REVIEW: Making Up Megaboy

Walter, V. & Roecoelein K.  (1998).  Making Up Megaboy.  New York:  Delacorte Press.

62 pages.


Appetizer:  Told in many different voices with striking images to match the monologues, Making Up Megaboy tries to understand a thirteen-year-old's motive to kill an elderly shop owner.  Aside from speaking to admit he did kill the old man, Robbie will not speak, except to ask for art supplies so he could draw a comic of his only friend and his creation, Megaboy.

Some of the potential motives surrounding Robbie's actions include his crush on a girl from school, dissatisfaction with his racist father, not having been taught right from wrong, being an outsider, and on and on.

This novella is an interesting experiment.  With no clear answers about what caused Robbie to kill someone, its up to the reader to make connections, make meaning and draw their own conclusions about what was going through the boy's head and what caused him to act the way he did.

Making Up Megaboy would be a good book to have students make arguments about, using support from the text.  Since the book is so short, it would be very easy for students to make connections across the text without getting overwhelmed.  It also would be a good sample project to have students explore voice and different perspectives, all circling around an event or the experience of one character.  I'd also consider pairing the novella with Walter Dean Myers's Monster to show to very different approaches to trying to understand characters who face consequences for the deaths of others.

Due to the sensitive nature of the story, it is probably a book I would want to get parental permission for before sharing with students.


Dinner Conversation:

"It was his birthday, three months ago today.  He just turned thirteen.  He was too old for a birthday party, but we gave him a fancy new mountain bike at breakfast.  I thought he was pleased with it.  He said he liked it.
I didn't think he even knew about my husband's gun.  We never showed it to him.  We never talked about it." (p. 9)

"Robert kept the gun in the dresser, in his sock drawer.  Robbie never had any reason to go in there.
Lord, I will never understand why he did it.  I asked myself every day what went wrong, but I can't find any answers.  He wasn't a bad boy.  He didn't have bad friends, except maybe that Mexican boy who hung around for a while.
Why would Robbie shoot somebody on his birthday?  It should have been a happy day."  (p. 9)

"People in Santa Rosita are in shock about the incident that took place here two days ago, when a thirteen-year-old boy shot and killed Jae Lin Koh, the elderly proprietor of a liquor store on Main Street. The boy who allegedly committed this violent crime has not been identified officially because of his age, but classmates at the Kennedy Middle School know who he is." (p. 19).

"Me and him made up stories all the time about a superhero called Megaboy.  Megaboy is kind of like Popeye in those old comics, you know?  He just looked ordinary until he ate his spinach, and then his muscles popped out all buff?  Megaboy just looks all ordinary until he eats these special chips.  I mean, they look just like regular potato chips or something, but they're really coated with megaspice that made him all strong and everything.  Mostly Megaboy takes care of little kids that are in trouble and finds lost pets and stuff.  We made up stories together.  Then Robbie'd draw the pictures, and I'd write the words" (p. 20).


Tasty Rating:  !!!

REVIEW: Scars

Rainfield, C.  (2010).  Scars.  Lodi, NJ:  WestSide Books.

233 pages.


Appetizer:  Kendra knows she is being followed.  She thinks the man who molested her as a child is back and is trying to keep her silent.  The only person she can really trust to talk to is her therapist, Carolyn.  But since her dad was downsized at work, her parents want her to stop seeing Carolyn.  In fact, they're even talking about moving out of the city.  Kendra's mom just doesn't get what she's going through or what matters to Kendra.  The only ways that Kendra can deal with all of the pains and pressures are by cutting herself and by working on her art.

Despite all of these difficulties, a girl named Meghan has caught her eye.  Meghan has her own problems.  When the two girls are enrolled in the same art therapy course, Kendra begins to see the possibility of finding someone who can love her.

While I appreciated that Scars didn't feel like a traditional problem novel due to all of the thriller elements, some of those same thriller elements made Kendra's high school experience seem overly dramatic.  (Arguably, this could be because Kendra survived serious trauma, so little conflicts could seem much more threatening.  But as I read, it felt more like a representation of high school that I would have only bought into in middle school...you know, before I knew what high school was like.  For example, on the first day that the novel depicts, Kendra is bullied, kissed, and checked-out by completely random characters.  Also, sometime the dialogue seemed forced cliche or as though a modern teenager wasn't saying the word.  I just didn't believe it.  Not based on the narration and how Kendra described herself.  I do appreciate what the author was aiming for though.)


