State of Vermont                                                                                                                                                                                                           Agency of Administration

A SALUTE TO NATIONAL LIBRARY WEEK

Reviewed on "Across the Fence" on WCAX,
Monday, April 14, 2008   12:10 p.m.

by Amy Howlett, Penny Pillsbury, and Judy Simpson

Chabon, Michael.  GENTLEMAN OF THE ROAD.  Del Ray, 2007. ISBN 978-0-3455-0174-5.  $21.95.

Set in 920 AD two buddies, one a skinny physician and the other a hulking Nubian, are charged with delivering an obnoxious royal brat to his kingdom. Historic and funny.

Clements, Andrew.  NO TALKING.  Mark Elliot, illustrator.  Simon & Schuster, 2007.  ISBN 978-1-4169-0983-5.  $15.99.

Nobody’s talking at all in the fifth grade class, the noisiest group of kids ever to come through the school. A funny story, with some serious thoughts behind it.  

Coffelt, Nancy.  FRED STAYS WITH ME.  Tricia Tusa, illustrator.  Little Brown Young Readers, 2007. ISBN 978-0-3168-8269-9.  $16.99.

A young girl goes back and forth between her divorced parents, comforted by her dog. Fred barks too much and eats socks, but he matters to her. That is important. 

Coffin, Howard.  FULL DUTY: VERMONTERS IN THE CIVIL WAR.  Countryman Press, 1995.  ISBN 978-0-8815-0349-4.  $24.95.

Explains how and why Vermonters so enthusiastically took up the cause of the Civil War when Lincoln gave the call to arms.

Courtenay, Bryce.  POWER OF ONE.  Ballantine Books, 1996.  ISBN 978-0-3454-1005-4.  $14.95.

The biography of an English boy who grew up in South Africa during World War II. The magazine Publisher’s Weekly calls it an epic melodrama, and Vermont book groups agree.

Dunn, Jane.  ELIZABETH AND MARY: COUSINS, RIVALS, QUEENS.  Knopf, 2004.  ISBN 978-0-3754-0898-4.  $30.00.

A fluently written double biography revealing how different the two cousins were in their approach to 'Queenship.'

Fish, Charles.  IN THE LAND OF THE WILD ONION: TRAVELS ALONG VERMONT’S WINOOSKI RIVER. University of Vermont Press, 2006.  ISBN 978-1-5846-5550-3.  $25.95.

From Coits Pond down to the mouth of the Winooski, Charles Fish details with anecdotes, interviews, and history the lore and lives human and not along the river.

Hood, Ann.  THE KNITTING CIRCLE.  W.W. Norton, 2007. ISBN 978-0-3930-5901-4.  $24.95.

In this life-affirming novel, a woman copes with her grief by learning to knit and, eventually, to share the stories of her knitting circle.

Jungstedt, Mari.  UNSEEN.  St. Martin’s, 2006.  ISBN 978-0-3123-5157-1.  $23.95.

Gotland, a Swedish island, has a serial killer lose at midsummer eve.  Inspector Knutas teams up with journalist Anders Berg to find the culprit.

Kinsey-Warnock, Natalie.  NORA’S ARK.  Emily Arnold McCully, illustrator.  HarperCollins, 2005.  ISBN 978-0-6881-7244-2.  $16.99.

Vermont farmgirl and author describes a real-life 1927 flood story when a whole neighborhood ends up in grandpa's new house, but grandpa is missing!

Mortenson, Greg & David Oliver Relin.  THREE CUPS OF TEA.  Viking, 2006.  ISBN 978-0-6700-3482-6. $25.95.

Greg Mortenson, lost and ill, sheltered in a Pakistani village for more than two months. He vowed to build the town a school—and this is his account of managing that feat.

Robison, John Elder.  LOOK ME IN THE EYE: MY LIFE WITH ASPERGER’S.  Crown, 2007.  ISBN 978-0-3073-9598-6.  $25.95.

Robison tells his story in straightforward terms, as he copes with the social problems of his disability and finds a life that works for him. Funny and perceptive memoir.

Setterfield, Diane.  THE THIRTEENTH TALE.  Atria, 2006.  ISBN 978-0-7432-9802-5. $26.00.

A young bookseller begins to tell the story of a famous novelist, in a novel that will evoke the world of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. Romance, drama, and wild family tales….