My Lady Jane by Hand, Ashton, and Meadows

My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brody Ashton, and Jodi Meadows makes me happy. It isn't often one can say that about a book these days. Often you will hear about a book being important or interesting, excellent or challenging. But how many times have you heard about a book making a reader happy? This book does just that. I am still smiling hours after finishing it and I intend to continue smiling all the rest of the night and all day tomorrow.  That is how happy this book makes me feel.

First, you are probably wondering what the book is about. Watch the book trailer. It gives a quick summary and hints at the magic within.

I know. I know. Posting a book trailer is sort of a cop out in lieu of a personal summary but if you watched the trailer you get the idea that the plot is a bit complicated and a lot wacky. What the book trailer doesn't say is how funny the book is. Really funny. Laugh out loud funny. It's been a long time since I enjoyed a book so much. "For fans of The Princess Bride comes the comical, fantastical, romantical, (not) entirely true story of Lady Jane Grey." (from the book jacket)

The authors Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows teamed up to write this book together. They are friends in real life and all have published books separately. About the book they said, why not? "We're writers. We're fixing history by rewriting one sad story at a time." (from the webpage) They follow history to a point then diverge off the trail and forge a new path to romance and a happy ending, with a lot of silly stuff in between. I mean it. This trio of writers could be employed to write jokes for a comedian. Funny stuff. One reviewer said this about the book, "The Tutors meet Monty Python. Be prepared to laugh and gasp and clutch your pearls" (Mafi, NYT). I enjoyed this collaboration immensely. It is obvious the three friends worked on it together because it is told as one story not chapters written separately patched together into one book.

This book was recommended to me by a friend who also happens to teach English and loves her British history. There is enough real history in it. (Yes, Jane Grey WAS queen for nine days after her cousin Edward, the son of Henry the 8th, died. She was married to Guilford Dudley, whose dad was King Edward's traitorous adviser.) My friend also loves a good story and couldn't stop talking about how fun it was to read this book. I marched right out the very day we talked about it and purchased the audiobook and have enjoyed listening to Katherine Kellgren read it since then. In fact, my husband was a captive audience in the car this past weekend as I listened to the book and he couldn't help himself. He got into the story, too, and chuckled right along with me. Today when Don got home from work I was listening to the last 15 minutes of the audiobook. He wasn't in the house for five minutes before I knew he was listening to the book because he would laugh at the punch lines. It is contagious.

I'm already scheming which of my students I will "talk into" reading this book first. Should I recommend it to the Princess Bride fans or the alternative history fans first? Maybe I should see if there are still some Phillipa Gregory fans out there who might appreciate a humorous approach to history. I hope whomever gets to read it first will delight in it as much as I did. 

How about you? Are you ready for a book which is guaranteed to make you laugh and feel happy...My Lady Jane is just the book for you.

"An utter delight" (Booklist).

Join me in 2017 and Read all the Youth Media Award winners of the year. Challenge. Follow link for details.

Little Women...a retrospective

As a young girl I adored Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. I must have been in 5th or 6th grade when I read it. I remember laying on my bed with book in hand dreaming of the life that the March sisters led, pining for a time I would never know. I loved Jo the most. I wanted to be Jo, so sure of herself and so talented, yet fun-loving, independent, and strong. If I was Jo then I thought of my older sister Kathy, as Meg. She was much better looking than me and more feminine, like Meg. My younger sister, Grace, had to be Amy, and in a way she is. Grace is very creative (we could call it artistic) and she does have blonde hair just like Amy. There was no Beth in our family, but that was fine with me since Beth dies and I didn't want anyone in my family to die. My brother, Tony, could be Lawrence (Teddy). He was always willing to play with his sisters if there were no male playmates around and he and I always had good romps when we played in the swimming pool or outdoors. We weren't a perfect match for the March family but if we scrunched we could sort of fit into the slots provided by these literary characters.

With these happy memories to look back on I was thrilled when Little Women was selected as my Classics Club Spin book. Surely a book I loved so much as child should warm my heart as an adult. In fact, I couldn't remember if I had read the unabridged or abridged version of the book first time around so I looked forward to reading the whole unabridged book this time around, all 500+ pages of it. I checked out the library copy of the book and I also cued up the audiobook on my computer. Last summer I got a free download from SYNC and I hadn't listened to any of it yet. First glitch, I couldn't figure out how to transfer the file from my computer to my iPod. Bummer, that meant if I wanted to listen to it I was tethered to my computer. Reading the print version was an option but I already had three (or was it four) books I needed to finish for book club and other projects. All of this I tell you just to make the point that I got off to a rough and a late start.

Right from the epigraph I knew that my childhood memory of the book wasn't going to hold up.

Go then, my little Book, and show to all/That entertain and bid thee welcome shall, /What thou dost keep close shut up in thy breast; /And wish what thou dost show them may be blest/To them for good, may make them choose to be/ Pilgrims better, by far, than thee or me./ Tell them of Mercy; she is one/Who early hath her pilgrimage begun./ Yea, let young damsels learn of her to prize/The world which is to come, and so be wise;/ For little tripping maids may follow God/ Along the ways which saintly feet have trod. 

Apparently Louisa May Alcott was making a point right from the start that all the work-a-day stories in the book about the sisters were not nearly as important as the religious messages she would be delivering therein (Shmoop). And to say there is a preaching tone to the book is stating it mildly. As a child I missed all the literary allusions to Pilgrims Progress and knew nothing about the Transcendentalists ideals. As an adult I felt clobbered over the head by them.

