Bud (not Buddy), at age ten, is already well aware of life's lack of fairness. His mother has died, and he suffers one horrible experience after another in foster homes in Great Depression-era Flint, Michigan. After having a pencil shoved up his nose and spending a sleepless night locked in a shed, Bud decides it's time to try to escape this abusive cycle, but where to? He believes his mother meant to tell him who his father is before she died, but she waited too long. All he has are a few clues that he knows will lead to his father, or at least he hopes they will. So Bud sets out on a journey to the other side of the state and meets some interesting characters, and situations, along the way. He faces his adventure with honesty (even though he's a master liar), courage, and wit. An engaging story for fifth-graders on up.

This Gaiman title differed from the last Gaiman title I read, which differed from the one I read before that. Mr. Gaiman may well write well in any style. His Odd and the Frost Giants reads like a myth, with personable (and personality-filled) characters, including a boy named Odd who has lost his father and most of the use of one leg. He leaves his village after his mother marries a man with several children of his own and without any interest in Odd. Then the story really kicks off. Odd encounters a bear, a fox, and an eagle with an interesting history--yes, they can talk--and a problem that Odd is determined to try to fix for the sake of his village as well as his new companions. It's a quick read that, I think, would engage grade school readers on up.

What would you wish for if you could have one wish granted every day? Five siblings--well, really only four of five because "Lamb" is too young--in E. Nesbit's Five Children and It discover that deciding what to wish for is only the beginning of their troubles. When they uncover a sand fairy who promises to grant them a wish a day, "careful what you wish for" becomes a much more colorful aphorism.

Somehow, I had not read E. Nesbit's work before, and I am not familiar with turn-of-the-20th-Century British lit for children. I don't know if this title is typical; it's really a collection of tales bound by a theme and characters. Not all of the tales translate as well to this time as some do, but they create a fun structure for the story, and Nesbit's conversational style delighted me. Her voice, speaking directly to her young readers, was probably my favorite part of the book--witty, instructive without patronizing, friendly. She charmed me.