I’ve read some great historical fiction recently, ranging from 1840’s Ireland to 1950’s New Jersey.    First up is the Children of the Famine trilogy by Marita Conlon-McKenna.  This juvenile fiction series follows 3 Irish children, orphaned in the Great Famine, as they search for a new home and a place to belong.  It would be interesting to compare with Nory Ryan’s Song.

Moving to the 1870’s and Idaho Territory.  In Jenny of the Tetons, Carrie is orphaned by an Indian attack as her family makes its way to Oregon.  With no where else to go, Carrie makes her home with Beaver Dick, a trapper and his Shoshoni wife, Jenny.  Beaver Dick and Jenny are based on real people, and each chapter begins with an excerpt from Beaver Dick’s journal.

Private Peaceful is the battlefield reflections of a 16 year old private in the British army.  The tension builds with each chapter as a crucial night comes to an end.  An excellent choice for middle school boys.

And finally, we have Newbery Honor winning Penny from Heaven.  11 year old Penny lives with her mother and her mother’s parents.  While her life with her mother’s family is quiet and controlled, it is her dead father’s family that provides noise and excitement.  During one eventful summer, Penny discovers the secrets behind her father’s death, and brings both sides of her family together.

While I was waiting in a doctor’s waiting room the other day, I overheard another lady admitting (confessing, bragging?) that she had read a book over 150 times.  Any guesses as to what book she was referring to?  If you’re thinking that she was a patient mother, faithfully re-reading her young child’s latest favorite, you would be wrong.  The book that this lady had read over 150 times was Stephanie Meyer’s Breaking Dawn.  Not only that, but this lady happened to have her copy of Breaking Dawn with her, and after her confession, proceeded to commence yet another re-read, pencil in hand to underline favorite passages.

There are many books that I have re-read many times.  My Personal Classics list contains quite a few of them.  But Breaking Dawn?  150 times?  Seriously?  Now I’ve never read the book, but I have read the first one in the series–Twilight.  I found Edward to be slightly abusive and Bella to be whiny and weak.  Nothing I’ve heard or read since then leads me to believe that anything has changed for these two characters.  In fact, Wired.com had a tongue-in-cheek article entitled Top 20 Unfortunate Lessons Girls Learn From Twilight. I know that the article was intended to be funny, but it pretty accurately summed up my feelings about the series.

If you have a book that is worthy of being re-read 150 times, I’d love to hear about it, unless it’s a Twilight book, in which case I don’t want to know.  It hurts me too much to think of more reading time wasted on Edward and Bella.

Little House on the Prairie fans will love this book.  Melissa walks you through her seasons on Little House, giving her thoughts on various episodes and sharing little known trivia and background.  She also share memories about the cast, in particular, Michael Landon.  I’m inspired to re-watch my favorite episodes.

I’m also impressed with Melissa Anderson as a person.  Here is a child star who went on to have a successful career and then put it all on hold for the sake of her own children.  She stepped out of the limelight so she could put her family first.  You just don’t see that very often.