With these thoughts in mind I wonder what is it that makes Little Women so special? Why is it even considered a classic? After consulting Shmoop I found a few answers to my query. It is consider the classic book for girls. Why? Probably because every girl whoever reads it does exactly what I did as a child---fit, or tries to fit, her family into the pages of the book. We all know people exact like Jo, and Meg, and Amy.  We may even know a few sweet Beths. We all wish we had mothers like Marmee and families who lived up to their ideals even if it means they forgo earthly riches. We want friends like Laurie and opportunities for creative pursuits.

The first 23 chapters of Little Women were published in 1868 and it is largely accepted that these chapters were based on Louisa May Alcott's life. These chapters seem so real because they probably were quite true. The second half of the book, chapters 24-47, were originally published a year later in 1869 in a book called Good Wives. The reading public demanded that Alcott continue the story of the four sisters into adulthood. Everyone wanted to know if Jo and Laurie would end up together. "Without her own life experiences, the second part of the novel may feel less realistic. However, no amount of fan-mail could force Alcott to marry off the two main characters in the way her readers expected" (Shmoop).

In addition to being the quintessential girl book, it holds up well to the scrutiny of English teachers over the ages with all kinds of themes, literary allusions, and literary spin-offs. I pity the poor boy who ever had to study this book in class, though I dare say it is unlikely to happen in this generation. High School English teachers no longer have the luxury to teach long books and students, with a few rare exceptions, are unlikely to select them for their own enjoyment.

In a funny coincidence, the day I finished Little Women this week I opened up Google to find this picture as their Google Doodle of the day, since it was Louisa May Alcott's 184th birthday.

Google Doodle from Nov. 29, 2016

Am I glad I read Little Women again even though it didn't 'wow' me the way it did when I was a kid? YES. Will I read it again? UNLIKELY. Will I recommend it to readers of the future? YOU BET. It holds a special place in American Literature and always will. "Aside from moral lessons, historical significance, and the sheer enjoyment of reading, Alcott's novel includes a well-drawn cast of characters that are still familiar to us (Shmoop). Hopefully these characters will be our friends for life.

Source:

Shmoop Editorial Team. "Little Women." Shmoop. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 1   Dec. 2016.

Vassa in the Night by Sarah Porter

Vassa in the Night by Sarah Porter is nothing like I thought it would be. Actually, I don't know what I thought it would be but it wasn't like anything I've ever read before and it was really, really weird, so that counts as unexpected, right? Before I reached page 50 there was no way I was going to finish it...it was too weird and I couldn't figure out what was going on. But I have this thing about not abandoning books before a good, heartfelt try so I read on. By page 100 I could see the potential and I was completely confused. It was still weird. By page 150 I was hooked and reading as fast as I could to figure out how this weird tale was going to work out.

Let's see, what was so weird about it?
     To begin with, Vassa, the main character, has a little doll which lives under her clothes and has a huge appetite. She also steals things.
     Then there is a store which spins and moves up and down deciding to allow or not allow entrance.
     The store is guarded by a motocycling portion of the night.
     And, of course since it is from a Russian fairy tale, there is a witch with a name close to Baba Yaga and lots of swans. I am not familiar with the fairy tale it retells: Vassilissa the Beautiful.

What I liked about the book.
     Well, it was unpredictable.  Ever feel like you are reading the same story over and over? Not this time.
     The characters grew on me. Even the detached hands that do the witch's dirty work.
     I knew everything was going to be OK in the end, but I had no idea how we were going to get there. So I was satisfied with the entirety of the tale.

Will I recommend it to other readers? Why not? But I will add a caveat about how weird it is and how the reader will need to be patient to allow the story to unfold.

Here is what a few other readers (from Goodreads) had to say about Vassa in the Night:

This is one of those books that I absolutely loved but I'd hesitate before rushing out to recommend it. Because it's weird. No, seriously, it's REALLY weird.---Emily May

Well that was COMPLETELY BIZARRE...but in a good way! You know what makes sense in this book? Absolutely nothing. Welcome to Russian foklore!  ---Cait from Paper Fury

This book was so bizarre. Magical realism in YA, at its finest. Bizarre, but intriguing. ---Alyssa 

This is what a YA book should be -- dark, specific, weird... Vassa lives in a dystopian futuristic Brooklyn with Erg, the doll who lives in her pocket. There is so much wonderful imagery. The perilous journey Vassa must take to Baba Yar's convenience store, the scuttling helpers there. The whole thing is like Tim Burton meets Judy Bloom in a Salvador Dali painting. Or maybe Madeline L'Engle meets Fellini. Whichever: read and love. ---Elizabeth Gold

This is probably one of the weirdest books I have ever read and I can tell you it is so worth the read. ---Michelle

This was so, so weird. I enjoyed the hell out of it!---Petra 

See? I am not alone. Weird, but wonderful. Oddly fantastic. Read it, I dare you, but be sure to keep an open mind...weirdness guaranteed.

Three short YA reviews

I am attempting to clean up my inbox and finish up all past due book reviews. Here are three short ones:

On the Edge of Gone by Corinne Duyvis
Amulet Books, 2016
Audiobooks by Brillaince Audio, Read by Stephanie Willis
From the Publisher:

January 29, 2035. That's the day the comet is scheduled to hit--the big one. Denise and her mother and sister, Iris, have been assigned to a temporary shelter outside their hometown of Amsterdam to wait out the blast, but Iris is nowhere to be found, and at the rate Denise's drug-addicted mother is going, they'll never reach the shelter in time. A last-minute meeting leads them to something better than a temporary shelter--a generation ship, scheduled to leave Earth behind to colonize new worlds after the comet hits. But everyone on the ship has been chosen because of their usefulness. Denise is autistic and fears that she'll never be allowed to stay. Can she obtain a spot before the ship takes flight? What about her mother and sister? When the future of the human race is at stake, whose lives matter most?

