The Misadventures of Maude March

The Misadventures of Maude March, or, Trouble Rides a Fast Horse
By Audrey Couloumbis
Recommended for grades 5-8

Eleven-year-old Sallie March and her fifteen-year-old sister, Maude, are on the run in the Wild West of the 1800’s. The orphans are traveling on their own on horseback from Cedar Rapids, Iowa to find their long lost uncle in Independence, Missouri. As if this weren’t tough enough, Maude is wanted in several states for horse thievery, bank robbery, and murder, all of them crimes she did not commit (well, almost all of them). The sisters’ lives are beginning to resemble those of the rough-and-tumble characters in the dime adventure novels which Sallie dearly loves.

Trouble follows the two sisters in Audrey Couloumbis’ fun novel The Misadventures of Maude March from the time their aunt and guardian falls dead from a stray bullet, leaving the girls orphaned for the second time. The girls must rely on their own smarts and the help of a few unusual friends found along the way. They are portrayed as intelligent and spunky but are allowed to show less positive emotions, such as moodiness and stubbornness. Told from the younger sister’s viewpoint, the book also gives the reader an idea of what life was like when Missouri and Iowa were on the edge of the western frontier. Readers who enjoy novels packed with adventure and action will enjoy this book and will probably be glad to know there is a sequel (Maude March On the Run!, or, Trouble Is Her Middle Name).

The Misadventures of Maude March is the May selection for the Mother & Daughter Book Club at Kewanee Public Library. One copy of the book is available in the KPL Youth Department in the Junior High Fiction section. The sequel will be available soon in the same section.

Reviewed by Laura Abbott
KPL Youth Department Clerk

Naked in Death

Naked in Death by J. D. Robb

I decided to read this book after seeing a bookmark at the Library called "Read Them in Order." These bookmarks give readers a chronological list of many popular fiction series, which is sometimes difficult to figure out.

For the uninitiated, J. D. Robb is a pseudonym for popular romance writer, Nora Roberts. Naked In Death is the first of her Eve Dallas/Roarke series. When I first started reading this book, I believed that it was a futuristic mystery. Several chapters in, I found that Roberts, while writing as Robb was staying true to her romantic roots, despite the book's cover.

The story concerns a no nonsense woman police detective (Dallas) and her investigation into the murder of a prostitute. In the process of finding the killer, Dallas must deal with politics, police bureaucracy and the demons of her own childhood abuse. She also manages to meet a rich, mysterious and handsome man known only as “Roarke.” This stranger, while under suspicion for the murder, manages to seduce Dallas.

The mystery part of the book was satisfying and had a nice twist to its ending. The characters in the novel were very typical of mystery and romance novels, somewhat shallow in development. The relationship between Roarke and Dallas is also fairly typical of the romance genre. In regards to the future setting of this novel- I felt that many of the details of America in the year 2058 were awkwardly included, but one should not compare Nora Roberts/J. D. Robb to masters such as Orwell or Heinlein.

Overall, this book was fun and a nice escape.

The Kewanee Public Library has a copy of Naked in Death available for check out in Adult Fiction.

Jill Gray

Information Services
Kewanee Public Library

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

This is the April KPL Adult Book Club selection. My coworker, Sarah already reviewed it in February. You can see her review here.

Like Sarah, I found this an attention grabbing tale of secrets, regrets and losses that impact us all.

Jill Gray
Kewanee Public Library

King Dork

King Dork
Frank Portman
High School

Tom Henderson, or Chi-mo as his classmates call him, was just a sophomore reject with a band. School was a tortured maze of random violence, make out/ fake outs, and avoidance. Home was not much better. Chi-mo’s mom and step-dad were ex-hippies who try to connect with him in an after school special way but fail, his sister is a brat, and his father died in a mysterious car accident when Chi-mo was eight. In search of a copy of Catcher and the Rye, which he has to read for school again, he stumbles upon a stack of his fathers books. Inside the books Chi-mo finds encoded notes, a funeral card, a dry cleaners ticket, and obscure passages underlined. He feels if he can solve the mystery behind these items he will be able to get to know his father.
King Dork is written by Frank Portman lead singer of The Mr. T Experience. When writing his first book Portman found inspiration in his song “King Dork”. You can listen to “King Dork” as well as “Thinking of Suicide” and “I Wanna Ramone You” from the book on Amazon. Also on Amazon you can find Chi-moe’s reading list and a discography of the book. Portman’s website, http://frankportman.com/, has a link to a trailer for King Dork on You Tube. A reading gallery is also on his website.

You can find a copy of King Dork by Frank Portman in the YA Room in the lower level of Kewanee Public Library.

Sarah R. Barth Kewanee Public Library, Youth Services