The Dragon in the Cliff: A novel based on the life of Mary Anning

By Sheila Cole

Mary Anning contributed much to the world of paleontology with her discovery of the ichthyosaur skeleton in 1811, when she was thirteen years old. Unfortunately, someone else got the credit for her discovery, and so little is known about her.

Sheila Cole has skillfully mixed fact with fiction in this novel. Mary Anning was born in England, the daughter of a poor cabinetmaker, who, aside from making cabinets, had to collect fossils to sell to the upper class in order to make ends meet. When she was fifteen months old, she was struck by a bolt of lightning, and lived. Ever since then, people in her home town of Lyme said that she was brighter and livelier than the rest.

Mary was seven when she started going down to the beach to collect fossils, or curiosities as they were called then, with her father and brother, despite the disapproval of her mother and the neighbors (fossil-hunting wasn't considered appropriate for females back then).

When Mary was eleven, her father died and her brother had to work as an apprentice to an upholsterer. So it was up to Mary to go down to the beach alone and collect fossils to sell fossils to keep the family from starvation.

Then she found the ichyosaur head, and soon the rest of the body. She became acquainted with Miss Elizabeth Philpot, a woman who shared Mary's interest in fossils.

Mary then meets a boy named Henry de la Beche, who is also interested in geology and fossils. He asks Mary to take him collecting with her, and offers to pay her for every fossil they find together. They spend a lot of time together, and Mary becomes very fond of him. However, the others in Lyme do not approve, and Mary must struggle with her differences to find out where she fits in in society.

Overall, this was a good book. I liked how it was well-researched and very realistic. The author did a good job of bringing Mary to life, despite the few facts that are known about her. However, there were places in the novel where I thought the author could show rather than tell.

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Looking for Jamie Bridger

By Nancy Springer

Jamie Bridger is fourteen and she doesn't know who her parents are. She lives with her strict, grouchy grandfather and her weak, submissive grandmother, and neither will tell her anything about her birth.

When her grandfather dies suddenly and her grandmother becomes dependent on her for everything, Jamie decides its time to find out about her parents. She sets out for the neighborhood where she used to live, to see what she can find there. She doesn't find her parents there, but she does meet a slightly crazy, turtle-loving woman named Shirley and a female lawyer who used to know a man who may be Jamie's father. With the help of these two women and her best friend Kate, Jamie continues her investigations, which culminate in a dangerous trip to New York and a most shocking discovery.

I know it's a cliche to say that this book will hook you on the first page and hold you there to the last. The plot is suspenseful and moves quickly, with many unexpected twists and turns on the road to conclusion. I thought it was interesting and helpful how the the author switches back and forth between view points throughout the story.

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.

A Wrinkle In Time

By Madeleine L'Engle

If this isn't the best sci-fi book in the world, I don't know what is. It's engaging, exciting and suspenseful all at the same time. Unlike some science fiction books, it's love that saves the day here, accomplishing something that couldn't be done by bravery, cleverness, or physical strenghth alone. Even though the ending is abrupt, it ties up all loose ends.

The main character, Margaret Murry, a.k.a Meg, has low self-esteem and seems to always be the odd-ball. She doesn't get along with anyone at school, including the teachers and the principal, Mr. Jenkins. Not only that, but everyone likes to gossip about how it's such a shame that bright parents like hers produced not-so-bright children like Meg and her brother Charles Wallace. Charles Wallace is another misfit. He doesn't speak outside his home, and people wonder if he's "dumb". To top it all off, Mr. Murry, Meg's father, who was working for the government, hasn't been seen or heard from for over a year.

One stormy night, a stranger shows up at the Murry house and introduces herself as Mrs. Whatsit, whom Charles Wallace claims to have met before.

The next day, Charles Wallace and Meg meet Calvin, a friendly boy who is fed up with his large family. He, Meg and Charles Wallace become friends quickly, forming a team for the adventure to come.

That night, Mrs. Whatsit and her friends Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which show up. They "tesser" themselves, Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin away to "Uriel, the third planet of the star Malak in the spiral nebula Messier 101", where they see a big black shadow, called The Black Thing, which blots out the stars and gives off a feeling of great evil.

From there, Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin tesser to Camazotz, a planet covered by The Black Thing, on which Mr. Murry is being held. Camazotz is controlled by IT, a brain-like thing that forces everyone to be exactly alike, and torturing those who don't conform.

A man with red eyes, a main helper of IT, seduces Charles Wallace's mind, turning him into a zombie possessed by IT. On command, Charles leads Meg and Calvin to the cell where Mr. Murry is being held. Using the glasses that Mrs. Who gave her before she left for Camazotz, Meg frees her father, only to have Charles Wallace lead all of them to IT.

Meg, Mr. Murry, and Calvin narrowly escape from the crushing power of IT, tessering through The Black Thing to the planet Ixchel. Meg, badly affected by the journey through The Black Thing, is cared for by Aunt Beast, a big, hairy native of the planet, four arms and long tentacles for fingers.

After a discussion with Aunt Beast, Mr. Murry, Calvin, Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Which, and Mrs. Who, Meg realizes that it is she alone who must make the dangerous journey back to Camazotz to rescue Charles Wallace from IT's clutches. Can Meg succeed where nobody else has, using love to challenge the power of IT?

Even if you generally don't like science fiction, or don't read it very often, you shouldn't miss A Wrinkle In Time. It's a quick read, 190 pages, but it will catch your interest immediately, and you won't want to put it down. The characters are realistic, 3-D, the unusual scenery is vividly described, and the plot is fast-paced. I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.