My thoughts: We listened to this audiobook on two different long trips, separated by a week.  That and some of the production decisions of the audiobook really detracted from my enjoyment of this book. Perhaps I would have liked it more had I read the print edition. Other reviewers talk about the exciting, almost thrilling post apocalyptic nature of the Sci-Fi drama. I thought the strength of the book was in the characterization of Denise, an autistic teen. Denise is a deeply complex character who is very self-aware of her autism and how it impacts her life. "It's unsurprising that Duyvis, autistic herself, draws a superbly nuanced portrait of Denise as person (not a collection of pitiable autism tropes or cure narratives), but what makes this a winner is the nerve-wracking adventure" (KirkusReviews). 

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Girl in the Blue Coat by Monica Hesse
Little, Brown, and Company, 2016
Hachette Audio, read by Natalia Payne
From the Publisher:

 Amsterdam, 1943. Hanneke spends her days procuring and delivering sought-after black market goods to paying customers, her nights hiding the true nature of her work from her concerned parents, and every waking moment mourning her boyfriend, who was killed on the Dutch front lines when the Germans invaded. She likes to think of her illegal work as a small act of rebellion. On a routine delivery, a client asks Hanneke for help. Expecting to hear that Mrs. Janssen wants meat or kerosene, Hanneke is shocked by the older woman's frantic plea to find a person--a Jewish teenager Mrs. Janssen had been hiding, who has vanished without a trace from a secret room. Hanneke initially wants nothing to do with such dangerous work, but is ultimately drawn into a web of mysteries and stunning revelations that lead her into the heart of the resistance, open her eyes to the horrors of the Nazi war machine, and compel her to take desperate action.

My thoughts: Another audiobook which I listened to with my husband on a trip to Oregon and back. Initially we both thought it was going to be a mash up of The Diary of Anne Frank and The Hiding Place, both Holocaust stories from The Netherlands. Although there is a missing girl who was hiding, The Girl in the Blue Coat is really a mystery, with a lot of history mixed in. Where is the girl and how did she disappear? A long the way we learn more details about resistance work in The Netherlands during WWII, such as how babies and young children were squirreled away right under the noses of the Nazi guards and placed in homes with Dutch families. It always surprises me that new information is still coming out about the Holocaust over seventy years after the war has ended. This book is appropriate for younger teens, 13-16 years old.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

The Last Boy and Girl in the World by Siobhan Vivian
Simon and Schuster, 2016
From the Publisher:

The Last Boy and Girl in the World is a stunning new novel about a girl who must say goodbye to everything she knows after a storm wreaks havoc on her hometown. What if your town was sliding underwater and everyone was ordered to pack up and leave? How would you and your friends spend your last days together? While the adults plan for the future, box up their possessions, and find new places to live, Keeley Hewitt and her friends decide to go out with a bang. There are parties in abandoned houses. Canoe races down Main Street. The goal is to make the most of every minute they still have together. And for Keeley, that means taking one last shot at the boy she's loved forever.  It's the end of Aberdeen, but the beginning of Keeley's first love story. It just might not turn out the way she thought. Because it's not always clear what's worth fighting for and what you should let become a memory.

My thoughts: I bought this book for my library based on the summary from the publisher (above). It sounds so good and interesting. And maybe the book is good for teens but to an adult (me) the characters are too selfish and childish to like or even to cheer on. Everything in their town is being destroyed and everyone has to move and move out quickly, in weeks. The school year isn't quite over so graduation is canceled, the principal leaves town even before the last day of school, and the building is dismantled in days. Yet, kids go out and slip and slide in their swimsuits and make hay while it rains on. I just couldn't square it in my mind...if this were reality things just can't move that fast and kids aren't really that selfish and self-absorbed. Only one student has checked the book out so far and I haven't talked to him to see what he thought of the book. I hope he liked it better than I did.

Rating: 2 of 5 stars.

Flannery by Lisa Moore

Sixteen-year-old Flannery Malone lives in Newfoundland with her artist mother and younger brother. Her mother is loving but incapable of adequately taking care of the financial needs of the family, which includes not having enough money to buy Flannery's biology book. Her best friend, Amber, has ditched Flannery for an abusive, awful boyfriend. And Flannery had a crush on her old childhood pal, Tyrone O'Rouke, who has grown into a bit of bad-boy/heart-throb and rarely attends school. So Flannery is thrilled when she is paired with Tyrone for a Entrepreneurship class project. But having a partner who doesn't come to class often and often misses meetings means that Flannery has to do all the work on the project: to market and sell love potions.

As I think back on Flannery by Lisa Moore, I am not sure why I liked the book as much as I did. Perhaps it is because Flannery is such a kind, thoughtful person who keeps getting dumped on but she remains positive and upbeat. Perhaps it is because the drama of the book seems realistic to the kind of situations students face today: friends who abandon friends because of a boy (or girl); partners who do no work on class projects but want credit; parents who love their children but seem incapable of taking care of the needs of their children; pointless and mean-spirited bullying; teens finding new friends who have similar interests only after some traumatic event gives them pause to think and notice.

Several reviewers commented on how Moore abandoned the use of punctuation, especially quotation marks which is a narrative style which alternately draws the reader in closer but makes the action seem a little further off. I am usually put-off when authors abandon punctuation but I don't remember it, so I don't think it detracts from the story. I hope readers will root for Flannery, like I did, and should cheer for her throughout this touching coming-of-age book.

