Review: THE ROSE FIELD

Title: The Rose Field by Philip Pullman (The Book of Dust, Volume 3)

 

Book Beginnings quote: 

Friday56 quote: 

This is what I know: without imagination you never see the truth about anything. Without imagination you think you see more truth

Summary: This is the concluding story of Lyra Silvertongue in the world of His Dark Materials. The novel follows Lyra as she searches for her daemon, Pan, in a daemon-haunted city, with Malcolm Polstead also searching for her as they both head towards the mysterious Karamakan desert, where allies and enemies converge on a secret related to Dust. 

Review: I have a love/hate relationship with this series, the Book of Dust, by Philip Pullman. Let me explain. First I read and loved the author's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy when I was a new librarian. You know those books: The Golden Compass (Northern Lights), The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass, 

published from 1995-2000. I read them starting in 2007, before I was a book blogger. I loved the story, the characters, and the world-building. Then in 2017, a prequel was published called La Belle Sauvage. It was the first book in a new trilogy about the life of Lyra Silvertongue before and after the action in the first trilogy.

I loved La Belle Sauvage. I enjoyed being reintroduced to some of the characters I'd met earlier and learning about Lyra's mystical beginning. There is a huge flood and a miraculous escape in a canoe. I couldn't wait for the sequel. (See my review here.) Fortunately, I didn't have to wait too long. In 2019 The Secret Commonwealth was published. As the middle book in the trilogy it begins abruptly and ends the same way. I was left on pins and needles, wanting to find out how the story ended. (See my review here.) I kept my eye out for the third book. After about two years, Pullman started promising his fans that he was making progress on it and then would give a possible publication date in the near future. 

Six years later it was finally published. The headline of an interview in the Washington Post about The Rose Field is titled "I'm alive, but battered: Philip Pullman's new novel was a struggle." Apparently Pullman got COVID during the pandemic and it sounds like it may have turned into long-COVID, a side effect of the disease which zaps people of energy for a long time after recovering from the infection. He also experienced wrist and/or hand pain so he had to use his computer to write the book, instead of his usual handwriting. One would think that would have made the process easier, but apparently it broke his writing habits and that really shook him up. At 79-years-old it was hard for him to establish new writing rituals. All of these three factors led to some depression which made writing more difficult. 

One more thing, which Pullman didn't really talk about is how long the book is, 672 pages. The six-year time period between the middle book and this book also led to a lot of confusion for me. I just couldn't remember all the details of the previous stories. If you were to read the reviews of The Rose Field on Goodreads, many readers criticized the book for not wrapping up all the loose ends of the story. To me it felt like Pullman had so much story to tell and didn't know how to close it himself. So he wrote and wrote. Finally his editor said "stop", so he stopped. I am not saying the ending was horrible, but there definitely was not an "ah" ending for me. In an interview between the author and his audiobook narrator, Pullman talked a little bit more about what he was trying to accomplish and why he left so many loose ends at stories end. I especially liked what he had to say about Lyra and imagination and was able to relate it to some of the problems we are facing today with politics, climate change, etc.

Though Pullman clearly had so much to say, he said he is definitely done with Lyra and her world. He thinks he is too old to tackle another book in the series.  That's good because I've probably too old to read another one. Ha!

My rating: 3.5 stars.

Merry Christmas!

-Anne

End-of-the-year clean up. Found a few reviews I missed.

As 2016 looms and 2015 is drawing nigh I am cleaning up a bit (literally and figuratively.) I found four YA books I read but hadn't reviewed. I think they are all worthy of at least a short summary.

The Unlikely Hero of Room 13-B by Teresa Toten

When the counselor of his O.C.D. support group suggests that each of the group members select a superhero persona might be helpful in their treatment, Adam decides to be Batman. The girl he has his eye on is Robin, which is a lovely coincidence toward a possible relationship. But relationships are messy when one notices the drugs meant to keep the OCD symptoms at bay aren't working anymore and all the rituals required to get through the day and past thresholds are getting more elaborate and complicated. Adam wants to be a hero for Robin and for his mother, who has problems of her own. He wants to be a better person than he is but he is not sure he can do it.

The Unlikely Hero is truly one of my favorite YA books read in 2015. I finished it in May and have no idea why I never reviewed it. When I asked a student to read it and tell me on a scale of one to five how many stars he would give it, he said it deserved fourteen stars. My daughter, who volunteers at a crisis hotline, said it was the best book she had ever read on the challenges for people struggling with OCD symptoms. She is determined to NEVER refer to her desire to organize things as OCD after reading this book.

I gave the book 4 of 5 stars. My only criticism of the book is how quickly I was able to see through the mystery of the person writing threatening letters to his mom. I will be recommending this book to all kinds of reading teens.

I Crawl Through It by A.S. King

Four accomplished teenagers are on the verge of explosion. The anxieties they face at every turn have nearly pushed them to the point of surrender: senseless high-stakes testing, the lingering damage of trauma, the buried grief and guilt of tragic loss. They are desperate to cope—but no one is listening. So they will lie. They will split in two. They will turn inside out. They will build an invisible helicopter to fly themselves far away from the pressure…but nothing releases the pressure. Because, as they discover, the only way to truly escape their world is to fly right into it. ---from A.S. King's webpage

As I reread the summary of this book, I Crawl Through It, I realize why I had a hard time writing the review and leaving it for "another day." The book is very weird. It is the first surreal novel I have ever read. And everything is really surreal, believe me. Throughout the book I am looking for clues which will help me make sense of what I am reading. How can a person turn herself inside out and why don't the adults recognize that she needs help? How can a girl only see on Tuesdays the helicopter her boyfriend is building and how can she dare ride in this invisible machine? Nothing is what it seems yet everything is a clue to reality. 

