I’d like to thank my brother and
sister-in-law for “The Wells Bequest.” It was one of several I received from
them this past Christmas.
Most everyone
has a Talent. Yes, Talent with a capital T. The Fair are generally middle
children – the Middlings – without any Talent. Talents range from something as
ordinary as whistling to the phenomenal ability to bake the perfect cake for
anyone. Cady (short for Cadence) has that ability. She’s Talented enough to
create it all: the perfect pie, muffin, bread or even the perfect pizza if she
wanted to. But above all else, she loves to bake cakes. She’s also an orphan,
and her caretaker, Miss Jennifer Mallory, has been on the alert for her perfect
family. She’s highly skilled at it (after all, her Talent is matching). Only
when Cady finds her perfect family will she allow herself to bake her own perfect
cake for her Adoption Day party.
Cady has a weeklong trial period
with Toby Darlington, and it might be right, but it might not be. Still, by
staying with Toby, Cady meets new people: The Owner, a grumpy man obsessed with
powder blue St. Anthony’s suitcases, V, a 60-year-old woman who’s lost her
speech after a stroke, and the Asher family of five. Mr. Asher is a businessman
with a soft spot for orange nougat, Mrs. Asher is a knitting Talent with an
interesting hair pin, eldest Zane is a thieving troublemaker with a spitting
Talent (“worthless”), Will has a Talent for getting lost (though he feels he’s
never once been lost in six years), and Marigold is a Fair middle child, though
she’s hopeful she’ll discover her Talent with the help of a red Talent
bracelet. Somehow these people are all connected, and they will discover their
connection with some discreet nudging by a giant-of-a-man in a gray suit.
Graff’s literary world, including
the very real town of Poughkeepsie, New York, is like our own, but with a drop
of magic. There is a simplicity to the story that makes it easy to read, yet
still includes rich layers. There are tasty-looking cake recipes at different
points in the book, and her story is much like its own cake recipe. It is full
of charm, warmth, regrets, Talent, fun and youthful adventure with a dash of
whimsy and a sprinkling of magic all mixed together to create a well-written
story that is quietly magical and totally pleasant for a light palette. Rich,
but not heavy, and light, but not too fluffy. It’s a good mix, and it’s a mix
that, if it could smile, might smile that type of grin that suggests it knows
more than it’s letting on.
We all know the
name, but for many years, Rumpelstiltskin only knows himself as Rump. Rump is
the butt of many a joke (pun intended) and only has one friend, Red, who’s
interestingly touchy on the subject of her “strange” granny. Things turn
interesting for Rump when he finds an old spinning wheel. With nothing to spin
but straw, imagine his surprise when he spins that straw into gold. But as
anyone knows, especially if you watch ABC’s Once
Upon a Time, magic always comes with a price. For Rump in his little
village, The Mountain, gold equals food. Not a fair share, mind you, for the
miller (Oswald) is a fat, greedy man with a beautiful daughter named Opal and
rotten sons named Frederick and Bruno. When gold-obsessed King Barf – that is,
King Bartholomew Archibald Reginald Fife – comes to town and discovers skeins
of spun gold, Oswald declares that Opal has the gold-spinning magic, and King
Barf immediately whisks her away. Rump feels obligated to help her through
terrible trades (especially her firstborn), but even more regrettable is that
the magic dictates that he must accept the trade. He sets out to find his stiltskin, which The Witch of the Woods
said is the one thing that can free him from his bindings. He’s also in search
of his real name.
In this tale, pixies aren’t sweet as
pixy stix or as adorable as Disney fairies. They’re gold-craving and can be
downright mean, biting you left and right (note: dirt deters pixies). This
tale; however, is beguiling, light-hearted and inventive. It actually has you
rooting for Rump. This story would also be good for classroom discussions.
While the story contains humor and uncharacteristically hospitable trolls and
messenger gnomes, it also contains tough stuff like the death of a loved one,
despair and famine. Then there’s the avarice of both the miller and the king.
“Rump” not only has a good back story for the character, but a good backbone as
far as plot goes, and a good deal of spunk in Red. This fantasy contains
familiar fairytale elements infused with innovative world-building and
emotional depth. Summed up, it’s a quaint, little novel that’s as good as gold
(pun intended).
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There is a new
group of pages working at the New-York Circulating Material Repository, a
[mostly] magical place which lends out objects instead of books, and Leo
Novikov isn’t one of them. Yet. His science teacher, Ms. Kang, recommends the
repository when he inquires about an idea for his science fair project. Science
fairs are a big deal, considering he comes from a family of scientists.
Unfortunately, he feels like the dumb one. He attends Manhattan Polytechnic
Academy, which his older sister, Sofia, commonly referred to as “Tech for
Dummies.” Now that Leo attends the school, Sofia tells others that the students
there “are really very creative.” But is Leo creative or losing it? After all,
he sees a tiny version of himself and a girl named Jaya Rao – she’s real! – on
a small time machine. And they talk to him!
Once Leo’s a page, he learns the
ropes at the Repository, including its more impressive magical qualities. And
in the basement is the Wells Bequest, a secret collection of objects from
science fiction novels. It’s the perfect place for a time machine! When a very
serious threat arises, Leo and Jaya decide the time machine is their only hope.
They have to whisk themselves to Nikola Tesla’s lab in 1895. What adventures
will they find there?
I enjoyed this middle-grade novel
just as much as Shulman’s “The Grimm Legacy.” In fact, this story is a
companion to that one. The story starts off running – Leo meets the tiny
versions of himself and Jaya in the first chapter – and doesn’t take a
breather. Whereas the Grimm Collection focuses on magical fairytale objects,
this one focuses on science fiction and Leo’s character is perfect as an inventor,
one who makes plenty of mistakes and whose inventions don’t always do as
anticipated. There’s excitement, adventure, peril, humor and nerd-fare (this is
a great thing). This clever story read very quickly. All of the science and the
science fiction makes for an engaging read but without overdoing the scientific
stuff. Shulman keeps it fun. For example, Leo uses, “Schist!” as a curse, but
it’s not an actual curse word. Schist is “a kind of rock. It’s what happens to
hot sandstone when it gets squished really hard for a few million years.” Jaya
mentions, “It sounds really bad – in a good way.” And the best part, as Leo
points out, is, “Even strict teachers can’t object to a word from a vocabulary
list, right?” Ha.
I don’t know if she’s going to
continue with stories involving the New-York Circulating Material Repository,
but I hope she is. There are two additional Special Collections mentioned in
this story that she hasn’t yet made novels out of. They are: the Lovecraft
Corpus (objects from gothic stories and horror) and the Gibson Chrestomathy (a
collection of cyber stuff such as A.I. and computer viruses). In the meantime,
this great little tale puts readers in a landscape of science fiction made
reality. So fun!
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The Whizz Pop
Chocolate Shop (Mar. 12, 2013) by Kate Saunders.
A stout but beautiful cat with golden-brown fur and green,
square-shaped eyes recruits twins Lily and Oscar (a.k.a. Oz) Spoffard to work
for the Secret Ministry of the Unexplained (SMU) as, naturally, secret
government agents. That is, after she defends Lily from the derisive
wallpaper of her new bedroom. Demerara, the cat, is a secret agent herself. She
is invisible to most, knows of magic, is immortal and can talk. She’s
self-important and completely vain over her appearance. In other words, she’s
often very cat-like. She recruits the twins and fellow Skittle Street resident
Caydon Campbell to join the SMU because they are magic, even though they didn’t
know it. The three eleven-year-olds have learned that an evil gang wants a secret
chocolate recipe, one infused with magic. But they also have to ward off their
great-great-uncle (Isadore), long-thought dead, who was the murderer of his two
brothers in 1938. It turns out he’s immortal! They have the help of, not only
Demerara, but Spike, an immortal, talking rat, and the SMU team, which may or
may not include an invisible ghost elephant named Edwin.
What a cute story! The
title is what initially drew me to this middle-grade novel of family dynamics
(the good, the bad and the annoying), secrets (to protect their parents, of
course), fantasy and magic. Saunders has put obvious thought into her
characters and given them enough depth to make them feel real – even within the
magical quality of the book – without overwhelming the story with too many
character traits to remember. The chocolate shop on Skittle Street hasn’t been
filled with chocolate confections for decades, but with the Spoffards, it is
filled with youthful suspense, cheekiness, humor and a sense for righting past
wrongs and preventing future devastation. Isadore’s dependence on alcohol is
definitely off-putting, but it is not a focus of the story, and should
therefore not take away from it. “Whizz Pop” takes places in London amongst
British folks, so I would recommend adopting a British accent while reading
this fun romp-of-a-tale. :-)
The Wells Bequest sounds wonderful!
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