Tree Table Book by Lois Lowry

"I'm going to tell you three words. I'm choosing them at random. Listen carefully. This will be important.

House.

Umbrella.

Apple.

Remember those. I'll explain later."

Sophia (known as Sophie) is aged eleven and her best friend is Sophie Gershowitz. Sophie is eighty-eight years old and she lives next door to Sophia. Sophia wants to tell us the story of Sophie. Sophia once received some advice about writing: "Begin on the day that is different."

Ralph is a kid in her neighborhood. Ralph's dad is a pediatrician and so he owns a copy of The Merck Manual which is a reference book for doctors. And there is Oliver who is seven and on the autism spectrum. So, Sophia has three friends - Sophie her Friend of the Heart; Ralphie her same age friend; and Oliver.

Sophia loves check the Merck. Sophia needs the Merck because she has overheard a conversation about her best friend Sophie's health. Sophia is also a medical hypochondriac and her medical dilemmas are sure to make you laugh.

"There is something about a book; the feel of it, the weight of it in your hands, the way the pages turn (pages in the Merck are very thin and extremely serious-seeming, the cover is leather, and there are built-in index tabs."

Aaron, Sophie's son, is coming from Akron. Sophia's parents tell her Sophie will take a test to check her memory or we would say cognition. This gives Sophia  a brilliant idea. She can help Sophie pass this test - all it will take is some training. Sophia is sure Sophie has good eyesight and good hearing but sometimes she seems to miss smells and often Sophie finds very stinky things in her fridge. She also sometimes forgets to turn off her kettle. 

If you have an elderly parent or grandparent you might be familiar with the tests for dementia - one of the questions involves remembering three objects - hence the title of this book - the short-term memory test. Over several days, as Sophia asks the test questions, we gain an insight into Sophie and her life in Poland, her husband, and the holocaust. Sophia uses the three-word test as a way for Sophie to recall her childhood and Sophie tells three stories - the tree with the berries picked too soon by the children; the table at the baker shop that Sophie was not allowed to visit; and the book of fairy tales that her mother returned to the rich owner - the house where Sophie was hidden over the war years.

Lowry is famous for dealing with difficult subjects in her work, which has occasionally been banned, and as young Sophie encourages older Sophie to delve into her long-term memories, it becomes clear that this is also a novel about surviving the Holocaust. Three brilliantly told stories from Sophie’s Polish childhood form the climax of the novel, contrasting very effectively with young Sophie’s charming, insouciant 21st-century kid voice (captured to perfection by the 87-year-old Lowry). The Historical novel society

When the test prep unlocks memories of Sophie G.’s childhood in Poland during World War II, Lowry conveys with sensitivity and realism Sophie W.’s sorrow upon realizing that things she’s only learned about in school have had a painful, lifelong impact on her beloved friend. Book Page

Read more plot details here.

Readers aged 10+ who enjoy personal stories and stories about kindness are sure to enjoy Tree Table Book. Sophia has such a determined attitude and voice. You should also look for these in your local or school library:

Girl 38 Finding a Friend

I'll keep you close

The Windeby Puzzle by Lois Lowry

This book is very difficult to categorize. On the one hand it is an engrossing story of life during the Iron Age from the first century AD. On the other hand, it this is such a sad and, in some ways, an awful and violent story. There is the mystery and devastating outcome. It focuses on two characters living during the Iron Age - Estrild and Varick. You are certain to care deeply about these two young friends until the shocking scenes where both adolescents die. But of course, one of them does have to die because this book has begun in modern times when the well-preserved body of a child was found in a peat bog.

So, there is the side of this story that is based on fact. In 1952, a small, remarkably well-preserved body is unearthed from a bog in northern Germany. This story fascinated Lois Lowry (you know her from books like The Giver). Of course, the actual story of the life of the child found in the bog can never be known. As a creative writer Lois Lowry weaves two possible stories - one about Estrild a young girl who wants to break away from the expected role of girls and women raising and caring for children and working hard to provide food and shelter for their family. Estrild wants to be a warrior. She plots and plans a way for her dream to come true. Alas, this cannot happen and her bold declaration at the village ceremony leads to her condemnation and ultimately her death by the mystical rulers - the Druids. Then later the story of Varick, a young boy born with a deformed spine who is shunned by the village but who is such an intelligent boy with a deep fascination for the natural world. What could have led to his untimely death?

