Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist’s Wife

Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist’s Wife

by Irene Spencer

Intended for Adult Audiences

Irene Spencer was raised in the Mormon Principle. Her mother was one of four wives and her father went to jail for polygamy. As she grew into adolescence she began to struggle with her beliefs. She was torn between marrying the man she loved and marrying into the principle.

In 1953 at the age of sixteen Irene became the second wife of Verlan LeBaron. At such a young age she was not prepared for the loneliness, the secrets, and the jealousy that accompanied multiple marriages. She was not allowed to share with her family and friends that she was married for fear of her husband being arrested. They ultimately moved to Mexico where she lived in shacks, trailers and broken down houses. Most of the time electricity and indoor pluming was a luxury she had to live without.

In the end she was one of ten wives, and she had thirteen of her husband’s fifty-eight children. She writes of her struggle between what was best for her and her love for her husband. Shattered Dreams is an emotional and fascinating narrative.

You can find a copy of Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist’s Wife by Irene Spencer in the New Book Section in the lower level of Kewanee Public Library.

Sarah R. Barth Kewanee Public Library, Youth Services

Teacher Man

Teacher Man: a Memoir by Frank McCourt

Intended Audience: adults and teens

KPL Book Club for Adults February Selection

Many may have read either of his two earlier biographies, Angela's Ashes or 'Tis. The more recent installment, Teacher Man documents the 30 year teaching career that Frank McCourt had prior to becoming published. This book brings out the unglamorous aspects of teaching, such as grading the papers of 175 students each week and having to deal with kids who would do anything to avoid a lesson. However, with wit and self deprecating humor, McCourt actually makes his profession sound like fun. His take on his students' motivations are extremely accurate, yet his fondness for them remains.

The book begins with McCourt's first teaching assignment at a vocational high school in New York where he makes many a misstep and is manipulated by his students into sharing tales of his childhood. He spends much of the book floundering and even tries to escape the life of a high school English teacher by pursuing a PhD but ultimately ends up working in competitive high school for gifted students. It is here that the book really takes off as McCourt begins teaching creative writing. His off-the-cuff teaching style should inspire many a fellow teacher.

The audio book version of Teacher Man is especially enjoyable as it is narrated by McCourt, who has a wonderful Irish accent.

3 copies of Teacher Man are available at the Kewanee Public Library (1 book in Biography and two audio books) Print and audio versions of McCourt's other books are available at the Kewanee Public Library as well.

Reviewed by Jill Gray, Kewanee Public Library

Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters

Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters

By Lesley M. M. Blume

Recommended for Grades 4-8. But adults should not hesitate to read this endearing novel!

Eleven-year-old Cornelia Street Englehart lives with her single mother in a very posh apartment in Greenwich Village. Most of Cornelia’s time is spent alone in her room with the housekeeper playing the role of her guardian. Lucy, Cornelia’s mother, is constantly traveling around the world giving concerts as she is a famous pianist. Lonely and feeling out of sorts - Cornelia keeps people at bay with her extensive vocabulary. She feels big words can shelter her from the world. She is very successful at keeping people at bay until a sign on her new neighbors’ door reading “Attention! Chien Bizarre” peaks her curiosity. Cornelia finds the courage to introduce herself to Miss Virginia Somerset, an elderly woman with very captivating stories of her sisters and herself.

Cornelia is enchanted by Virginia’s outrageous tales of her travels as a young woman in the 1950’s to Morocco, Paris, England, and India. Mister Kinyatta, Virginia’s bizarre French bulldog, also makes Cornelia’s visits next door more lively. Virginia’s special attention gives Cornelia the strength to make friends and eventually mend the gap between Cornelia and her mother. Virginia’s stories alone make this book a wonderful adventure for children as well as adults.

One copy of Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters by Lesley M. M. Blume are located in the Juvenile Fiction section of the KPL Youth Department.

Submitted by Youth Services Dept. Head, Sara Darding

Austenland

Austenland

By Shannon Hale

Recommended for Adults.

Shannon Hale, author of the New York Times Bestseller and Newbery Honor Medal winning Young Adult novel, Princess Academy, has written an adult novel to tickle every Jane Austen fans’ fancy. Jane Hayes is a single 33-year-old graphic designer from New York City. She has a curious obsession of the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice staring Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy. Her elderly Aunt Carolyn discovers her hidden Pride and Prejudice DVD and decides to leave her a vacation to Pembrook Park (an English resort at which people can live out their Jane Austen era fantasies) in her will.

After Carolyn’s death, and Jane’s discovery of the nonrefundable vacation package, Jane decides to get Mr. Darcy out of her system for good. She sheds her twenty-first century garb to embark on a 3 week vacation to Pembrook Park as Miss Jane Erstwhile, of Regency Period England. Jane discovers life in Jane Austen’s era was filled with endless rules, stuffy social events, and very little romance. Will Jane ever give up on Mr. Darcy and find true love or is the fantasy better than reality?

One copy of Austenland is located in the Main Floor New Adult Fiction section of the Kewanee Public Library.

