Gingersnap

by Patricia Reilly Giff

Scott County Library audiobook 3 CDs

Published: 2013

Read by: Olivia Campbell

Genre: YA historical fiction

For how short this book is, it sure took me a long time to "read" it. Set during WWII, orphan Jayna has been rescued from foster care by her brother when he turns 18. When he enlists to fight in the Pacific, she temporarily stays with their landlady until she decides to find her grandmother.

A young girl going to Brooklyn alone and asking to stay with a stranger . . . what could go wrong?

But as she always does, Giff surrounds her protagonist with memorable people (including the "ghost" of herself) and Jayna forges ahead as she worries and wonders about Rob's whereabouts.

Besides taking a long time to listen (started in my sewing room, finally put it on a portable player in my car, and finally finished it at my laptop), I didn't pay very close attention. I think my favorite of Giff's books remains Pictures of Hollis Woods. She writes engaging stories and captures the inner struggles of young girls.

R My Name Is Rachel

by Patricia Reilly Giff
Scott County Library audiobook 3 CDs
read by Cynthia Holloway
genre: YA historical fiction

I mostly enjoyed this book set during the Great Depression. Rachel and her two younger siblings lost their mom when the youngest child was born. Now their dad has lost his job and they're moving to a small town in the country so he can find new work.

Rachel is 12 and loves to read. Joey is 11 and very good-natured. Cassie is 10 and likes things neat.

Two things that bugged me that I kept hoping the author would rectify: Rachel and Miss Mitzi love to write letters. Toward the start of the book, they were writing to Admiral Byrd to ask about the South Pole and the polar bears there. What?! I kept waiting for Miss Mitzi to point out the error to Rachel. Did people not know in the 1930s that polar bears live at the North Pole and penguins at the South Pole? The other irritation was my error - Rachel tries to think of the mice as friendly, like Mickey and Minnie. I didn't think the characters were known at that time. But I just checked and both were featured in films in the very late 1920s and the 1930s. My mistake!

Some of the situations got on my nerves, like Rachel capitulating to Cassie about the money their dad left. I loved Rachel's love of books and reading. I loved the artist and the drawings. Miss Mitzi was a hero.

Pictures of Hollis Woods

by Patricia Reilly Giff
Carver County Library audioCDs
genre: YA coming-of-age

This is a re-read to prepare for sixth grade book club. Wonderful story. Hollis Woods has bounced from foster home to foster home, running away when she's had enough. Then she's placed with the Regan family for the summer and she has found a true home. Until she goes up the mountain and Steven comes for her . . . Told in flashback form after she is placed with the elderly Josie, Hollis Woods is the work of an artist! Beautiful. Made me cry. I love the Regan family.

Lily's Crossing

by Patricia Reilly Giff
PRMS hardcover 180 pages
genre: YA historical fiction, coming of age

I just now realized that I'm not sure what the title is about . . . good thing we're discussing it at 7th grade book club tomorrow. Lily goes to Rockaway for the summer and is dismayed to learn that her best friend's family is moving to another state and her father is joining the war effort. She does not get along well with her grandmother. What looks to be a miserable summer is transformed by Albert, a cat, and some revelations about telling the truth.

This book felt very, very young to me. It was good, but seemed geared to upper elementary kids.