Deborah Hopkinson

Children's & YAPicture Book

An elephant seal with a mind of her own

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

It’s an accepted fact that elephant seals (who can weigh between 2,000 pounds for females and 8,000 for males) live their lives by and in the ocean, where they eat squid, cuttlefish and even small sharks. But as a young boy named Michael and the rest of the friendly folks in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, find out, there are always individuals—whether humans or seals—who prefer doing things exactly their own way.

One of these independent souls was a southern elephant seal that chose to leave the ocean, paddle up the warm Avon River and make her home in the city of Christchurch—on the soft grass, in the cool mud and even by the side of the road. So regal and lovely was the silvery brown seal that her friends decided to name her Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas.

When kindly humans, who (naturally) believed they knew best, attempted to haul Elizabeth back to her “natural” habitat, she simply put them right, returning not just once, but twice, to her adopted city. Eventually the townspeople erected a sign: “SLOW. Elephant Seal Crossing,” so that whenever Elizabeth chose to park herself near the road, she’d be safe from traffic.

Based on a true story (with a photo of the real Elizabeth) and graced by Caldecott-winning artist Brian Floca’s delightful illustrations, Lynne Cox’s heartwarming tale of one unusual elephant seal is sure to delight anyone who understands that following your heart almost always leads you to the very place you are meant to be.

 

Deborah Hopkinson lives near Portland, Oregon. Her most recent book for young readers is The Great Trouble.

It’s an accepted fact that elephant seals (who can weigh between 2,000 pounds for females and 8,000 for males) live their lives by and in the ocean, where they eat squid, cuttlefish and even small sharks. But as a young boy named Michael and the rest of the friendly folks in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, find out, there are always individuals—whether humans or seals—who prefer doing things exactly their own way.

Children's & YAMiddle Grade

Trying her hand at seclusion

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

Suzy’s summer begins with an emergency: Mrs. Harden, her neighbor and honorary grandmother, suddenly collapses. Thanks to the quick thinking of Suzy's little brother, Parker, who calls 911, Mrs. Harden is whisked to the hospital and is soon on her way to a full recovery.

But while all ends well for Mrs. Harden, the incident is just the beginning of Suzy’s troubles. First, there’s the neverending onslaught of attention Parker receives as the town's littlest hero. Parker is featured in the newspaper, receives balloons and stuffed animals, and is invited to ride with the mayor in the 4th of July parade. And then Parker tops off his stint as the most obnoxious younger brother on the planet by managing to get himself lost on the very day Suzy and her dad have baseball tickets to celebrate her 12th birthday.

The only good thing about Suzy’s summer, she decides, is choosing Emily Dickinson as her character in the Tween Time library program. As it turns out, impersonating the reclusive poet becomes the perfect way to express her dissatisfaction with the world. As Emily, Suzy wears white dresses, rarely leaves the house, hides from her best friend Alison, and avoids a conversation with her friend Gilbert. But Emily Dickinson is also the poet who wrote, “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers— / That perches in the soul.” And before summer’s end, Suzy finds a way to soar.

Written in easy-to-read, accessible free verse, Eileen Spinelli’s story of a rollercoaster summer is perfect for young readers who may find, like Suzy, that trying on other roles is one way to feel better about being yourself.

 

Deborah Hopkinson lives near Portland, Oregon. Her most recent book for young readers is The Great Trouble.

Suzy’s summer begins with an emergency: Mrs. Harden, her neighbor and honorary grandmother, suddenly collapses. Thanks to the quick thinking of Suzy's little brother, Parker, who calls 911, Mrs. Harden is whisked to the hospital and is soon on her way to a full recovery.

NonfictionMemoir

Charming letters home from a nanny

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

Nina Stibbe was 20 years old in 1982 when she moved to London to become the live-in nanny for Mary-Kay Wilmers, editor of the London Review of Books, and her sons Sam and Will (whose father is film director Stephen Frears). There was no convenient phone, so Nina began sending quirky, funny letters home to her sister to report on her job.

Now, more than 30 years later, Stibbe has published these letters, mostly unchanged. The result is a collection of entertaining, if not downright hilarious, vignettes of daily life and the comings and goings of a fascinating community. Nina gets to know playwright Alan Bennett, stage director Jonathan Miller and well-known biographer Claire Tomalin, among others.

Stibbe describes her home (“Most of the plates we use for food, and mugs, are antique. Some chipped. Some nice, some spooky”) and her bright, irrepressible charges (“Will is worried about nuclear war. . . . Sam is envious of all the attention Will’s getting over the nuclear war anxiety. He says he’s got an anxiety too, he can’t say what it is, only that it’s a lot worse than Will’s.”). She also chronicles in a matter-of-fact way Sam’s trips to the hospital resulting from serious health issues.

While Nina is a keen observer, we also trace her own coming-of-age journey. Nina finds love not far away and is also encouraged by her new family and friends to set her sights high and pursue an education. When asked, “So have you got all the books on the syllabus?” Nina ruefully admits to her sister: “I didn’t even know what a syllabus was.”

Life as a nanny in this family is never dull. And neither is Stibbe’s heartfelt and funny memoir, which reminds us that while days with children may seem ordinary, helping them grow is one of the most extraordinary things we can do.

 

This article was originally published in the May 2014 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Nina Stibbe was 20 years old in 1982 when she moved to London to become the live-in nanny for Mary-Kay Wilmers, editor of the London Review of Books, and her sons Sam and Will (whose father is film director Stephen Frears). There was no convenient phone, so Nina began sending quirky, funny letters home to her sister to report on her job.

Children's & YAYA FictionYA

Love separated by the Berlin Wall

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

In her searing new novel, National Book Award finalist Beth Kephart paints a vivid picture of a divided Berlin and the wall that separates friends, lovers and families.

It’s 1983, and Ada scrapes out an existence in West Berlin. Her world is full of secrets: A childcare worker by day, she spends her nights roaming the city armed with a can of spray paint. Her best friend is hiding a pregnancy, and a little boy in her care is also harboring a secret, a dangerous and terrible one. But perhaps Ada’s greatest secret is Stefan, the boy on the other side of the Berlin Wall whom she loves and begs to cross over, and to do it now.

For his part, Stefan must balance his desire for freedom and to be with Ada with his responsibilities to his grandmother. He knows full well the consequences of a failed escape attempt, and so he makes lists of all the tiny things that could go wrong. Then he meets Lucas, and his plans start to become reality.

Inspired by a trip the author took to Berlin in 2011, Going Over is told in alternating chapters by Ada and Stefan, giving us a glimpse of life on both sides of the Wall. Kephart gets under the reader’s skin, raising questions and leaving us unsettled, unsure. And that, in the end, is just what graffiti artists are after.

 

Deborah Hopkinson lives near Portland, Oregon. Her most recent book for young readers is The Great Trouble.

In her searing new novel, National Book Award finalist Beth Kephart paints a vivid picture of a divided Berlin and the wall that separates friends, lovers and families.

NonfictionMedicineHistory

Consumed with curing consumption

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

In August 1891, a young physician named Arthur Conan Doyle made an impulsive decision to travel to Berlin to attend a much-anticipated lecture on tuberculosis by the renowned scientist Robert Koch. The two men had much in common, as author Thomas Goetz points out in his fascinating new book, The Remedy: Robert Koch, Arthur Conan Doyle, and the Quest to Cure Tuberculosis. Ambitious and frustrated by the confines of small-town medical practice, both were part of the exciting landscape of late-19th-century breakthroughs in science and medicine. Tuberculosis, that ubiquitous scourge of 19th-century life, would play a major role in the lives of both men.

Koch had already found his path from obscurity to fame, beginning with his discovery of Bacillus anthracis in 1876. He then took on wound infections and developed scientific protocols for determining infectious agents. In 1882, firmly ensconced as the head of his own lab, he triumphantly discovered the bacteria that caused tuberculosis.

Koch would eventually be awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1905, five years before his death. Conan Doyle, whose first wife succumbed to tuberculosis, was equally driven and inspired by the process of discovery, though his path took him away from medicine and into the realm of literature.

Goetz weaves together a compelling narrative, chronicling the struggle to find the causes and cures for some of the most ferocious diseases that have stalked humans (and animals) through time: cholera, smallpox, anthrax and tuberculosis. In The Remedy we meet not just Koch and Doyle, but Louis Pasteur, whose public feud with Koch about anthrax helped to energize scientific breakthroughs in both men’s labs.

Perhaps most importantly, The Remedy reminds us of how far we have come, and how much we take for granted in modern medicine. Tuberculosis is still very much with us. Just as we thought we had bested the bacterium, multi-drug-resistant TB has emerged. As Goetz reminds us, in the end, “The bacteria precede us. They outnumber us. And they will outlast us.”