A huge aspect that I thought was missing from the book was a scene in which Kendra revealed her childhood molestation to her family. The book is set six months after she would have had that discussion with her parents and is only mentioned in peripheral ways. But imagining how difficult such a reveal may be and knowing that some readers may share similar experiences to Kendra, but have yet to speak about it, I really wanted to see a scene with Kendra speaking/writing/drawing about it with or for someone for the first time. I know it's beyond the scope of the story and I know that such a scene would probably make the story a little too reminiscent of Laurie Halse Anderson's masterpiece Speak, (both would feature artistic girls who struggle to find a way to tell someone about the traumas they have experienced--although the individual characterizations are completely different). But still, I wanted that scene. Flashback anyone?

I also wanted it to be clearer from the beginning whether or not Kendra had told her family and classmates that she was a lesbian.  From her narration, it's a clear aspect of her internal characterization, but I couldn't tell for over half the book whether she was firmly "in the closet" or open with her parents and classmates.  (I wanted to know because, again, coming out and revealing this is an important experience and instead it was treated as a part of the mystery that is revealed late in the novel about Kendra's background.

It is also worth noting that the person who molested Kendra as a child and who continues to harass her to try to keep her silent as a teen is pretty much...pure evil.  Like, maybe more evil than Lord Voldemort.  It's not as though I want a fair and balanced account.  But he was evil to the point that I struggled to believe his level of vileness was possible.  The ways he abused and the extent to which he manipulated Kendra as a child was overwhelming.

One of the greatest strengths of Scars was the author's note. In it, Cheryl Rainfield reveals that she has felt similar pains to her character Kendra. She provides one of the most etensive list of resources for help and support that I have seen at the end of a YA novel. And she advises the reader to "be gentle with yourself," a similar idea that some of the helpful adult characters express to Kendra. I found that to be a beautifully said and a wonderful sentiment.


Dinner Conversation:

"'Someone is following me.'  I gulp air, trying to breathe.
Carolyn leans forward, her face worried.  "What makes you say that?"  There's a hesitation in her voice that stings me.
"You don't believe me!"  I spit the words out at her, then look away, twisting my hands together to keep them from trembling.
"I didn't say that.  I don't know enough about this yet to know what to believe.  Why don't you tell me about it?"
So you can go tell my parents?  (p. 7).

"Do you have any idea of who it might be?" Carolyn's voice is soft, like she knows I want to run.
A door snapping shut.  His hand on my wrist.
"It's....him."
"The man who molested you?"
"Yes." I wince and clench my trembling hands in my lap, digging my nails into my palms.  But the trifling pain isn't enough to distract me.
"It must be terrifying for you to think he's out there somewhere."
"It is," I whisper.
"But Kendra, pedophiles don't usually come after their victims, especially not years later.  They like easy access and frightened, compliant children who they can manipulate--not active teen girls who might fight back." (p. 9)

"The constant noise makes me want to scream--people slamming their lockers shut, girls giggling with each other, sneakers squeaking down the hall, boys burping as loud as they can--but I know I'm only feeling like this because of the note.
And I can't let myself think about that.
My arm is hot and stiff, every jostle sending pain through me.  But it's not the bright, hard pain that makes everything go away.  It's an annoying, irritating pain that makes me grit my teeth.  I wish I could tear my nails through my flesh like blades.  I don't know if I can go through the whole day without finding a way to cut."  (p. 19)

"Mom's paintings are picturesque views of the world, little postcards of happiness, while mine are all emotion and color.  Mine tap into my pain and grief and sometimes into my happiness, but always into something that comes from deep inside.  No boats in the harbor or sunlit meadows for me.  I do my art because I have to.  Paint or cut--they both help me survive.  But Mom paints for the money--and her art sells.  People want those perfect postcards of the world.  I don't think they want messy emotion.  But I have to try."  (p. 44)


Tasty Rating:  !!!

