I think that this was the very first book that my book club read, but I seemed to have missed it somehow. I can now check it off of my to read list. It is a juvenile book that was given the Newberry Medal in 1979, so it could be considered a children's classic.
I thought it was a fun little read. It is a whodunit murder mystery that lets the reader put all of the clues together and guess who the murderer might be. There are sixteen would be heirs and 220 million dollars at stake. There are bombings, and dead bodies, and poisoning? I know this doesn't seem like it would be suitable for children, but really it is very tame. It's just fun. It would be a great book for a child who is ready for something a little more involved than a Cam Jensen or a Nancy Drew book.
I guess my only critism would be that the middle was a bit slow. I thought that I had it all figured out by then and was just waiting for the end to see if I was right.
My Rating
Overall: 3 stars. A child would probably give it a higher rating though.
Objectionable Content: none
Book Review: The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
Book Review: The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman
I have mixed feelings about this book. It received the Newberry Award in 1996 for reasons that become obvious while reading it. The writing style was fun. It was descriptive, yet simple. The story was very entertaining and brought to life by the medieval characters that populated the pages of this book. Alyce is smart and compassionate without knowing it. Most of the people that she runs into are rude and unfeeling, they tease her. She is an orphan who has wandered, but finds her place as a midwife's apprentice kind of by chance.
I guess my misgivings about this book stem from the appropriateness of the subject matter for a young audience. It does say "12 and up" on the back, but I know I was not mature enough at 12 to have read this book. It's not graphic or anything, just suggestive. So, while I wouldn't want my ten year old to read this book, I enjoyed it. It was so short that it seemed more like a short story than a novel.
My Rating
Overall: 3.5 stars.
Objectionable Content: It talks about women in labor and giving birth. It may not be appropriate for children to read.