Railhead by Philip Reeve

Zen Starling is a small-time thief. After he steals a necklace from a shop, he is chased but he is able to hop upon train to avoid capture, just as it is disappearing into a K-gate, en route to another planet. Once he is on the train he is sure he wasn't followed so he lets down his guard. When he departs the train at his destination he is amazed to see the Motorik android he thought he had eluded waiting for him. To his surprise he learns she is not interested in the necklace but wants to offer him a job, a big job, to steal an object from the Emperor's train. Zen decides to take the job but when the heist goes awry, everything Zen knows about the world is spun out of control. Now he must steal the item back or perhaps the universe, as they know it, will come to an end.

Philip Reeve is a master story-teller and world-builder and Railhead is a perfect example of his oeuvre. As the reviewer at Kirkus Reviews says,

Reeve's writing never flags, with moments of pathos and magic seamlessly interwoven. Dozens of characters collide--the sentient trains; the Motorik; the Emperor's daughter Threnody and her boring but stalwart betrothed; Hive Monks; the Railforce agent who has tracked Raven across lifetimes--each one nearly as fascinating as the world Reeve has created (don't miss the glossary at the end). As he did with the Mortal Engines series, Reeve has crafted something at once weirdly familiar and marvelously original. Thank the stars there's at least one sequel planned already.

I just gobbled up this Sci-Fi adventure. Folks who know my reading habits don't think of me as a Sci-Fi reader, and I'm not, partially because I usually have a hard time imagining the world in the tale. Reeve develops a wide assortments of worlds and I enjoy inhabiting them while I read about Zen Starling's adventure. This is the only book on the 2017 Mock Printz list which we put on the list without reading it first, based on recommendations, reviews, and the author's reputation. I know it will garner a big following among my teen readers.

The Reader by Traci Chee

What do I love about The Reader by Traci Chee? Let's see.
Hmm.
Could it be because it is about the magic of books and reading?
And...
There are a stories within the story where really magical stuff happens and then it really happens in real life?
And...
The stories are about really fun things like swashbuckling pirates, and journeys to the end of the world?
Or if one prefers...
There are assassins, and fighting rings, and super kick-ass librarians.
But wait, I get ahead of myself.

Traci Chee's debut novel is all those things I mentioned and more (and it is only the first book in a series.) I can hardy contain my glee at the thought of more adventures to come with Sefia and her mute friend, Captain Reed, and others.

Sefia's mother dies when she is very young so she and her father have a very strong bond and he is very protective of her. He trains her very carefully what to do if anyone comes looking for them. When she arrives home one day to find her father murdered, Sefia follows the plan they have practiced many times and is able to escape with Aunt Nin with just one reminder from home, a strange box which contains a large, pages item which she later learns is a book. No one in her land, Kelanna, reads except the elite few, and there are no books to be found anywhere. Sefia and Aunt Nin survive in the wilds for many years until one day assassins tracking the book kidnap Nin. Sefia is alone but determined to rescue her aunt. Along the way she teaches herself to read and saves a boy, who is rendered mute by the horrific circumstances of his life. With the help of her new friend Sefia continues the search for her aunt not knowing that she is also being hunted.

Sounds wild, doesn't it? If Sefia's story isn't exciting enough by itself, she spends the evenings reading out the stories in the book, and by the act of reading them out, makes them come true. Reading The Reader is a multilayered experience both a bit confusing and exciting in turn, "but the author avoids leading readers along too transparently, trusting them to puzzle together the pieces surrounding the mystery of Sefia's past. An exploration of self-determination and the magic of the written word, Sefia's story is an absorbing introduction to the Sea of Ink and Gold series" (Publisher's Weekly).

I don't know what else to tell you, except to ask, what are you waiting for? Get to it. Find a copy of this book and let yourself just fall into the middle of a wonderful book. And, by the way, pay close attention to the printed word. There is a mysterious code just waiting for you to find it.

And yes, this is one of our Mock Printz books. Sure hope it gets a nod this year come award season.

The Reader by Traci Chee
G.P. Putnam's Sons, c. 2016
Print edition checked out from my library.

Still Life with Tornado by A.S. King

Sarah, age 16, stopped going to school after her art teacher declared that nothing in life was original, just a repeat of things already created. After this pronouncement, Sarah, who had always been very artistic, found she couldn't even draw a pear so decided that going to school was futile. Instead, to keep up the ruse of attendance, she left the house each morning and roamed the streets of Philadelphia in search of art and originality. While on one of her wanderings Sarah meets up with her 10-year-old self and later with her 23-year-old incarnation. Both her younger and her older selves have important truths for sixteen-year-old Sarah. Young Sarah just home from a family vacation to Mexico reveals just how cruel and abusive her father really is, a truth Sarah has forgotten over the years. Older Sarah, by her mere presence, lets Sarah know she will be OK and the truth, no matter how painful, will set her free. With the help of her plucky, strong-willed mother, Sarah finds a way to reintegrate all the parts of herself and to confront the problems in her life.

I am a big fan of A.S. King and adore her writing style. She is the type of writer that causes me to stop mid-sentence and admire her wordsmithery (I know. That is not a word!) My first A.S. King book was a Printz Honor, Please Ignore Vera Dietz, and that book, about a young girl who is consumed by her grief and stuck in a life she doesn't know how to live fully, simply knocked my socks off. I've gone on to read several more books by King: Everyone Sees the Ants; Glory O'Brien's History of the World; Ask the Passengers; and I Crawl Through It. All of the books have a character who is experiencing some near mental breakdown until they are able to get the attention of an adult who is FINALLY willing/available to help them find a way to make sense of their circumstances and their world. As much as I admire Still Life with Tornado, the book doesn't seem all that different than the other books I've read my King. Every year in the past we have added A.S. King's book to our Mock Printz list because of the spectacular writing, and no year since Vera Dietz has her book earned another Printz award. This year we decided to leave Still Life with Tornado off our list. We'll see if we made the right call in January when awards are once more handed out.

That said, I really did like Still Life with Tornado and will recommend it to my students. It carries a very powerful message about the effects of abuse on marriages and on children and it, therefore, may speak to students who are also experiencing abuse at home.

Lucy and Linh by Alice Pung

When Lucy Lam, a Chinese Australian teen, wins a prestigious scholarship to Laurinda Ladies College, no one is more surprised than Lucy herself. As refugees from Vietnam, Lucy and her family settled in a lower/middle income suburb of Melbourne named Stanley and Lucy has attended the local Catholic school where is popular and active. When the offer for the Equal Access scholarship was awarded, Lucy's family rejoiced, seeing it as an opportunity for all of them to move up economically. What Lucy didn't anticipate was the isolation she would feel at Laurinda since so many of the girls had attended the same school since kindergarten and their families had so much money. She also didn't anticipate how she would be surrounded by such mean girls. Known at the school as The Cabinet, these girls not only bullied and belittled other students but also treated teachers with disdain and pulled pranks which were not funny. To keep herself somewhat grounded in her seemingly double life, Lucy writes letters to Linh, her best friend from Stanley. Linh represents all the qualities Lucy sees slipping away within herself. Linh is audacious and speaks up for herself whereas Lucy sees herself becoming more introverted unable to speak up against the injustices she sees and encounters in her new school. At the same time she starts to look critically at her home life, where both parents work very hard in menial jobs but have not fully integrated into Australian society. Near the end of the book there is a plot twist which provides a spotlight on Lucy's life as she tries to square all the parts that make up herself.

Though I am not Australian or Asian, I could relate to the messages in Lucy and Linh by Alice Pung. In fact, I think the book holds universal truths: we are, to some degree, bound by cultural expectations with which we have to grapple and make peace; schools can be very unsafe places for some students with adults often being the unwitting perpetrators of bullying behaviors; only when we come to embrace our whole self can we move forward in confidence. I don't think these truths belong only to Australians or Americans. As I read the book I recognized the brilliance of the message, one all teens should hear.

Here is what other reviewers have said about the book:

"Lyrical, enchanting prose from a narrator with perception so acute she cannot help but share it immerses readers into the very heart of every scene. This is highly recommended for classrooms and libraries [and] a superb choice for book discussion groups and world young adult literature survey courses."--VOYA, Starred review

"Part Mean Girls, part Lord of the Flies, and part Special Topics in Calamity Physics, this well-observed and unsentimental novel taps into what is primal within privileged adolescent girls."--The Bulletin, Starred review

"Lucy's narration pulls readers alongside her uncertain navigation of two worlds, and we can't help but cheer in solidarity as Lucy recognizes assimilation masquerading as inclusion, refuses to back down, and instead embraces who she is."--Horn Book Magazine

Needless to say I highly recommend this book and have recommended its inclusion in the BSD Mock Printz list, a late entrants but so be it!

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen, a book club discussion guide

This month I was hostess for book club. Hosting means preparing a treat for club members to eat and conducting the discussion on the month's book. Our book selection was The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen. We try to make our book selections month in advance so that those of us who prefer to not buy the book will have plenty of time to get it from the public library. I put in my library hold early and got the print edition of the book in June, just in time for vacation. But when we got to Whistler I didn't feel like reading a dense and serious book. I wanted the equivalent of beach reading even though we were in the mountains, so I shoved The Sympathizer off to the side and returned it by its due date to the library when I got home. Little did I realize that another turn at the bookwas not forthcoming due to it's popularity. I couldn't get it by the club deadline.  Audible.com was the only available source of the audible version of the book.  This ended up being a good decision. Out of eight women who regularly attend club, only two of us finished the book. We both enjoyed the book very much but Margaret said it was a difficult book to read because of the way it is formatted without proper punctuation. I didn't have any such issues with the audio version.

In a nutshell The Sympathizer is about a nameless captain in the South Vietnam army who is really a double agent and sympathizer of the North. The book begins during the Fall of Saigon, moves to refuge camps, to the USA, and eventually back to Vietnam. The captain, our narrator, is writing the book as a confession.

As I was preparing for the club discussion on the book I went looking discussion for questions and was surprised that all the sources I looked at only had the same four questions. They are good ones, however, and I decided to use them if I needed them. Next I went searching for a good review of the book. My favorite was written by Philip Caputo for the New York Times. I highly recommend you read his review if you also are charged with the job of leading a discussion on this book. I took notes as I read and from those notes I had my talking points and was able to formulate some questions of my own.