Hang A Thousand Trees With Ribbons: The Story of Phillis Wheatley

By Ann Rinaldi



I don't always like Ann Rinaldi's books, but I loved this one. Okay, it wasn't perfect. The sentences are annoyingly short and choppy in parts. But, on the positive side, this book really makes Phillis come alive, beyond the history books and scholarly studies. I must say that Rinaldi is good with mixing fact with imagination, and making her characters real. In case you were wondering, Phillis Wheatley was not only America's first female poet, she was also America's first African American poet, who lived in the eighteenth century.
Hang A Thousand Trees With Ribbons is a novel written in first-person from Phillis's point of view, and starts in the year 1761. Phillis describes how her father and uncle who, even though they were brothers, hated each other, as they were chieftains of two neighbor-tribes in Senegal, and could not agree. At the age of seven, Phillis, or Keziah as she was known in Africa, her mother and her friend Obour are captured by a band of Phillis's uncle's warriors and sold to slave traders for cowrie shells. In vidid detail, we learn of the horrors of Phillis's journey across the Atlantic Ocean, during which her mother dies and she herself barely lives through.
When she arrives in America, (Boston, to be specific) she is purchased by a well-to-do merchant named John Wheatley, and Obour is sold to a friend of Wheatley's. Mr. Wheatley decides to name his new servant Phillis, after the ship she came on. His son, Nathaniel, takes it upon himself to educate Phillis, teaching her how to read, write, speak Latin, among other things.
But because Phillis is black, and Nathaniel doesn't want to hurt his reputation as a beginning merchant by promoting a "nigra", he keeps Phillis tethered, and doesn't give her any opportunities to use her knowledge or show it off. So Phillis turns inside herself, writing down her thoughts and eventually writing her first poem.
The Wheatleys are amazed at Phillis's first poem, and Mrs. Wheatley has her read for and visit important people in Boston in an attempt to get that poem, and future poems of Phillis's, published.
Meanwhile, Phillis falls in love with Nathaniel, but doesn't dare admit it. An older servant in the Wheatley household, Aunt Cumsee by name, warns Phillis that Nathaniel, as well as all the Wheatley's, only regard Phillis as a "plaything", as something to show off to friends and acquaintances, and that her affections for Nathaniel will only come to grief. Obour, with whom Phillis keeps in touch, warns of the same things.
Unsuccessful at finding someone in Boston willing to publish a black woman's poetry, the Wheatleys decide to send Phillis to London with Nathaniel, who has business to attend to there. The Wheatleys are confident that the English will receive Phillis and publish her poetry. While all this is going on, tensions between England and America are heating up.

I can't say anymore, or I'll ruin the book. But I will say this: I highly recommend this novel. Whether you're familiar with Phillis or have never heard of her until now, you'll thoroughly enjoy the story.

I give this book 4 stars out of 5

Laura Ingalls Wilder: A biography

By William Anderson



A few years ago, I read all the "Little House" books. I enjoyed them thoroughly. Just recently, I thought it would be interesting to read a biography about Laura, main character in the "Little House" books. I went online to look up the subject on the library catalog, and from all the titles that came up, I selected this one. I was amazed at the wealth of information it contained on the book character I loved so much. William Anderson really did a good job researching the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder. I was fascinated by the pictures of Laura and her family included in the book, as well as quotes and first-hand accounts from Laura herself. I was engrossed as I followed Laura's life from a little girl to a successful author. I think that Laura contributed a lot to her society and the world.

Laura Ingalls Wilder was born in 1867 as Laura Elizabeth Ingalls in a log cabin deep in the woods of Wisconsin to Charles and Caroline Ingalls. Laura spent her childhood with her parents and sisters, moving from Wisconsin to Kansas to Minnesota to Iowa and finally settling in South Dakota when she was twelve.


Laura was a keen observer, hard-worker, avid student, and a bit of a tomboy. From the age of eleven, she was trusted by neighbors to do chores, watch children, and even help care for someone's sick relative who lived far from where Laura lived with her family. Laura learned to read and write and in her teens was the top student in her school. When her sister Mary became blind, Laura longed to earn money to help send her to a college for the blind. Laura started teaching school before she was sixteen to earn the necessary money and to keep her mother's family tradition. However, when she was eighteen, she married Almanzo Wilder, putting an end to her teaching career, as only unmarried women could teach school.


The Wilders started a farm on the Dakota prairie. Their daughter Rose was born a year later, and their son three years after that. Unfortunately, their son did not live.

When farming in South Dakota prove fruitless for the Wilders, they moved to Mansfield, Missouri, where they purchased a lonely, abandoned farm in the Ozarks. They named it Rocky Ridge Farm, because of the rocky land. The Wilders settled in, planting crops and raising animals.

Rocky Ridge Farm was a great success. Laura and Almanzo won the respect of the neighbors because of their bountiful harvest.

Laura was especially known for her hens that layed eggs even in the winter time when no other hens would. She began writing articles about her country life for the local newspaper. People loved her writing.

When Laura was in her sixties, she began writing the story of her childhood. At first, no publisher would accept her first manuscript, though they all loved the story. Finally, in 1932, Harper & Brothers published the book under the title "Little House in the Big Woods". The book immediately became popular, beloved by children and their parents. Soon letters came to Laura asking for more books, which she wrote and published. By the time Laura died at the age of ninety in 1957, she had gained international attention. She was famous throughout America as well.

The amazing thing about Laura is that she outlived her parents, all three sisters, and her husband. Her long life enabled her to see many changes, including the invention of the telephone, TV, and car. She saw both World Wars, the Great Depression, and other historic events of the 19th and 20th centuries. She died a few years before the first man landed on the moon. I'm fascinated by Laura's detailed, colorful life and inspired by her positive attitude towards work. As an aspiring writer, I like hearing about how famous writers have done what they did.

The "Little House" books continue to inspire, educate, and entertain each new generation. Through her books, Laura's memory lives on.

I give this book 5 stars out of 5.