The Sign of the Twisted Candle

Flashback Friday was started over at Lovely Little Shelf (the awesome book blog of an NBC friend of mine). It’s a chance to revisit some of our favorite childhood reads and talk about why we loved them.

Nancy Drew: The Sign of the Twisted Candles was the book the started my obsession with reading. My sister had the entire ND collection and had loved them, but I had showed little interest. My parents, in an effort to ignite a love of reading (on my own), offered me $1 for every Nancy Drew book I finished. They also told me to keep a log of any words I didn’t understand and we could discuss them after (I was pretty young).

Eager for money, I randomly picked The Sign of the Twisted Candles off of the shelf and began reading. Within pages I was hooked and by the time I finished, I forgot to get the money from my parents. I kept reading though, but only for the sheer enjoyment.

GoodReads Description: While solving the mystery of an old man's disappearing fortune, Nancy ends a family feud and reveals the identity of an orphan of unknown parentage.

Nancy’s adventures are a wonderful way to get reluctant readers reading. As a kid, you just have to know what happens and I spent many nights in the hideout under my bed with a flashlight. I’ve been a bookworm ever since (obviously).

There Will be Wolves by Karleen Bradford

Flashback Friday was started over at Lovely Little Shelf (the awesome book blog of an NBC friend of mine). It’s a chance to revisit some of our favorite childhood reads and talk about why we loved them.

I frist read There Will Be Wolves by Karleen Bradford in the 8th grade as a partners book report.  It was actually chosen by my partner by I was drawn into the story almost immediately.

GoodReads Description: Ursula, condemned as a witch because of her knowledge of healing, escapes being burned to death when she joins her father and thousands of others who follow Peter the Hermit on the first Crusade from Cologne to Jerusalem in 1096.

I could not for the life of me remember the title or author of this book and it was driving me crazy because I remembered loving it as a kid.

What I now find most interesting is that once I found it, I realized it takes place during the First Crusade in 1096, which I had completely forgotten about that until I reread the summary. What's fascinating is that I am still totally obsessed with that time period and just recently (within the last few weeks) finished a research paper for my Perspectives on Globalization class, about the effects of the Crusades on Islam of the Middle Ages, focusing on the Muslim population in the first seige of Jerusalem!! Strange right? Religious discrimination and the violence/dark side of "God's War" are the major themes in this book, that I read at the tender age of 13.... and I would then go on to write a University level paper on the same thing when I returned to school as an adult years later! And THEN, just weeks after completing said paper I finally remember to research this book that I rememberd loving as a kid, but couldn't really remember what it was about...? Kinda cool. I guess religion and its history have always been fascinating to me.

I now know that I have to reread this book. Even if it's too young, I just have to do myself the favor, knowing what I know now through my research, and go through it again to see what I think of it now.

Summer of My German Soldier- Bette Greene

Flashback Friday was started over at Lovely Little Shelf (the awesome book blog of an NBC friend of mine). It’s a chance to revisit some of our favorite childhood reads and talk about why we loved them.

I first read the Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene in the 9th grade. I remember being excited about it right away because I’ve always been drawn to stories centered around WWII.

GoodReads Description: This 1973 National Book Award finalist tells of a 12-year-old girl who befriends a Nazi soldier, who is imprisoned in a World War II camp in her small hometown in Arkansas

Further summary- I decided to write a tiny summary of my own since those supplied on GoodReads and Amazon are completely inadequate. The story follows 12 year old Patty, an American Jew, during WWII. A turbulent home life causes young Patty to have very little self-worth, but that all changes when she meets Anton. Anton is an escaped German POW who Patty hides in her father’s garage with the assistance of the families “help” Ruth. The story follows the struggles of Patty and Anton, whose relationship grows despite their religious and cultural differences, during one of the most turbulent times in US history.

The themes in this book are important and heart wrenching and I think it’s an important book for high school students to be exposed to. You deal with everything from race issues, child abuse/neglect, religious beliefs, the morality of war, death and family responsibility to first loves, acceptance and tolerance.

