The Prayer Box

Wingate, Lisa. The Prayer Box. Tyndale House Publishers, 2013. 400pp. Softcover:  $15.99, ISBN:  978-1-4143-8688-1; Hardcover: $19.99, ISBN: 978-1-4143-8825-0; eBook: $15.99, ISBN: 978-1-4143-8721-5.
 

Iola Anne Poole, recently deceased at 91, is this story’s heroine and a woman well worth knowing. Hatteras Island’s anonymous benefactor, shunned by locals who erroneously believed her to have stolen her grand old shipping magnate’s home from its rightful heirs, died alone in her bed, having dressed for the occasion and laid herself down for a final rest. After her body is discovered by Tandi Jo Reese, the new tenant in her rental cottage, Iola Anne’s story begins to unfold—slowly, graciously, delightfully.

Tandi Jo is a muddled young mother who escaped from a destructive relationship with her two children and few belongings, and—by God’s grace—landed in Iola Anne’s cottage where she is detoxing from dependence upon painkillers and slowly returning to the world of the living. Desperate for income yet striving to maintain anonymity, Tandi is blessed with the opportunity to clean up Iola Anne’s house in exchange for continued rent.

A collection of eighty-one intricately-decorated boxes stacked in the closet of Iola Anne’s bedroom turns out to be the repository of a lifetime of letters to God. While emerging from years of stupor, Tandi explores the contents of these private prayer boxes and is engrossed as Iola Anne’s amazing life story is gradually revealed.

This heartwarming tale of self-discovery, grace and redemption artfully unfolds along the Atlantic shore, introducing myriad complex characters whose beauty the rightfully long-suspicious Tandi Jo learns to appreciate as Iola Anne’s words and God’s lessons help her to find grace and love again in the world around her.

Already familiar with and enamored of the concept of prayer boxes from having read August Gold and Joel Fotinos’s spiritual parable The Prayer Chest, and having begun to share copies of that novel with dear friends, I was eager to meet Wingate’s visualization of the concept; however, I was totally unprepared for the sheer beauty of Wingate's  The Prayer Box. This novel is a not-to-be-missed treasure, and one that I will enclose in years to come in the boxes I give to those special persons with whom I share the gift of the concept of writing letters/prayers to God then tucking them away, turning them over to God for safekeeping, and not dwelling upon them ourselves.

Thank you, Lisa Wingate, for this incredible novel. Readers, do not miss this book. It has the potential to change lives, including yours. God bless.

Cynthia Winfield
grateful reader

Bugged!

Knudsen, Michelle. Blanche Sims, illus. Bugged!. Kane Press: 2008. “Science Solves It” early reader series, $5.95. ISBN-13 978-1-57565-259-7.

Targeted at a grade 1 – 3 interest level, with the large type and high-frequency vocabulary of early readers, Bugged! offers more than enjoyable easy reading with life science content about mosquitoes. As a sample of the “Science Solves It” series by Kane Press, Bugged! offers enough to interest me in the entire line of “fun stories with a curriculum connection” from this innovative publisher.

From a reading perspective, Bugged! provides a good mix of high-frequency sight words and multi-syllabic vocabulary words to offer young readers both success and surmountable challenges within the story text. Sidebars address content knowledge and vocabulary in reader-friendly bites that complement the story. Colorful illustrations depict multi-ethnic characters and inviting scenes that add depth and humor.

The science skills of observation, questioning, inference, prediction, experimentation, comparison, and communication are incorporated as students strive to solve the central problem of how to help Riley escape his plague of mosquitoes. The characters conduct research by using the Internet at home, consulting books in a well-populated library, and visiting an actual science professor in his college setting. Content information appears in the main text, the sidebars, the illustrations, and is reinforced by the “Think Like A Scientist” activity page following the story.

The publisher’s forward informs adults that Kane Press “Science Solves It!” titles have been reviewed by respected scientists and teachers during development to ensure accuracy and alignment with current content curriculum frameworks. This careful development pays off handsomely in an attractive, humorous story that children will be eager to read, explore, and revisit repeatedly. Titles address physical science, earth science, and life science topics. Some titles are also available in Spanish.

Thank you, Kane Press, for making learning fun and rewarding! Young readers will enjoy emulating the skills modeled by the characters as they solve their own scientific mysteries. Me? I’m off to break my piggybank so I can enjoy more of these delightful stories and explore the math, reading, and social studies nonfiction series titles, too.

The Picnic Basket rating: 5

Cynthia Winfield
educator & author

Review of "Up and Down the Andes"

The following was originally posted as a review on The Picnic Basket.

Krebs, Laurie. Aurélia Fronty, illus. Up and Down the Andes: A Peruvian Festival Tale. Barefoot Books: 2008. Picture book, $16.99. ISBN 978-1-84686-203-8.

Laurie Krebs’s seventh Barefoot Books title is an extraordinary celebration of language, color, and culture. Although this is only my first excursion into the world of Barefoot Books, I’m hooked—eager to explore more of this publisher’s list and of Krebs’s writing.

Beginning with the rich, vibrant acrylic illustrations by Aurélia Fronty—a full time painter, illustrator, and fabric artist residing in France—the reader is drawn into the world of Up and Down the Andes which is brought to life by the colorful paintings. The images grant the words possibility and promise without overwhelming the text. Seemingly-simple pictures illustrate a world begging discussion and further exploration, and provide a textured surface upon which to display the story.

Krebs also uses deceptively-simple and sparse text to draw in readers, yet each page presents a carefully-crafted rhyming couplet written in trochaic meter with a strong, masculine rhyme that tantalizes the ear and engages the mind. (More simply stated, each page offers two rhyming lines of text, each written in a DA-dum-DA-dum-DA-dum-DA rhythm.) The rhythm, rhyme, and meter conspire to bewitch readers and transport us fully into the story’s world. The text introduces characters from various points in Peru, traveling to Cusco to participate in the annual celebration of Inti Raymi honoring the Sun God on June 24th, the winter solstice, in a traditional Incan fertility ritual. Closing after a description of the festival, Krebs’s line “Up and down the Andes, There are children just like me” brings the reader into the discussion: In what ways am I just like the children in Peru? Finally, the last quarter of the book’s pages present the history, geography, and culture of Peru and its peoples—native and otherwise.

Suitable for lap-reading or Story Time, Up and Down the Andes could easily be used in classrooms. Krebs, a former elementary teacher, knows the elementary audience and has produced a book that teachers and librarians will treasure. As an eighth grade English Language Arts teacher, I can readily envision lessons in middle school history, geography, Spanish, English, and art classes; and with a little more work, the text could provide a springboard for lessons in math, music, drama, even Family and Consumer Science, computer, and shop classes. An independent school could readily devote a week, or more, to an interdisciplinary unit encompassing all classes of a grade either designed around or introduced or enriched by this particular Barefoot Book.

If all Barefoot Books achieve the goal of “celebrating art and story” to this extent, I shall become a devoted fan. Even the leaves are composed of “ancient-forest friendly,” “100% acid-free” paper, showing respect for the earth and providing yet another opening for inquiry and discussion.

The Brothers Torres

The Picnic Basket: The Brothers Torres • YA fiction
Voorhees, Coert. The Brothers Torres. Hyperion Books for Children, 2008, 316 pages.

Coert Voorhees’s first novel set in small-town New Mexico is an enthralling delight to read. Fast-paced, real and immediate, its characters face present day high school concerns—family, friendships, race, class, ownership, romance, and violence—with honesty and wry humor. Although I found it irritating in the first couple of chapters, the manner in which the first-person narrator, Frankie Towers, habitually separates from himself to observe himself is astonishingly well-done, imitating the self-consciousness of adolescent experience; within a few chapters I was hooked, with no desire to set down the book. His longings and desires contrast against the reality of his situation—where he’s the “good son” working at the family restaurant while his athletically-gifted older brother with college scholarship in hand is given the latitude to run wild (while his parents believe he’s studying or practicing football). Towers’ torn loyalties, desire to gain social status, longing to date the beautiful Rebecca, and sense of personal inadequacy in the company of football heroes and the bad cholos. Heritage—Spanish, white or Native American—is vitally important to the characters and yet easily joked about among friends. The Spanish language terms peppering the text add credibility and the many English translations easily woven into the story allow readers unfamiliar with Spanish to understand, and to learn bits of a rising language in the English-speaking USA.

This tale, authentically told, yet able to cross into the consciousness of diverse readers, earns a Picnic Basket rating of 5 from me. It will easily breach the cultural divides of the United States to bring YA readers of all cultures to a better understanding of the pressures of being a young, Latino-American male in the Southwest. The Brothers Torres is the dessert of a well-rounded picnic. Provide it as a free-choice title for grades 8 and nine; consider studying it as part of a literature course for grades 10 and above.

Watch for Voorhees’ name, as he is destined to be a rising star in the world of YA Latino-American literature.

Picnic Basket: 5

I look forward to reading this novel again.

Cynthia Winfield

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing

Anderson, M.T. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing Traitor to the Nation Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves. Candlewick Press: October 2008, 592pp. Review originally written for The Picnic Basket

Volume I, a New York Times Bestseller and National Book Award winner, obviously appealed to an adult readership, and this volume will also.