In August 1891, a young physician named Arthur Conan Doyle made an impulsive decision to travel to Berlin to attend a much-anticipated lecture on tuberculosis by the renowned scientist Robert Koch. The two men had much in common, as author Thomas Goetz points out in his fascinating new book, The Remedy: Robert Koch, Arthur Conan Doyle, and the Quest to Cure Tuberculosis.

NonfictionHistory

The making of a great city

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

Dreaming of April in Paris? In How Paris Became Paris: The Invention of the Modern City, astute cultural observer Joan DeJean argues that Paris has been a modern, alluring city far longer than we usually imagine. Although we tend to think of 19th-century Paris as the bustling epitome of “la vie moderne,” the roots of all we know and love about Paris today actually came into being in the 17th century.

While DeJean’s depth and scope of research are impressive, this fascinating portrait is anything but a dry history. Like its subject, DeJean’s biography of Paris emanates charm and wit. She builds her argument for the 17th-century origins of modern Paris piece by piece, unraveling the stories of how the city’s architectural elements helped to shape its urban landscape to make it “the capital of the universe.”

She begins with the oldest bridge in Paris—the Pont Neuf—which served as the 17th century’s equivalent to the Eiffel Tower (which wasn’t erected until 1889). Created by Henry IV as a center for his new capital, the Pont Neuf ushered in the concept of modern street life, including a sidewalk for promenading and street vendors.

DeJean unveils fascinating details about other aspects of the emerging city, covering the Place des Vosges, the enchanted oasis of Ile Saint-Louis and the city’s great boulevards and parks. What makes DeJean’s analysis so intriguing is her capacity to weave strands of history together. She shows, for example, how the freedom women achieved by walking along the Pont Neuf and the city’s boulevards translated into other areas of social discourse. With such rich context, How Paris Became Paris is more than a history: It’s the best kind of travel guidebook.

Dreaming of April in Paris? In How Paris Became Paris: The Invention of the Modern City, astute cultural observer Joan DeJean argues that Paris has been a modern, alluring city far longer than we usually imagine. Although we tend to think of 19th-century Paris as the bustling epitome of “la vie moderne,” the roots of all we know and love about Paris today actually came into being in the 17th century.

Children's & YAYA FictionYA

A game of cutthroat chess

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

“Your father doesn’t have any enemies. He’s an accountant.” Daniel Pratzer’s mom couldn’t be more wrong about her mild-mannered, potbellied husband.

Mr. Pratzer’s secret past begins to unravel quite by accident. Struggling freshman Daniel has joined the chess club because . . . well, he isn’t great at sports. When two popular seniors invite him to participate in a father-son chess tournament, he laughs. After all, he’s just a beginner, and his father doesn’t even play. But the seniors have done some research: Morris W. Pratzer was ranked a grandmaster of chess.

Mr. Pratzer reluctantly agrees to attend the tournament, but as the weekend unfolds, Daniel starts to understand the complex reasons why his father left the game: Competitive chess almost killed him, and he has an enemy who understands the depth of his weaknesses.

Grandmaster is a page-turning read, full of authentic details that offer a fascinating glimpse into tournament chess. It’s also a compassionate look at the choices we make, and how difficult situations bring families closer in unexpected ways.

 

Deborah Hopkinson lives near Portland, Oregon. Her most recent book for young readers is The Great Trouble.

“Your father doesn’t have any enemies. He’s an accountant.” Daniel Pratzer’s mom couldn’t be more wrong about her mild-mannered, potbellied husband.

Children's & YAYA FictionYA

A little bit dystopian, a little bit “Downton”

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

Madeline Landry’s role in life has always been made clear: As the eldest (and only) child in the leading gentry family in society, she must have a successful debut, marry and beget an heir. It doesn’t matter that Madeline wants a university education. Her father isn’t interested in her arguments that knowing business will make her a better owner of the Landry Park estate, that understanding science will allow her to appreciate her grandfather’s invention of the nuclear technology behind the Cherenkov lantern, or that appreciating history will give her insights into the Last War, when America lost all its land west of the Rockies to the Eastern Empire.

Madeline soon finds it almost impossible to change her father’s mind or the rules of this society where class is everything. At least her lot is better than that of a Rootless, who are condemned to poverty and early death after years of handling radioactive nuclear material in the lanterns that keep gentry homes bright. But all Madeline’s preconceptions about rules are about to be thrown into question when she meets and falls in love with a mysterious gentry boy named David Dana and gets involved in one of the most dangerous pastimes of this future America: revolution.

