The Garden of Eve by K.L. Going (Houghton Mifflin, 2007) takes the images of the Biblical Garden of Eden and reworks them into a poignant novel about life, death and love.

When ten-year-old Evie’s mother dies of cancer, her father decides to buy an old apple orchard far away in Beaumont, New York.  Evie longs to stay in her childhood home, a home full of memories of her mother.  These very memories break her father’s heart again and again, and he feels must leave in order to move overcome his grief.  

But when Evie and her dad arrive in Beaumont, they discover the old orchard hasn’t produced fruit in years.  Years ago a girl disappeared in the orchard, and the locals claim it is cursed.  Evie’s mother taught her to believe in wonder and miracles and the magic of fairy tales, but a cursed garden seems awfully hard to believe.  If only Evie’s mother were there.  If only her dad would stop working in the orchard constantly and give her more attention.  If only Evie could turn back time . . .

The Garden of Eve creates a fairy-tale world of magic seeds, an otherworldly tree, and a mysterious ghostly boy.  But more importantly, the novel creates the magic that is found in the deepest relationships.  “Remember, there are many kinds of magic–there’s the magic of trees that grow and birds that fly and there’s the magic of growing up and getting older, but mostly there’s the magic of love, which cannot be contained, not even by death.”

Caddie Woodlawn, Hermione Granger, Violet Beauregarde, Anne of Green Gables–you gotta love the girls that are smart and spunky, clever and courageous.  Author Kelly Easton gives us another plucky heroine in her middle-grade novel The Outlandish Adventures of Liberty Aimes (Random House, 2009).

Liberty Aimes, nicknamed Libby, lived in a decrepit old house on 33 Gooch Street.  It was so run down, “If it could walk, it would limp.  If it could talk, it would stutter.  If it could smile, it would have rotting teeth.”

Libby’s father, Mal, was a sort of Count Olaf, Vernon Dursley, and an evil magician all rolled into one.  Libby’s mother, Sal, sat on the couch all day watching TV and eating nonstop.  She complained that “because of Libby, she was now fat, married to a dud, and stuck in her life.”  (Turns out her mother was bewitched by one of Mal’s evil spells.)  Libby never left the house;  she was a prisoner (Think Sarah Crewe in A Little Princess).

Libby led a dull, relentless existence of chores, cooking, and non-stop dishes while her dad cheated people with bogus insurance policies and her mother ate and watched TV.  Luckily, Libby discovered a secret stash of books hidden under a loose board, so at least she could read.

Then Libby finished her last book.  “She could read them again, but there wouldn’t be the surprise.”  Next she overheard her father say that he was going to force her to help with his nighttime plumbing business, and she would be the one to stick her hands down toilets and be lowered into sewers.

One day Mal burst through the door, fresh from being sprayed by a skunk.  While Mal bathed in tomato juice, he left his keys to his secret basement laboratory unguarded.  Libby’s chance to escape! 

But it would be a very short novel if Libby’s problems all ended then and there.  No–Libby, who starts using her real name, Liberty–has many more troubles and many more adventures.  Nevertheless, through it all she has hope.  “Hope is, of course, the belief that if you are patient and trusting, terrible times will pass and the future will be bright.” 

And sure enough, for Miss Liberty, the future is very bright indeed.

I regularly run across news stories about the decline of the newspaper industry, but I was shocked when I saw the newspaper stand at my local gas station.  The papers are so puny now, printed on shrunken, skinny paper, a telltale sign of the Internet takeover of media.

Sue Corbett’s The Last Newspaper Boy in America (Dutton, 2009)  explores a similar theme.  Protagonist Wil has been dying for his twelth birthday because he’ll finally be old enough to inherit the family paper route.  In the small town of Steele, Pennsylvania, Wil’s family has delivered the paper for four generations.  Grandpa, dad, and two older brothers all delivered the paper, and now it’s finally Wil’s turn.  Finally, a chance to beat dad’s speed record.  A chance to perfect a near-perfect aim.  A chance to save up for a laptop (no more having to go to the library to surf the Internet).

But the day before his birthday, Wil discovers that his route is about to be cancelled.  The town of Steele is just too small, especially since the hairpin factory closed, to justify a route.  Wil rides twelve miles on his bike to complain to the editor.  But it’s a corporate decision made by higher-ups in a far-off city.  Wil’s parents try to help him face the hard facts of business.

But “Wil of Steele,” as he is called, won’t take no for an answer, and soon he’s on a mission for change.  In the end, Wil’s determination (along with some help from family and friends), not only save his route but his town as well.