Lois Gladys Leppard

Book Review: Mandie and the Ghost Bandits

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Mandie and the Ghost Bandits
Mandie #3
by Lois Gladys Leppard

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Children’s Christian historical fiction

I read a lot of this series when I was a kid/pre-teen, and I read some of them to my now-teen daughter when she was younger. Nostalgia definitely affects my reviews for this series, and I’m okay with that. Though I am also willing to admit the flaws in the books. Fortunately, this one was less aggravating than the previous. As a parent now, I was particularly interested in Mandie’s mom’s difficulty in parenting her. With the gap in their relationship between the time Mandie was a baby and when they found each other again over a decade later, Elizabeth doesn’t really know how to be a mom and isn’t very good at standing up to her very willful daughter. It also gives Mandie an actual dimension beyond just coming across as perfect all the time, though it’s fairly subtle. On the other hand, Mandie definitely displays a personality shortcoming in this book, so there’s another flaw. It was a little difficult to understand why Tsa’ni was suddenly so kind and friendly at the end of the previous book, then here was rude again, though he never got quite as bad as he had been before again.

One of my biggest overall issues with this series so far is the theology. In my review of the first book, I mentioned that there seemed to be a salvation-by-works message. Here, I was bothered when Mandie tells the wife of a dear friend that they had to trust God to heal that dear friend who was badly injured, and there doesn’t seem to be any allowance for the possibility that God wouldn’t heal him. And then when he takes a turn for the worst, very soon after Mandie’s insight, Mandie herself falls to pieces and loses all semblance of trusting in God. She is supposed to come across as wise and full of faith, but she doesn’t follow her own advice, which is a bit lacking in understanding anyway. I can’t help but wonder what kind of impact this might have on kids who don’t have a full understanding of God yet. So keep that in mind if you’re kids might read these books. Outside of that, the story was good overall.

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If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!

Book Review: Mandie and the Cherokee Legend

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Mandie and the Cherokee Legend
Mandie #2
by Lois Gladys Leppard

My rating: 2 / 5
Genre: Children’s Christian historical fiction

I read a lot of this series when I was a kid/pre-teen, and I read some of them to my now-teen daughter when she was younger. I would expect nostalgia to affect my reviews for this series, but I sadly have to say that this book did not hold up nearly as well as the first one did for me. There are three main areas in this book that really bug me. Mandie’s too-perfect characterization stands out in this book. I think the author tried to combat that some by having Mandie struggle with her hatred toward her rude Cherokee cousin, but it was a small part of the book, and she didn’t struggle with it that much. Plus, he miraculously changes his tune by the end of the book for no reason, which is one of the other issues I had.

On top of all of that, this book introduces a trope in the series that I remember my sister complaining about when we were younger, though somehow it didn’t bother me. It does now. Every guy that meets Mandie is attracted to her, charmed by her, jealous of other guys’ attention of her…. She inspires a lot of attention for a 12-year-old (though the guys are all at least a year or two older). Of course, Mandie is completely oblivious and doesn’t understand why these guys are so competitive around her. It’s unnecessary at best and a little disturbing at worse. I do hope that some of the issues I had with this book smooth out as the series continues, because I plan to keep going and don’t want to continue to be this annoyed.

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If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!

Book Review: Mandie and the Secret Tunnel

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Mandie and the Secret Tunnel
Book #1
by Lois Gladys Leppard

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Children’s Christian historical fiction

For complete transparency, I’ll say up front that I read a lot of this series when I was a kid/pre-teen, and I read some of them to my now-teen daughter when she was younger. Nostalgia will hugely affect my reviews for this series, and I have no plans to try to be objective.

Written in the 80s and set in 1900, the book begins with the death of 12-year-old Mandie’s father. Her mother clearly has no love for her and sends her away to work for an equally unkind family that needs help taking care of a baby. But through Uncle Ned, an old friend of her father’s and a Cherokee, Mandie learns of her father’s brother, who she’d never known existed, and with Uncle Ned’s help sets out to find a better life with her uncle (her real uncle, because “Uncle” Ned isn’t really her uncle).

This introduction to Mandie and her heritage is charming. There’s a mystery involving the will of a relative of Mandie’s, and it’s not exactly a deep mystery, but for the age group, I think it’s intriguing enough. Uncle Ned is a comforting presence for both Mandie and me, to be honest, as I seem to recall a feeling that when he’s involved, everything is going to be okay. I’m not a huge fan of Polly, a new friend of Mandie’s in this book, but overall, this is the kind of book where the good people are really good and the bad people are quite (sometimes over-the-top) bad. Not that they’re all villains, but their personalities are pretty sour.