Before you decide against picking up this book because it is so strange, I want to remind you what a tremendous writer A.S. King is. She is truly a wordsmith. "It is masterfully written and brilliantly bizarre" (VOYA). I awarded it 4 of 5 stars and added to our Mock Printz list as a late entry.

The MARTians by Blythe Woolston

When Zoë Zindleman graduates as the last girl in her school and gets a job at Allmart, she thinks her life will improve. But her mother moves out of the house, which is in foreclosure, and tells Zoë to stay put until she is kicked out. Suddenly she if faced with the awful choice of living alone with no way of getting to work, or moving into the laundromat with Warren, another Allmart employee. It seems like Allmart is going to suck the life out of her unless she does something different and quick.

This dystopian novel really paints a bleak picture of the perils of a life of consumerism. It was a quick read which caused me to think a lot about the choices we are making as a society. The funniest part of the book were the news reports. 3.5 of 5 stars.

The Emperor of Any Place by Tim Wynne-Jones

When Evan's father dies, he finds a hand bound book on his desk. The book is about an experience a Japanese soldier has on an island where he is stranded during WWII. Evan can't figure out why his father was reading the book and how it relates to his grandfather but as he reads the book himself he gets drawn into the mystery it presents. It is "engrossing, suspenseful, and at times, terrifying" (Goodreads).

I had a hard time getting any traction on this book until I was well into the mystery. Wynne-Jones is a solid writer and has crafted a very different tale here. I was thinking it was just a historical novel until the monster shows up and suddenly it veers into the realm of paranormal or horror fiction. I did have one student tell me she enjoyed the book but we didn't chat about it so I don't know what it was she liked about it. All the reviews I've read of the book talk about Wynne-Jones doing a good job with the symbolism of war and peace, fantasy and realism, love and hate. Rating 4 of 5 stars.

The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett

Today I finished listening to the audiobook The Shepherd's Crown. It is and will be Terry Pratchett's last novel. You see, this funny, wonderful, imaginative author died in March of this year from Alzheimer's Disease. Even though he was very sick and was losing himself to this tragic disease Pratchett still wrote this marvelous little novel to finish the Tiffany Aching series, a subset of the greater Discworld series. Actually, after the time of his diagnosis with Alzheimer's in 2007, Pratchett published five novels, some to critical acclaim like Dodger which won a Printz Honor in 2012. It is really amazing to think about. How did he do it?

As I listened to this wonderful story, a continuation of Tiffany Aching's story, I found myself laughing one moment and then crying the next. Laughter for Pratchett's funny and imaginative characters who say and think the funniest things, or who at least have humorous names. Followed by tears because it would hit me how the world would no longer get a new book from this master author. Actually one day I found myself listening and weeping as I was driving to work. I was thinking very sad and dark thoughts when it suddenly hit me how I still haven't read over 35+ of his Discworld novels. Reading them should keep me busy for years. This new thought brought me back to laughter.

Tim Wilkins, in the book's Afterward, said Terry liked to start his stories somewhere and would write the bits he could see clearly until finally he organized all the bits into a whole, like assembling a jigsaw puzzle. I like the way he described Pratchett as "telling himself a story as he wrote." Often he would start a new story even though he wasn't finished with his current book. In this way The Shepherd's Crown came to life while he was finishing the novel, Raising Steam. If he had had more time Wilkins is sure Pratchett would have written more and done more with The Shepherd's Crown. "There are things we all wish we knew more about. But what we have is a remarkable book. Terry's final book, and anything you wish to know about in here, you are welcome to imagine yourself." Aren't the best stories those which require us to use our imaginations? I think so.

This one, The Shepherd's Crown, set my imagination humming.

And while I am handing out praise, I need to give a shout-out to Stephen Briggs. He did an absolutely brilliant job reading for the audiobook version. What a treat listening to a whole book read aloud by him.

Rating 5 of 5 stars.

HarperCollins Publishers and Blackstone Audio, Sept. 15, 2015.

A few thoughts on The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

I finished The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah after a four-hour marathon listening session today. Let me explain how that was possible. This morning school was cancelled due to a large number of our school district buildings being without power. My unexpected day off of school gave me an opportunity to finish the audiobook which was due back to the library in two days even though I still had hours of listening left to go. I cued up my iPod and listened while I cleaned the kitchen, while I finished putting out the Christmas decorations, and while I played a few computer games. Four hours later I was finished with the book and determined to write down a few of my thoughts while they were fresh.

• In case you don't know, The Nightingale is set in France during WWII, focusing mainly on two sisters, Isabelle and Vianne. They both get involved in the French resistance. Isabelle helps save downed Allied airmen by leading them to safety in Spain. Vianne helps save Jewish children from the slaughter of the Holocaust. Both are compelling and complex characters.
• The writing was strong but I found myself feeling a bit frustrated by two things. The first was many of the details seemed so cliche, especially in the opening chapters. For example, Vianne walks through her house in the French countryside which is decorated in a sort of shabby chic style, with bunches of lavender and other herbs hanging from the ceiling. she tucks a picnic into a basket of grapes, a baguette, hard cheese, and wine. Secondly, I would catch the author in her inconsistencies. Vianne would spend all morning queuing for food and come away with nothing. She would trudge home sadly empty handed then would do to the basement to retrieve sausage and potatoes for dinner. Her chickens were mentioned several times but eating the eggs never was. Picky, picky. I know.
• The scope of the book was massive. It dealt with so many aspects related to WWII it was almost overwhelming: French resistance; deportation of  Jews by the French in compliance with the German directives; differences of life in the country and in the city, Paris, under German occupation; concentration camps; and the deprivations and horrors inflicted on the French people at the hands of the German. 
• As I read (listened) to the story I wondered if Isabelle's story was based on facts. Indeed it was. Kristin Hannah said she got the idea for this book while doing research for another book when she came upon the story of a Belgian teenager who helped save downed Allied airmen by guiding them through a series of safe houses, over the Pyrenees, to safety in Spain. Her name was Andree de Jongh. She seemed to be quite a remarkable woman. I'd like to read more about her life.
• I know this statement will sound strange to you but I can think of one good thing about Hitler: Hitler and Nazi's have sure given us plenty of material to use for writing compelling books. This is my seventh book of the year which focused, or partially focused on WWII. It amazes me there are still topics which seem fresh and interesting. The other six books I read about WWII this year are:
• Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege on Leningrad by M.T. Anderson (WWII in Russia and the Siege on Leningrad, specifically; nonfiction.)
• Black Dove and White Raven by Elizabeth Wein (Italo-Ethiopian War, set in Ethiopia in 1935-36, Mussolini attacks Ethiopia as a precursor to WWII; historical fiction.)
• The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (a portion of the story is set in Bosnia during WWII.)
• The Emperor of Any Place by Tim Wynne-Jones (a portion of the book is set on a South Pacific island during WWII; fiction.)
• The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Petersen and the Churchill Boys by Philip Hoose (WWII resistance by Danish teens; nonfiction.)
• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (WWII in Germany and in the France; fiction.)
• Even though I have read lots of WWII books this year and I found inconsistencies in the story, I still liked The Nightingale quite a lot. The last fourth of the book made me quite weepy thinking about loss and love and sad memories. I also learned that the author, Kristin Hannah, is from Washington state. Who knows? Maybe I will run into her sometime. That would be cool.
• Quote: In love we find out who we want to be. In war we find out who we are.

• My rating: 4 of 5 stars.
• Macmillan Audio , 2015.

Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow

“We may be likened to two scorpions in a bottle, each capable of killing the other, but only at the risk of his own life.” ―Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb

Epigraph for the Scorpion Rules, setting the stage for the theme.

Finally a Sci-Fi/Fantasy book I can get behind for the Printz Award. I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did. Let me explain.

Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow is a dystopian tale but not in the high action, intensity of a Hunger Games or a Maze Runner. If anything the book is a bit sedate and calm, at least the first half is that way.

In the future, the UN has brought back an ancient way to keep the peace. The children of world leaders are held hostage—if a war begins, they pay with their lives. Greta is the Crown Princess of the Pan Polar Confederacy, a superpower formed of modern-day Canada. She is also a Child of Peace, a hostage held by the de facto ruler of the world, the great Artificial Intelligence, Talis. The hostages are Talis's strategy to keep the peace: if her country enters a war, Greta dies. The system has worked for centuries. Parents don't want to see their children murdered. -The publisher

Greta has know for years that her live hangs on a very thin wire. When a new hostage/Child of Peace, Elian, arrives at the Precepture School, where the hostage children are all sequestered in quiet Saskatchewan, suddenly and dramatically the quiet life shifts. Elian is from a neighboring confederacy to Greta. If war breaks out between the two confederacies then both children will be killed. And war seems likely. Suddenly the quiet, low-octane book gets a turbo shot and the action heats up.

Bow's writing never falters, from the vivid descriptions of the Precepture goats to the ways in which her characters must grapple with impossible decisions, and she is equally at home with violence and first kisses. Slyly humorous, starkly thought-provoking, passionate, and compassionate--and impeccably written to boot: not to be missed. ---Kirkus Reviews.

I understand the book will have a sequel which in my mind is a deterrent for it to be a potential award winner, but none-the-less I decided to add this book as a late entrant to our 2016 Mock Printz list. I ordered two copies and hope to get it in student's hands soon.

Edition: Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow, Audioworks, Sept, 2015.

Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War

In 1971 I was in 8th grade. The Vietnam War was raging and it was an extremely unpopular war. Demonstrations against the war were held all across the nation. Four demonstrators at Kent State in Ohio were killed by the National Guard in May 1970. My best friend Rita's dad, a pilot in the US Air Force, was missing in action (MIA) somewhere in Vietnam. The draft was in effect and a lottery system, based on birthdays, was used to determine who would be called up to service first. My twin cousins had a low lottery number and the family feared they might be forced to enlist and fight in Vietnam. Two other cousins did serve in Vietnam with the US Navy and one came home seriously disturbed. He brought the war home with him and has never completely recovered to this day. Nixon and his administration were super unpopular as they led our country deeper and deeper into the war in Vietnam and even started bombing in Cambodia and Laos.

Suddenly, in this atmosphere of national anger and despair, Daniel Ellsberg is in the news because he leaked to the NY Times the top secret 47-volumes of the secret history of the Vietnam War, documents collected by the Department of Defense. People learned what they had suspected all along--- the administrations of four Presidents, back as far as Eisenhower, had been lying to the American people about Vietnam and our involvement there. The breaking of these documents, known as the Pentagon Papers, eventually led to Watergate and the downfall of Richard Nixon. Watergate, Daniel Ellsberg, the Pentagon Papers were big news for days, weeks, months. I was a kid so I paid attention, sort of. Or more correctly, I thought I paid attention to the details of the case. But apparently not well.

