, in Claire’s case, one particularly handsome and persistent neighbor).

The apple tree’s life force makes the herbs around it more potent. Also, consuming its apples has unprecedented effects on what one is able to see, bringing some knowledge to light that before eating the fruit had not been apparent (in other words, the apple tree in the Waverley’s garden has some parallels to the age-old tree in another garden in Eden). Together, Claire and Sydney learn to appreciate the garden’s magic and their own skills, and they discover anew how much they love and need each other.

And that’s pretty much Garden Spells in an apple seed (as opposed to a nutshell). I figured it was about time I reviewed this one since I picked up the ARC at ALA 2007 Annual and since Sarah Addison Allen just released a new book The Sugar Queen.

Other books involving cooking and magic and/or sisters and magic include The Wishing Box by Dashka Slater, Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman, Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. For more relating to family myth/history, estrangement, and (more and less successful attempts at) reconciliation, try The Aguero Sisters by Christina Garcia, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards, or The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.

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