Here are some of the ideas I got from Caputo's article, which I've formulated into questions or thoughts to provoke a discussion"

• Viet Thanh Nguyen (pronounced 'win') was born in Vietnam and came to the US in 1975 as a child. He is a professor at the University of Southern California. The book, written from the Vietnamese point of view, is actually ground-breaking. How does this make you feel?
• Literature coming out of powerful countries, like the US, usually feature storylines focused on characters from that country. So there are lots of stories about Vietnam, but most deal with what is was like to be an American soldier in the war, etc. Can you think of any example of those books? A favorite of mine is The Things They Carried. Have you read any others from the POV of the Vietnamese? Since the publication of The Sympathizer several have been published. An example is The Mountains Sing.
• The book won just about every book prize out there, including the Pulitzer prize.  What does it mean to you when you learned it won them. See list here. React to this statement: The Pulitzer committee lauded The Sympathizer as "a layered immigrant tale told in the wry, confessional voice of a 'man of two minds' -- and two countries, Vietnam and the United States."
• What universal themes did The Sympathizer explore.
• React to the opening line, "I am a man of two minds" and the nameless narrator's duality.
• React to the names that characters were given and then used, even overused, including why the narrator went unnamed. 
• Discuss examples of overwriting examples. 
• Discuss this excerpt from the book and how it relates to the story: "The blood of friendship is thicker than the water of ideology."
• Black humor or satire? Examples.
• Discuss the conclusion and how your feelings/thoughts about Vietnam have changed because of the book.
• Discuss the quote "Vietnam was the first war where the losers would write the history instead of the victors."
• React to this quote from the NYT review of The Sympathizer -- " [it] fills a void in literature, giving voice to the previously voiceless while it compels the rest of us to look at the events of 40 years ago in a new light" (Caputo).

The trick for any book club wanting to tackle this excellent book is getting the members to actually read it. I recommend the audio version, expertly read by Francois Chau. It solves the problems my group members had with the dense text. Whatever you decide, it is worth the effort.

Several short reviews of 2016 YA books

I give up. For weeks I have been promising full reviews of all the YA books I read this summer and the last four reviews have lingered unwritten in my head. Today, finally, I call uncle. Here are quick summaries and brief reviews in lieu of the more lengthy, thoughtful reviews I was hoping to publish.

Rebel in the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton. Set in the exotic desert land of Miriji, where ordinary people often find themselves face to face with truly magical beings. Amani wants out of the dusty town where she lives aptly named Dustwalk and she is sure that her sharpshooting skills will be the tool she uses to leave. When she meets a mysterious stranger at a shooting contest she hopes he will have a role in her escape route. Little does she know that he will not only play a role in saving her life but also in unlocking her true potential.

I enjoyed the book a lot and trust it will be a new favorite among my readers. It is also the first book in a series, which I predict will develop a loyal following. When I was young I loved reading from the abridged version of 1,001 Arabian Nights book we owned. I would just get swept up in the exotic, sandy setting with such lush oases, animals, food, and colors. This book brought those happy reading memories to mind. Plus, who doesn't love a plucky female protagonist who just starts to recognize her own strengths? My rating--- 4 stars, print.

My Name is Not Friday by Jon Walter. Samuel and his mischievous brother, Joshua, are free black boys living in an orphanage run by a Catholic priest. The father teaches the boys to read and do numbers but he is also very abusive to the boys if they do not toe the line. One day the father blames Joshua for a despicable act and Samuel takes the blame for it. The father sells Samuel into slavery as his punishment. The man who illegally buys Samuel renames him Friday, since it is the day the transaction takes place. He is bought by a young boy and his mother and is forced to work for them on their plantation. Little by little Samuel works his way into the new life and even starts teaching other slaves to read which, of course, is forbidden. When Union troops arrive in the area Samuel can finally imagine the possibility of seeing his brother again.

The book is almost totally engrossing yet I found myself holding back a bit in my praise for it because I honestly felt like things came too easily for Samuel, even in the face of horrific situations, he ultimately triumphs. Something tells me that was very unusual for blacks living during the Civil War years. In an interview at the end of the book, the author said he purposely left out specific, historical details in an effort to explore the human condition and inspirations. But even with these reservations I really did enjoy the book. My rating---4 stars, audiobook.

American Girls by Alison Umminger. Anna is 15-years-old when her mother has a baby with her lesbian partner. Anna gets fed up with the way her life is unfolding in Florida, so she steals a credit card and flies across the country to California where her older sister lives. Instead of demanding that she come home, Anna's mother insists that she stay where she is until she learns her lesson. Rejected and dejected, Anna is forced to be her sister's side kick in both her acting and personal life. Along the way she is asked to read up on the Charles Manson women, as a research expert for a movie director. She does it as a way to make a little money but the research findings really start to bother Anna. She really starts to question what motivates people to commit such heinous crimes.

I really didn't like this book. In fact, I probably wouldn't have written a full review at all if I wasn't doing the abbreviated versions here. I ordinarily don't review books here that I can't wholeheartedly recommend to my teen readers. My biggest beef was how little I actually learned about the Manson Girls. Anna was completely self-absorbed and vacuous. There was nothing in the storyline which spoke to me nor do I imagine it speaking to my students. I don't even understnad the title or the cover. Guess you can tell I won't be recommending this book.  My rating---2 stars, print.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two by JK Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany. Touted at Harry Potter #8, this book is actually a script for a play performed in the UK this past July.  The events occur eighteen years after book seven when Harry is an overworked father of three children. He and his son Albus just don't connect or seem to understand each other. When Albus disappears Harry consults a centaur for help in finding him. The centaur interprets the signs in the stars and makes a prediction about Albus which is very upsetting. Can Harry save his son? Can they avert the coming darkness?

I admit I was very disappointed with this book in the beginning. In fact the first half of the book just drags and I had the hardest time forcing myself to read it. I understand that the idea was Rowling's but the writing belonged to the other authors. It was pretty obvious. In fact, I actually felt like I was reading fan fiction at a few points in the story. To be fair I admit that I have never liked reading movie/play scripts. My reading style of reading fast and skipping over details doesn't work well with this format. My interest picked up at the mid-point of the book when the plot twist occurred, then I couldn't read fast enough to find out how things were going to work out. "Please," I kept repeating to myself, "Don't let Voldemort come back." My rating---3 stars, print.

