Mother and Daughter Book Review: The Secret Science Alliance and the Copy Cat Crook.

Note:  This is our second Mother/Daughter book review, and we are still trying to get the podcast up!  So please enjoy another week of the transcript! 

Me:  Hi Everybody, This is Merideth

Mari:  And this is Mari

Me: And we are going to do our second Mother Daughter Book Review.  This week we’re going to review The Secret Science Alliance and the Copy Cat Crook by Eleanor Davis.  

Mari, how would you describe this book to somebody in just a few sentences if you wanted to get them to read it?

Mari:  Fun, but cluttered artwork.

Me:  I would say it’s a fun, but a little predictable story, with bright colored, but slightly cluttered art.  I agree with you about that.

Mari: It’s about a boy named Julian, who was a nerd at his old school, but he and his parents have to move.  He decides he won’t be a nerd at his new school, but he can’t help it.  Then at school there’s this “crazy” girl named Greta and a “dumb” jock named Ben, and it turns out that they’re both science geeks.   And there’s this scientist named Dr. Stringer, who in my experience, is kind of stuck up, and in the end he plays a very important part.

Me: So, they’re all three science geeks and they don’t want anybody to know it?

Mari:  Well, not a lot of people know, except Greta’s dad, who’s a museum owner (important!).  They don’t want their parents getting in their way! 

Me:  So they form a secret society of scientists, huh?  That’s pretty cool.  What did you really like about this book?

Mari:  They were nerds.

Me:  You liked the fact that they were nerdy?

Mari:  (Sings) “White and nerdy!”

Me:  But they’re not all white are they?  Greta’s an African-American girl and Ben looks like he might be Hispanic?

Mari:  I was singing a Weird Al song (sings) “White and Nerdy!  Look at me I’m white and nerdy!”

Me: Oh.  So you liked the fact that the characters were geeky?

Mari:  Geeks rule! 

Me: Anything else you like?

Mari:  (sigh) The way she draws, but not how she placed it.  I like how the characters didn’t look real, but also they weren’t stick figures without mouths or noses.   But, I thought there was too much stuff on the pages, and it looked cluttered.

Me:  So you thought the characters were not too realistic but not too cartoony either?

Mari:  Yes. 

Me: Anything else you liked about the story?

Mari:  I liked that it was an adventure!  The kids got to do cool things! 

Me:  I liked Greta!  I liked that she was spunky and smart.

Mari: I Liked her too.  I liked her helmet, and that she wasn’t a super girly girl.  Because I’m not always a girly girl (sings) “pink and princess, rainbows and carousels, la la la la la”

Me:  And I felt really sorry for Ben, because he thinks he’s stupid but he’s not.

Mari:  I know!  He just isn’t good at tests.  I think teachers should come up with a different way to find kids’ scores, not just tests.  Because some people get really nervous during tests.  Maybe they could just nonchalantly ask some questions in a conversation, instead of watching you like a sparrow! 

Me:   So, you mentioned that you didn’t like how cluttered some of the artwork was. I would agree with you, I think that some of what librarians like me would call the panel layout was off.  You know, the way the artwork was arranged on the page, there was too much going on, and you didn’t know where to look.

Mari: I would have to agree.

Me:  I also noticed that in some places it’s a very wordy comic.  There’s lots of text.   Lots and lots and lots of words.

Mari:  Yeah, in some places there’s more bubbles than art.

Me: And as much as I like the story, it didn’t really surprise me.

Mari:  Yeah, it was kind of predictable.

Me:  Now I would say this would be a really good book for school age kids.  Kids in 2^nd grade up through 6^th.  Who would you give it to?

Mari:  Hmmmmmm… ages 8-12 I think.  Not middle school or high school. 

Me:  Well, thank you for reviewing another book with me, maybe next week we’ll review something you pick.

Mari: (evil laugh) Ooooo!  I’ll pick something you won’t like!   

Mother and Daughter Book Review: Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword

I'd like to introduce a new feature on the Merideth Says blog: Mother and Daughter Book Reviews. 

My daughter Mari is 9 years old, and a 3rd grade student.  She is very interested in this reviewing thing that eats up so much of Mom's time, and wants to try it.  So, here is our first joint review, of Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword by Barry Deutsch.  

Note: Mari and I tried to record this as a podcast, but had some technical issues, so for this one, we just have the transcript! 

Me:  O.K. -- it's our first book review together, and we're going to talk about Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword. So, if you had to describe this book in just a few sentences, how would you? 

Mari:  It was amazing and the artwork was wonderful.  It had a good storyline and I liked how she produced it.  

Me:  I would say it was a good adventure story with an unusual lead character and setting.   Can you tell me what the book was about? 

Mari:  It's about an Orthodox Jewish girl named Mirka, who has a stepsister named Rachel, and an older sister named Gittel, who is always talking about getting married, and she has a little brother.  They live in Hereville.  One day, Mirka sees a woman floating, cutting wood, and she takes her friends to see her.  When they're there, she eats a grape and a big pig chases her.  The pig won't leave her alone until she ropes it and rides it underwater.  Then she saves the pig from bullies so the witch tells her where to find a wonderful sword as a reward.  

Me:  Why does Mirka want a sword?

Mari: Mirka dreams about fighting dragons.  She has a book of monsters, which isn't a Jewish book, and she's not supposed to have it.   She needs the sword to fight. 

Me:  Well, that makes sense.  What did you like best about this book? 

Mari:  Well, that's hard!  There are three things:  the artwork, the storyline, and her stepmother.   I liked the artwork because it was realistic without being like "oh, this line is two millimeters too long, arghghghghg!"  and it wasn't "oh, I'm sorry that I didn't draw noses or mouths on anybody".  It was the perfect balance.  My goal when I grow up is to be a comics artist and win an Eisner award, so I always look at the art first.  

Me:  I liked the artwork too, but I thought that it was a little distracting because some of the closeups were more realistic than the far away scenes.  

Mari:  That's bad? 

Me:  No, but it did take me out of the story a little bit.  What did you like about the story. 

Mari:  I liked Mirka!  I liked that she was "spunky" but not "grrr...kill kill kill".  I liked that she was a Jewish girl, because my dad is Jewish, and you don't see many Jewish girls in fantasy books. 

Me:  I liked that she was Jewish too, and a Orthodox Jew at that. It was interesting to see a different way of life.  But she had to break some rules to have her adventures though, didn't she? 

Mari:  Oh, yeah.

Me:  You said that you liked her stepmother, why?

Mari:  Well, she was argumentative, feisty and liked to fight.  She's just like me!  

Me: I have some things in common with the stepmother too.  I think she was my favorite character.  Is there anything you didn't like about this book, or thought the book could have done better? 

Mari: No, not really.  It was pretty close to perfect.  There's just one thing. The witch didn't really look like a witch, I liked that she didn't look cheesy, like a Halloween witch, but she really just looked like a creepy old lady. 

Me:  I don't think I would change anything either.  I do wish it had been in color, because I think it would attract more readers, but I think the kind of brown, sepia tones work for Mirka's kind of old fashioned way of life.   So, who would you give this book to? 

Mari:  I would give it to kids my age, mostly girls, but boys too.  Boys need to read about spunky girls.  I would give it to people who like fantasy books.  

Me:  I think it's a good book for grade school kids, but I also think it would be a good book for adults too.  Maybe even adults who don't know much about comics. 

Mari:  That's a great idea!  Because comics are good books.  A lot of grownups don't realize that.  

Me:  Yes, comics are good books.  And a lot of grownups don't understand that.  Maybe we should talk about that next time.  Are we going to do this again? 

Mari:  Hopefully.