In Landry Park Bethany Hagen creates a fully realized dystopian setting that manages to weave together a believable nuclear future with costumes and customs reminiscent of “Downton Abbey.” Teens will be drawn to Madeline and her struggles to make sense of love, class, duty and ideals in a world where choices are never easy and actions have real consequences. In many ways, it’s a world not that different from ours.

Madeline Landry’s role in life has always been made clear: As the eldest (and only) child in the leading gentry family in society, she must have a successful debut, marry and beget an heir. It doesn’t matter that Madeline wants a university education. Her father isn’t interested in her arguments that knowing business will make her a better owner of the Landry Park estate, that understanding science will allow her to appreciate her grandfather’s invention of the nuclear technology behind the Cherenkov lantern, or that appreciating history will give her insights into the Last War, when America lost all its land west of the Rockies to the Eastern Empire.

Children's & YAYA FictionYA

Best friends forever—or else

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

Emma Lazar has laid claim to the title of “Emma the Good” for years. She has always been determined to be the perfect daughter to her widowed dad as he pursues his psychiatric career from city to city. Now a junior, Emma can think of nothing better than to land in sunny L.A and begin school at the prestigious Latimer Country Day. But something happens to Emma’s reliable moral compass from her first day in her new life: The more she seeks to make the transformation to the California girl of her dreams, the more she begins to lose her way.

The lies start almost immediately and soon become a way of life. Emma teams up with Siobhan, an intense, sophisticated and bored classmate who loves to skip class, party and flirt with increasingly risky behavior. Siobhan believes in pacts and lists, and she comes up with a list of experiences for Emma to check off before the infamous year-end Latimer Afterparty, guaranteed to put fear into a father’s heart: “Make out. Do shots. Get stoned. Climb out windows. Go to many many parties. Hook up. Hook up all the way. Finish and we go to Afterparty.”

But even as Emma crosses off the milestones on her list, and strays from the “Good Emma” of the past, she begins to gain confidence in setting her own course and making the decisions that are right for her. What she doesn’t anticipate is Siobhan’s violent reaction to what she perceives as Emma’s betrayal of their friendship pact.

Readers will root for Emma as she negotiates difficult choices and a first romance, and grapples with finding her moral compass. But in her heartbreaking portrayal of Siobhan, a young woman spinning out of control with no one able to catch her—not even her best friend—author Ann Redisch Stampler reminds us that losing a friendship can be just as painful as a failed romance.

Emma Lazar has laid claim to the title of “Emma the Good” for years. She has always been determined to be the perfect daughter to her widowed dad as he pursues his psychiatric career from city to city. Now a junior, Emma can think of…

Children's & YAMiddle Grade

Running wild with magic

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

During school vacation, Nell is sent to stay with her aunt Liv and her two little cousins (along with some chickens, ducks and Maggie the pig) at Lemon Cottage. On the day Nell arrives, a mysterious girl on a magnificent black and white horse nearly runs her down. The mystery girl also steals Nell’s prized possession: a mechanical music box with a carousel and 16 horses, made by her dad before he abandoned the family and ran off to the lights of Las Vegas.

According to Aunt Liv, the horse must be one of the 99 horses that used to live next door. But those horses are boarded elsewhere now and soon will be sold at auction.

Nell begins to form a tenuous friendship with the mystery girl, a runaway named Angel, and Belle, the beautiful horse Angel tries to keep and protect. While riding together on Belle in the moonlight, Angel tells Nell a magical tale of 100 horses. Is Angel spinning a fable or trying to reach out for help?

In A Hundred Horses, a lyrical story of friendship and community, author Sarah Lean has crafted a perfect story for young readers who love horses and magic.

During school vacation, Nell is sent to stay with her aunt Liv and her two little cousins (along with some chickens, ducks and Maggie the pig) at Lemon Cottage. On the day Nell arrives, a mysterious girl on a magnificent black and white horse nearly…

Children's & YAYA FictionYA

The strange charms of a most unusual dress

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

“Will you forgive me if I tell you the ending? There’s a girl . . .”

So begins Karen Foxlee’s new young adult novel, a web of prose as lush and mysterious as the story’s Australian setting. Fifteen-year-old Rose Lovell and her alcoholic father drift into a trailer park in the beach town of Leonora. Moving to a new place is something they’ve done many times before, so Rose doesn’t expect anything to be different. Then she meets Pearl Kelly, who almost immediately begins to wear her down with unexpected kindness.