2017 Printz Award Contenders

34 / 35 books. 97% done!

All four of the books were published in the US in 2016, so they qualify for the Printz Award, though I seriously doubt that the Harry Potter book will be considered. One more book to reach my goal of reading YA books before selecting the Mock Printz list for the year. I know I can make the goal, or even exceed it.

Essential Maps for the Lost

Madison (Mads) has her life mapped out for her. She even graduated early from high school to get going on her plan. She will take a Real Estate broker class in Seattle during the Spring and Summer and then, after passing and getting her licence, she will return to Eastern Washington to join her mother's Real Estate firm as a full partner. The papers have been drawn up for the merger, they are awaiting Mads return. Business cards have been printed. The only problem is that Mads doesn't want to travel around on this map. She wants to chart her own voyage, one where she is free to make some decisions for her own life not those dictated to her by her overbearing, narcissistic mother. Then one day Mads decides to take a swim in Lake Union between her real estate class and her babysitting job and to her horror she bumps into the body of a woman, a dead woman, a woman who committed suicide by jumping from one of Seattle's many bridges. Mads hauls the body to shore and then, over the course of several weeks/months, she finds her feelings all tangled up with the dead woman and she starts to spend all her sleepless nights looking on the Internet for anything related to the woman, including her son, Billy. When Mads meets Billy she doesn't tell him she was the swimmer who brought his mother's body ashore and this secret just about swamps her.

But Billy has a few secrets of his own. One thing that drives him nearly crazy is people who neglect their dogs and he often finds himself rescuing dogs from their own yards. As Billy and Mads get to know each other, as their feelings for each other start to blossom they both find it hard not to be overwhelmed by other feelings of despair and loneliness. Will their love offer them a map through which they can navigate through their lives?

Since I listened to the book and I couldn't see the sentences, I have to guess that the majority of them are very short, almost clipped. The characters in Essential Maps for the Lost seemed to be purposely at arms length from the readers due to the short, clipped-sounding sentences.  It was particularly evident during the chapters from Mads' point of view. It was as if Mads didn't know herself, as if she were viewing herself from afar, also. I bet it was intentionally done by the author. Mads really didn't know herself and was lost in her own suffering. She was holding her wants and needs at arms length. Brilliant. (I get excited when I figure things out as I am writing.)

The ending of this book was one to savor and I did by rereading the good parts several times. Some of the earlier parts of the book seemed to drag a bit or seem redundant. But the characters were interesting and fresh. Billy is by far the more lovable/likable of the two main characters. The voice in his head that keeps him moving forward, the doctor, always has sage advise on how to proceed. Mads, on the other hand, is pretty hard to like, unless you pay attention to the way she treats Ivy, her babysitting charge. She is very gentle, attentive, and loving to this toddler. Mads is so unhappy with the future she sees for herself that she contemplates suicide when she reaches her lowest points. The ogres in her head are not as kind or as helpful as Billy's doctor. At the crisis point of the book both teens have to make decisions which will impact their futures. Will it be together or not?

The theme of maps was a fun little thread which was pulled through the whole story. Mads, not from the Seattle area, kept getting lost or was taken places by her uncle's truck, as if the truck had a map in its guidance system by which it navigated to important spots. Billy carried a map in his wallet. It came from the middle of the book, From the Mixed of Files of Mrs. Basil  E. Frankweiler, his mother's favorite book. Mads was so depressed she felt like only a map could help her find her way to safety, but she needed one which pointed to the way OUT. A map even becomes a gift of forgiveness.

I found the book to be very satisfying, a cry-worthy, thoughtful book. I will recommend it often to my readers who like love stories and/or books where the characters are in crisis. Students at my school will likely enjoy the local references. Most area students have spent a lot of time in Seattle, just an hour away, and we know many of the landmarks mentioned within its pages. The pacing issues will likely keep this book out of serious consider for the Printz Award, however.

Source: E-Audiobook from the public library.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

2017 Printz Award Contenders

30 / 35 books. 85% done!

I'm trying to be hip but doing a bad job of it. I'm entering the discussion on When We Was Fierce.

During the early part of the summer When We Was Fierce by e. E. Charlton-Trujillo came to my attention.  It had wonderful, starred reviews by the likes of Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, and Publisher's Weekly. I had to read it. Heck, I might be an old(ish), white librarian-lady but I like to read what the kids are reading and what I think they should be reading. So a book set in the Hood which gives voice to the African-American experience is a must read for me and possibly for my students. With reviews that say this kind of praise, I was especially excited: “... a heartbreaking and powerful modern American story,” (Publisher's Weekly) and  “…a compassionate, forceful look at the heartbreak and choices these black boys and men face” (Kirkus Reviews). With reviews like this you can see why I added it to my book order and readied for its publication date in early August.

One day in early August I was on Amazon.com looking at the book, considering preordering the audiobook and the next day it was unavailable. What happened? I waited, thinking the publisher had just ran out of books. I couldn't get the print edition but the public library had a copy of the e-audiobook which I checked out over the weekend. I started listening to it yesterday. Right on, I'm hip. I don't understand half of the words in context, but it is a very hip book. Isn't it?

Today I once again visited Amazon.com to check the status so I could order a book for my library yet the book was still unavailable. I obviously needed to investigate further. Why is the book still not available? What I found out was surprising. Lauren Barack, writing for School Library Journal on August 12th, said

Amid increasing controversy around author e.E. Charlton-Trujillo’s most recent book, When We Was Fierce, and her use of a made-up dialect along with what some deem as stereotypical characters, Candlewick Press has postponed publication of the book./ 

Oh, no wonder I couldn't get the book. The publisher postponed publication.