I learned or relearned so much from reading Most Dangerous. Sheinkin put all the pieces together in a succinct yet informative format. As Greg Grandin, writing for the NYT, says:

Sheinkin’s book is a remarkably effective synthesis not just of Ellsberg’s life but of America’s long history in Vietnam. The author has a perfect ear for what might hold the attention of young readers, while at the same time gently educating them about war and governance. “Most Dangerous” balances drama, human interest (including Ellsberg’s romance with the radio journalist Patricia Marx) and analysis; it’s fast-paced, starting with a prologue in which Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy break into Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office in search of discrediting information.---(NY Times, Sunday Book Reviews, Nov. 6, 2015)

The last half of the book reads like the best spy novel with all the intrigue and action one would expect from a fiction thriller, but this stuff really happened. The National Book Award has listed Most Dangerous to its short list of best books in the young people category, Publisher's Weekly named it as a top fifteen best books for middle grade readers. I disagree with that delineation. I think Most Dangerous would appeal to high school age students and should be marketed that way.

This year the Printz Award may very well go to the a nonfiction book. In my mind this book, Most Dangerous by Steve Sheinkin and Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege on Leningrad by M.T. Anderson are tied for the best YA books written this year. Both were impeccably researched and super well-written. I highly recommend them both.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Source: Audiobook, checked out from the public library and listened to on Overdrive.

Short Reviews: Shadowshaper, The Hired Girl, The Rest of Us Just Live Here

I am still reading reading YA books with an eye toward the Printz Award. These three books all have potential.

Shadowshaper by Daniel Jose Older is an urban fantasy set in Brooklyn. Someone described it as Cassandra Clare (The Mortal Instruments series) meets the Caribbean. Sierra Santiago, who loves art and creating murals, is encouraged to create a mural on an abandoned eye-sore of a building and asked to do it as fast as she can. In fact, She asks another graffiti artist, Robbie, to help her fill up the wall. There is something odd and urgent about the project. Odd in that Sierra notices that one of the drawings in a nearby mural is crying real tears and urgent because it seems that all the murals around them are fading.  Then to add more tension to the situation, which Robbie and Sierra take a bit of time off from their mural creation to attend a party, they are attacked by this zombie-type man. What is going on? Sierra soon learns about a supernatural order called Shadowshapers who connect with spirits through art, music, and stories. Something or someone is killing off all the Shadowshapers and it is up to Sierra and her friends to find out who it is before they are all gone.

Review: Is this book Printz-worthy? I am not sure, but the plot is just unique enough with the mixture of urban fantasy and Caribbean mysticism it should be mentioned in any Printz discussions. This book was identified by Publisher's Weekly as one of the top fifteen best YA books of the year. We have included this book on the Bethel School District Mock Printz list.

The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz is set in 1911 in Baltimore. Joan, who runs away from home, a
family farm in Pennsylvania, because her cruel father will not allow her an education she desperately wants. She ends up as a maid to a rich Jewish family telling them she is eighteen, not her actual age of fourteen. In the book she explores themes of religion, loyalty, and education.

Review: I was quite captivated by the book at first. It is written in journal-style so the reader learns about Joan as she doles of the information. Joan is impulsive and immature, like most fourteen-year-olds, but it seems odd because she is pretending to be eighteen. The family she lives with keep asking her about her age because they don't quite believe she is as old as she says. The book is long, over 400 pages, and it really drags in the middle. Some reviewers have mentioned pacing issues---lots of action followed by chapters of fairly tedious details. Other reviewers have mentioned how the story seems to assume that Christianity is preferred religion and the Jewish faith is viewed as the odd one. I didn't get that feeling as I was reading it but once I read that review I could understand the reviewers point of view. Other bloggers are mentioning this book as a possible Newbery candidate. With the protagonist being fourteen that would place The Hired Girl at the top of Newbery interest area and near the bottom of the Printz age limit. I'm guessing the committees for both awards will take a look at this book. I liked the book but have reservations if it is really Printz-worthy. This book is also highlighted by Publisher's Weekly as one of the top fifteen YA books of the year.

The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness could be described as realism with a bit of paranormal activity thrown in for good measure. The Rest of Us is set somewhere nearby here in Western Washington. It is set in a town an hour away from a big town which is an hour away from an even bigger city, and it references a big mountain. That narrows it down to somewhere in south or east Pierce County, where we live (Puyallup/Graham) or my daughter lives (Eatonville.) I spent the whole book trying to figure out exactly where the characters lived, even though I am sure it was really just a made-up place, it seemed tantalizingly close to here. Mike, his sister Mel, friend Jared, and his potential girlfriend, Henna, are just weeks away from graduation from high school. They want this time to be the best ever because soon they will all be scattering as they go off to college. Unfortunately, paranormal activity is kicking up again with the Indy kids. What will it be this time? Vampires, zombies, or gods? Whatever it is, the creepy blue lights keep showing up and Indy kids keep dying. Mike and his friends just hope they can make it to graduation without their school getting blown up.

Review: I am a big Patrick Ness fan. I simply adored his Chaos Walking series and found his book A Monster Calls quite compelling. With The Rest of Us Just Live Here I think Ness, to some degree, is poking fun at all paranormal novels. In these novels adults never seem to see what is going on right under their noses, leaving only astute teens to battle the monsters alone, in this case Immortals. Oddly, these teens, since they have no adults to talk to about all the odd paranormal activity, must go through at least the patina of normal activities in their daily lives. Adults seem to lose the ability to believe in magic and therefore cannot see magical things happening right under their noses. All of this is a fairly clever premise but I thought the execution was weak. Mike and his friends seem overly concerned about their relationships with each other, causing all kinds of problems and hurt feeling. Paranormal activity is disconcerting but almost easy to dismiss. I never knew quite what to focus on and who or what I suppose to care about. My favorite bits of the book were the chapter headings which had long rambling descriptions of what the Indy kids were doing to fight off the Immortals. This book is not Printz-worthy material in my opinion, even though there is a god of cats in it.

