rating: 4 of 5 stars
Indian-born Maya Mukherjee attends middle school in a small town in Manitoba. Besides struggling with the usual issues of adolescence (including pimples and braces), Maya straddles the line between the two cultures, with neither foot firmly planted in either one. Maya yearns to belong. Maya wants to be beautiful and hip, and have the coolest boy in the school go gaga after her. One day, when Maya prays to Ganesh, the all-knowing Granter of Wishes, her wishes come true! But Maya soon learns the hard way (and funny way) that sometimes what she wishes for isn’t always what she wants. MAYA RUNNING is a sweetly written, heart-warming coming-of-age story in which a young girl learns what is truly important, and where it is that she belongs. (Ages 10+)


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rating: 5 of 5 stars
Most books for kids on the subject of paleontology serve up pretty much the same predictable soup full of dinosaur bones, fossils, and geological (yawn) history. Even the proposed activities can all start to sound the same, and, except for some cool illustrations every now and then, offer little in terms of anything new and exciting.

Not so for BONES ROCK! by Peter Larson and Kristin Donnan. From page one I was entranced by the easy-going narrative style of Peter Larson, a premiere paleontologist and dynamic storyteller. Readers tag along as Larson goes on his digs and excavates fossils (including two T-Rex!). Larson simply yet comprehensively explains how fossils progress (digress??) from living, breathing dinosaurs to posing in museums surrounded by schoolchildren. In addition to having great stories, BONES ROCK! is chock full of color photographs, fascinating sidebars, sample projects, a glossary, and resources such as kids’ clubs, organizations, and where kids can go for summer digs. (The only thing that could have made it better would have been an index.)

Before I read this book, I had no idea that I was a latent paleontologist, but now I’m considering a summer dig, or at least a trip into fossil territory to try my luck and train my not-so-eagle-eye. Who knew? Every kid remotely interested in science or dinosaurs needs to read this book. Larson’s right — bones DO rock! (For ages 8-99; Invisible Cities Press, 2004.)


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My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
In TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, Harper Lee captures the essence of childhood amidst the tensions of a small southern town torn by prejudice and intolerance.

I don’t know how old I was when I first read TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD — eleven maybe, or twelve. As a child, I was immediately drawn into young Scout’s world. Like her, I worshiped her father, Atticus. And like her brother, Jem, I wept the tears of a child in the face of blatant, horrific injustice.

Having just finished it again after many years, I not only recalled my experience of first reading it, but I discovered the many layers in Harper Lee’s story, the subtleties that had eluded my child’s mind. But while the subtleties are brilliant, there is something about the innocence of a child’s tears, wept on the pages so long ago; for it’s the perfect capturing of that very innocence, like a bird nestled softly in the hand, that makes this book a masterpiece.

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