After reading about Estrild this book takes a strange turn. Lois Lowry steps into the narrative with her author voice.

"I confess. It was excruciating for me to write the final paragraphs of Estrild's story. Yet it had been clear from the beginning, from the body found in the bog, how her story would end for her."

But then things change again in this story because early in the twenty-first century a different set of eyes studied the Windeby Girl and declared this bog body was not a girl aged about thirteen but rather a young, undernourished boy aged about sixteen. Read more here. And so, we move to the second possible story and read how Varick could be the body in the bog and discover Lois Lowry's 'invented' and thoroughly engrossing story of how he came to be there. 

Knowing Lowry’s versatility, I shouldn’t have been surprised that in her latest book she succeeds in doing three things at once. “The Windeby Puzzle” is structurally strange and beautifully crafted, zigzagging, as its subtitle announces, between history and story. New York Times

While both stories feature vintage Lowry strengths—strong worldbuilding, compassionate characters—it’s the sections explaining her authorial decisions that stand out and will encourage readers to reflect upon how history is told and about whom. This book, her answer to probing questions, beautifully illustrates the interaction between idea and execution, illuminating the architecture of storytelling. ... Valuable metafiction for young readers. Kirkus

This suspenseful exploration of lives that might have been by a gifted, intellectually curious author is utterly one of a kind. Includes several arresting photos of archeological finds, including of the Windeby child. Harper Collins

You can read the first chapter of The Windeby Puzzle on the publisher web page. Also take a look at Ms Yingling's thoughts.

Year ago, I had this book in my school library. It was one from a series and I remember while I some children did borrow this series from our Non-Fiction shelves, I think I was the person who was most fascinated by these true stories of bodies found almost intact hundreds of years after they had died. 

The Windeby Girl (or now we think this is a boy) can be found in the museum in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

Companion book:

The Raven's Song

I am now keen to find this picture book. This is not the same child from The Windeby Puzzle but it certainly sounds like an interested companion read:

The Willoughby's Return by Lois Lowry

"Many years before - thirty years to be exact - Mr and Mrs Willoughby had embarked on an extended vacation (they used the Reprehensible Travel agency), leaving their four children hehind. They didn't like the children very much (and to be honest, the children didn't like them, either), and so it was not a tragedy for them to be separated. But it would have been illegal for them to leave the children all alone (the eldest Tim, was just twelve). To keep things on the up and up, Mr Willoughby had advertised for a nanny."

It is now thirty years later. So much has happened. Tim is the boss of a successful candy company, he has a son called Ritchie. BUT the US congress have just banned candy following lobbying by the American Dental Association. The other three children are now adults, living in other parts of the US and all three have happy, but very different lives. Mr and Mrs Willoughby have been frozen in the Swiss alps all these years but now they have deforested. They are still the most unpleasant people you could ever meet and show no remorse for their treatment of their children. It is time for them to return but so much has changed.

This book is such a fun romp but I do think you will enjoy it even more if you can find and read the first instalment before rejoining the mayhem of the Willoughbys.

Blurb from the first book: The Willoughby children—Timothy, twins Barnaby A and Barnaby B, and their sister Jane—are fond all old-fashioned things, but especially old-fashioned adventures. What they aren't fond of, however, are their parents. Truth be told, their parents aren't the fondest of them, either, and they're concocting an evil plan to get rid of their children once and for all! Both parents and children have plenty of dastardly ideas and tricks up their sleeves. The only thing they don't have is any idea of what lies between them and a happily-ever-after.