Have you read any YA books this year you think should be considered for the Printz Award?

Friday Quotes and a review: The Shift

Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Rose City Reader. Share the opening quote from the book.
The Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice.  Find a quote from page 56.

Check out the links for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Participants don't select their favorite, coolest, or most intellectual books, they just use the one they are currently reading. This is the book I'm reading right now:

Book Title: The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients' Lives by Theresa Brown, RN

Book Beginnings: 

The buzz of the alarm surprises me, as it always does. Six a.m. comes too soon.

Friday 56: 

On the way out of the door. I grab a couple of Hershey's kisses from the candy bowl and eat them in the hallway without much noticing the taste. Breakfast?

Comment: I am participating in Nonfiction November so decided to read this new book to my library which recently arrived in a box from Junior Library Guild. The Shift is right up my alley since I really enjoy reading books about medicine and medical conditions. Since I finished the book today I decided to go ahead and write a review.

Review: 
Before Theresa Brown became an oncology nurse she taught English at Tufts College. This career shift seems like an unlikely path but was a beneficial one as Theresa Brown is a very good writer. As the title states, the whole book is about a day in the life of a hospital nurse who works the oncology department. The first line begins with the alarm going off to start the day for Theresa and with the last lines, she goes to bed and to sleep. In between these two pages readers walk every step of Theresa's day working as a registered nurse.
After she gets to work we learn that on this day Theresa will have three patients, to start off, with one patient to arrive later. My first reaction is "four, that is all?" Doesn't four sound like a small number? Teachers at the secondary level can have 150 students a day. Four sounds easy. Boy, was I wrong. As I went to work with Theresa, via her words in the book, I learned that caring for four seriously ill patients is a lot of work. Teachers, by and large, may have vastly more people in their care each day, but the care isn't generally life or death care. Thankfully. I can't even imagine how stressful it would be to work a twelve hour shift, with four lives in my hands.
I practically ate this book up, reading it in less than two days. I read it fast because I wasn't reading it for all the minute details. When doses of drugs or details of medical treatments were mentioned I allowed my eyes to skip ahead a bit. But there were plenty of details I didn't skip. Here are a few of the most worrisome points she made: 1. Even though research shows that working twelve hour shifts is very hard on the nurses and the quality of care goes down at some point late in the shift, hospitals still stick with this model. 2. On the highlighted day, and more often than not, Theresa doesn't get a lunch, even though she is not paid for her half hour lunch time. The hospital just doesn't prioritize this so she just has to cram some food in her face on the run. During this twelve hour shift, she took about a ten minute break. Can you imagine? 3. Because hospitals are concerned about potential lawsuits some procedures have been put in place that actually take the professionals away from patient care because there is more paperwork. The the worrisome bits didn't cloud over the beauty of her service and all the details of the day, exhausting as it was. What a joy to read.
I am already scheming on who I will recommend this book to first. I know my mom, a retired registered nurse, would appreciate it but she doesn't live nearby. So I think I will loan it to a staff member who was a nurse and now is a Science teacher. I bet she'll be able to think of students who would like it. I highly recommend this one.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Symphony for the City of the Dead by MT Anderson

M.T. Anderson has been writing fabulous YA literature for the past decade. In Feed, his 2002 National Book Award finalist novel, all characters only seem to care about is buying the latest fashion item or have the popular body tattoo applied, even though their world is falling into a state of environmental decay. One is left with a chilling feeling that this may very well become our future world. From this bleak future, Anderson swings his attention next to a book which deals with the past. His National Book Award winning/Printz Honor book The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, traitor to the Nation, The Pox Party, looks at the life of an African-American man during Colonial times who is doubly exploited as a slave and as a test subject.

Now with Symphony for the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege on Leningrad M.T. Anderson applies his incredible writing skills to his first YA nonfiction book. This book, too, seems destined to win awards as it has already been named to the 2015 National Book Award longlist for Young People's Literature. About the book, a committee member said, "Symphony for the City of the Dead is a masterwork thrillingly told and impeccably researched."

Symphony for the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege on Leningrad is not only the story of the famous Russian composer Dmitri Shotakovich and his experiences in the city of his birth, Leningrad, during the almost 900 day siege during WWII. The book also covers the horrific climate in Russia known as The Great Terror in the late 1930s under Stalin. Shostakovich and other artists, authors, and musicians were especially scrutinized by the Stalin Regime, many even lost their lives. Russia was a terrifying place to live during this time period.

When the Nazis made their way to Leningrad and began what came to be the longest siege in recorded history, Shostakovich and his family were trapped along with more than 2 million residents of the beleaguered city. During this time he began writing his 7th symphony. Bombs would be exploding overhead and this bespectacled composer would rush back from the shelter to continue work on his masterpiece. Finally, after he had written more than two of the four movements of the symphony, he and his immediate family were finally evacuated  to a safer spot far to the east. Before leaving Leningrad, however, he went on the radio in Leningrad and told his countrymen to keep the faith and explained how he was writing them a symphony. Everyone was wild to hear it. It was performed in Moscow and even America before it was finally performed in Leningrad by a ragtag group of starving musicians left behind in the city.

Listen to the 3 minute BBC clip about Shostakovich and his 7th symphony. There is an on-going pesky question, which will never be answered, if Shostakovich really wrote the 1st movement about the Nazi invasion or about The Great Terror under Stalin. The mysterious question will keep people interested for decades to come.