Submitted by Youth Services Dept. Head, Sara Darding

When Kambia Elaine Flew in from Neptune

When Kambia Elaine Flew in from Neptune
by Laurie Aurelia Williams

Intended Audience: Young Adults and Adults

Despite the unusual title, When Kambia Elaine Flew in from Neptune is not science fiction. This realistic book concerns itself with the inhabitants of Houston, Texas approximately 10-20 years ago. The story is from the perspective of Shayla, a sensitive, twelve-year-old, African-American girl who lives with her mother and older sister in a poor part of town. Shayla's family has struggles with money and a lack of male support but is managing to survive. Shayla's grandmother helps and the family's biggest fear is that older sister Tia will repeat her mother's mistakes when it comes to men. The story takes on new dimensions when out of this world Kambia Elaine moves in next door. As Shayla accepts her eccentric friend, she finds out what real trouble is and must learn the true meaning of friendship.

The writing in When Kambia Elaine Flew in from Neptune is somewhat poetic and reflects the sensibilities of its main character. The themes in the novel range from intergenerational conflict, trust verses autonomy, and the dangers of authority in a minority community. The innocence of Shayla is a strong contrast to the gritty subjects covered in this book.

This book was the August Adult Book Club selection. The Kewanee Public Library has three copies of When Kambia Elaine Flew in from Neptune: In book format in YA Fiction and Adult Fiction and an audiobook in YA Fiction.

Jill Gray
Information Services

The Rising Star of Rusty Nail

The Rising Star of Rusty Nail

By Lesley M. M. Blume

Recommended for Grades 4-8.
Rusty Nail, Minnesota in 1953. Mischievous Franny was a tomboy who liked to play pranks like throwing water balloons with her buddy Sandy. Franny was like any youngster in Rusty Nail except for the fact she was a naturally gifted pianist. Franny acquired her talent from father Wes, a gifted trumpet player, who was once, offered the opportunity to tour with Duke Ellington.

But even with all her talent, how could a child prodigy like Franny, who had surpassed the abilities of her piano teacher Mrs. Staudt, expect to become a star in a sleepy backwater town? Franny’s abilities seemed destined to be wasted until a mysterious Russian woman with a grand piano and a grand gift for playing it moved to Rusty Nail. During the era of McCarthyism when America was on high alert of the “Commie Menace”, Madame Malenkov’s arrival in Rusty Nail stirred much suspicion amongst the townsfolk. Will Franny be brave enough to overcome nosy town gossips in order to seek help from Madame Malenkov?

Two copies of The Rising Star of Rusty Nail by Lesley M. M. Blume are located in the Junior High Fiction section of the KPL Youth Department.

Submitted by Youth Services Dept. Head, Sara Darding

Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio

Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio

By Peg Kehret

Recommended for grades 4-8

Polio was a much feared disease in the United States before a vaccine was developed. Annually it would cripple or kill thousands of people. In 1949 it struck noted children’s author Peg Kehret. Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio is her account of her struggle with the disease and its horrible aftereffects.

Peg Schulze was a 12-year-old school girl happily involved with the start of 7^th grade when she suddenly began to experience muscle pain and spasms, weakness, and a high fever. By the next day, she was paralyzed from the neck down. The author vividly describes her terror on waking up paralyzed and alone (isolated to prevent spreading of the disease) and upon finding out that she had contracted not one but three different types of polio. Because of this, the virus affected not only the muscles in her arms and legs but also the muscles controlling her breathing, swallowing, and speech. She relates her panic at being told by an insensitive nurse, “Do not call me unless you can’t breathe,” thinking to herself, “How was I supposed to call for help if I couldn’t breathe?”

Though she survived the acute stage of the illness, the author was faced with months of often painful physical therapy treatments and the possibility of never walking by herself again. She describes the close friendships she formed with her four roommates at a rehabilitation center, the fun they managed to have there, and her fear of never fitting in again with her friends and school back home. Small Steps is an engrossing book and will give readers a good sense of what it was like to endure the effects of this terrible disease.

Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio is located in the Biography section of the KPL Youth Department.

Reviewed by Laura Abbott

KPL Youth Department Clerk

The Teacher's Funeral

The Teacher’s Funeral

By Richard Peck

Recommended for grades 5-8

“If your teacher has to die, August isn’t a bad time of year for it,” says fifteen-year-old Russell Culver. School seems like a “jailhouse” to him anyway. Russell and his ten-year-old brother, Lloyd, hope that it is too late for the school board to hire someone else since school starts in a few days and teachers for their one-room school in rural Indiana are hard to come by. With the school closed, Russell would be free to follow his dream of joining a team of harvesters in the Dakotas working the new 1904 all-steel Case Agitator threshing machine.

Russell’s dreams are upended with an especially cruel twist of fate for a young boy. Not only does the school board hire a new teacher, they hire Tansy Culver, Russell’s seventeen-year-old, take-no-nonsense sister. She is determined that he will turn over a new leaf this school year by finally passing eighth grade and becoming a better role model for Lloyd. Russell suspects the worst--that Tansy just might be able to accomplish this despite all of his efforts to stop her.

The Teacher’s Funeral, by Richard Peck, humorously explores education in the one-room-schoolhouse days of rural Indiana through the eyes of a boy who must endure his bossy older sister as a teacher. Though the first third of the book moves a little slowly setting up the circumstances surrounding Tansy’s hiring, the author then switches to high gear with the antics of the school’s eight students and the efforts of their inexperienced teacher to force learning into them. Boys, especially, may enjoy reading about Russell’s life in 1904 and the pranks students used to play on their teachers.

Two copies of The Teacher’s Funeral are available in the KPL Youth Department in the Junior High Fiction section.

Reviewed by Laura Abbott

KPL Youth Department Clerk