A Question of Time

A Question of Time. Dina Anastasio. 1978. 90 pages. [Source: Bought]

First sentence: Syd opened her eyes and glanced out the window.

Premise/plot: Syd Stowe moves with her family from New York City to a small town in Minnesota. Her great-grandfather, Jake Stowe, moved from that same town to New York when he was just eighteen. That would have been circa 1900. At first she's so upset that she doesn't want to leave the house and make friends. But after discovering a toy shop with homemade wooden dolls, she becomes fascinated with the history of the town. In particular how the dolls connect to the history of the town. The shop owner says that the dolls' appearance is based on real life people.

Soon after Syd meets a girl around her own age that looks just like one of the dolls. Both of them carry a bag of marbles. Weird. The two start hanging out together. Can Laura help her figure out who the dolls are supposed to be? Can Laura help her discover the identity of their maker?

My thoughts: A Question of Time is a weird mystery. Syd, our heroine, is drawn into a mystery in the past. It's a mystery that leads her straight back to her own family. It's a book that in some ways leaves more questions for readers than it answers. I haven't decided if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Would I have enjoyed reading A Question of Time as a kid? Probably not. I would describe this one as bittersweet at best. I did not do bittersweet as a kid. If it didn't end happy, I was MAD.



© 2018 Becky Laney of Young Readers

The Hungry Ghost of Rue Orleans

The Hungry Ghost of Rue Orleans. Mary Quattlebaum. Illustrated by Patricia Castelao. 2011. Random House. 32 pages.

Fred lived alone at 28 Rue Orleans. Once the house had been a jazzy-snazzy, sweet-and-spicy spot, but now? The floors squeaked, the roof leaked, and dust coated the chairs. But Fred liked his rickety house. All night he moaned and clicked his fingers and tended his tiny cactus. If he got hungry, he gobbled some air. The perfect life for a ghost.

Books--even picture books--can surprise you. I didn't think I'd like this one--at all. And I'm not saying that I love it, but when you begin a book with big, big doubts, thinking that it most probably won't be for you, when that turns out not to be the case, well, you can't help getting a little excited about it! (The opposite of how you feel when you expect to love, love, love a book and end up being frustrated, disappointed, etc.)

Anyway, this picture book is about what happens when an old house in New Orleans is bought and turned into a restaurant. Fred is used to haunting a house--a wonderfully dusty, creaky house. But Fred is NOT happy about haunting a busy, noisy restaurant! And haunts it he does. But while he intended--perhaps--to scare the guests away, he ends up being the unique charm of the place. People see him as a little something extra that makes this restaurant worth eating at. How does Fred feel about all this?! Well, his mind might change once he gets a taste of powdered "ghost" puffs!

What I liked about this one was the language. With phrases like "munchers and clankers" to describe the customers, it had me at hello. I just thought the language, the style, was lovely. I still don't necessarily "like" ghost stories. But this one, well, it worked for me.

Text: 3 out of 5
Illustrations: 3 out of 5
Total: 6 out of 10

© 2011 Becky Laney of Young Readers

There's No Such Thing As Ghosts!

Eeckhout, Emmanuelle. 2008. There's No Such Thing As Ghosts!

This is a small picture book with big charm. I didn't think I'd like it all that much, but it surprised me in a way. I'll try to explain. It's very simple. And simple can sometimes be a very good thing. In this story, the words say one thing, but the illustrations say something very different. There are two stories going on essentially--one revealed by text, one revealed through art. And for some reason or other, this really worked for me. I can't quite explain why.

"When we moved to our new neighborhood, I had to promise my mother that I wouldn't go near the strange old house on the corner. "People say it's haunted," she whispered. Haunted? There's no such thing as ghosts! But if there is...I'm going to catch one!"

So this little boy goes on a ghost-hunt in this house...room by room by room with no luck. But as the illustrations show, there were ghosts here, there, and everywhere.

© Becky Laney of Young Readers