Blurb from the second book: Although they grew up as wretched orphans, the Willoughby siblings also became heirs to the the Melanoff candy company fortune. Everything has turned out just splendidly, except for one problem: Richie Willoughby, son of Timothy Willoughby, is an only child and is quite lonely. Winifred and Winston Poore have long admired the toys of their neighbour Richie Willoughby and finally befriend the mysterious boy next door. But just as Richie finally begins to make friends, selling sweets is made illegal, and the family's fortune is put in jeopardy. To make matters worse, Richie's horrible Willoughby grandparents—frozen atop a Swiss mountain thirty years ago—have thawed, remain in perfect health, and are making their way home again. What is the point of being the reclusive son of a billionaire when your father is no longer a billionaire What is the future without candy in it And is there any escaping the odiousness of the Willoughbys.

Listen to an audio sample here. 

The threads of the story, with various tales of parents gone missing, fortunes lost or never found, and good luck in the end, are gathered most satisfactorily and warmheartedly. Highly amusing. Kirkus

If you enjoy the two Willoughby books you are sure to also enjoy A Series of Unfortunately events and by chance I have just started reading Leeva at Last by Sara Pennypacker - a book that would be simply perfect to read before or after the two Willoughby books.

One special feature of The Willoughbys return are the fun footnotes which often reference contemporary culture especially because Mr and Mrs Willoughby have missed all the innovations of the last thirty years. Words like uber, google, Brexit, HBO, satellite radio, Twitter, FaceTime and Skype are so confusing.

Gooney Bird Green by Lois Lowry illustrated by Middy Thomas

Blurb: There’s never been anyone like Gooney Bird Greene at Watertower Elementary School. What other new kid comes to school wearing pajamas and cowboy boots one day and a polka-dot T-shirt and tutu on another From the moment Gooney Bird Greene arrives at Watertower Elementary School, her fellow second graders are intrigued by her unique sense of style and her unusual lunches. So when story time arrives, the choice is unanimous: they want to hear about Gooney Bird Greene. And that suits Gooney Bird just fine, because, as it turns out, she has quite a few interesting and "absolutely true" stories to tell. Through Gooney Bird and her tales, the acclaimed author Lois Lowry introduces young readers to the elements of storytelling. This book encourages the storyteller in everyone.

The library I visit each week is going through a lot of change. The Teacher-Librarian is on leave for a short break and her replacement has decided to very heavily "weed" the collection. Putting aside the unprofessional and inappropriateness of this task by some one who is just "filling in" I am curious about her criteria. From what I have observed it all seems to be about age and condition of a book and not borrowing frequency or use by staff or value to readers or usefulness in a curriculum sense. And the process is not following the library collection development policy. It is all quite distressing, sad and haphazard.

With this in mind I decided to borrow a few of the older junior fiction books - titles I previously read and enjoyed - hopefully I can save them or at least see for myself if they should be saved. One of these books is Gooney Bird Greene - a book from 2002 - that I first talked about here in 2013. In the past Gooney Bird Greene was a book I often recommended to Grade 3 teachers as a terrific class serial or read aloud book.

I reread Gooney Bird Greene this week and I loved it all over again. What struck me this time, apart from the interspersed "tall tales" Gooney tells her class, were all the wonderful clothing descriptions. Teachers could use these as a writing stimulus for a class.  Here are some examples:

"She was wearing pajamas and cowboy boots and was holding a dictionary and a lunch box."

"Gooney Bird Greene was wearing a pink ballet tutu over green stretch pants, and she had three small red grapes, an avocado, and an oatmeal cookie for lunch."

"On Friday, Gooney Bird was wearing Capri pants, a satin tank top, and a long string of pearls. Her hair was twisted into one long braid, which was decorated with plastic flowers. There were flip flops on her feet."

"She was wearing a ruffled pinafore, dark blue knee socks, and high top basketball sneakers ... (and her) earrings dangled and glittered and were very large."

"Gooney Bird was wearing gray sweatpants, a sleeveless white blouse with lace on the collar, and amazing black gloves that came up above her elbows."

