Echo Mountain

 

Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk, 356 pages

A page turner! I picked this up because I had started a book that I couldn't finish. It wasn't the book's fault; I think I'm just currently in a place where the action and events of a juvenile book are easier to focus on than anything that is too dense. This was right up my alley and it kept my interest!

Ellie's family moves from town to a cabin on a mountain after The Great Depression upends their lives. When Ellie's father is terribly injured in an accident that she witnessed, Ellie feels that her family hold her somewhat at fault for causing the accident. As her father's condition does not change, she begins to search for ways to cure him by using the resources of the natural world and by befriending some of the people who have always lived on the mountain and are not sure they want to welcome newcomers. 

There was a lot of action in this book as well as things a young reader would find alluring: a puppy born to the family dog who Ellie hopes to keep as her own pet, a mysterious "hag" living in a remote cabin further up the mountain, beautiful wood carvings left as gifts by someone Ellie never sees, and so on. The writing and the characters are beautifully done and the descriptions of life on the mountain and the wildlife that share space with the people were great. This book would be a great choice for any young reader.

Father Coughlin

Father Coughlin: The Tumultuous Life of the Priest of the Little Flower by Sheldon Marcus, 232 pages

For his supporters, he was one of the few men with the courage to defy the Establishment and take a stand against the vested interests responsible for the Great Depression, steering America between the Scylla of Fascism and the Charybdis of Communism.  To his enemies, he was a demagogue exploiting the desperate masses, an ignorant loudmouthed bigot, a Catiline in a Roman collar.  In his own account, he was a simple priest preaching the social doctrine of his Church.  For over a decade Father Charles Coughlin held forth to an audience of millions, both on the radio and in his journal Social Justice, providing critical support to FDR in the 1932 election, when he coined the slogan "Roosevelt or Ruin", but turning against him when the New Deal proved insufficiently radical.  Hatred of bankers and financiers segued easily into anti-Semitism, Anglophobia into Teutonophilia, horror at Communism into sympathy for fascism.  In 1942, he narrowly escaped treason charges for his vocal opposition to the same president he had helped put in power ten years earlier.

Those years of feverish activity are the only reason anyone is interested in a biography of Coughlin, and they are the subject of the overwhelming majority of this book.  Unfortunately, Sheldon Marcus' biography is a confused jumble of news reports and personal reminiscences, without narrative flow or structure.  Marcus seems singularly uninterested - or perhaps assumes his audience will be - in the substance of Coughlin's political positions, but also provides only the barest glimpses of the personalities involved.  The author might be praised for his willingness to present multiple conflicting accounts of the same events and let the reader judge which is the most plausible, but the result is an undifferentiated mass of information more likely to confuse than edify.

Every Day After

Every Day After by Laura Golden, 216 pages

This is a short, sweet little story about a little girl growing up during the Great Depression.  Lizzie’s father has been gone a month.  He left after he lost his job.  Lizzie is convinced that he is looking for work and they will hear from him any day but since he left her mother has withdrawn into herself and doesn’t speak or move, unless Lizzie moves her.  Lizzie has been doing all of the housework and the mending that her mother had been taking in to earn some money.  Unfortunately, this means that Lizzie hasn’t been able to spend as much time on schoolwork and her grades have begun to slip.  Erin, her rival, is thrilled that she may come in first instead of Lizzie and mocks Lizzie about it every chance she gets.  She also threatens to tell that Lizzie’s mom isn’t well because then her mom may go into an institution and Lizzie into an orphanage.  Then, a foreclosure notice comes from the bank.  Even though Lizzie is only 11, she is determined to hold things together until her father returns.  Even kids who don’t usually like historical fiction might like this book because Lizzie is such a likable, determined person.  

The Sittin’ Up

The Sittin’ Up by Shelia P. Moses, 226 pages

This book begins with a death. Bean, who is proud to be almost 13 is grieving the death of the oldest man in the county, former slave, Mr. Bro. Wiley. Mr. Bro. Wiley was like a father to Bean’s mother, a mentor to many people in the area, and a respected member of the community. Bean and his best friend, Pole, are happy that they are at least old enough to be at the sittin’ up for Mr. Bro. Wiley. The story follows the events from the death through all of the preparations for the sittin’ up and the funeral, some of which is completely unexpected. The odd part of this story for me was that it actually seemed more humorous than sad, and I’m not really sure if that was the author’s intent. Kids who like historical novels may like this book.