There is so much depth to this story and I hope it’s one that will continue to be mandatory reading for all high school students.

Flashback Friday- Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

Flashback Friday was started over at Lovely Little Shelf (the awesome book blog of an NBC friend of mine). It’s a chance to revisit some of our favorite childhood reads and talk about why we loved them.

There’s nothing I love more than a good adventure book… a struggle for survival that keeps you turning the pages and desperate to find out what happens. I believe my love for this type of book started with Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. In the 5th grade my teacher picked this up for a read-aloud and from very early on we (the whole class) were hooked! You end up on an emotional roller-coaster with Brian and the stories of what he does to survive are fascinating. It’s a great story about human spirit.

GoodReads Description: On his way to visit his recently divorced father in the Canadian mountains, thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is the only survivor when the single-engine plane crashes. His body battered, his clothes in shreds, Brian must now stay alive in the boundless Canadian wilderness.

More than a survival story, Hatchet is a tale of tough decisions. When all is stripped down to the barest essentials, Brian discovers some stark and simple truths: Self-pity doesn't work. Despair doesn't work. And if Brian is to survive physically as well as mentally, he must discover courage.

It’s a definite must-read for kids who love adventure and a great choice for reluctant readers. It’s the type of book that you can’t stop reading until you know how it ends.

FlashBack Friday- Sarah Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

Flashback Friday was started over at Lovely Little Shelf (the awesome book blog of an NBC friend of mine). It’s a chance to revisit some of our favorite childhood reads and talk about why we loved them.

For this week’s edition I’ve chosen Sarah Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan. This story is really special to me because a) it’s just a really sweet/heartwarming story and b) it’s one of the books that I read with my Mom, chapter by chapter every night until we were done. We’d get comfy in my bed and take turns reading out loud and c) it was one of my first experiences with a literary love story- something that I still look for in the books I read today.

GoodReads Description:  MacLachlan, author of Unclaimed Treasures, has written an affecting tale for children. In the late 19th century a widowed midwestern farmer with two children--Anna and Caleb--advertises for a wife. When Sarah arrives she is homesick for Maine, especially for the ocean which she misses greatly. The children fear that she will not stay, and when she goes off to town alone, young Caleb--whose mother died during childbirth--is stricken with the fear that she has gone for good. But she returns with colored pencils to illustrate for them the beauty of Maine, and to explain that, though she misses her home, "the truth of it is I would miss you more." The tale gently explores themes of abandonment, loss and love.

This is definitely a book I’m going to have to find for my personal library. I hope to be able to share it with my kids just like I did with my Mom.

Flashback Friday- Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

Flashback Friday was started over at Lovely Little Shelf (the awesome book blog of an NBC friend of mine). It’s a chance to revisit some of our favorite childhood reads and talk about why we loved them.


The timing of my first Flashback Friday post couldn’t have been more appropriate because just today I received one of my favorite books of all time in the mail. It’s a book that I read for the first time in the 6th grade for a book report and have been in love with ever since.

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry is the story of a young girls struggle in war-torn, Nazi occupied Copenhagen, Denmark. Written with classic Lowry beauty, the story sucks readers in and gently gives young people an insight to the struggles of the Jewish population and horrors of Nazi occupation during WWII.

This, along with 2 other of Lowry's books that I will save for future FBF posts, are the reason I consider her among my favorite authors.

Goodreads Description: Ten-year-old Annemarie Johansen and her best friend Ellen Rosen often think of life before the war. It's now 1943 and their life in Copenhagen is filled with school, food shortages, and the Nazi soldiers marching through town. When the Jews of Denmark are "relocated". Ellen moves in with the Johansens and pretends to be one of the family. Soon Annemarie is asked to go on a dangerous mission to save Ellen's life.

And I’m not the only one who loves this book. It has been awarded several awards including A “School Library Journal” Best Book of the Year and John Newberry Medal- the most distinguished contribution to American Literature for Children. It was also an ALA Notable Book.

No matter your age, if you are a book lover and haven't read this.. do it.  It's an incredible story.