I also loved all the individual class characters - shy and silent Felicia Ann; Malcolm who is often found under his desk; Barry Tuckerman who likes to make important speeches; and sensitive little Keiko.

There are six books in the Gooney Bird Green series:

Book 1: Gooney Bird Greene

Book 2: Gooney Bird and the Room Mother

Book 3: Gooney the Fabulous

Book 4: Gooney Bird Is So Absurd

Book 5: Gooney Bird on the Map

Book 6: Gooney Bird and All Her Charms

Here is the web site for Lois Lowry. Her most famous books are Number the Stars (a book that still haunts me) and The Giver. Here is the Kirkus review of Gooney Bird Greene. Listen to the first few pages here - the audio book sounds terrific. 

The front of my copy of Gooney Bird Greene book mentions other feisty girl characters such as Anastasia (Lois Lowry) and the Blossom books (Betsy Byars). I would also add this long out of print book Freckle Juice and Clementine (Sara Pennypacker). Gooney Bird is also a little like the famous Pippi Longstocking. 

The birthday ball by Lois Lowry illustrated by Jules Feiffer

I picked up this book, The Birthday Ball,  last week because it was written by the talented Lois Lowry.  Sadly I would not have picked this book up from the hundreds of new titles we have ready for our library based on the cover which I do not like.  Do you?

Luckily the cover did not sway me.  This is a terrific read for a middle primary student and could be useful for teachers looking for detailed, if somewhat vile, character descriptions.  There are three or perhaps four suitors all vying for the hand of Princess Patricia Priscilla.  The Princess, meanwhile, is bored with life at court and so she decides to dress as a peasant girl and attend the local school.

Duke Desmond of Dyspepsia had "huge, crooked, brown-spotted teeth, and a tuft of coarse copper-coloured hair."  You can see the illustration of him below.

Prince Percival of Pustula "dressed entirely in black, always.  Even his underclothing was black. His hair had once been a nondescript brown, but he kept it dyed jet black and thickly oiled.  His mustache, as well."

Count Colin and Count Cuthbert the Counts of Coagulatia wore clothing "specially made, with four arms and four legs and two neck-holes, and a very wide waist." They are conjoint twins who are determined to annoy each other.

Lois Lowry uses a rich vocabulary in this fairy tale style romp.  The Princess has a cat called Delicious.

"It's nutritious, Delicious."
"Stop looking avaricious, Delicious"
"Your size is ambitious, Delicious"
"The size of your tummy was suspicious, Delicious!"

Here is a review from the New York Times and another with quite a detailed description of the plot and characters I mentioned previously.  I highly recommend reading any book by Lois Lowry - you will not be disappointed.  Back to that cover.  I think it makes the Princess look ugly and perhaps frivolous and she is neither of these things.  She is a special girl.  This is especially borne out in the care an attention she gives to a little orphan girl who is also attending the school in the village. The ugly repulsive prince suitors on the other hand are perfectly depicted.  Jules Feiffer is the illustrator of the classic book The Phantom Tollbooth.

Lowry transforms the traditional princess into a refreshingly egalitarian heroine with a mind of her own.

Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowry illustrated by Middy Thomas

I keep seeing Gooney Bird Green mentioned on book lists.  It seems there are a huge number of lists circulating in cyberspace. Lists for second graders, lists about themes, list of books to use for teaching and so on.

Now that I have read Gooney Bird Greene I can see why this title appears on lists for second graders and lists of great read-a-loud books.  Gooney Bird herself is an irresistible storyteller even the class teacher comes under her spell.

Gooney Bird arrives at Watertower Elementary School about one month after school has started for the year.  As chance would have it the class are learning about story writing.  Gooney is a fascinating girl and so when the teacher asks for suggestions about a character for the class story with one voice the whole class suggest Gooney herself.