REVIEW: Revolver (Built with amazing mood, tone and tension since 1910/1899)

Sedgwick, M. (2009).  Revolver. New York: Roaring Brook Press.

201 pages.

Appetizer:  Sig's father is dead. He died in an accident on the arctic ice. He died falling through thin ice that he should have--must have--known better than to cross over. 14-year-old Sig doesn't question the tragedy of his father's death too much until the very next day, when a strange and threatening man arrives at the family's cabin while Sig is there alone with his father's dead body. The man insists Sig's father took something from him and Sig must decide whether or not to use the revolver that his family has kept hidden for ten years.

Goodness gracious, ya'll! What a well-structured and tense little book.

Told in short chapters and in interweaving periods between 1899 when Sig's father first got the revolver and 1910 when Sig must decide whether he's going to use it, Revolver makes wonderful use of allusions, foreshadowing and a stark mood to create a wonderfully tense story as Sig contemplates the moral implications of using his father's gun.

Srsly, everyone, I heart it.

That doesn't mean Revolver is perfect. I wasn't too crazy about the flashbacks to 1899 and the omniscent narration that jumped among characters' perspectives all willy-nilly. But still, bravo. I approve.


Dinner Conversation:


"Even the dead tell stories.
Sig looked across the cabin to where his father lay, waiting for him to speak, but his father said nothing, because he was dead. Einar Andersson lay on the table, his arms half raised above his head, his legs slightly bent at the knee, frozen in the position in which they'd found him; out on the lake, lying on the ice, with the dogs waiting patiently in harness." (p. 1)

"If.
The smallest word, whcih raises the biggest questions." (p. 3)

"It was at these times that Einar told Sig important things. The things a son should learn from his father. It was at these times that he told him about the gold days, and the gold lust, or about the revolver, which sat in its original box, like a princess's jewels in a case. And Sig, like a good pupil, would listen, always listen, with maybe a rare question now and again.
"A gun is not a weapon," Einar once said to Sig. "It's an answer. It's an answer to the questions life throws at you when there's no one else to help" (p. 8).

"He'd come for the gold, and he hadn't meant to stay.  These things never lasted long, Einar knew.  Just like the Klondike, by the time the rest of the world got to know about the gold, it would be too late; all the best strikes found, the land claimed, the easy pickings gone.  All that would be left would be the struggle to survive in a world of danger, both natural and man-made, with the occasional speck of gold dust coming his way.  Just enough to keep that stupid dream of easy money alive, the dream of fantastic wealth, of ease and luxury and fine things for the rest of his days, but in reality not enough to live on for even a week."  (p. 45)

"Maria woke and propped herself up.  Her movement disturbed Sig, who woke too, to witness one of the few scenes from his early childhood that he would remember forever, and clearly.
He remembered the look on his mother's face as she saw what Einar had bought.  Only many years later would he finally be able to put a word to that look.  Despair.
"What is it?" Anna repeated.  "Is it food?  Is it for when the food runs out?"
"No," Einar muttered.  "It's something else.  For when the faith runs out."  (p. 50).

"He ran out of things to say, and Wolff stayed exactly where he was.
"I don't think you understand.  Since your father is no longer with us, that makes you his heir.
"That means my business is with you."  (p. 83)


Tasty Rating:  !!!!!

REVIEW: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever

Kinney,  J.  (2011).  Diary of a Wimpy Kid:  Cabin Fever.  New York:  Amulet Books.


217 pages.


Appetizer:  Greg Heffley is back to share his November and December adventures.  In this installment of his diaries, he and his best friend Rowley try to get their own newspaper off the ground.  Greg also tries to make some money to buy clothes and toys for his internet pet--a Net Critterz chihauhua aptly named "Gregory's Little Friend" by his mother.  Most daunting of all, Greg finds himself trapped inside after a blizzard with his mom and two brothers.  And it would seem it's every Heffley for him or herself to survive the storm.

Greg and the other students at his middle school have to find ways to amuse themselves after the school takes all of the playground equipment away due to safety concerns:

Hahaha, those bored kids watching through the window are creepy.

