We were unanimous in our reactions to both of our books at our December meeting. We started with the picture book,
The Funeral by Matt James. Although we all agreed that there is certainly a place in the picture book arena for a story about this subject, this book wasn't it. To start, several of us were offended that the letters FUN were highlighted in the large lettering of the title on the front cover. Although young Norma and her favorite little cousin Ray did have fun romping around the churchyard after the services, we felt that shouldn't be the focus of a story about funerals. There were no redeeming features in the story that dealt with any deep feelings on the part of anyone related to the deceased, great-uncle Frank -- except that everyone was sad. There were no quotes from Norma's parents about what he had meant to them, and Norma barely knew him. Beyond seeing a picture, neither Norma nor Ray nor we readers learned anything about him. We were also not so thrilled about the illustrations. Norma never looked the same way from one picture to another; in one picture she looked like a teenager, and in another, like a 40-year-old woman. We felt there were so many different ways this story could be told that would have generated more feelings and more information helpful to young children hearing or reading this story. It did, however, make for a great discussion about our own experiences as young children faced with the death of a loved one and the activities that followed. A good discussion is always a good thing!
Our reactions to our novel, Mrs. Smith's Spy School for Girls by Beth McMullen were equally tepid. Although we felt that the protagonist, Abigail, had some good lines, and some good reflections and observations, most of the action of the story was entirely unbelievable and beyond impossible. It was difficult to keep track of what happened to her from one insane incident to another as she was supposedly being trained to be a spy. A lot of the actions seemed very cartoonish, though not funny, and in several cases, quite violent. We felt that the character of Abigail's mother, who was the reason she was sent to this odd boarding school in the first place, was less than fully developed, not to mention being a less-than-concerned mom for subjecting her daughter to such freaky and possibly life-threatening escapades. We felt the plotting was disorganized and difficult to follow. One reader said it had, "not enough substance and too much flash." And -- to top it all off, when we reflected on the whole story, we realized that it was Toby, a schoolmate, and not Abigail, who 'saved the day' each time with the help of his genius technological gizmos. We felt that the 'heroine' of a story should be a true heroine. Abigail wasn't.