Symphony for the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege on Leningrad is my favorite type of YA book. I learned so much about Russian (Soviet) history in addition to the information on the book title. I was aghast by what I learned, too. Much of the information didn't come to light until the fall of communism in the 1990s. Since I attended high school before that time period, I will give myself a break for not knowing this information before.

My husband and I listened to the audiobook of Symphony read by M.T. Anderson himself. Interspersed throughout the story were little audio clips (teasers) of Shostakovich's music. I was in heaven: 1. Anderson did a phenomenal job reading his own work; and 2. the music!  Oh my. What talent.

Symphony for the Dead is my favorite YA nonfiction of the year, by far. It may actually be my YA favorite book of the year. I got so much out of it. It truly was "thrillingly told and impeccably researched."

Rating 5 out of 5.
Source: MP-3 Audiobook, Candlewick on Brilliance Audio, 2015. I purchased my own copy.



 

Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek by Maya Van Wagenen

 

Imagine finding a book published in the 1950s about how to be popular and following the advise given in that book today. That is exactly what Maya Van Wagenen did during her 8th grade school year. And the results? Well, they are heart-warming and affirming. Let me explain.

Maya and her family moved to Brownsville, Texas some time during her grade school years. Maya always felt like an outsider at school since many of her classmates spoke Spanish and viewed her as an "other". She felt lonely and isolated. Her good grades also divided her from potential friends who did not warm up to a girl who showed them up in class. As elementary school became middle school, things didn't improve for Maya. She was just a regular teen wanting to be accepted and liked. She wanted to be popular. 

When Maya's father unearthed a vintage book, Betty Cornell's Teenage Popularity Guide, c. 1951, her mother suggested that Maya attempt to keep the advise in the book during her 8th grade school year and to journal about her experiences. Maya agreed to this zany idea. She also decided to not tell a soul what she was doing, even her best friend. When she would show up at school wearing prim and proper clothes any teen would have worn in the 1950s but not today, she would tell people who asked that she was just doing it for fun.

Each month she would tackle a new chapter from Betty Cornell's book and attempt to integrate the advice into her own life. She found herself sitting and walking with good posture, wearing pearls, arranging and rearranging her hairstyle, talking to people she never would have talked to before, and drawing the attention of classmates along the way.

In the end Maya discovered that to be truly popular one has to be thoughtful, kind, and friendly to others, even if that person doesn't reciprocate in the beginning. Her experiment was wildly successful and when she submitted her journal to a book editor it was snapped up immediately. Imagine being a 15 year old and a published author!  Class mates got wind of the book and one texted another saying something like, "Remember that girl in our class last year who wore pearls?  She just published a book. I guess we should have been nicer to her."

Even though the kids commented about not being nice, this book wasn't a rehashing of "Mean Girls." If anything, it was the opposite. Maya stuck to her guns and her project. She was nice and friendly, even when it was outside her comfort zone and the net result was she not only changed her life, she changed the culture of the school.

I was completely charmed by this book. Maya, who is probably only 15 or 16 right now, is quite a good, young writer. I understand the book has even been optioned for a film! I decided to read it because it won the YALSA Nonfiction Book Award last year. I am so glad I did. I recommend that teens and adults alike read it.

Check out her darling webpage.

Rating: 5 of 5 stars.
Disclosure: I borrowed this book from another school library in the district where I work.

Classics Club Spin book: Great Expectations

Great Expectations. Pip meets Magwich.

Book title: Great Expectations

Written by: Charles Dickens

First published in serialized All the Year Round, Dickens' own literary magazine, between Dec. 1860 and August 1861.

The plot in a nutshell: Pip, an orphan, lives with his sister and her husband who is a blacksmith. Everything in his life seems laid out for him with the likelihood he too will become a blacksmith. Two events change the trajectory of his life. First he meets and helps an escaped convict on the marsh one dark day. Secondly, he is introduced to the odd Miss Havisham and her adopted daughter Estella. Pip has a huge crush on Estella even though she is mean to him. Later, Pip learns he has been given a living which will allow him to leave his crude life of smithing behind and move to London to become a gentleman. After years of living off this anonymous benefactor, Pip learns to whom he is indebted. Pip is baffled and horrified. Things don't turn out as he planned and he learns about the importance of love and family along the way.

Hilarious video with no spoilers:
http://www.shmoop.com/great-expectations/

Hilarious video with TONS of Spoilers....in fact the whole thing is a spoiler:
http://www.shmoop.com/great-expectations/summary.html

My opinion: I thought I knew the basic outline of the story before I started reading Great Expectations, but I discovered I basically had had no idea what the book was about.  For that reason I am glad I read listened to it. It was an easy book to follow and though I am not sure I would assign the word "love" to my feelings about the book I did like it and enjoyed reading it.  Plus, bonus...I can now say I have read some Dickens! Yay.

Funny listening to audiobook story:
I purchased a very inexpensive audiobook which contains audio for both Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities. When I slip audio CDs into my car's CD player it usually displays the CD number and the track number.  This cheap set got all confused and displayed titles for things not playing like symphonies from various composers or books by other authors.  It was really odd and ultimately funny. My example photo isn't very funny. usually the info wouldn't even mention Dickens.

The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Chris Riddell

Finally a fairy tale retelling worth the effort of a trip to the bookstore or library. Neil Gaiman's The Sleeper and the Spindle which is beautifully and intricately illustrated by Chris Riddell is not to be missed.

