Thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway for a copy of The Forbidden Library by Django Wexler.  I wish I could give you all books, but there's only one winner this time around.  Congratulations to:

Sharon Berger

Your book should be on its way soon, Sharon!

It's the Fall of 1918 and 11-year-old Lydia Pierce has plenty to worry about.  War rages in Europe; a vicious strain of Spanish influenza is sweeping across the U.S., leaving death and devastation in its wake; and, because the Portland (Maine) Board of Health has outlawed public gatherings, she doesn't get to go to the moving picture show, even though her parents promised to take her for her birthday.  Lydia is desolate by this disappointing turn of events.

As the flu spreads closer to home, Lydia soon realizes that missing the movies is the least of her problems. When her parents and younger sister are overcome by the disease, she must find a new home.  Eventually, Lydia and her 14-year-old brother Daniel are adopted by the Shakers at Sabbathday Lake.  Although the children are well cared for, they're flummoxed by the Shakers' strange ways.  When Daniel runs away from the community, Lydia wonders if she should follow suit.  If she comes through the epidemic alive and well, what will become of her?  Will she ever be able to leave the Shakers?  Even if she doesn't believe as they do?  And what about her family?  Can she find Daniel, the only blood relative she has left?  Or, is everything she loves really and truly gone?

Like the Willow Tree by Lois Lowry is another fine middle grade historical in the Dear America series.  The diary entry format makes Lydia's plight personal and real.  Readers can easily relate to her fear, her confusion and her uncertainty about her own future.  With vivid historical detail, as well as an intimate look at the daily lives of the Shaker people, Like the Willow Tree is as interesting as it is compelling.  Like the other novels in this series, this one includes an Epilogue explaining what happens to Lydia after 1918, a historical note and photos depicting the real events on which the story is based, and a note from Lowry in which she talks about her connection to both the novel's setting and the Shaker community.  Overall, it's a fascinating read which I enjoyed very much.

(Readalikes:  Other installments in the Dear America series; also, A Death-Struck Year by Makiia Lucier and Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson)

Grade:

To the FTC, with love:  I received an ARC of Like the Willow Tree from the generous folks at Scholastic.  Thank you!

At 98 years old, Grace Reeves Bradley can't stop the old memories that flow constantly through her head.  Or the way the people and places of her past keep mixing with those of her present, making it very difficult sometimes to sort reality from reminiscences.  It doesn't help that a young filmmaker is interviewing Grace about the many years she spent serving the Hartfords, the wealthy owners of Riverton, a sprawling country estate in Essex.  Like any good servant, Grace has kept the family's secrets for years.  She intended to take them to the grave, but with the movie maker's insistence on revisiting a long-ago tragedy that occurred at Riverton in 1924, Grace fears the truth may come out.

Although all have been dead for years, Grace can't forget the charming Hartford children.  The warmth between them cast a spell on her from the very first day she met them.  Now, so many years later, she's still loathe to speak—or remember—ill of any of the three.  Even though they all played a part in the death of a young poet, as did Grace herself.  Does she dare expose the truth?  As the elderly woman's days on Earth wane, she must decide whether to unburden herself of the secret she's kept for nearly one hundred years or to keep the misdeeds of the masters to herself, like the good servant she's always been.

I'm probably the last family saga fan on the planet to read The House at Riverton, Kate Morton's debut novel, but I'm not the first to praise its richness.  Having read two of the author's other novels (The Forgotten Garden and The Distant Hours), I recognize this lushness as Morton's indelible trademark.  It's a trademark I like.  A lot.  I love sinking into books like this, getting to know characters, settings and relationships in depth.  Which is why, even though Morton's books can feel a little too similar, I still really dig them.  Yes, I saw the big reveal at the end coming.  And, yes, the whole story gets a little depressing.  BUT, I still very much enjoyed The House at Riverton.  If you're a fan of fat, juicy family secrets novel, I'm pretty sure you will, too.    

(Readalikes:  The Forgotten Garden and The Distant Hours by Kate Morton)

Grade: