Do you know who really “discovered” the New World of America?  I thought I did, but Imight be wrong.  Russell Freedman starts with Christopher Columbus, the first European given credit for discovering America for the King and Queen of Spain.  It turns out Columbus was a little late to the New World party.  I had heard the theories of Leif Erikson and the Viking voyages to the New World.  I had no idea, though, that Chinese sailors may have been here even earlier.  Much of those voyages are still debated by historians, but the evidence so far is enough to get me wondering. 

Of course, how can someone “discover” a new land that already has millions of people living in it?  Did the very first “Americans” cross over from Siberia on a land bridge across the Bering Straight during an Ice Age?  I thought so, but the latest discoveries say probably not.  The very earliest settlers probably arrived by boat from a variety of locations–Asia, certainly, but also possibly Europe, Australia, and Africa. 

Rather than being something old and never-changing, history–or rather or undertstanding of it–changes with each new discovery.

I wasn’t sure what to think about this book when I first picked it up.  Neither the front cover or the blurb on the back sounded like Cooney books I had read before.  In many ways, though, this book is classic Cooney.  From page one, there is an underlying sense of fear, that something is not quite right.  That unease quickly swells to fear and even terror as Jared pieces together the parts of the story that no one is saying outloud.

First Jared is horrified that his parents have volunteered to take an African refugee family into their home.  After all, no one else (besides his younger sister Mopsy, who is excited about it), is being asked to share a room or give more than old clothes to help this family.  The family is not what anyone expected:  Andre had both his hands cut off in the war.  Alake does not speak at all, and the rest of the family doesn’t even look at her.  Celestine is eager to learn but is scared of the dark and the doorbell. Mattu carries the ashes of his grandparents in flimsy cardboard boxes. 

Unknown to Jared’s family and the church, the Amabos were followed into America by a ruthless fifth refugee.  He is seperated from them in the airport, but he will stop at nothing to get what belongs to him.  Jared finds himself learning that “there  are now good guys” from a civil war and must make decisions that thrust himself and Mopsy into the middle of an international conflict.  Flashbacks from Alake’s past drive home the fact that no one is innocent.

Cooney explores a lot in this book–themes of family, war, faith and trust–but the action and characters drive the story without it getting bogged down or preachy.

I want student writers like Adam Canfield and his coeditor of the school paper, Jennifer.  These two reporters and editors won’t rest until they get the truth and publish it in The Slash, their elementary/middle school newspaper.  In their previous adventure, their investigative reporting led to the firing of their principal for misuse of school funds.  Now Adam is determined to reveal the truth behind the school science fair:  the parents of the winning students do most of the work.  Pushed by Adam, Jennifer is working to uncover the real story behind the renaming of a street in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr., the powerful people who want to “clean up” their town by forcing those they don’t like to move out.  To top it all off, Adam must now cope with being the news story after he is mugged for $40 of snow-shoveling earnings. 

Adam and Jennifer are way to good to be true, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading about their adventures.  If you have a nose for news, or at least a good mystery, this is the book for you.  In the course of their reporting, Adam and Jennifer find The Slash is threatened on all sides.  Will they get the story without getting expelled?  Will the truth win out in the end?  You can get the rest of the story with Michael Canfield of the Slash and Michael Canfield: The Last Reporter.

     What’s your savvy?  That is, what is your special talent in the world?  As Mibs Beaumount approaches her 13th birthday, she dreams of unleashing a powerful savvy all her own.  You see, the Beaumounts are extra special.  When they turn 13, they unlock a special talent.  Mibs yearns for a powerful savvy–creating electricity like her brother Rocket or creating storms like her brother Fish.  But when her father is in a car crash the day before her birthday, all she wants is a savvy that will wake him up again. 

     Mibs’s birthday unfolds in unexpected ways with a larger than life birthday party, a wishy-washy salesman of pink Bibles, and a converted school bus.  Mibs and her band of rag-tag stowaways get more than they bargained for as they climb on board the bus to sneak to the hospital in Salina where Poppa lies in a coma.  Mibs’s savvy isn’t what she thinks it is, but no one will be the same after this trip.  Along the way, Mibs learns that something bad sometimes can lead to something good.

Read this story of mishaps and mayhem and you just might discover a savvy all your own.

Newboy has had finally had it.  He has been shipped from one foster home or institution to another his entire life.  Most of them are miserable places.  At the age of nine, Newboy opened his mouth and no words came out.  He hasn’t talked since then.  The only constant in his life has been his desire to escape.  Now that he is with the Knox’s, he has one chance–and it is tonight.  He leaves with nothing but an old copy of Robinson Crusoe and $27.40 to make a life for himself on the streets.  When he finds a broken down ventriloquist’s dummy in a dumpster Newboy rediscovers his voice.  With the newly named “Stinko” at his side, Newboy faces the dangers of life on the streets:  robbers, police, the Knox’s green van. 

I enjoyed this book.  It’s a short, quick read that left me feeling good.  It is not, however, a gritty, realistic look at life on the streets.  I suspect that life on the streets would not be so kind to Newboy’s dreams as this telling is.