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Wrap-up Reading for the Holidays
Book reviews by Augusta Russel Scattergood
Making lists, checking twice, acting naughty and nice? Holiday shoppers, start your engines, the shopping marathons have begun. Or better yet, make it simple on yourself and give those grandchildren, nieces, nephews and neighbors a book this year. Stuff that stocking with a good read. Pick a paperback and tuck it under the tree. Choose books you and your favorite child can read together or turn into a summer project when those kids come visiting.
Dig, Plant, Grow: A Kid’s Guide to Gardening by Felder Rushing(Cool Springs Press, 2004)
Young gardeners will delight in this book full of great advice and ideas. Mississippi gardener Felder Rushing packs his latest gardening book for kids with projects from creating a daffodil maze to discovering “icky but interesting” worms. A gardening book with attitude, wrap this child-friendly little book up and promise your favorite kids a spring adventure.
Taking Care of Moses by Barbara O’Connor
(Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2004)
Barbara O’Connor’s South Carolina roots ring loud and clear in her children’s fiction. Her latest novel features a boy with a secret, his best friend’s little sister who skips down the sidewalk chanting Bible verses and reporting in on the latest neighborhood gossip, and an elderly lady in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. When a young woman, dressed in a floppy hat and jingling bracelets, leaves a baby in a cardboard Saltines carton on the steps of the Rock of Ages Baptist Church, Foley, South Carolina, is torn apart, and the good church folks can’t figure out what to do. Read this book with your favorite middle-grader and discover together that sometimes sorting out right from wrong proves just as difficult as doing the right thing. Tackling serious subjects with a kid’s eye view of the world and a healthy dose of humor, Barbara O’Connor lives up to the promise of her earlier noteworthy books.
Lu and the Swamp Ghost by James Carville, illustrated by David Catrow(Simon and Schuster, 2004)
Political pundit Carville sets this new picture book, based on family stories, in the Louisiana bayou during the Depression. Curious Lu, taking her mama’s advice to heart that you’re “never poor if you have a loving family and one good friend,” decides to befriend a mud-covered swamp ghost. The bright watercolor illustrations and the story’s delightful humor make this a book to share with all the family.
Jazzy Miz Mozetta by Brenda C. Roberts, illustrated by Frank Morrison
(Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2004)
Not truly Southern by definition, this book speaks to the dancer in all of us. And what Southerner doesn’t love to kick up a heel or two? Read this lively picture book to show your youngsters what jitterbugging was all about. When Miz Mozetta fluffs on a little Pretty Plum powder, puts on her firecracker red dress and a touch of Tango Mango lipstick, she’s ready to cut a rug. A vivacious, perfectly illustrated book, just the thing for sparking a lively conversation about what one generation might offer the other. Put on some Chuck Berry, tune into Oldies radio and dance your way into the holiday season.
Gusty Russel Scattergood, a native Mississippi Deltan and retired librarian, writes monthly book reviews for USADEEPSOUTH and other publications. Read more of her reviews at USADEEPSOUTH by clicking here: USADS BOOKS
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