Opal by Opal Whiteley

Opal was born just before 1900 and was raised by foster parents in Oregon lumber camps after her parents died. She kept a diary when she was five and six years old and this was first published by the Atlantic Monthly Press in 1920. The edition that I read was adapted by Canadian poet Jane Boulton, who standardized some of the spelling and arranged the lines into free verse form on the pages.

Opal writes about her favourite animals, including Thomas Chatterton Jupiter Zeus, a lovely woodrat; Virgil, a toad; Brave Horatius, her dog; Peter Paul Rubens, the pig who follows her to school; and Felix Mendelssohn, the mouse that is always in her pocket. She tells her sorrows to Michael Raphael, a big tree. Sometimes she misses her dead parents and writes messages to them on leaves, saying prayers as she ties them to trees for the angels to find and carry on to heaven.

"The glad song in my heart is not bright today. I have thinks as how I can bring happiness to folks about. That is such a help when lonesome feels do come."

Opal saves any pennies she is given so that she can buy her foster mama the singing lessons she longs for. "And when I grow up I am going to buy her a whole rain barrel of singing lessons."

There is always work, even for very young girls. Opal "dishtowels all the dishes" and "some days there is cream to be shaked into butter. Some days I sweep the floor." She carries eggs to neighbours, feeds the chickens and washes baby clothes and stockings. "Stockings do have needs of many rubs. That makes them clean." She weeds the garden. "My back did get some tired feels but the onions were saying, 'We thank you for more room to grow.'"

"Then I thought I could go explores, but the mama called me to scour the pots and pans. That is something I do not like to do at all. So all the time I'm scouring I keep saying the lovely verses. That helps so much. And by and by the pots and pans are clean."

Opal loves exploring the natural world. "When I grow up I am going to write a book about a raindrop's journey." Of snakes, she says, "Their dresses fit them tight. They can't fluff out their clothes like birds can, but snakes are quick people."

"I lay my ear close to the ground where the grasses grew close together. I did listen. There were voices from out the earth and the things of their saying were the gladness of growing. And there was music. And in the music there was sky-twinkles and earth-twinkles. All the grasses growing there did feel glad feels from the tips of their green arms to their toe roots in the ground."

"One drinks in so much inspiration with one's toes in a willow creek." I've made a note to try that sometime.

This quirky and charming diary is one of my favourites. Suitable for Grade 5 through adult.

King of the Screwups by K.L. Going

K.L. Going really has a way with memorable teen characters who are outsiders. Troy Billings, 296 pounds and suicidal in Fat Kid Rules the World. Iggy Corso, born addicted to crack and pretty much neglected as he grows up in Saint Iggy. I was not so sure about her most recent creation, Liam Gellers in King of the Screwups.

Liam's mother was a world-famous model and now runs a chi-chi clothing boutique. Liam's father is an extremely successful businessman. Liam himself is Mr. Popularity. He has his mother's fabulous looks and an uncanny fashion sense. His problem is that he always seems to screwup big time, end result being that his father kicks him out of the house. Liam goes to live with his gay uncle Pete, a member of a glam-rock cover band, for his final year of high school.

It took me awhile to care about this rich, straight kid who was trying so hard to be someone he was not in order to please his tyrant of a father. By the middle of the book, I was weeping for Liam. Another winning novel from Going. Grade 9 and up.

Map of Ireland by Stephanie Grant

Ann Ahern is 16 and living in South Boston. Her pale skin, blue eyes, red hair and freckles are as clear an indication of her Irish heritage as a map of Ireland. Ann explains how she came to be serving a 20-month sentence for burning down the house of a friend. It happens when she was only just beginning to learn about the fires of passion; she gets a crush on her Senegalese French teacher, Madmoiselle Eugenie, and falls in love with Rochelle, a Black teammate on her basketball team.

The fact that Ann is romantically interested in her own sex is not such a big thing for her, because she has been attracted to girls for a long time, but the colour barrier is a big one. 1974 marks the first year of forced integration of schools through bussing. Ann's mother is one of the women kneeling with rosaries in front of the busses, praying that the Black students will go back to their own neighbourhood. Parents throw rocks at busses containing young students. A group of boys lights Madmoiselle Eugenie's car on fire.

This is a short, gripping novel about coming-of-age in a complex situation. It has been marketed as an adult novel, yet has very much of a YA feel to it. Grade 9 and up.

Embracing the Wide Sky by Daniel Tammet

The author of Born on a Blue Day writes about the way our minds work. He especially wants readers to understand that the brains of autistic savants like himself are essentially the same as every other human being.

I was surprised at how much I learned from this book. For example, the reason that the electoral college system in the U.S.A. gives individual voters more power and how it helps protect minority factions from being ignored by the majority. Opinion polls indicate that 75% of Americans would rather switch to a single national election, and this also is explained; the electoral college system is far more complex and most people prefer to go with the simplest option possible.

Something that has long baffled me is why people buy lottery tickets, even when they know that they are more likely to be killed by lightning than to win a big pot. Tammet explains this in a section entitled "Why People Believe Weird Things." Very enlightening.

How do we measure an intangible thing like intelligence? What role does imagination play in thinking? Why are ideas so much more important than information? Much to ponder in this book. I've also come away with new tips for foreign language learning, which I plan to use when I tackle Slovak.

Tamara Drewe by Posy Simmonds

Nicholas Hardiman is a famous British crime novelist. He and his wife, Beth, run a writer's retreat at their country home, Stonefield. In truth, it is Beth who does all the work of the business, and performs all secretarial duties for her husband's writing also, allowing him to concentrate on his work. She knows he is unfaithful, which is causing some strain in their relationship after 25 years.

Just down the road is an estate recently inherited by a young columnist from London, Tamara Drewe. She flirts with all the men - including Nicholas - whenever she breezes into Stonefield for a visit. Andy Cobb, the Hardiman's gardener, is serious when he tells her he preferred her face before her nose job, but he is definitely interested in Tamara. Unfortunately for Andy, Tamara gets involved with Ben Sargeant, the drummer from a rock band. Who happens to be the heart-throb of one of the teenagers in the local village, Jody Long.

A satirical, tangled plot of seduction, betrayal and death, this story is a contemporary version of Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd. And I haven't even got to the best part yet; it's a finely-drawn graphic novel in full colour. Available in book format or online. Very highly recommended.

Arthur, For the Very First Time by Patricia MacLachlan

The summer that he is 10, Arthur is sent to his Uncle Wrisby and Aunt Elda's farm, where he learns that there is more than one way to look at the world. An enchanting, amusing and timeless story about family relationships and coping with difficult emotions. I like the pet chicken, Pauline, who prefers to be addressed in French.

Readers who loved MacLachlan's Sarah, Plain and Tall will find an almost identical side-story here, about a mother who died in childbirth and the mail-order bride who arrived to take her place.

The Hamilton Case by Michelle de Kretser

Set in Sri Lanka in the 1930s (when it was still called Ceylon), this is the story of a Sinhalese lawyer who was briefly famous for solving the murder of a British tea plantation owner. But even at the end of his life, he harbours doubt about what really happened. De Kretser, who was born in Ceylon and emigrated to Australia when she was 14, is deft with nuances of character. Through the life of Sam Obeysekere, readers also observe the tragic effects of colonialism on a country, the unravellings leading to a future civil war.