Her introduction to the class had left every one full of questions :

"I'm your new student.  My name is Gooney Bird Green - that's Greene with a silent 'e' at the end - and I just moved here from China."  Later Gooney also tells the class she has diamond earrings given to her by the prince at a palace, she has traveled on a flying carpet and her cat was consumed by a cow.  These outlandish claims form the basis for a daily storytelling time and these stories will certainly make you smile especially when you hear Gooney say "I only tell absolutely true stories."

There are many sites with questions and ideas for using this book with a class.  This is not a new book but it is a new addition to our school library and one that I am sure many young readers will enjoy.  There are five books in the series so we need to add these to our shopping list.  Reading this book reminded me of Pippi Longstocking.  I especially loved the descriptions of Gooney's clothes each day.

Bless this mouse by Lois Lowry illustrated by Eric Rohmann

There seem to have been such a lot of books about mice on my reading pile lately so I waited to begin this one.  I find it best to mix up my reading between genres so that I can remember the plot lines of individual books and not blend them together.

With the election of the new Pope last week this was the perfect book to read this morning as it set in a church although this in an Anglican church.  On my recent trip to UK I visited grand churches and enjoyed hearing those beautiful names like nave, transept, chancel and sacristy.  In this book Bless this mouse I have learnt a new term - narthex.  "Next she found herself in the narthlex  Hildegarde so liked the formal names for the parts of the church.  If she were an ordinary mouse, she thought, twitching her nose at this idea, this would be know as the front hall.  What an ordinary name! Narthex had a ring to it.  You knew you were in an important place when you entered a narthex!"

Hildegarde is mouse mistress at Saint Barthloemew's.  In her charge are over 200 mice including her friends Roderick and Francis, who used to live at the university library, and her rival Lucretia.

This book is simply a delight.  If you are a Tumtum and Nutmeg fan you must read Bless this Mouse. Hildegarde herself is a wonderful character. She is firm in her convictions, wise in her actions and loyal to her people.  When not one not two but three mice are seen by humans in the church Hildegarde know it is time to act quickly before the Great X leads to their extermination.  She carefully organizes for all the mice to leave the church and take shelter in the graveyard.  "I know most of you have never been Outdoors before.  We are not, after all, field mice!'  The audience tittered.  Field mice! Of course they weren't field mice!.  'And we will not be here long. Probably two days. But I myself have traveled a bit from time to time, and have learned to appreciate some of the dangers of the Outdoors.  So I want to alert you."

The first plan to avoid the Great X involves eating the phone book so Father Murphy cannot find the number to call, then they decide to just eat the page with the number so the mice, after some very hard work, turn the phone book to the X section only to discover there is no mention of the terrible X.  Later Hildegarde overhears Father Murphy on the phone and realizes their mistake.  It is not X it is E for EXTERMINATOR!

The way these wonderful mice outwit the exterminator will have you cheering right to the last page.  Here is a detailed review and another one too.  This book also reminded me of Mossop's last chance by Michael Morpurgo which has long been a favourite book of mine.

The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry

A new title by Lois Lowry – what a joy and what a surprise! This book is nothing at all like Lowry’s other books like The Giver, Number the stars, Gathering Blue. All of which are personal favourites of mine. 

If you love Lemony Snicket then you will ‘gobble up’ The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry. Here we have a family of orphans including twins whose names are A and B, a baby left on the doorstep, and shear cruelty by two parents and the oldest sibling that leaves you gasping for breath. Thank goodness for happy endings, benevolent millionaires, kind nannies and glossaries – this one is a real treat. And there is a list at the back of all the stories Lowry has cross referenced. 

There are wonderful sentences like “Once she read it a book but found it distasteful because it contained adjectives.” People might call this book a parody but I prefer to call it a spoof. I think children will enjoy the black humour and the neat coincidences. This is a slim volume of on 157 pages and I think it would make a terrific read aloud story for children aged 9 and over. I read it all in one huge gulp and enjoyed every moment.

Readers who are willing to give themselves up entirely to the sly foolishness will relish this sparklingly smart satire, which treats them with collegial familiarity. Kirkus Star review

Here is the sequel The Willoughbys Return and in 2020 a movie was made of the first instalment.