The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane was a very sad but touching story -- simply told, and an easy read, but with clearly drawn characters and a theme that reappears in many ways. For those of us who remember The Velveteen Rabbit, it's not the first time a story about a toy rabbit has tugged at our heartstrings.

Edward Tulane is a proud rabbit who doesn't love anyone, not even his owner who takes good care of him. Over the course of the story, he is taught difficult lessons as he is lost, thrown out, and abandoned to other owners -- many people love him, though some characters do not. He learns how much love can hurt, but also how necessary it is. Can he open his heart one last time? While the ending is satisfying, the story includes enough sadness that it doesn't feel schmaltzy. 

Scrounged From: PaperbackSwap.com

Format: Paperback
Author: Kate DiCamillo
Pages: 200
Content Advisory: A child dies of illness, and there are other sad abandonments throughout the story.

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The Twenty-One Balloons is one of those books that I'm glad to have read, but wish I had read when I was younger -- sometimes the magic and mystery is a bit stronger at younger ages.

I did enjoy this story that features a fair amount of absurdity, but it balanced that out by anchoring itself in an actual historical event -- the violent explosion of the volcano Krakatoa in 1883. After a ballooning accident maroons him on a seemingly deserted island, Professor Sherman is introduced to a secret society built around the volcano -- made possible due to the abundance of diamond mines about the place (also secret).

This brought back memories of Gulliver's Travels though easier to read and not nearly so strange or complicated, and also reminded me a lot of the science fiction and mystery of some Jules Verne stories. In modern times, I wouldn't be at all surprised if the movie Up was inspired by this book.

Scrounged From: A homeschool book sale

Format: Paperback
Author: William Pene du Bois
Pages: 180
Content Advisory: There is a violent explosion and a bit of peril, but nothing too scary.

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I would probably never have heard of Randall Munroe if Professor Puzzler were not such a fan of the xkcd comic strip. Munroe is a former NASA scientist, and apparently after writing the strip for a while he began serving as a "Dear Abby for mad scientists," as he puts it. So What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions is a collection of some of the most interesting (as well as bizarre) questions he has received, and his scientific answers to them, complete with his trademark stick-figure comics here and there to throw in some snappy comments.

I enjoyed reading it, despite not being really all that mathematically inclined. There are a few questions that got a bit over my head, but the majority of it should be fairly accessible to those who paid attention in high school science classes. His dry sense of humor really adds to the explanations, and many of the questions are so over-the-top that it's fun to see how he lays out his answers. 

One example of the ridiculous questions is: "How quickly would the oceans drain if a circular portal 10 meters in radius leading into space were created at the bottom of Challenger Deep, the deepest spot in the ocean? How would the Earth change as the water was being drained?"

Which leads to not only an answer, but a full illustration of an altered map of the world on the inside of the book's dust jacket, complete with new names for the resulting new land masses and bodies of water. Another question/answer involves the logistics of building a bridge across the Atlantic Ocean made entirely out of Legos.

Even if you're usually an ebook or audiobook person, this is one case where you really can't beat the real thing. 

Scrounged From: Amazon

Format: Hardcover
Author: Randall Munroe
Pages: 303
Content Advisory: Some questions involve things like explosions and death, but it's all treated very hypothetically and impersonally. At least one question deals with blood, which might make some readers queasy.

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We Will Not Be Silent: The White Rose Student Resistance Movement That Defied Adolf Hitler is the story of brother and sister Hans and Sophie Scholl, as well as some of their friends, who were beheaded by the Nazis for leading the White Rose resistance movement which involved sending out leaflets in many places in Germany, especially at the University of Munich where they were students. Though they were brought up in the Hitler youth, they came to see that their government was evil and that they had a responsibility to resist it in whatever ways they could.

I had never heard of this story before hearing of the book, so I'm glad to have discovered it and thought it was timely to read about the actions of citizens who had the courage to resist what they knew was wrong, knowing what it could cost them. The Scholls gave their lives for something that they had decided was more important than they were, and by the time the war was ending, their leaflets continued to be distributed far and wide -- their actions have truly outlived them and that is a powerful legacy to leave.

This book is geared toward middle school/high school ages, and so is not a long read but includes plenty of detail, not only about the primary events, but also the timeline and context of World War 2. There are also many photos, though mostly of the period in general rather than of the Scholls themselves. One of my favorite photos was of a memorial to the White Rose Resistance Movement in Germany which is built to look like a bunch of leaflets spread out on the ground. 

Scrounged From: Our local library

Format: Hardcover
Author: Russell Freedman
Pages: 112
Content Advisory: Since this is a war story, it references acts of war, and also describes the beheading at the end, though not in gratuitous detail.

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is the first Roald Dahl book that I've ever read. I'm ashamed to say I made it to adulthood before I even realized that his first name wasn't actually "Ronald." But it's better late than never, isn't it?

I'll also admit that, having seen Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory as a child, it is difficult to mentally separate this story from Gene Wilder's magical portrayal of Wonka (I've heard some say that Depp was closer to the book, personality-wise, but I didn't see that version).

All the same, the song "Pure Imagination" captures this story quite aptly. What child has not fantasized about everlasting candy? This made "the chocolate room" all the more magical to me, as I absolutely used to fantasize about a natural world in which everything was made of different kinds of sweets. That as well as the boat on the chocolate river, and the great glass elevator, were the most memorable parts for me.

One aspect that I found interesting was the different treatment of Charlie in the movie vs. the book. In this book, Charlie is completely good and his fellow golden-ticket-holders are completely bad. There is no question of who the hero is because it's spelled out clearly from the beginning. Whereas, the movie apparently attempted to humanize Charlie by having him do a bad thing too.

I think that's why one thing that struck me about the book was how moralizing it came across, even underneath all the absurdity (at times reminding me of Hilaire Belloc's "cautionary" tales, minus the death of course). I have no problem with "good vs. evil" narratives; I suppose this just stands out more because I've become used to narratives that are more likely to portray complex heroes and villains. But I think the fantasy elements of the story made the fairly one-dimensional characters less problematic. 

On another note, I am certain that J.K. Rowling must have been influenced by this story. Not only is there a "Slugworth" (minor character) here, but some of the goofier candy inventions remind me quite a bit of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes.

Scrounged From: PaperbackSwap.com

Format: Paperback
Author: Roald Dahl
Illustrator: Quentin Blake
Pages: 155
Content Advisory: Some perilous and sad situations.

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