Laurel Snyder

Rebecca's mother takes her and her little brother Lew from their home in Baltimore and drives to their Gran's house in Atlanta to get some space and figure things out. Rebecca is horrified when she learns that this isn't a short trip but a possible move (and Gran is horrified that Rebecca's mom didn't explain the situation beforehand). Rebecca misses her father, and when she finds a bread box that grants wishes in Gran's attic, she wishes for something that will help her parents get back show more together. That doesn't work, but Rebecca is able to use the box to produce all kinds of other things, from extra tubes of lip gloss to give to new friends at school, to new clothes to help fit in, to comfort food from places in Baltimore. But eventually, Rebecca realizes that her wishes are coming from somewhere - that she is, in effect, stealing. In an effort to put things right, she tries to find the rightful owner of an engraved spoon she got for her mother, but the bread box magicked the spoon out of someone's coffin, and the old woman Rebecca tries to return it to calls her a grave robber.

Snyder isn't afraid to put her main character through the wringer: accused of theft at school, trapped in an old woman's basement, and delivered by the police to DCFS when they're unable to get hold of her parents or Gran by phone, Rebecca goes through a lot in a short period of time, but it ends with both parents rescuing her, and returning to Baltimore all together (though it's not clear that the parents will stay together). Rebecca's longing for home, her realization that some problems can't be fixed with magic, her deepening relationship with her little brother, and the ways in which Gran asks that she grow up and see her mother as a person are threads that weave the story together.

See also: All the Answers by Kate Messner

Quotes

But my anger felt like something I could give him. I could say it was awful for him. Maybe it would even get me home sooner if I did. (57)

"[Moms] do a lot they never get thanked for, so little things become big. Presents matter." (68)

...it was a little like everything was a box. Gran's house was a box, school was a box, Dad was a box, Mom was a box, and the magic was a box. None of them seemed to know each other or to be part of each other anymore. My life was in all these little boxes, and I'd open one up and then close it again. (89)

The magic only made everything worse. Wishes were curses. (195)

Magic can't always fix things for you. Because some people do leave. Some people let go and forget. Some people rip things apart. But you know what? Some people don't. (223) show less

Rosie goes to visit her grandmother with a variety of choices along the way -- red cloak or faux fur coat? stop at a neighbor's house first or keep going? pick flowers for grandma or follow the sound of a distant drumbeat? and so many more!

This was such a fun and clever read. It takes well-known fairy tale characters such as Hansel, Gretel, Jack, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White and gives them new stories. But it's more than just a fractured fairy tale -- it's a choose-your-own-adventure show more style book in which the reader essentially "plays" as Rosie and makes her choices to determine where the story goes next. Some choices lead to rather morbid albeit traditional fairy tale endings like gruesome deaths (off page, so not actually gratuitous but implied); many lead to the same page in which Rosie heads home and wonders what sort of day everyone she passes had, as the possibilities are endless. Just one story path leads to a slightly moralistic but nevertheless beautiful multi-page reminder that every day we are making choices that define our lives.

On the whole, this is done super well. (There's one slight gaffe I believe -- some of the stories make mention of the cake Rosie loses even when the beginnings of those stories don't have that event happen as it's only an occurrence in one pathway.) The text is done in this singsong rhyming scheme that works well with the fairy tale theme and also just adds to the fun of the story experience. Dan Santat's illustration style works very well this book and its themes.

I could see this book having a lot of applications. Personally, I just sat down and read every possible outcome in one go, bookmarking where I made divergences and then going back to those whenever I reached a "the end" for the alternate choice. But I could see this being a good selection for bedtime, in which kids could pick one different choice and follow it to its conclusion each night, thereby allowing this one title to be the book before bed for several nights. I could also see this being a fun "brain break" in a classroom setting, with the teacher reading aloud and letting the class decide by majority vote where to go next in the story. It could also supplement classroom curriculum on fairy tales, with young readers have the option to read this title on their own for a compare-and-contrast with other retellings of classic tales. Or, I could see this being a good choice for a road trip as it would keep young passengers occupied for a while finding all the different twists and ultimate endings for Rosie's story. show less

A clear homage to Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are ("We ate him up. We loved him so"), this is the story of a little boy called Jim who wakes up one morning as a lion with a tremendous appetite. Jim devours his mother, several townspeople and shopkeepers, and a dog before running into the woods and encountering a bear, which intends to eat him. But Jim prevails, then retraces his route, spitting out everyone he's swallowed whole along the way. Jim's surprise at waking up as a lion, show more conflict with his growling stomach, and double consciousness - as a boy and a lion - makes for a darkly humorous and complex story, with warm-toned illustrations. show less

This is less biography & more a poetic ode to Anna Pavlova's artistic life. For biographical information, you must look to the author's notes & the sources in the bibliography. Pavlova is a lovely and interesting person to read about, and Julie Morstad's illustrations are wonderful to look at, but I find Laurel Snyder's appraisal of Pavlova's thinness & frailty a bit troublesome. The world of young girls could do with a lot less inculcations of snow- & feather-lightness as aspirations in the show more media they consume, seeing as how many grow up to lose body-confidence & fall prey to pressures to be thin & perfect. Snyder paints Pavlova's litheness as having paved the way to today's standards of thinness in the modern ballet, as if it were a groundbreaking accomplishment in itself! What a tacky message to send to young girl readers. show less