I enjoyed this installment of Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  The very first illustration amused me:

I especially liked that a lot of the things that Greg finds himself in trouble through throughout the novel are things that he did by accident or because he "didn't know any better" as opposed to intentionally doing wrong.  I remember a lot of similar (although usually not as costly *Glances at the sports car that Greg's dad didn't own for very long*) mistakes from my own childhood.

Cabin Fever continues what a reader who has encountered any of the previous Diary of a Wimpy Kid series can expect:  Amusement.  A bit of a child's selfish intentions combined with an honest and funny look at middle school, friendships and family.


Dinner Conversation:

Tasty Rating:  !!!

Readathon: Updates One and Two

YAY!  IT HAS BEGUN!


1)Where are you reading from today?


My students' midterms!  And some theory on the teaching of writing.  (It's not quite my usual fun reading, but it must be done.  And if I'm good, I can pick up some fiction later.

2)Three random facts about me…


Erm...1.  I love listening to This American Life.  I'm catching up on old episodes now.
2.  My cat is lying across my feet, trapping me in place.  (I think this will help to keep me reading)
3.  Part of my readathon may involve rocking to the audiobook of Chime.

3)How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours?


More than I can actually read in 24 hours.

4)Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)?


Just to do more reading than I've had time for over the last several weeks.

5)If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, any advice for people doing this for the first time?


Mix in some graphic novels, short stories, articles, picturebooks or other short texts to keep you motivated.  SRSLY!  It helps!


LET THE FUN BEGIN!

UPDATE TWO:  


I'm still here and I'm still reading!  So, far I did some reading that was prep-work for the classes I teach next week.  


Part of what I have been preparing for my students is a discussion of young adult fiction book covers and they way certain themes, colors,images seem to trend in and out.  There have been blog posts about this in the past:  how dark covers are, the focus on faces, puffy dresses, flowers, etc.


The cover trend I'm adding to the list is underwater scenes (AKA girls drowning):

Now I'm going to switch directions and focus on some grading.  It's proven to be a VERY slow process.


Wish me luck!

REVIEW: Saint Training

Fixmer, E.  (2010).  Saint Training.  Grand Rapids, MI:  Zonderkidz.

233 pages.


Appetizer:  It's the spring of 1967 and sixth grader Mary Clare O'Brian has begun to write letters to the Mother Superior of a convent asking for advice.  Mary Clare has the goal of becoming a saint.  But with all the daily complications of having to look after her many brothers and sisters, her mother's fascination with reading The Feminine Mystique and a competition to write an essay on "What a religious vocation means to me...," Mary Clare is having trouble living up to her saintly aspirations.

She starts to realize how complicated life can be.  Not only in terms of being good, but also in terms of her own family.  Her mom, who is pregnant for the umpteenth time, wants to do other work than caring for her many kids at home and Mary Clare is left to do a lot of the work of caring for her siblings and wondering how her family can afford to care for another child.  One of her brothers wants to enlist to go to Vietnam with his best friend, while another older brother wants to get status as a conscientious objector to the war.

The author, Elizabeth Fixmer, does an excellent job of presenting Mary Clare's faith as she goes from blind obedience and making deals with God to questioning aspects of Catholicism, earning "saint points" and beginning to view how complicated issues of faith in the real world can be.

For a reader who might not be very religious, a lot of the Catholicism could be a little overwhelming.  I also felt like an older reader or adult would have to explain a bit about feminism for a younger reader to get the book.  (In fact, the only aspect of this book that might not have to be discussed, is the historical setting.  This book was a little too history--light for my personal tastes.  Especially since the opening paragraph is about racial tensions and how Mary Clare imagined herself providing support to a black student she imagined being integrated at her Catholic school.  I felt like a promise made early in the story was dropped, allowed to roll under a chair and forgotten until the very end.)

My favorite part of Saint Training was the exchange of letters between Mary Clare and Sister Monica.  As the story continued, Mary Clare began to ask a lot of important questions.  I found this very engaging.

But toward the end of the book, this also became frustrating, because Mary Clare revealed major plot developments in her letters without them being mentioned in the narration before.  I found myself flipping back and forth between pages, wondering if I had missed something.