Dynamic and irresistible, Pearl sweeps Rose into her plans for the Harvest Parade, where all the girls wear beautiful dresses at the town’s celebration of the sugar cane harvest. At first Rose can’t imagine taking part. “Rose Lovell does not wear dresses. Rose Lovell does not need friends. Yet all she can smell, even with the huge sky and the evening storm clouds brewing, is coconut oil and frangipani.”

Unable to afford a dress, Rose visits the old dressmaker, Edie Baker, who is rumored to be a “dabbler in the dark arts.”  Here she falls in love with a dress, the color of midnight blue, which, under Edie’s tutelage, is painstakingly taken apart and made anew. On the night of the parade, Edie gives Rose some blue slippers, and Rose, transformed, decides, “I am someone else.”

In the end, though, this is no Cinderella tale. With rich, evocative language, Foxlee threads together a complex tale of friendship, murder and betrayal. The Midnight Dress is compelling, heartbreaking and, most of all, impossible to put down.

“Will you forgive me if I tell you the ending? There’s a girl . . .”

So begins Karen Foxlee’s new young adult novel, a web of prose as lush and mysterious as the story’s Australian setting. Fifteen-year-old Rose Lovell and her alcoholic father drift into…

Children's & YAYA FictionYA

Dangerous and difficult choices in the island mines of Peru

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

Victoria McKernan’s The Devil’s Paintbox told the gripping tale of 16-year-old Aiden Lynch and his struggle to survive in the post-Civil War Pacific Northwest. The sequel, Son of Fortune, carries the young hero into new territory.

Fleeing Seattle after a vicious encounter that left his opponent dead, Aiden earns passage to San Francisco by caring for polar bears bound for a zoo. Aiden then lands a job as a tutor, but adventure is always right around the corner. With a ship won in a card game, he is soon heading to an island off the coast of Peru, from where guano is exported to the U.S. as highly prized fertilizer.

On his ship, Aiden finds himself part of a complex web of relationships, as the competing ship owners vie for the favor of the island’s manager and while away the days until their ships can be loaded. But as each day goes by, Aiden’s horror increases as he learns more about the Chinese laborers and the appalling mining conditions on the island.

Using her prodigious research skills, McKernan paints a vivid picture of 19th-century life without shying away from complex subjects like race relations. Readers will find Aiden to be an engaging hero, struggling to make sense of the world and to find a code to live by.

Victoria McKernan’s The Devil’s Paintbox told the gripping tale of 16-year-old Aiden Lynch and his struggle to survive in the post-Civil War Pacific Northwest. The sequel, Son of Fortune, carries the young hero into new territory.

Fleeing Seattle after a vicious encounter that left his…

Children's & YAYA FictionYA

A home she never expected

Review by Deborah Hopkinson

Step into any bookstore and you’ll likely see adults of all ages perusing the YA shelves. It’s not just fantasy or dystopian novels that attract this wider audience but the work of a number of incredibly talented contemporary authors. Among them is Trish Doller, whose 2012 debut novel, Something Like Normal, received numerous accolades. Doller’s new book, Where the Stars Still Shine, is an engaging, compulsive read and a thought-provoking look at a family under duress.

Callie has been on the run with her mother for 12 years. After her mother’s marriage fell apart and she kidnapped young Callie, both became survivors. Callie’s idea of “normal” includes hanging out in a Laundromat when her mother has men over, never going to school, avoiding her mother’s friends who might abuse her, pursuing casual sexual encounters and leaving one nameless town for another at a moment’s notice. All that ends when her mother is stopped for a missing taillight and is arrested.

The next day, Callie is claimed by her father and flies with him to Florida, where she suddenly finds herself thrown into a new family with a father she barely remembers, a stepmother and two younger half-brothers. Family life in close-knit Tarpon Springs, especially in the extended Greek community, comes with rules, responsibilities and expectations (like letting your dad know if you stay out until all hours). All this is a difficult adjustment for Callie, who is used to fending for herself. She also finds that forging real friendships and romantic relationships presents challenges—and rewards—she never dreamed of in her previous nomadic life.

Callie is a complex, fully drawn character struggling to make sense of who she is when everything she has learned about the world is turned upside-down. Where the Stars Still Shine is a compelling coming-of-age story and a portrait of an extended family seeking to move forward and heal. Remember Trish Doller’s name the next time you’re looking for something simply marvelous to read.

Step into any bookstore and you’ll likely see adults of all ages perusing the YA shelves. It’s not just fantasy or dystopian novels that attract this wider audience but the work of a number of incredibly talented contemporary authors. Among them is Trish Doller, whose…

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