“The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane,” by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick Press, 198 pages, $18.99)
What a remarkable, eloquent and genuinely moving story about a mute and inanimate hero! Edward Tulane is the name a little girl gives to her porcelain rabbit. Edward thinks, but never speaks, his impressions.
A series of unfortunate events reshapes Edward, initially an insufferable twit, into somebunny of character. He evolves into an animal more delightful, and a sight less precious, than his colleague in the classic “Velveteen Rabbit.” Just enough plausibility gives the charming conclusion a comforting, rewarding weight.
Anyone who has endured a turbulent adolescent will recognize landmarks in Edward’s unsteady expedition. Hang onto this title as one to remember for graduation gifts. Ages 8 and up.
“No Right Turn,” by Terry Trueman (HarperTempest, 165 pages, $15.99)
In another story invoking travel and youth, a resentful adolescent finds himself torn between his conscience and his object of desire. It’s not young love Jordan craves – well, it is, but it’s not first on the list – but a spotless 1976 Corvette that belongs to the man dating Jordan’s widowed mother.
Jordan possesses ample reason for the conflicted feelings he works hard to suppress. He’s the one who overheard his own father commit suicide with a gun, and the first to see the body. Thanks, Dad.
Nothing stirs him until Jordan goes for a ride in the sleek little Corvette, first on a sanctioned spin with his mother’s boyfriend, and then on joy rides, trying to ignore the fact that he’s committing grand larceny.
A cheerleader notices Jordan’s ride one evening. Instead of correcting her assumption that he owns the car, Jordan offers to take her for a ride. The Corvette’s supplemental and highly volatile nitrous booster tank adds an extra fillip of danger to the inevitable drag race scene.
Trueman, who won the Printz honor award for his book “Stuck in Neutral,” keeps it all real in a book that acknowledges the magnetism of risk while throwing the consequences into sharp relief. If readers suspect (rightly) that Jordan’s judgment is relatively light, they also get a clear concept of more worrisome outcomes. Ages 13 and up.
“The Manny Files,” by Christian Burch (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 304 pages, $15.95)
Apparently nannies and mannies – their male counterparts – are trendy again, and the Manny in Burch’s engaging novel is absolutely a stellar candidate for the job.
Reviled by his teenage charge but idolized by the home’s resident third-grade boy (the narrator) and seventh-grade sister, the Manny proves more insightful than Mary Poppins, and is more adroit than Nanny McPhee.
In short, the Manny’s only flaw is that he far outshines mortal parents. (Well, certain groups will object that the Manny is gay, which Burch allows readers to infer for much of the book.) Many parents reading “The Manny Files” will feel wistful upon reaching the end. If only Manny could be cloned. Ages 9 to 12.
“Mama: A True Story,” by Jeanette Winter (Harcourt Children’s Books, 32 pages, $16)
It’s doubtful events occurred exactly as shown in this endearing and exceptionally pithy picture book about an orphaned hippopotamus adopted by a tortoise.
But this captivating story, based on the actual and unlikely friendship established in the wake of the December 2004 tsunami, is adorable, nonetheless. The entire text consists of only two words. All ages.
Staff Writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-820-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com