In the case of When We Was Fierce, some educators, librarians, and authors found that sensitivity lacking. Jennifer Baker posted a guest review of a pre-publication copy of When We Was Fierce on the blog,Crazy QuiltEdi, calling the title “off-the-mark” with narration that was “deeply insensitive,” she writes. She joins the ranks of educators and librarians, including K.T. Horning and Edi Campbell, who have also posted on why they have found the book problematic./

It seems that the made-up dialect was a problem for other folks, too. I just thought I wasn't with-it enough to understand the words in context, though I can understand the gist of the story.

Baker herself hopes to see more stories told from diverse viewpoints. But to Baker, Charlton-Trujillo’s novel was “glaringly offensive,” she says. “When We Was Fierce was highly problematic from the inaccuracies to this very arm’s length approach, [and] the stereotyping of black characters specifically,” she says. “The made up dialect the author used was so egregious, it is horrible” (SLJ).

Oh wow. Here I was trying to like the book and to understand the words in context, thinking I'd be hip if I pulled it off, while other, more knowledgeable readers had grave and valid concerns about the book which I missed. Later in the article Jennifer Baker says that she thinks that publishers are and should increase the diversity in the books they publish but they need to make sure they are "respectful, responsible, and accurate." Apparently When We Was Fierce did not pass on those three points.

The story-line is about a fifteen year old boy T (Theodore) who witnesses the murder of his neighbor Ricky Ricky, a disabled boy. When he went to help Ricky Ricky, T was attacked and nearly killed, too. These two related events send the community into a tailspin and T and his friends are afraid for their own lives. They might even need to move out of state. The book is written in verse, though I can't really tell this detail in the audio version I am listening to which is read expertly by Rodney Gardiner. One point I have repeatedly been struck by, how hard it is to parent children in slums. T is constantly being pressured to join a gang and his mother tries equally hard to keep him away from their negative influences.

If you look at the reviews on Goodreads for When We Was Fierce you'll likely be struck by how opposite many reviewers feel about this book.  There are either 1 star reviews or 5 star reviews, nothing in between. At this point the publisher is listening to the one-star reviewers who are speaking louder.  I am not sure if the book will be reworked and published at a later date. I kind of doubt it. So if you want to read it you will need to get your hands on a ARC version, or check your library audiobook listings. It might be there like it is in my library (available on Hoopla.)

Even though it might not be published I am still counting it as one of  the potential Printz Award books for 2016. I would be highly skeptical this book would get any kind of award, not with this much controversy surrounding it.

2017 Printz Award Contenders

29 / 35 books. 83% done!

The Memory Book by Lara Avery

Last Friday I flew to New Jersey alone, which gave me a perfect chance to do some serious reading sans interruptions. I brought along two print editions and one e-book with me for options and "just in case"  I ended up with more reading time than anticipated. A few minutes into the flight, we hadn't even pushed away from the gate, I started reading The Memory Book by Laura Avery. I would have finished it before landing at Newark International except for one small problem, I forgot to pack a handkerchief and had no tissues to wipe my crying eyes and blow my dripping nose, so I had to give it a break until I had the needed supplies available.

Samantha McCoy is a talented and driven high school senior who seems to have her whole life planned out. First she wants to win the National Debate Tournament. Next she wants to give a speech at graduation as the valedictorian. After a summer of transition she plans on attending NYU in the Fall to major in economics and public policy and finally law school at Harvard. Ultimately she wants to be a lawyer who represents civil rights violations. But all of her plans are in jeopardy when she learns she has a genetic condition called Neilsson-Pick, type C (NPC) which will erode her memory and attack her body, eventually killing her.

In an effort to help Future Sam, Sammie starts a diary of her memories. As events happen or reflecting back on past events, Sammie chronicles her life. As the disease progresses the reader is even given glimpses of times when memory fails and she regresses to an almost child-like stage. The once driven girl now has to face a new and limited reality about herself and her goals. As she does this she finds herself relying more on friends, especially a new love interest, Stuart, and an old childhood friend Cooper. And, you guessed it, a love triangle develops...but it advances the story and doesn't dominate it.  Toward the end of the book other people, mainly family and a few friends, also write entries into Samantha's memory book so readers get a fuller picture of how Samantha's disease is progressing and how her life has impacted them.  Hence, the need for tissues!

When Sammie's mother writes about her happiest memories she writes these poignant woods, "Words cannot capture my grief at watching you fall away little by little. But I suppose in losing some layers, your golden core came out." As readers we get to see that golden core, too, and it is both lovely and heartbreaking to witness.

As I closed the book I wondered to myself why I haven't seen any reviews of it. Surely the YA lit world must be lighting up about another sweet, sad, funny book about a teen who is dying. I'm wondering if there is a title issue with this book. When I googled it there were many more hits for another book by the same title by a different author. That could prove confusing to folks trying to find out about the book. When I found the review for this book on Kirkus Reviews some lady made a devastating comment telling readers what a travesty the book was and no one should read or buy it and they should avoid the author, too. Then the next comment pointed out that she was talking about the wrong book and author, to which the first woman to make a comment admitted she was wrong and got things goofed up. See? Confusing.

One thing I am not confused about is how much I like the book. I think readers who enjoyed The Fault In Our Stars or All the Bright Places will like this book, too. With three starred reviews it should at least be considered by the Printz committee, though they don't usually select such cry-worthy books, I will recommend it for inclusion on our Mock Printz list when the team convenes in September.

Rating: 4.5
Source: Checked out from the GKHS library, a new book just processed this summer

2017 Printz Award Contenders

28 / 35 books. 80% done!

ANNE