Sandra Kring

How High the Moon is about a little girl so lovable, so endearing right from the word go, that you think there has to be some fault to the book given that a large part of why 'Teaspoon' is how she is, is because she's been abandoned by her mother. But, of course, little girls aren't left by their mothers through any fault of their own and that's why How High the Moon is so brilliant--and why Teaspoon is so brilliant.

Ten-year-old Isabella 'Teaspoon' Marlene has been raised by her mother's show more boyfriend for the last five years ever since her mother ran off to chase her dream of becoming a star. Now, Teaspoon (from whose point of view the story is told)is in danger of not passing fifth grade and full of afflictions like saying ain't, singing all of the time-she wants to be a star, too-and getting in fist fights. Her teacher, sure her troubles are the result of a 'lack of feminine influence' in her life sign her up for the Sunshine Sisters program that pairs upstanding teen girls with more troubled younger girls.

And that's how the second character, Mill Town's Sweetheart, Brenda Bloom is brought in--as Teaspoon's Big Sister. Then, of course, there's the question of whether her mother's going to stay gone.

I haven't read any of Sandra Kring's books before, though I have seen them, loved the covers and thought about it, so I'm pretty much overjoyed to have gotten this book from Goodreads First Reads. Set in 1955 and told by a ten-year-old, I was a little worried about this to be honest (it sounded cute but then I wasn't completely sure)--but then I loved it.

There was an amazing assortment of characters (Teaspoon, Teddy, Brenda, Charlie, The Jacksons, and quite a few more) that all had their own purpose within the story and progressed things. I'll admit to having some trouble keeping some of the Jackson kids straight because there were quite a few with same letter names, but that's about all. And all of the characters seemed to fit within the period but were also entertaining and fun to read about in a modern book.

And I thought the story being told from Teaspoon's view was done really well. It didn't feel juvenile even though it was being told by a child, or too young for teens or adults to enjoy but it also didn't feel too grown up to fit with her. There was that childhood innocence and naivete that kept her lovable and cute and endearing but also brought back memories of when you were ten and didn't quite know what all the adults were talking about. It also worked well to have the kids overhearing conversations because elements of the plot were brought in that there was no other reason for her to know about, but that the reader could then know about.

The relationships between Teddy and Teaspoon, Charlie and Teaspoon, and Brenda and Teaspoon were all strong in their own right and developed well and allowed you to care about all of the characters. And her relationship with her mother (or what she's keeping in her head, too) was also...I want to say bittersweet.

And a good bit of it's set in this fantastic movie theatre with stars on the ceiling...and now I want to have a movie theatre like that.

It wasn't the least predictable book ever (but it didn't need to be) but there were also some parts that were really, really not predictable and it really has a whallop of an ending. One part of the ending of this book made me cry, actually.

I think How High the Moon is a book the sort of book that a lot of other books are trying to be, one with characters you can really love, a story you won't forget, and a great conclusion. I know I'm recommending this to a lot of people (and not just on here).
Though this is not a YA book, I see very little if not nothing at all stopping YA readers from reading it.

(This book was received as from Goodreads First Reads) show less

Using a child narrator for a novel intended for adult readers is a tricky proposition, but Sandra Kring pulls it off with perfection in The Book of Bright Ideas.

Evelyn Peters (aka “Button”) is the heart of this tale of childhood friendship that grows with the intensity that only eight-going-on-nine can muster when an unconventional pair of siblings burst into their staid midwestern town like the fireworks on “Marty Graw”. Freeda Malone is a fiery redhead with the mouth of a sailor, show more the body of a temptress, and a perhaps too-healthy appetite for male company. Her baby sister Winnalee is an impatient bundle of energy, dubious fashion choices, and big ideas (which she writes down in the titular book). That the two girls should instantly become best of friends is almost inevitable, as Button’s imagination is nurtured by Winnalee’s flights of fancy, and Winnalee finds stability and loving acceptance from Button’s Aunt Verdella.

What’s perhaps less to be expected is that the free-spirited Freeda also opens doors for Verdella and for Button’s mother, Jewel – a process Button sees and describes, without fully understanding what’s at the base of it all. She knows only that, bit by bit, her world is getting just slightly bigger, though sometimes the grown-ups around her make choices she can’t really comprehend.

Kring keeps the point-of-view firmly with Button, even as events unfold in the adult world that will change everything in heartbreaking ways. Most readers will have winkled out the main revelation long before it’s made, but can still feel the pain the knowledge brings to everyone touched by it.

Definitely worth the read. show less

A Life of Bright Ideas is the stand-alone sequel to The Book of Bright Ideas - it continues Winnalee and Button's story but you don't have to have read The Book of Bright Ideas (I have not yet) to read, follow and enjoy A Life of Bright Ideas.

Synopsis: A Life of Bright Ideas, set nine years later in 1970, finds Button (real name Evy, short for Evelyn), just having graduated high school moving out of her father's house into the her grandmother's old home. The house, across the street from show more her aunt and uncle is going to be all hers, a fresh start for her.

