"A Snicker of Magic" by Natalie Lloyd

Awww.  So sweet (and that is not actually a pun, despite the constant reference to ice cream in the book).  Frequently compared to "A Tangle of Knots" this story is actually quite different, but I understand the connections.  There is the syllabic similarity in the titles, a close color scheme in the cover art, and both are solidly "nice" with a nod to magical realism.  That is pretty much where it ends.  "A Snicker of Magic" is an Appalachian tale, pure and simple.  It's got weather, music, colorful legends, unique personalities and a kind of poetic lilt you only hear in a mountain story.  Days are hot, nights are cold, and the setting is a palpable character in and of itself.  Felicity Pickle, our heroine, sees words (think Synesthesia, but more mystical).  She collects them to use as an anchor to keep her heart in one piece as her mother drives the small family around from place to place, never settling down very long  For reasons Felicity doesn't understand, Momma comes "home again" to Midnight Gulch, Tennessee, crashing on the couch with kin until the late summer storms awaken her wandering heart.  In the meantime, Felicity begins to gather clues about herself and her family, coming across a cute boy (Jonah) a mysterious elder (Oliver), a poet (Florentine) and a lot of stories, woven like a quilt around the people of Midnight Gulch.  One thing I really liked was the blend of joy and sadness, making it clear that life isn't so much one thing as it is all things (Spoiler alert -- yes, the dog lives -- nothing bad happens to it).  This was an engaging and fast read, one I would recommend, and one which is likely to have wide appeal.  Most of it is delightful.  I was a tad disappointed that the school only appears in the beginning and end, seemingly inconsequential and nothing more than a device to forward plot points, but other than that, the book "sings."  Complex and simple, a free-flowing, experiential story, I was quite satisfied with it (although hungry ... ice cream is consumed in massive quantities).  Much of it is metaphorical and allusion, but astute readers shouldn't have any trouble seeing its heart.  I'd say two thumbs up, but one hand is reaching for a tub of Chubby Hubby ...

"Meeting Wise: Making the Most of Collaborative Time for Educators" by Kathryn Parker Boudett and Elizabeth A. City

"One of those books" -- a dry, business tome for administrators, this is not.  Boudett and City (who also wrote "Data Wise") got a shout-out from me in the very beginning, for the breezy, fun notes in the Intro about how the book could be read in "determined stints on an exercise bike".  That was quickly followed by an allusion to "Wrinkle in Time" in the first chapter.  Finally, in the end, there is a reference to sitting in a meeting "ordering socks" on your cellphone.  I laughed out loud.  I've never encountered a book of this type that was so real, so accurate, and so "human." Not only a fast read, but very digestable, with takeaways I already plan to use in my meeting planning.  It was short, clear, to the point, had the focus on the right spot -- it was simply terrific.  And I have honestly never said that about a work tome.  I wanted to lend it to half the people in my working group, but I've placed sticky notes on so many sections I don't want to part with it.  Bottom line -- meetings shouldn't be about one-directional input.  It's a revolutionary idea that every one of us who sit in those kinds of meetings knows.  It took these two women to show how a productive meeting can be so much more.

"Orbiting Jupiter" by Gary D. Schmidt

This is the third Gary Schmidt book I have read, and the third one I have really, really liked.  All three were different but have a literary quality which draws you in.  Mr. Schmidt is a true wordsmith -- writing the stories he needs to write, making them all accessible yet lyric, simple yet complex.  There is something truly intangible in how he is able to make every story seem real and personal, not to mention creating characters you want to reach out and hug through the pages.  In this story, sixth grade farm-boy Jack gets an eighth grade foster brother named Joseph.  (The name, by the way, is not accidental.  I suspect a biblical connection, although the reference is subtle, at best.)  Joseph has had a hard time of it.  Gary Schmidt often touches on abuse in his books, but does so with a light pen.  The point is made for the older readers in a way which younger readers may miss, but that's okay.  It's part of the whole style.  Take this passage -- elegant in its clarity:  "During the day, the air glistened with hovering ice.  At night, the stars were razor sharp.  At dawn, the sunlight went straight up in a hazy column.  And sunset closed the day with a quick wink."  It is this kind of depth which makes his books so brilliant and universally appreciated.  This novel, a selection in "March Book Madness" last year, was hugely popular with the many Middle School students who read it.  This is good to know, as I would have suspected the emphasis on rural New England life might not appeal to the urban set we have here.  Obviously, "the story" shines through, even if the experience is different from what students here are familiar with.

SPOILER ALERT

While Mr. Schmidt's stories often have a dark thread, this one ends on a truly devastating note.  I always struggle with endings like this.  On one hand, you kind of see it coming, on the other, you hope against hope that it "goes another way."  Jacqueline Woodson once said that she writes the endings she has to write, because the characters and the narrative give her no other choice.  So it is, I believe, with Gary Schmidt and this tale.  While hugely sad, it did come off as genuine, and, given the space allusions in the story, a kind of way that the universe works sometimes. 

Once again, Bravo.  Another powerful novel by a skilled writer.

"I Will Always Write Back: How One Letter Changed Two Lives" by Martin Ganda and Caitlin Alifirenka with Liz Welch

Have you ever finished a book and just held it to your heart?  Well, this was "one of those" for me.  Besides being a terrific story, this did exactly what I have been railing about for months -- kept a real story real.  Caitlin is a young girl not particularly thrilled with school when her teacher asks for volunteers to write to pen-pals in different parts of the world.  Caitlin picks Zimbabwe because the name sounds interesting.  The recipient of her letter?  A boy named Martin Ganda, who is at the top of his class in his very impoverished corner of the world.  What follows is a two person narrative about their lives over the years, showing not only how their friendship grew, but what their worlds were comprised of.  Understanding each other gave Martin, and his whole family, a way "out" of a difficult existence.  For Caitlin, her world-view exploded upon realizing that her existence was privileged in comparison to children of some other nations.  The story is NOT fictionalized.  It's the recollections of Caitlin and Martin as unvarnished as possible.  The narrative includes all the warts and realities which accompany an actual biography or memoir.  Caitlin doesn't shy away from discussing a somewhat shallow focus on the social aspects of her teen years and a boyfriend who didn't measure up.  Martin is honest about the abject poverty in his war-torn nation and cultural aspects of his life (like the relationship between his parents) which might make some readers shake their heads.  In a fiction book, some of this would have been glossed over.  Here, without getting into gritty details, the facts are laid out in a way which most kids will "get".  Things do turn out okay, but this is a story with shadings, not black and white.  Young people will understand the story, older people will feel the nuances.  It is powerful, joyous and sad, all at once.  Four hankies by the end.  Bravo, Brava, to Martin and Caitlin, with a significant tip of the rabbit ears to Ms. Welch, for telling it "like it is."