Overall, I liked that Saint Training took on issues of faith and social justice.  I liked Mary Clare's childlike faith and the way that she took on adult concerns and worries over her family.  But I did find some of the religion and jumps in the narrative to be a bit overwhelming at times.


Dinner Conversation:

"March 25, 1967

Dear Reverend Mother.

My name is Mary Clare O'Brian.  I am in sixth grade and I am writing because I want to become a Good Shepherd nun.  I like the Good Shepherd nuns best because you work with unwed mothers and their babies.  I love little babies." (p. 7)

"Mary Clare finished her Social Studies test and turned it upside down to wait for the rest of the class. It was easy, mostly easy, and on the subject that Mary Clare had heard a lot about at home around the dinner table:  civil rights.  She couldn't believe that Negroes had to sit on the back of the bus in the South and even drink from different water fountains.  They were fighting for basic rights, especially the right to vote.  Mary Clare liked to imagine that a Negro girl entered her very class at Saint Maria Goretti School. She would show her around, become her friend, even hold the drinking fountain on for her.
Now her face scrunched into a yawn she fought to control.  She was tired from being up almost all night--first listening to her parents fight, then praying for the perfect plan to make things better for her family.  After she came up with the perfect plan, she couldn't sleep at all.
She was going to become a saint."  (p. 11)

"Lord, help my family.  Please, please give us enough money so Mom and Dad can be happy again.
She stopped.  She was sick of this prayer.  Why wasn't God answering?  HE used to answer her prayers all the time."  (p. 15)

"Now she knew the problem:  God would only listen to her if her soul was pure.  If she was going to make her mother happy again, she would have to be a saint right away.
She made a plan.  She would study, she would practice saint-like behavior, and she would become a nun.  Many of the girl saints had been nuns before being sainted, so she figured becoming a nun was the perfect stepping stone to her real goal.  She'd be so darned good she wouldn't have a thing to confess on Saturdays.
Mary Clare explained the deal to God.  If you take care of my family--give them enough money, make my parents happy...I'll become a saint.  She repeated it several times in case it was hard for God to hear through all of her sins." (p. 16)

"Don't just tell them what you think they want to hear, Mary Clare.  Don't get into the roles everybody expects from a woman--where your identity is what the Church tells you it should be.  'God's servant, and God's bride'...that's all part of the feminine mystique," she said.  "Everybody knows what nuns do and the vows they take.  Go inside your heart and tell them who you are."
Mary Clare was confused.  She didn't know what the feminine mystique was, and she was pretty sure that to win this contest she had to pretty much say what the judges wanted to hear, but she did want to be real."  (p. 79)


Tasty Rating:  !!!

REVIEW: TTYL

Myracle, L.  (2004).  ttyl.  New York:  Amulet Books.

209 pages.


Appetizer:  The first in an often censored series, ttyl chronicles the IM messages between Zoe, Angela and Maddie; three best friends who are trying to navigate the start of their sophomore year.

Zoe is dealing with an overbearing mother as she explores her spirituality by attending church with her favorite teacher, who may have his own intentions by spending time with her.  Angela is navigating a romantic relationship:  whether she can trust her new boyfriend, Rob, and whether he is "the one" to have sex with for the first time.  Maddie, the most pessimistic of the three, battles the frustration of becoming a frenemy of a popular girl named Jana.  Despite their differing concerns, problems and jealousies, the three girls struggle to maintain their friendship.

From page one, I was impressed by how well Myracle managed to present characterization and differing voices among her three protagonists.  This was helped by each of them typing in different fonts and regularly taking online personality quizzes.  (I remember taking similar quizzes throughout high school.  Oh, memories.)

Despite these efforts, it did take me a little bit of extra time to ease into the story and to figure out characterizations.  I did notice there was a little bit of resistance whenever I had to put the book down.  But each time I picked it back up and eased back into the characterizations, it was hard to stop reading.  (Which is about as good as it gets.)

I decided to finally read ttyl because--alas several weeks too late for banned book week--this was the week to discuss censorship in my literature course.  Since the ttyl series topped the 2009 top-ten list of most challenged books, I'd been curious about its content.  I wondered if it was the fact that the story was structured entirely as instant messages that contributed to the trouble.