I can’t pretend that this book holds up really well for me as an adult—Mandie’s friend Joe is domineering, and it’s super awkward when Joe and Polly meet and are attracted to each other (these kids are all 12-14, don’t forget). The Christianity presented in this book is shallow at best, maybe even somewhat works-based, which I couldn’t possibly have realized was incorrect as a kid. The preacher who talks at her dad’s funeral and visits her later only scares Mandie, rather than helping her through her difficult time. It’s unfortunate that Mandie doesn’t believe God cares about her until things end up working out well in the end, which is not a great message for kids.

My daughter read the entire series (which is more than I’ve read, but I plan to rectify that) when she was around 10 years old and loved them. Even now, at 15, she remembers them fondly and is planning to re-read them again some time soon. If that isn’t an endorsement, I don’t know what is.

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If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Recent Book Gets

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It’s time for another Top Ten list from That Artsy Reader Girl. The topic today is “Most Recent Additions to My Bookshelf.” I posted 3 weeks ago about books I’d either gotten for Christmas or acquired shortly thereafter, and normally, I wouldn’t have much to add in this short of an amount of time. However, my husband and I went back to Half-Price books just yesterday, much sooner than normal, plus I do have a few more from right before Christmas I’d love to mention. So here are 8 of my most recent book gets:

1. Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally
Sadly, I had forgotten I got this until I started scanning my bookshelf for what should go on today’s list. I got it in the clearance section of HPB some time before Christmas (we go there a lot during the holidays). I “read” this in high school, but I’ll admit I didn’t read it very thoroughly. Though I did well in school, I was pretty lazy. I’d already seen the movie at the time that I read it for school, and basically read chunks of the book looking for scenes that were in the movie to write about. It’s definitely time to read it for real.

2. The Maze Runner by James Dashner
I got my sister some books for Christmas and found some great deals on what she wanted on eBay. One of the sellers had a promotion of buy 2, get 1 free, so after I looked for a 3rd book that she would want, I found this in their list of eligible books and decided I might as well get it for me. I’d been planning to read it anyway!

3. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
I have read maybe 1 Sherlock Holmes story ever, that I can think of, and I couldn’t even tell you for sure what it was (Hounds of the Baskerville, I think). Like many others, though, I’ve viewed various iterations of Holmes over the years. I spotted this high on a bookshelf in our own house, but I didn’t even remember having it. Turns out someone had given it to my husband several years ago. Technically we already owned it, but it is now sitting on my shelf, and I plan to start reading it soon.

Plus, reading it will make my novel journal a lot more relevant to me:

The lines are made up of the text from the stories!

4. The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek by Rhett McLaughlin & Link Neal
I’ve mentioned this book multiple times recently, but that’s just because of how good it is! I try not to buy books at full price if I can help it, because how do you sustain a habit if you spend that kind of money? So I passed on getting it when it was still on the “new releases” shelf. It was only marked down a few bucks when we went back to HPB yesterday, but my husband insisted that was good enough. (Read my review of this book.)

5. Unoffendable by Brant Hansen
Brant Hansen is my favorite radio personality. If you’re in the mood for a fun, clean, often random podcast that makes you think, check out the Brant & Sherri Oddcast. He also writes some books that combine faith and humor and make some interesting points. This is his first book, and I really enjoyed his second one, Blessed are the Misfits. I’ve been hoping to read this for a while, but my library doesn’t carry it. Though I’ve checked every time we’ve gone to HPB recently, imagine my surprise to see it sitting on the shelf yesterday!

6. 2 books from the Mandie series by Lois Gladys Leppard
I enjoyed this series a lot when I was younger, and when my daughter got old enough, I read the first book in the series to her. I have kept my eye out for these book over the years, even before she was old enough, and have maybe 10-12 on my shelves (there are 40!). I spotted 3 in the clearance section, but only bought 2 of them, because I was certain I had one of them already. Sadly enough, it turns out that I don’t have the one I thought I had (the cover looked so familiar!), but I do have one of the two that I bought…so I only added 1. Ah well…it’s time to keep a list on my phone of which ones I have, since I never know when I might run across more.

What books are you excited about getting recently? Link your own list in the comments so I can check yours out too!