Margi Preus

Espen is fourteen years old when Hitler's army invades his country of Norway and gradually imposes restrictions on his people. Realizing the terrible world they will live in with Hitler at the helm, Espen and several of his friends begin involving themselves in secret resistance missions. Meanwhile, his best friend has joined the Norwegian Nazis. The war progresses, and Espen's jobs become more significant, his involvement more complex, his knowledge more dangerous. As he struggles to make show more decisions to protect himself and his family and friends, Espen is also wrestling with questions about how two people with the same desires for a better world can make two opposite choices. What is right and what is wrong, and how does a person know the difference?

I tore through this one in a single day. The writing is lovely, the pace is quick, and the protagonists are courageous and loyal (and based on real people, which makes their story even more inspiring). Preus has won a Newbery honor before; can she do it again this year? show less

Caught in the machinations of adults, in a folktale-like situation but without supernatural help from talking animals or magical gifts, Astri does what she must to survive. Not a squeaky-clean heroine but who can blame her. By far my favourite moment in the book involves such a situation. Hoping to save her dangerously ill sister from death on an immigrant ship, Astri strikes a bargain with a crone whom she believes to have witchy powers. She's willing to offer anything, and the old woman show more demands to be given her first-born child. Astri agrees immediately, thinking that's a long way off, and there may be a way to cheat on the bargain. But later in the voyage, the crone demands her help with a tricky bit of midwifery and after some manipulation, a breech baby is born into Astrid's hands. "Hand me the child," the old woman demands, and then, "The bargain is fulfilled." What?? That, she explains to Astrid, was your first born child, and during your life you will birth many more. It's such a perfect reversal of expectations.

The author provides a lot of back-of-the-book background about such things as health and medical matters in mid-19th-century Norway, sources for the various folk and fairy tales woven throughout the story, even a photograph of her own great-great-grandmother who came to America on just such a ship and pages from her diary. Plus an extensive bibliography. I appreciate that in historical fiction. show less

First sentence: The night I was born, the doctor arrived on snowshoes. A blizzard raged outside, knocking out the power, so I was delivered by match light. Forever after, I was called "Dr. Kate's match baby." Like most of Dr. Kate's patients, our family lived in the snowy northern woods of Wisconsin.

Premise/plot: This is a picture book biography of Dr. Kate Pelham Newcomb.

My thoughts: I loved, loved, loved, loved this picture book biography. I loved "meeting" Dr. Kate through the pages of show more this book. I loved learning more about her, her career, and the people she inspired. It is a story of hope and community. How her community came together and inspired--in ever increasing circles--others to build a hospital for their community--one penny at a time. YES, one penny at a time. So what seemed like an impossible, daunting task became a reality one small step at a time. show less

A young girl saves her people from illness in this picture book retelling of a traditional Ojibwe folktale from co-authors Lise Lunge-Larsen and Margi Preus and illustrator Andrea Arroyo. Idolizing her older brother, who is her village's messenger, she never dreams that when her family and neighbors become sick, it is she who will make the dangerous winter-time trek across the lake to the nearest other village, to fetch necessary medicine. Setting out bravely, she reached her destination and show more then, refusing to rest overnight, begins the return trip. When she becomes stuck in the snow, she forces herself to stay calm and to think her way out of the trap, eventually reaching home and delivering the necessary aid to her people. The next spring, she and her brother discover a beautiful new flower, the ma-ki-sin waa-big-waan (moccasin flower) or lady's slipper, where she first struggled in the snow, and where each bloody footstep fell afterward, on her journey home...

An exciting adventure story and a pouquoi tale in one, The Legend of the Lady Slipper highlights the virtues of bravery, persistence and quick thinking, while also explaining how a beautiful and rare flower of the northern forests first came to be. I enjoyed the narrative from Lise Lunge-Larsen and Margi Preus immensely, and appreciated the note about sources they included at the front, and the fact that Ojibwe academics and language instructors were consulted, when writing the book. I didn't enjoy the artwork from illustrator Andrea Arroyo quite as much as the story itself—somehow, it was a little too cartoonish in style for my taste—but I loved the story so much that I still greatly enjoyed the book. This tale has also been told in Kathy-jo Wargin and Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen's The Legend of the Lady's Slipper, which I hope to track down and read as well, in order to compare and contrast it to this telling. Recommended to young folklore enthusiasts, and to anyone looking for picture book retellings of Ojibwe tales. show less