It turns out the first book takes on a lot of topics that may be sensitive; like underaged drinking, (mild) dirty humor, female characters being critical of each other and referring to girls they don't like as "sluts," and discussion of pubic hair, lubricant, etc.  At various points, characters contemplate losing their virginity, are critical of religion or consider having a romantic (and creepy!) relationship with a teacher.

I firmly believe the vast majority of fourteen or fifteen-year-olds at the very least have contemplated these issues, overheard discussions or jokes like these, if not discussed them with their friends.

The student-teacher romantic relationship did make me more than a little uncomfortable, especially since (vague spoiler!) the teens don't report the situation to the administration.  But still, it was great that the book included discussion of such a concern and showed how a friend can provide support to a conflicted and confused teenager.

While I think ttyl is a great read for the novel's intended audience, Myracle is also famous for writing some younger, middle grade series.  I could see a parent of a ten-year-old girl who just finished reading Myracle's Eleven and going on to read ttyl getting upset.  I say "parent" intentionally.  TTYL is an unlikely book to be assigned to an entire class, because of this, I think any young reader who has a choice to read it, but isn't ready for its subject matter, will self-censor and put the book down if they're uncomfortable.


Dinner Conversation:

 (p.1)

 (p.3)

  (p. 122)

Tasty Rating:  !!!

REVIEW: Shakespeare Bats Cleanup (It's like a better sequel to Love That Dog than Hate That Cat was! Yay sports + poetry!)

Koertge, R.  (2003).  Shakespeare Bats Cleanup.  Cambridge, MA:  Candlewick Press.

116 pages.


Appetizer:  14-year-old Kevin Boland wants nothing more than to play baseball.  But after he is diagnosed with mono, there's no way he'll be able to play ball or go back to school for a looooooooong time.  Stuck in his room and bored, Kevin is anything but excited when his dad (a writer) gives him a blank notebook.  His dad notes:

"You're gonna have a lot of time on your hands.  Maybe you'll feel like writingsomething down" (p. 1).

And from that, a novel in verse is born.

While stuck in bed and later as he starts to attend baseball games again, Kevin works on writing various forms of poetry; from haiku, to blank verse, to elegies, to sonnets.  What's more, he goes back and revises his poems, showing his process and the importance of revision.  (Yay!  Can I hear a cheer for revision!  Wat Wat!)

Also, as Kevin battles mono and misses playing baseball, both he and his dad are dealing with a much larger loss; that of Kevin's mom.  But as they deal with their grief, Kevin begins to see the possibility of another type of joy:  His first real girlfriend.  A girl named Mira notices that Kevin writes poetry.  Torn between wanting to tell her the truth about what he's writing and not wanting to seem like one of those "sensitive" guys, Kevin tries to figure out how to get to know Mira better.

I'll admit, during the first half of the story, I wasn't too crazy about Shakespeare Bats Cleanup.  Kevin was hung-up on missing baseball and he had rigid ideas about masculinity that didn't exactly rock my world.  Then Mira was introduced.  And I loved her character.  She added a lot of humor and brought out a fun dynamic between Kevin and his father as they start to date.  As Kevin and his dad prepare to pick up Mira to go to a poetry reading, Kevin writes:

Dad comes downstairs in shorts  

and Pumas.  I ask him to change.  On the way

to Mira's he says, "Now I'm nervous."  (p. 82) 

*Smiles*

Plus, Mira and her family added a multicultural dimension to the story.  Kevin, who is white, begins to entertain thoughts of learning Spanish to better communicate with Mira's extended family, some baseball players and to be able to translate poetry by Octavio Paz.

Overall, I felt like Shakespeare Bats Cleanup is a slightly older version of Love That Dog, that will specifically appeal to boys who *still* aren't completely convinced of the awesomeness of poetry.


Apparently there's a sequel, called Shakespeare Makes the Playoffs.  I'll read it...but I'll probably wait for the paperback version, which should be available by mid-March.