The Sleeper and the Spindle is a mash-up of two popular fairy tales, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. Perhaps we could think of it as a continuation of the Snow White story, after she wakes up and becomes the rightful queen. And a warping of the Sleeping Beauty story. In this retelling three women take center stage, with a few dwarfs for good measure. There are no princes or handsome men in sight. Neil Gaiman said in a interview with Gaby Wood of the Telegraph,  "I don't have a lot of patience for stories in which women are rescued by men." So in his mash-up of the old favorites the queen kisses the princess awake, essentially saving everyone. In the end it is a little confusing who is who and who is good and who is bad but aside from that small need to reread a few pages the whole book is a complete delight.

Gaiman said about his creation, "I feel like some kind of alchemist. I have to go to the cupboard and take one ounce of Snow White and two ounces of Sleeping Beauty, and heat the Sleeping Beauty and froth the Snow White and mix them together: it's kind of like fusion cuisine. It tastes like both of them but it's actually a new dish" (Gaby Wood, Telegraph, Nov. 20, 2014).

The mixture is a wonderful and unique combination everyone should try. But, for me, the real star of the book are the illustrations. Chris Riddell's elaborate pen and ink illustrations are simply stunning. One could spend hours, even days, looking at them. The intricate details he included on each illustration on every page are quite amazing. 

You have to take the time to view this YouTube video of Graiman and Riddell talking about the creation of the illustrations.  It is only 3 minutes long and you will get a strong feeling for how lovely, lovely the book really is.

My team read The Sleeper and the Spindle to consider it for inclusion on our Mock Printz reading list. We all decided it would be much more likely to win the Caldecott Award, and hope it does. Wow. You have got to see this book. I mean it. Go to your library right now and check it out!

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Razorhurst by Justine Larbalestier, historical fiction with ghosts

Razorhurst by Justine Larbalestier is not just another piece of historical fiction, this one involves ghosts, lots of them.

Razorhurst is set in Surrey Hills, a suburb of Sydney, Australia in 1932. During that time, according to a Sydney tabloid, The Truth, the area was full of “bottle men, dope peddlers, razor slashers, sneak thieves, confidence men, women of ill repute, pickpockets, burglars, spielers [swindlers], gunmen and every brand of racecourse parasite.” What a setting for a book! This was Australia's gangster period. The gangsters in Razorhurst used razors as their weapon of choice compared to the American gangsters who used Tommy guns,  but both had deadly effects.

For one day in July (winter) Dymphna Cambell, the best prostitute and gangster moll in the region, and Kelpie, a homeless girl with lots of street smarts, actually cause a shift of power among the bosses ruling the streets. Oddly both girls can see ghosts and there are lots of them to see, signaling to the reader to take note: a lot of people died during this bloody time in Australia's past. Kelpie, who is much less sophisticated than Dymphna, interacts with the ghosts. The ghost of Jimmy Palmer, Dymphna's latest boyfriend to end up dead, tags along with the girls shouting advice as to what they should do next. Dymphna ignores him and Kelpie tries to. Throughout the day the girls attempt to dodge the violence and corruption that swirls around them but end up in the very heart of it by nightfall.

As an educator one would think I would have the initiative to do a little homework prior to reading a book about historical events I know nothing about. Unfortunately I did not. If I had perhpas I would have enjoyed the book better, especially in the beginning when I was quite skeptical about it. This morning, as I was preparing to write this review I visited Larbalestier's website and found an interesting page about the things which influenced her writing this book. She has recently moved to Surrey Hills which led to an interest in the history of the area. She read a nonfiction book about the Surrey hills razor gangs. Like so often happens, one thing led to another, and she found information on some real characters who used to rule the hills. Though not strictly historical, none of her characters actually existed, many of them were based on real people or combinations of two people.

And the ghosts? These were not the scary, rattling chains type of ghosts, but dead people stuck on Earth for a period of time. Some of them were willing to interact and even teach the characters things. Some were so faded they seemed to be just a web of grey matter, there but not there. In an interesting way Larbalestier used the ghosts to carry the plot forward and backward in a way to demonstrate how we are all linked by our history and can't escape it no matter how hard we try.

I listened to the audio version of the book read by three Australian actors. Though I was not able to relate to the story on many levels I enjoyed the listening experience immensely. The only drawback for this American reader to listening vs reading the book was I didn't have the glossary, available in the back of the book. of Australian slang available to me to look up words I wasn't familiar with. As I listened to each disc I got more and more "into" the book and wondered and worried about what was going to happen next. Larbalestier's writing is clear and descriptive. her characters fairly crackled with life. She brought the setting alive in my mind's eyes.

Unfortunately, I hadn't read the book before we selected our Mock Printz reading list for the year or I would have lobbied to include it. Australian gang history and ghosts, that would give our teens something new and different. I ended up really liking the book and will recommend it to my library patrons. I hope this gets the attention and praise it is due from reviewers and award committee members.

Rating: 4 of 5 stars.

Because of the ghosts, I am using this book as part of the 10th R.I.P. Reading Contest.
Check out the details at The Estella Society. This is the second book I've read for this challenge which qualifies me for Peril, the Second.

Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge and the R.I.P X Reading challenge completion.

R.I.P. X Reading Challenge hosted by The Estella Society

Image used with permission, property of Abigail Larson.

 R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril  is what the title stands for. This reading challenge officially runs from September 1 through October 31. It is perfect for ushering in the Fall season. I have currently finished one book which is part mystery, suspense, thriller, Gothic, mild horror and supernatural book . This qualifies me for:

 Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge

Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge first came to my attention because it earned five starred reviews from the publications School Library Journal, Booklist, Publisher's Weekly, and the like. I try to review the highly regarded books as potential Mock Printz books and this one sounded like an intriguing selection since it seems to defy genre categorization. We always try to offer selections in different genres and this book helps our list seemed more varied. 

