Author Archives: designpointaaron

AUTHOR: Adriana Brad Schanen

GENRE: Fiction

SUMMARY: When eight-year-old Quinny Bumble and her family move from New York City to “middle of nowhere” Whisper Valley, she hits the town like a tornado, rushing in to find action the second they pull into the driveway. Hopper Grey, Quinny’s shy neighbor, is frequently picked on by his two older brothers and happiest alone in his room building models. As rambunctious, talkative Quinny introduces Hopper to the joys of spraying his older brothers with the hose and trying to save a stray chicken named Freya, he discovers that life beyond his bedroom can be pretty great. When school approaches, Hopper fears Quinny will discover he’s a friendless loser, but it’s Quinny who struggles as third grade begins, while Hopper begins to come into his own.

AUTHOR: P.L. Travers

GENRE: Fantasy

SUMMARY: Pulled down from the clouds at the end of a kite string, Mary Poppins is back. In Mary’s care, the Banks children meet the King of the Castle and the Dirty Rascal, visit the upside-down world of Mr. Turvy and his bride, Miss Topsy, and spend a breathless afternoon above the park, dangling from a clutch of balloons.

AUTHOR: Deron Hicks

GENRE: Mystery

SUMMARY:

Two kids race around a city on a wintry night, tangling with elite operatives and foiling a crime they don’t understand. In contemporary Washington, D.C., an unidentified man tries to evade goons in a parking garage. A roughly-12-year-old boy sits on a bench in the National Gallery of Art, alone, struck with amnesia. (This amnesia’s a plot device, not psychological realism.) Art—his name?—knows nothing about himself but everything about art history. Criminal mastermind Dorchek Palmer and his highly skilled covert criminal operatives will do anything to protect their sale of a forged van Gogh, including hacking and erasing security footage across the city—and kidnapping Art and 10-year-old Camille, Art’s friend from emergency-placement foster care.

AUTHOR: Nehemiah

GENRE: Religious Text

SUMMARY: After 70 years in exile, the Jews had returned home and rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem. They were able to worship God in their own land, but the city still lay in ruins. The once-great capital of the promised land was a depressing rubble heap exposed to her enemies. When Nehemiah hears this, he sets out to restore the city walls.

The book of Nehemiah is his story in his own words. It is about reestablishing God’s people both physically and spiritually.

In the first part of the book, Nehemiah restores Jerusalem in a physical sense. When Nehemiah hears that “the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire,” he gets permission from Persian King Artaxerxes to rebuild the city. The governors of surrounding territories viciously oppose Nehemiah’s efforts, but the wall is finished in just 52 days. Nehemiah also restores economic justice in the land, admonishing the wealthy for taking advantage of their less fortunate brothers.

In the second section, Nehemiah and Ezra bring spiritual revival to Jerusalem. Ezra reads the law of Moses aloud to the people, and the nation rededicates to obeying God. Later on, Nehemiah works diligently to point people back to the law of Moses.

Nehemiah’s story is peppered with personal commentary—sometimes it reads like a historical account, and sometimes it reads like Nehemiah’s journal. We know when he is afraid. We know when he is angry. We even see him break his own narrative with prayers to God. This book gives us a look into the mind of an Old Testament man of God, giving us examples of how to lead, pray, and deal with discouragement.

AUTHOR: Gloria Whelan

GENRE: Historical Fiction

SUMMARY: Africa is the only home Rachel Sheridan has ever known. But when her missionary parents are struck with influenza, she is left vulnerable to her family’s malicious neighbors. Surrounded by greed and lies, Rachel is entangled in a criminal scheme and sent to England, where she’s forced into a life of deception. Like the lion, she must be patient and strong, awaiting the moment when she can take control of her own fate — and find her way home again at last.

AUTHOR: Yona Zeldis McDonough

GENRE: Non-Fiction

SUMMARY: No one knows where the term Underground Railroad came from — there were no trains or tracks, only “conductors” who helped escaping slaves to freedom. Including real stories about “passengers” on the “Railroad,” this book chronicles slaves’ close calls with bounty hunters, exhausting struggles on the road, and what they sacrificed for freedom.

AUTHOR: Eleanor Estes

GENRE: Fiction

SUMMARY: Meet the marvelous Pyes— There is Mrs. Pye, the youngest mother in town; Mr. Pye, a famous bird man, who handles all the nation’s important bird problems; Rachel Pye, who is so reasonable she can make unreasonable ideas sound like good ones; Jerry Pye, who knows about rocks of all sorts and plans to grow up to be a rock man; Uncle Bennie, who is Jerry and Rachel’s uncle—even though he’s only three years old. Lastly is Ginger Pye, the “intellectual dog,” who Jerry bought for a hard-earned dollar. The most famous pup in all of Cranbury, Ginger knows tons of tricks, is as loyal as he is smart, and steals the hearts of everyone he meets… until someone steals him!

AUTHOR: R.J. Palacio

GENRE: Juvenile Fiction

SUMMARY: August Pullman was born with a facial difference that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid—but his new classmates can’t get past Auggie’s extraordinary face. WONDER begins from Auggie’s point of view but soon switches to include his classmates, his sister, her boyfriend, and others. These perspectives converge in a portrait of one community’s struggle with empathy, compassion, and acceptance.