Dinner Conversation:


"Then Dad comes in and says, "The doctor
called.  Your tests came back.  You've got
mono."
"So I can't play ball."
He pats my knee.  "You can't even go to
school, Kevin.  You need to take it real easy."
He hands me a journal, one of those marbly
black-and-white ones he likes.
"You're gonna have a lot of time on your
hands.  Maybe you'll feel like writing
something down."  (p. 1)

"Why am I writing down the middle
of the page?
It kind of looks like poetry, but no way
is it poetry.  It's just stuff." (p. 5)

"I'm just going to fool around a little,
see what's what poetry-wise" (p. 5).

"My name is Kevin Boland.
I live in Los Angeles (a suburb, actually).
I'm fourteen years old, I love baseball,
and I haven't got a girlfriend.
I'm just writing because I'm bored.
Thank God nobody's going to read it."  (p. 12)

"That book I've been reading
is big on revision, which means, by
the way, not just doing something over
but seeing it again.  That's kind of cool." (p. 23)

"'I'm a writer.'"  That's a cool thing to say.
I don't mean I am, but I'm not a baseball
player either.
Not anymore."  (p. 28)


Tasty Rating:  !!!

REVIEW: Jenny Green's Killer Junior Year (I was not impressed)

Belasen, A., &; Osborn, J. (2008). Jenny Green's Killer Junior Year.  New York:  Simon Pulse.

284 pages.

So, when I first started typing this review, I accidentally put 'yar' instead of 'year.' As though 11th grader, Jenny, had become a pirate. (Note: I would read that book. I may be out of high school, but I'm still looking for ways to transition to a career in piracy.)

Appetizer: After a sucky sophomore year, Jewish American Princess (or--I kid you not--'Jap' as she prefers to use *shudders*) Jenny Green decides to leave her Long Island public school in the hope of finding cooler people and "the one" (AKA Prince Charming) at boarding school.  She has a good idea of who her prince will be:  a boy named Josh who had transfered previously.

Jenny settles into Molson Academy, navigates having to live in a house of artists/hippies, finds a friend, orchestrates running into her prince, finds a way to cheat in her AP calc class, considers losing her virginity and flirts with her favorite professor.

But all is not perfect.

She starts to realize that Josh may not be as wonderful as she thought he was and after he drunkenly attacks her, Jenny will have to do things she'd never considered before:  become a killer.

But what starts out as self-defense, quickly evolves to murder as other men wrong her.

I wouldn't say I *hated* this book.  I could say I disliked it.  But, I think saying I didn't get it would be gentler.  From the first page, I hated Jenny.  She was shallow and judgmental.  So, when she started killing other characters, with seemingly almost no regret, I was not inclined to care.

Eventually guilt and potential consequences do present themselves, but by then, I was just reading to get the book done.

On top of that, the book repeatedly refers to 9-11 and a potential school shooting at Molson to explain some of Jenny's choices and to imply that the crazy-screwed-up world is somehow contributing to her choices.  While I appreciate the effort to show the subtle pressures influencing Jenny, my reaction as I was reading was just to say "WTF?!  What the heck is this doing in this book?!"  I felt like Jenny Green's Killer Junior Year was attempting to make some cultural or feminist commentary, but I just failed to follow it.

Oh, and this book is supposedly humorous.

I didn't find it very funny.

Was I missing something?

Also, aside from the killing, there are also a handful of pretty sexually explicit scenes.

Dinner Conversation:

"'Twas the end of a long and bitter sophomore year. 'Twas. I just really wanted to use that word. I promise I won't use it again; this ain't Dickens. Seriously, though, sophomore year totally sucked. I broke my toe and couldn't be in the school production of Grease, Doug Lapidus took a picture of a huge zit on my nose and broadcast it on Facebook, and that bitch Veronica Cohen stole my prom date Mark Leibowitz" (p. 3).

"Still, none of my experiences in high school could have prepared me for the utter lameness of the guys I'd soon meet in boarding school. I repeat, and seriously, feel free to scribble this somewhere while you're reading: None of my experiences in high school could have prepared me for the utter lameness of the guys I'd soon meet in boarding school. Pretty please, keep this in mind before you blame me for everything that happens in the next however many pages" (pp. 5-6).

