Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

Author: Robert C. O'Brien

First line: Mrs. Frisby, the head of a family of field mice, lived in an underground house in the vegetable garden of a farmer named Mr. Fitzgibbon.

Why you should read this book: In the tale of a mother determined to save the life of her child is a story that, on the surface, talks of friendship, dedication, and persistence, but underneath presents a treatise on how on why self-sufficiency should form the cornerstone of an enlightened society. In her efforts to help her sickly son, Mrs. Frisby makes an unusual assortment of friends and eventually learns that her late husband was one of twenty-two experimental animals who escaped from a lab where they had been given injections to make them hundreds of times smarter than ordinary animals. From the mundane circumstances of a common field mouse's existence to the remarkably fantastic civilization created by super-intelligent rats, this award-winning story draws the reader in to world just as real and believable as our own.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're laying down poison to keep those rats in your rosebush out of the grain silos.

This Place Has No Atmosphere

Author: Paula Danziger

First line: "I think he likes you," Juna whipers, as Matthew sits down at the other end of the table and smiles at me.

Why you should read this book: Beautiful, popular teen Aurora has everything the year 2057 has to offer: a bunch of cool friends, a grandmother who lends her money for retail therapy, and a hot boyfriend whose ESP is good enough to know how she feels about him without her saying a word. Then, her old-fashioned parents decide to drag Aurora and her sister to the least cool place in the universe: five years on the bare bones moon colony, thousands of miles from the nearest mall, and, for that matter, the nearest bathtub. Aurora's struggle to find herself in absence of the superficial trappings of her life on earth lead to an adolescent blossoming of the most brilliant kind.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Your adult daughter has just packed up and taken your grandkids to France.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Author: Roald Dahl

First line: These two very old people are the father and mother of Mr. Bucket.

Why you should read this book: Classic children's literature with a moral message carefully camouflaged beneath a rich fabric of delicious fantasy, silly puns, and beautiful nonsense. Poor, starving Charlie Bucket finds himself the recipient of one of five coveted golden tickets, allowing him to tour the top secret Wonka Chocolate Factory, where the chocolate is churned by waterfall and travel is accomplished in a giant, boiled sweet Viking boat, or else by glass elevator. Dahl's creation of a world where a child's behavior directly determines his or her fate reminds readers that fair consequences exist, even when evidence indicates otherwise.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You believe children should receive everything they ever ask for and dictate the course of adult lives.

The Boy Whose Hands Were Birds

Author: Roy Seeger

First line: Their broken teeth & ribs shall,/too, fall to the dust/of abandoned buildings/& take root--each leaf unfurled

Why you should read this book: The birds that speckle this book of poetry are not to be categorized as small symbols, but ubiquitous reminders of the transitory nature of reality: these birds are creation, destruction, and transformation. In the small moments that pass between lovers and the long moments the insomniac travels alone, Seeger delineates hidden paths through the dust of worlds, moving from one place to the next, refusing to become mired in past, present, or future. In these poems, there is always hope: an uplifting work grounded in the real earth.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're looking for something snappy, with unicorns and heroic couplets.



(Note: Amazon is linking to, but not actually selling at this time, The Boy Whose Hands Were Birds. You may want to search Main Street Rag and order directly from the publisher.)

The Describer's Dictionary

Author: David Grambs

First line: Consider the case of a traveler or student who wants to describe, in a letter, what the scenic landscape and local dwellings are like in a remote and beautiful area of Ecuador where she is staying.

Why you should read this book: Billing itself as "a treasury of terms and literary quotations for readers and writers" halfway between a thesaurus and a dictionary, this reference book is the perfect resource for anyone searching for that elusive apt and literal term. Whether you are describing something that is like a hedgehog (erinaceous), like a shore (littoral), or like an upside-down pear (obpyriform), you'll find le mot juste on the recto, paired with lovely, relevant exposition from famous authors on the verso. A precise, appealing, useful work for anyone with the slightest interest in the English language.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Just not into communicating clearly.

God's Dream

Author: Archbishop Desmond Tutu

First line: Dear Child of God, What do you dream about in your loveliest of dreams?

Why you should read this book: This completely non-sectarian picture book emphasizes the values that won Tutu a Nobel Prize for Peace: empathy, equality, non-violent conflict resolution, and acceptance. Children of different cultures are depicted in friendly interactions, enjoying themselves and making God happy. With simple logic, the text explains a doctrine of love, erases perceived differences among children, and demonstrates that the world is a much, much nicer place if everyone agrees to get along.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You are a total crank and your doctrine of atheism trumps any moral messages that might appear in a book that assumes the existence of a divine being.

The Grouchy Ladybug

Author: Eric Carle

First line: It was night and some fireflies danced around the moon.

Why you should read this book: A grouchy ladybug ignores kindness and offers snark and aggression over and over again, in lovely patterned prose that highlights the ridiculousness of belligerence and the need to temper anger with rationality. Carle's inimitable style provides wonderful detail in terms of texture and size, as the ladybug picks fights with larger and larger animals, and the pages themselves get larger and larger. In the end, of course, the grouchy ladybug bites off more than it can chew and learns a valuable lesson in courtesy and looking for trouble.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You were always the biggest kid on the playground.

The Midwife's Apprentice

Author: Karen Cushman

First line: When animal droppings and garbage and spoiled straw are piles up in a great heap, the rotting and moiling give forth heat.

Why you should read this book: From a worthless, unwanted beggar sleeping in a dung heap, Beetle takes the slow journey to self-actualization through the questionable charity of Jane the Midwife, a cold but fair practitioner of the birthing arts. Renaming herself Alyce, she struggles with her own fears of failure and sense of worthlessness, more than once rendered helpless in situations where her knowledge might triumph, were it backed by self-esteem. Beautifully written and beautifully researched, this book creates a realistic slice of medieval life from the perspective of the lowest rung on the ladder.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You are horrified even picturing a girl who has never in her life bathed or washed her hands assisting at a birth.

The Cat Ate My Gymsuit

Author: Paula Danziger

First line: I hate my father. I hate school. I hate being fat.

Why you should read this book: Young teen Marcy Lewis struggles for comfort with herself and her own body against the pressure of stubborn, tyrannical, reactionary authority figures, until Ms. Finney, a radical English teacher, helps her come out of her shell and join the world as a human being, rather than the blimp she sees herself as. When Ms. Finney is fired, ostensibly for her refusal to say the Pledge of Allegiance, but in reality for being a nonconformist who encourages kids to think for themselves, Marcy is surprised to find herself, along with one of the cutest guys in school, the ringleader for the protest action. Although dated at times in its discussion of feminism and hippies, this modern classic continues to speak to teens dealing with violence in the home, issues of personal acceptance, and the drive for fairness and equality for kids, who just want to be treated like human beings.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You don't rock the boat. You do what everybody else is doing.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

Author: J. K. Rowling

First line: There was once a kindly old wizard who used his magic generously and wisely for the benefit of his neighbors.

Why you should read this book: Fans of Harry Potter series will delight in this collection of seven fairy tales for young witches and wizards, which includes several pen and ink drawings from the author's hand. The stories are whimsical and amusing, suitable on their own as well as artifacts from Potter's universe, but the "commentaries" on each tale, written in the voice of Albus Dumbledore, are equally clever and provide Rowling a voice to explain the moral message of the story, throw subtle aspersions at those critics who seek to censor children's literature, expand the world she has created, and stretch her creative muscles a little further. All proceeds from the sale of this book go towards providing voices for disenfranchised European children, and hopefully, more work in this vein will be forthcoming.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You've petitioned your child's school library to have Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone removed from the shelves.