By Jane Mack
For Variety

FEBRUARY is the month of love, with the month’s center hung on Saint Valentine’s Day. And while the Christian faith has love as a central premise, we sometimes get so caught up in romantic love that we forget the amazing variety of forms that love comes in.
Children, with their huge hearts, have an unlimited capacity to give and receive love. They open their hearts to the wonders of a tiny crab crawling on the beach or the click-clack of a gecko hanging upside down on the living-room ceiling. A three-year old’s hugs become a pre-teen’s shrugs, but the love is there, oozing out in peer-group laughter and humorous winks. Middle School students have new-found passions for sports, music, drama, manga and other things that catch their interest. And teens experiment with dating and socializing, bringing intensity to their relationships that amplify emotion, love.
In all their experiences, children bring their openness and readiness for love. And in reading books, they can also find a different kind of love, a place where words create adventures, safe-havens, solved problems and happy families. Once children love a story, a book borrowed from the library or on the shelf at home, they have a life-long touchstone for love, a life-preserver to help in rough waters, a kind of love that is always available. Here are some potential stories that might be the start of a happy new relationship with books for some child you know.
BUILDING WITH DAD, by Carol Nevius, illustrated by Bill Thomson (Marshall Cavendish, 2006). A father invites his young son to accompany him as the father works on building the new school that the son will attend. The excitement of the process is captured in oversized illustrations that span two pages, oriented vertically rather than horizontally. Although this makes the book somewhat awkward to handle, the long-view perfectly matches the story. The exceptional art, its life-like imagery in acrylic and colored pencil mimicking photography, provides a sense of the scale of the construction project from a child’s perspective.
The story is told in couplets and quatrains, with rhythm and rhyme that will appeal to young children. The language is natural, dynamic, and fun. By the end of the story, the child has a new school to attend, one he knows and appreciates from the ground up.
An added bonus if you decide to purchase this book is that a share of the proceeds will go to the American Library Association’s Hurricane Katrina Fund. And perhaps some child in New Orleans will have a chance to feel good about the rebuilding that’s going on there, too. (Ages 4-8)
GILDA JOYCE—THE LADIES OF THE LAKE, by Jennifer Allison, (Dutton/Sleuth, 2006). Gilda Joyce is thirteen and ready for a new school. She gets offered an academic scholarship to Our Lady of Sorrows, an exclusive Catholic High School, but what convinces her to accept is not the beauty of the castle-like school or the quality of the education. What persuades her is the vibration that her psychic radar picks up, telling her there is a mystery to solve.
As Gilda Joyce, with her slightly off-balance perspective and a penchant for trouble, investigates, she learns that a girl drowned at the school four years earlier. A busybody “big sister,” a job on the school newspaper, and an attractive male Language Arts teacher complicate matters. Gilda uses her intelligence, creative abilities, and courage to push the investigation in any direction she can, and the results are a well-paced, humorous and poignant mystery.
This book is so good it was nominated for an “Edgar” Award (named after that master of the mystery, Edgar Allen Poe). And it’s part of a series, so there are other Gilda Joyce mysteries for mid-grade students to enjoy. (Ages 9-14).
IN THE GARAGE, by Alma Fullerton (Red Deer Press, 2006). Barbara Jean (BJ) has had a tough childhood. Born with a port-stain birthmark over half of her face, she suffered her mother’s abuse and abandonment, scarred more deeply with a sense of self-loathing than any disfigurement on the surface of her skin. The saving grace of her life is a boy named Alex who becomes her friend in grade school and remains her friend as they grow up. At sixteen, Alex is cool, handsome, a musician with a garage band. From BJ’s perspective, Alex is perfect. His father thinks so, too, as Alex succeeds in basketball. The popular girls at school agree, flirting and teasing Alex and his band-mates.
As BJ writes in her journal, Alex writes in his own. He’s not as convinced that he’s perfect as everybody else is. He knows a secret about himself and is afraid to tell anyone. He doesn’t lack courage when it comes to standing up for others, though. Just like he protected BJ from taunts, jeers and physical attack by kids calling her ugly and freak, Alex stands up for a boy named David, who is gay, and who wants to join the band. As his band-mate, Rick, quits the band in disgust at the prospect of David joining, he promises to make Alex regret his choice.
The popular girls, Rachel and Victoria, step up their campaign to attract Alex’s attention. BJ still wants girl friends and when Rachel and Victoria invite her to hang out with them, BJ jumps at the chance. Events unfurl, snapping sharply as a cruel wind blows through the pages of the story.
BJ expresses keen and humorous insights, but the story is a tragedy. (Ages 14+).