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1943

Editor's Note: Many of the books are out of print. The header information will be as complete as I can make it.

Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray (Vining) (Viking, $10, fifth-grade level). ISBN: 06701014353.	The Medalist Adam, the son of a minstrel in 13th Century England, has many adventures after becoming separated from his father and losing his dog. Easy to read, high interest book. Would work perfectly with the picture book the Dragon and the Minstrel Pup as well as A Door in the Wall. It wouldn't be much of a stretch for seventh-grade teaches to incorporate this book into their units on feudal Europe.
The Middle Moffatt by Eleanor Estes (Harcourt-Brace, $13.60, fifth-grade level). 0152025235.	Honor Book Another member of the entertaining Moffat family comes to life under the gentle, humorous hand of Estes. Jane, like her brother Rufus, is brutally honest and entertainingly naive. She gets involved in mild trouble and enjoys simple adventures in a post-World War II small town. As amusing as the stories are, they tend to drag on. The novel is over 300 pages long and it's too much of a good thing.
Have You Seen Tom Thumb by Mabel Leigh Hunt (J.B. Lippincott, fifth-grade level). Out of print	Honor Book The remarkable life of America's most famous midget gets a full dose of the author's purple prose. I have to admit that I never knew that Tom Thumb was a real person (with a stage name, of course) until I read this book. Hunt provides us with some insights into the world of popular entertainment, circa 1850, and a little bit of history. Those nuggets of fact are deeply submerged beneath Hunt's amazingly effusive writing style. She invents monologues and dialogues and creates the occasional imaginary scenario. Her writing is on occasion so melodramatic that it's difficult for modern readers to wade through it.

Copyright David Ross 2003