When Triss wakes up after an accident, she knows something is very wrong. She is insatiably hungry, her sister seems scared of her, and her parents whisper behind closed doors. She looks through her diary to try to remember, but the pages have been ripped out. Soon Triss discovers that what happened to her is more strange and terrible than she could ever have imagined, and that she is quite literally not herself. In a quest to find the truth she must travel into the terrifying underbelly of the city to meet a twisted architect who has dark designs on her family—before it’s too late. Set in England after World War I, this is a brilliantly creepy but ultimately loving story of the relationship between two sisters who have to band together against a world where nothing is as it seems.---from the publisher

My daughter got to read this book before me and fairly flew through it, finding a Gothic fantasy to be just the perfect type of book to read on her breaks at work. (By contrast she is having a much more difficult time with the realistic fiction book is carrying around with her now.) She urged me to read it and she recommended it for possible inclusion on our MP list.

What I like about Cuckoo Song is how nuanced the horror is. There are terribly creepy characters, but they aren't invincible. I found scenes to be both creepy and compelling at the same time. The scary bits weren't scary enough to keep me awake at night, which is something I attempt to avoid. Triss and her sister, Pen, both have dark and light sides to their nature. I found myself rooting for both of them at different times. It also captured that time period between WWI and WWII in England when so many families were left to carry on without loved ones or had to deal with the soldiers who returned with PTSD. 

If there is a weakness in the book it is that the characters, other than Triss, who we discover is really a changeling, and Pen, all other characters are not very well flushed out.  We don't really understand why the mother is so inept and the father so controlling. Mr. Grace goes from nice to sinister in record break time. And Violet. Hmm. I didn't get nearly enough information about her.

But boy is this book creative. Krista Hutley, writing for Booklist, says the book is a "piercing, chilling page-turner." She also says few authors can evoke such a feeling of terror and wonder at the same time as Hardinge. This is my first book by the author but I will certainly look into her others. I liked this book a lot and we did decide to include it on our Mock Printz list of books for the year.

For more information  about  R.I.P X or to sign up please go to this website:

http://www.estellasociety.com/?p=1484

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. A review and a commentary.

Our high school requires students to read one book over the summer. Students from each incoming class can select their reading material from a list of books. Ascending seniors can choose Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, a book with a provocative reputation. I decided to read it after book-talking it for a class last spring. It sounded interesting...a talking gorilla who wants an assistant to help him save the world. Sounds intriguing, doesn't it?

And the book is intriguing.  In fact the philosophy introduced by Ishmael, the gorilla, is very thought-provoking. Through a series of Socratic-type questions Ishmael gets the unnamed narrator to recognize and embrace his world view. This view is basically that mankind can be divided into two camps: Leavers and Takers. Up until a few thousand years ago leavers roamed the earth using only what they needed and living in harmony with creation. Then a shift occurred and some men decided they wanted the land on which leavers were living. In order to get it, they killed the leavers rather than asking to share. These people became takers.  Takers act as if their way is right and other people are wrong and because they are right they should have whatever they want. This aggressive approach to life has led to wars and in some cases to the near annihilation of certain people. It is also causing catastrophic problems for the environment.

Interestingly, Ishmael points out, Takers need a prophet or god-figure to tell them how to live and to guide their actions. Whereas Leavers, who already live in harmony with nature and their creator, do not. Takers now use their Holy books and their interpretations of them to continue their march toward sure destruction and the demise of mankind. The stories they tell themselves about the creation of the world even plays into this philosophy.

This book presents heavy, thought-provoking stuff. After it was published in 1991 Ishmael Societies were formed where members could get together to discuss not only the meaning of the book but also to explore ways to abandon the Taker mentality and embrace the Leaver lifestyle. I have no idea if any of these Societies still exist today. It is an interesting concept, for sure, and it is one which has been much on my mind since I finished the book a few weeks ago.

There is evidence everywhere that we, mankind, by and large do embrace the Taker mentality...or "my world view is right and if you disagree I will fight you, demonize you, or even kill you." This week I found more evidence to support this. The Pope visited America. Pope Francis does not mince his words. He admonishes Christians to live their faith, to help the poor and down-trodden, to stop doing things that contribute to global warming, to live in harmony with others and with nature. Instead of falling on their knees seeking forgiveness for their hard hearts, some conservative commentators have decided to demonize the Pope, calling him a false prophet or the Antichrist (Napolitano). See what I mean? If someone believes differently than a Taker, they demonize that person. It is quite sickening, actually. It is hard to believe that anyone who witnesses the actions of this Pope could think anything but admiring thoughts about him, no matter what faith tradition they hold. But there you have it. He is now the "Antichrist" because he dares to say something about global warming and living in harmony with our neighbors which goes against some people's 'rich at any cost' philosophy.

It is a depressing thought, but maybe Ishmael is correct. Could we be on a collision course with our own destruction simply because we believe our made-up stories about how we are right and others are wrong? It is a heavy thought.

If you do choose to read Ishmael, I urge you to find a reading companion so you will have someone to talk to as you make your way through it. I suspect that was the reason for the Ishmael Societies springing up when the book was first published. This is not the type of book that sits well or easily and it demands to be discussed. I am going to advocate that we remove the book from our summer reading list. I think this book is too heavy for an ascending senior to digest on his/her own. It is the type of book which should be read and discussed in a class with a thoughtful, prepared teacher at the helm.

If you have read Ishmael, even if it was years ago, I'd like to hear from you. I am very curious how this book simmers in the background of the brain over time. Let me know.

Rating 4 of 5 stars.