“The Trap,” by John Smelcer

“The Trap,” by John Smelcer is an unforgettably moving story about an Indian boy and his old grandfather.

Johnny Least-Weasel and his grandfather Albert live in Alaska, where the winters are long and treacherous. Albert has been working traplines all his life. He travels out into the lonely wilderness and sets traps to catch wild animals. He sells the skins to make money to buy food and supplies. It is how his father and his father before him made a living. Now Albert is old, and although he knows everything about working traplines and knows the ways of the wilderness, he no longer has the strength of a young man.

His seventeen-year-old grandson Johnny worries when his grandfather Albert leaves on yet another circuit to check his traplines. Something tells him that he should check on his grandfather or follow him, but he doesn’t want to hurt Albert’s pride by making it seem as if he needs supervision. Still, Johnny worries, because he doesn’t know how long it will be before his grandfather returns.

Little does he realize, but far away in the Alaskan wilderness his grandfather has gotten caught in one of his own wolf traps. The steel jaws are so strong that the trap must be stepped on with both feet to open it. With one foot stuck in the trap Albert can not open the trap, and he can’t free the trap from its chain, which is bolted into a frozen tree.

Albert will have to use all his knowledge of the Alaskan wilderness to survive. All his supplies, comforts, and tools are on a snowmobile that is within sight, but there is nothing that he can do to reach them. All Albert has is the tree he is chained to, a few matches, and a pocketknife.

Meanwhile Johnny prepares to set off in search of his grandfather. But will he find his grandfather before the hungry Alaskan wolves do?

“The Trap” has a very calm and deliberate progression. Albert never panics despite his predicament. Instead, he uses his knowledge of the wilderness and its ways to survive. I found this story to be very reminiscent of Jack London’s “To Build a Fire.”

I think that John Smelcer has written a laudable book about survival and the clash between old and new ways for Indians living in Alaska’s wilderness. I definitely recommend “The Trap” to all readers.

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“Every Day and All the Time,” by Sis Deans

“Every Day and All the Time,” by Sis Deans is a novel about a girl who must cope with the aftereffects of a deadly car accident.

Six months ago Emily Racine and her family were devastated by a car wreck. Each member of the family was effected in some way.

One of Emily’s legs was mangled, resulting in months of therapy and surgery that left her able to walk with a limp, but unable to do one of the things that she loved best: ballet dancing. But far worse than Emily’s fate was that of her brother Jon, who died that day, leaving a great hole in the Racine family.

Emily’s father was driving the family car when the accident occurred and he blames himself for the mistake. Now he has retreated to his office, the place where he wrote the best-selling books that made him famous as a writer. But Emily knows that her father isn’t writing another book. He’s spending his days in the office grieving and drinking far more beer than he should. Emily’s mother also blames herself, because she is a famous surgeon, and when the accident occurred she was away working on someone else’s child. She feels guilty that she wasn’t there to help her own son, and she hides her own pain by spending hours of overtime working at the hospital.

Emily has her own ways of coping with the accident. She spends her time in the basement, where she tries to practice ballet and restore her leg to the condition it was once in. But there is another reason why she likes to spend her time in the basement. In the old entertainment room where Jon and her friends used to hang out Emily can still talk to Jon and tell him about how things are going for her and her parents. Jon answers and tells her that he is fine and suggests things that she should do to help.

Somehow, Emily has a feeling that her parents and her psychotherapist would not want to hear that she still has contact with her dead brother, so Emily keeps it to herself. But then her parents make an announcement: they feel that their house is full of too many sad memories. They want to sell the house and move to another.

Emily can’t move, though, for doing so would be to lose her brother again. And so Emily decides to come up with a plan to turn realtors and home buyers away from the house. That way the Racine family can stay in their home, and Emily can continue to keep her brother living in the basement. As Emily carries out her increasingly elaborate plan, deep down she knows that eventually she will have to face the issues that really matter.

“Every Day and All the Time” is about how psychotherapy and dancing help Emily to accept her brother’s death and “move on” both emotionally and physically. Emily will never forget her brother, but she just needs to find a better way of dealing with his death.

I feel that Sis Dean’s book “Every Day and All the Time” is fascinating in the way that it shows each persons response to death. The different coping mechanisms of each member of the Racine family demonstrate how death affects the family. At the same time the book shows the difference between a healthy coping mechanism and an unhealthy one.

Sis Dean’s focus and depth of exploration on the subject of coping mechanisms makes “Every Day and All the Time” a sensitive and worthy book for young readers.

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“Each Little Bird that Sings,” by Deborah Wiles

“Each Little Bird that Sings,” by Deborah Wiles is a touching and sensitive story about three deaths that effect a family that works in the funeral business.

Ten-year-old Comfort Snowberger has kept track of every funeral she had ever attended, all 247 of them. The Snowberger family runs the only funeral home in Snapfinger, Mississippi, so everyone who dies comes to Snowberger’s for their last few days above ground.

Comfort has always thought of herself as being well acquainted and able to cope with death, but when two of her close relatives, Great-uncle Edisto, and Great-great-aunt Florentine, die within six months of each other it leaves a great gap in the Snowberger family. Great-uncle Edisto started the Snowberger family funeral home. One of his favorite expressions was “Everybody’s kin.” In the small town of Snapfinger, Mississippi everyone is family, and whenever someone dies, everyone comes to the funeral, bringing kind words and their favorite southern comfort food.

To Comfort, though, everything goes wrong shortly after her Great-uncle Edisto dies. First her pathetic younger cousin Peach makes a scene at the funeral and ruins everything. Then Comfort’s best friend Declaration turns mean and leaves her for two new best friends that are much cooler and who don’t write obituaries in their spare time like Comfort does.

Comfort must find the strength to deal with these disasters and problems and at the same time mourn the loss of two close relatives.

I enjoyed reading “Each Little Bird that Sings.” The story’s plot is filled with strong emotion that readers are sure to remember long after they close the book. In addition the characters are very sensitive, and I feel that Deborah Wiles did a good job balancing them with and against each other. All the characters have unusual names: Comfort, Merry, Declaration, Tidings, and Dismay. This, however, merely adds to the unique flavor of “Each Little Bird that Sings.”

“Each Little Bird that Sings” teaches strong lessons about death and coping with the loss of a relative or friend. I recommend it to all young readers.

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