West Against the Wind

As I recall, it was towards the end of my first year teaching. Summer was approaching, and I was looking forward to having more time to read for pleasure. (This ended up being a joke because a wedding, honeymoon, and moving into a new place took up quite a bit of time.)

I decided to ask my students for any book recommendations. I only remember two of them. My next review will be the second book, but I not only received a recommendation for West Against the Wind by Liza Ketchum Murrow, I received a copy of it. I finally read it, and now I know why Matthew gave it to me. The main character's last name was the same as my maiden name.

Abby and her mother and brother are heading west to California, where her father has been panning for gold. They travel with her uncle and aunt, and ultimately, a young man who they meet and who is very close-mouthed about why he is traveling west. He finally shares that he is looking for his defiant sister who has gone off with an older man, and yet is not married to him. It is feared that she is being treated harmfully.

Along the way, they deal with Abby's aunt's pregnancy, Indians, sickness, and death. They don't have the food or the strength to cross the mountains when they come to them, and the weather is not cooperating either. And to top it off, they really aren't sure how they will find Father when they get to California, or if he is even still alive - it has been that long since they've heard from him.

There is nothing really spectacular about this book, but there's nothing really wrong with it either. I was a little disappointed after I read it, but that was my own fault for building it up in my head all these years. Hopefully the second student-recommended book will be better!

The Alex Rider Series by Anthony Horowitz

For the last many weeks, I've been reading the eight books of the Alex Rider Series by Anthony Horowitz: Stormbreaker, Point Blank, Skeleton Key, Eagle Strike, Scorpia, Ark Angel, Snakehead, and Crocodile Tears.

I remember years ago when Stormbreaker was first released. Our school was having a Scholastic Book Fair, and the promo video described Stormbreaker. I was very interested, and I went on to purchase the book. But like so many on my shelves, it has had to wait its turn to be read. Zack was my first student to recommend Alex Rider, and Andrew and Samantha have been the most recent. I must say I wholeheartedly agree with them.

Anthony Horowitz has written a very likable character in Alex Rider, a 14-year-old English boy who has already lost his parents and now loses his uncle to death. Alex learns that his uncle was a secret agent working for MI6 - British Intelligence. Alex is recruited to help MI6 - not only has his uncle been surreptitiously training him for intelligence work by teaching him skills such as scuba diving and martial arts, but Alex would never be suspected as a agent because he is so young.

I was pleased that this series is so clean - almost squeaky! That doesn't mean it isn't without its killing. This is espionage and there are bad guys. But I was glad that in this day and age to find an author who can write without putting so much of what "sells" to teens now. This series would engage both boys and girls and adults, too. I've got something to put on my Christmas list - I want to make sure I have this series on the shelf for my boys when they are older.

Hopefully, Anthony Horowitz has a few more Alex Rider adventures percolating!