Anderson’s second volume of Private Octavian Nothing’s life gives voice to a heretofore silent segment of society in US history—the slaves of African descent living along the eastern seaboard around the time of the Revolutionary War. With a keen eye for detail and an ear for language too-frequently missing in current YA fiction, even quality literature, Octavian’s life is narrated through his journals and through letters by and about him. His story is an historian’s delight: detail of civilian life in a besieged Boston; the story of Lord Dunsmore’s Royal Ethiopian Army—told by an enlisted private; the story of a cautious, somewhat reticent, well-educated black man living among the ordinary, illiterate ranks; details of life aboard ship and in battle in the late eighteenth century U.S.; and the multitude of men’s stories given voice through Octavian’s pen.

Scholars of US and African American history will find a multitude of enjoyment within these pages; however, the text is not for the faint of heart. The vocabulary and shear length are challenging, and I imagine a large portion of the students I have taught would abandon the text before finishing. Even so, the two volumes of Octavian’s life belong in public and school libraries nationwide, and on gift lists of readers with any interest in the topic. In my experience, young readers will persevere longer with a book given as a gift, even though it may challenge their abilities, and that tendency could be a viable avenue for bringing these important historical voices to life.

Teachers, this book offers a breadth and depth of knowledge unsurpassed in historical YA literature. With the guidance and assistance of a whole-class or literature circle read, Private Octavian Nothing’s story would be ideal for interdisciplinary study. Addressing the entire text might require the better part of a semester; however, the return on this investment may be astounding. Try it!

Even though the text will be too challenging for many an independent reader, this book earns a Picnic Basket rating of 5 from me for its historical accuracy and realism, and its literary merit.

Discovering Grandmother Ila

Grandmother Ila lived before my time. Her second son, my dad, was born during WWI; by the time I was born, the United States had survived the Korean Conflict, and was about to enter the Vietnam War. Wed to the Postmaster of Washington, DC, Grandmother Ila was a full time parent to three. While I know very little about her, I imagine she valued art, literature, and music. After all, my parents were both highly literate (their home library housed works in English, French, German, and Japanese), and my dad grew up singing in a choir. That his parents sent him off to study at the Saint Albans Choir School for Boys, of the National Cathedral, speaks to their appreciation for the arts.

When preparing my parents' home for sale, in 2008, I unearthed a twine-wrapped package that had evidently
been in the drafty old farm house's library closet since my parents had arrived in 1956. A torn brown paper bag bore a pencilled note in my father's hand indicating that the package contained paintings by his mother--one in the manner of C.C. Cotton, and one a river scene that was possibly unfinished. The photos accompanying this post document both canvasses as well as the material used to separate each canvas.

I had no idea that my grandmother had such artistic talents. Not only did she paint with a mastery far beyond what I might dream of accomplishing, but also she developed sewing patterns. The package separators were pieces of a pattern she had produced--directions for sewing a stuffed giraffe that she labeled "Hi-Boy: An Ilabeestie, copyright 1926." The label leads me to suspect that she had developed other stuffed animal patterns, in addition to Hi-Boy. The whimsical giraffe brought a smile to my face and I had to piece the pattern together and photograph it before such evidence of her talents vanished entirely.

The river scene, while well detailed, is not signed (which is why I believe it to be unfinished, that and my dad's note), and is very dark. The colors show up better in the digital image than they do on the actual canvas. Unless the paints darkened over time, I can only assume that she was very depressed when she painted this scene. (It's a reasonable conclusion considering the high incidence of mental illness on that side of my family tree.)

But it's the copy of C.C. Cotton's painting that impresses me the most. The painting shows some signs of age and wear. What first appeared to me to be a flower beside the subject's face is in fact two streaks of white canvas where the paint has fallen away. Even so, the painting is evocative of our current life, where the farm surrounds us in natural beauty. Several days before opening this package, I, too, had been wandering in a field and picking goldenrod, among other flowers, for the house. In my grandmother's painting, I see the remnants of a story I was never told about a talented, accomplished woman, who lived in a time when women wore skirts and bonnets out into the fields when picking flowers.

My housemate has decreed that this canvas will be hung over the mantelpiece, and I am quite pleased with that decision.

Parisian adventure

Vidalia in Paris by Sasha Watson

My GoodReads review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
A delightful Parisian adventure for teen readers. Buy a copy as a gift. Give a copy to your local library. Set aside an afternoon to savor this title. Vidalia in Paris is Watson's gift to readers. Enjoy!

(Note: a more detailed review will appear in an upcoming issue of VOYA magazine.)


View all my GoodReads reviews.