By means of telescreens and hidden microphones across the city, the Party is able to monitor its members almost all of the time. Additionally, the Party employs complicated mechanisms (1984 was written in the era before computers) to exert large-scale control on economic production and sources of information, and fearsome machinery to inflict torture upon those it deems enemies. 1984 reveals that technology, which is generally perceived as working toward moral good, can also facilitate the most diabolical evil.

In this adaptation of a Creole folktale, Blanche is kind, loving and patient, but her older sister Rose takes after their mean, sneaky mother. One day Blanche befriends a hideous old "aunty" on a path near her home and is rewarded with magic eggs. Of course, Rose and the girls' mother are beside themselves with envy, and Rose sets out to snag some eggs of her own. But greedy Rose's cruel nature gets her into trouble. She torments the old lady, grabs the wrong eggs and ends up "angry, sore and stung." Pinkney's exquisitely wrought illustrations are close cousins to those in his Caldecott Honor Book Mirandy and Brother Wind , with similar woodlands and soft farmyard settings of the rural South. When the magic begins, the witch takes off her head, dressed-up rabbits do the Virginia reel and eggs begin to chatter. There are some spectacular scenes here. Ages 4-8. 

The novel begins in medias res, a Latin phrase that means “in the middle of things.” The novel intersperses the description of the bombing of Saint-Malo with the characters’ narratives up until this point to mirror the confusion and chaos of the city as the bombing begins. While the narration will eventually explain how Marie-Laure and Werner got to where they are now, Part Zero is intentionally tense and uncertain.

Although both Marie-Laure and Werner know the bombs are coming, neither one flees the city. They appear to be victims of chance—in the wrong place at the wrong time—and helpless against the power of war. This helplessness raises a question that appears repeatedly in the novel: How much power do individuals have to make choices during a war? Could Marie-Laure and Werner have made choices other than the ones they make, or is their fate predetermined by the situations they are in?

Another question this part raises is the nature of “shelter.” Just before the bombs fall, Marie-Laure’s and Werner’s thoughts turn to their respective families, and each seems to find comfort in them. Marie-Laure, who is still in her bedroom and hasn’t physically taken shelter, says her father’s name as she holds the diamond he left for her. Because the stone is rumored to keep alive whoever possesses it, Marie-Laure turns to it both as a substitute for physical shelter and for her father.

Red travels through the woods to take hot soup to her sick abuela. Along the way, she is tricked by a sly wolf. Roja must act quickly to rescue Grandma, and then the two devise a technologically enhanced plan to prevent visits from unwelcome predators in the future. The playful illustrations elevate the book, blending a whimsical fairy-tale land with contemporary Latino-American life. In the kitchen, where Mamá watches telenovelas while chopping peppers and garlic, three blind mice scamper about, a pair of mischievous goblins lurk outside the window, and symbols reminiscent of milagros, or prayer charms, rise up in the steam from the clay pot of bean soup. As Red travels through the forest, the birds call out warnings to her in Spanish—“¡Cuidado!” Throughout the text, the Spanish words appear in bold and italicized print. Context and an opening glossary provide the definitions rather than simultaneous translation. This results in a story that avoids becoming repetitive for bilingual readers and that readers who do not speak Spanish will also easily understand.

Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner McCullough exhibits his artist's touch in re-creating the lives of the Wright brothers, their father, and their sister Katharine from historical documents. Mining their letters, notebooks, and diaries, McCullough shows the Wright brothers (snubbed by the British as mere bicycle mechanics) for the important technoscientists they were. With only high school educations, they personified self-reliance and ingenuity, making their own calculations and testing their mechanical skills as they experimented with gliders. Their solution to controlling the gliders' flight was wing warping, enabling the gliders to bank like a bird's wings. As early engine designers and mechanics, when they couldn't find a light enough engine, they designed one that their mechanic built in six weeks. A few days after Langley's $70,000 failure, the Wright brothers made several powered flights--for less than $1,000--to prove that humans could fly. When the US military rejected their services, the Wrights signed a contract with a French syndicate. From 1910 on, the brothers were much occupied by business and patent infringement lawsuits. Wilbur contracted typhoid and died in 1912, but Orville lived until 1948. The brothers were remarkable for their analytical minds, their skiIl as early pilots, and their brilliance as experimental scientists. This work is their great, eminently readable story. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels. --Robin Higham, emeritus, Kansas State University

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.