In the time between the two novels, Button's mother has died and her father has all but abandoned his children - Button's six-year-old brother is now living at her aunt and uncle's home.

Giving up college for a job sewing for the bridal shop her mother started, Button is figuring out how to be an adult and how much responsibility she can take on when the childhood friend she's never forgotten or stopped missing, Winnalee, shows up out of the blue.

Overjoyed at having her best friend back in her life, Button is figuring out how the free love, wild child, Winnallee fits in her rather ordinary, follow the rules life. After all, the most excitement Button usually has is writing to the friend she fell in love with back in high school who's stationed in Germany.

Just as the two are finding a rhythm, someone else shows up with a rather big surprise that Button, at least, never saw coming. A surprise that will throw them, but might be just what everyone needed in the end.

Review: Sandra Kring has a true talent for writing great family relationships. A Life of Bright Ideas shows a whole family - or families - and how they interact with each other without anyone really getting lost on the edges. With parental relationships, pseudo parental relationships, romantic relationships, sibling relationships, friendships - really just about everything you can have - present, it would be understandable if someone got lost in the shuffle.But no one does. Not even the dog.

There are not extraneous characters or settings or things in A Life of Bright Ideas to draw the characters' - or readers' attention away, to distract. With only a handful of main settings/locations in the book, the characters lives are very insulated - there's just the few homes, the Corner Store, the bridal shop - but it allows them and us to focus on what they do together.

It's why the book works so well and can be so emotional at times. The characters - as well as their relationships, or because of them - grow and develop over the novel becoming stronger and even more connected with each other.

While I haven't read A Book of Bright Ideas I can't believe anyhow who has would be disappointed with how Winnalee and Button's lives turned out.

A Life of Bright Ideas had a lot of the same things I loved in How High the Moon (the only other Sandra Kring book I've read thus far): the kids who have that perfect blend of mischief and innocence, who really seem like real kids; the interesting and complex parental figure/child relationship; the great friendships.

This is not a YA book, but given Button and Winnalee's ages and that they're both trying to figure out how to be adults, I think it has great crossover appeal, at least for older YA readers.

What a fantastic, at times emotional read - I know I'll be watching for any future releases from Ms Kring . . and also reading The Book of Bright Ideas!

Rating: 10/10

(thank you to Sandra Kring and Random House for my copy of this book) show less

It's small town America in the 1950's and Isabella, nicknamed Teaspoon, is in danger of failing fifth grade. She is imaginative and endearing, naive and plainly outspoken, outrageously talkative and fiercely loving. Living with Teddy, her mother's ex-boyfriend, the man her mother left her with five years ago when she went off to Hollywood to follow her dreams without regard to her daughter's welfare, Teaspoon may be a figure that should be pitied, but she's got charm and spunk to spare. show more Teddy turns out to be a good man and wonderful father to Teaspoon, even if he struggles to find the money to keep going, and Teaspoon wants to honor his goodness to her by becoming a better person herself, becoming a lady. Her only frame of reference for doing so though, is her elderly next door neighbor who has recently been landed with the care of her great-grandson, a seemingly insipid child just younger than Teaspoon, and the Taxi Cab Ladies, prostitutes whom Teaspoon has befriended (without quite knowing what they are, only understanding that they have a soft spot for her chatterbug self).

Rather grudgingly, Teaspoon allows her teacher to sign her up for a mentoring program called the Sunshine Sisters, which pairs young girls with older role models in the town. Teaspoon is claimed by town sweetheart Brenda Bloom after an unconventional meeting in the town's movie theater, a place beloved by Teaspoon and owned by Brenda's mother. The summer and their mentoring meetings are taken up by preparations for a revue to re-open the renovated and expanded theater. Teaspoon and Brenda are central to these plans and the events that happen in the lead up. Through it all Teaspoon doesn't stop wishing for her mom to come home and take up with Teddy again, she befriends Charlie, the neighbor's great-grandson whom she earlier disdained, and she dreams of her own big singing break.

Teaspoon narrates the entire novel so the reader is treated to her misunderstanding of people and events and charmed by her naivete even when certain things are perfectly clear to the adult reader. Certainly there are times that Teaspoon can be irritating and persistent and the other characters acknowledge this but it just makes her voice as a 10 year old girl that much more authentic. Sometimes she is world weary as only young who have seen more than their far share can be. And it is these variations in her character that make her such a delight to read. The storyline isn't precisely filled with surprises but that's easy to forgive in such a hopeful and endearing novel. I enjoyed every page of this adventure with Teaspoon and found myself smiling at the smallest of things as I read: her fierce crush on the older neighbor, learning to consider and honor Charlie's feelings about her mother's piano, her proprietary air toward Brenda when sparring with Brenda's mother, and her solution to the scuffed up new shoes she's supposed to wear for the revue. I could go on and on mentioning these little instances that create her character out of lovely whole cloth but I'll refrain. Instead, I will say that this is a wonderful book and I'm infinitely happy to have had the chance to read it. show less