"It proved fairly easy to track down Josh Beck.  Some random girl knew him and said he was usually at the school gym around five.
Okay, I'm totally gonna sound like a stalker now, but I basically camped outside the gym until I spotted Josh." (p. 41)

"Memories flooded my feeble mind--memories of 9/11.  My family and I were supposed to go into the city the night before to watch a Broadway play and stay at a hotel.  It was a tradition.  We called them "Green Apple Nights," and Daddy let us take off from school and everything.
Anyway, Daddy had a friend in the towers that we were going to visit the morning of 9/11, and the only reason it didn't happen is because Abby got food poisoning and everything was canceled.  Daddy's friend died in the attacks.  It took me years to recover from the fact that I, too, almost died that day.  And here death was again, knocking on the door but not coming inside.  It chilled me to my core.  What the F was up with September?" (p. 53)

"I wanted to get away with it.  Beneath the anger and the self-defense lay something primal, something pleasurable even.  As I'd watched Josh squirm, a feeling came over me I can only describe now as empowerment.  Watching this creep die suddenly filled me with a force I'd never known myself to possess.  It was all mine.  I was Supergirl" (p. 68)


Tasty Rating:  !!

REVIEW: Smile (This book did make me smile--and gave me flashbacks to my braces days)

Telgemeier, R.  (2010).  Smile.  New York:  Graphix.

214 pages.


Appetizer:  Set over approximately four years (between 1988 and 1991, through the middle school years and up into the beginning of Sophomore year) in San Francisco, Smile is a memoir of Raina's tween years and her painful quest to shape her teeth into a smile that wouldn't cause her embarrassment.  It begins simply enough:  Raina is to get braces.  This plan is complicated when Raina trips while chasing a friend and lands on her face, damaging her two front teeth.  Complications ensue.

Many complications.

Aside from the issues with finally getting her smile to be the way Raina wants it to be, she's also dealing with acne, having a crush, realizing what she wants to do with her life, needing her first bra, learning that some of her friends are not so much friends as they are frienemies AND getting her ears pierced.  This book kind of reminded me of a puberty book (like Sex, Puberty and All That Stuff or What's Happening to My Body), but would be much less awkward for a young girl to receive or discuss with an adult.

At one point, Raina notes the need to talk about how tweens feel awkward about their bodies:

I feel like that is exactly what Smile does:  starts a conversation to help girls to feel a little less freakish.

This memoir felt so honest and made me reflect on my own memories of being eleven-twelve-thirteen-fourteen-ish (for better or for worse).  (For better...I focused in on the day I got my braces off in eighth grade.  My teeth felt so slimy!  Then, after I went back to school, Mike P., the boy I kinda-sorta had a crush on, was the first person to notice that my braces were gone.  Very exciting.)

I really liked the way Raina's continuing battle to get her teeth problems under control provided a unifying conflict to bring the story together.  The one aspect that weakened the text for me was the narration at the very end.  The equivalent of a voice over, on p. 206 Raina makes comments like "Instead, I threw my passion into things I enjoyed, rather than feeling sorry for myself" and "I realized that I had been letting the way I looked on the outside affect how I felt on the inside."

*Barfs a little.*

I, of course, agree that these are important messages to give to tween (and even some adult!) readers, the way the narration came in to sum-up the message felt a little too overty/teachy-preachy/didacticy for my tastes.

You had me until page 206, Raina Telgemeier.  Page 206.


Dinner Conversation:

Tasty Rating:  !!!!

REVIEW: The True Meaning of Smekday (I still heart it)

The last time I read The True Meaning of Smekday, I listened to the audio book...

And it was magnificent!

This time around, I decided to read the actual text, so the graphic novel portions would be a little easier to follow and so I could write a proper review of the book.

I actually only got about 40 or 50-pages in, before I found myself desperately missing the voice of Bahni Turpin and went back to the Odyssey Award-winning audio book.

(She adds so much personality to the Boov voices!)

And look, I still managed to write a review of the story.

Rex, A.  (2007)  The True Meaning of Smekday.  New York:  Hyperion Books for Children.

423 pages.

Appetizer:  As part of a school assignment and national competition, twelve-year-old Tip (AKA Gratuity Tucci) must write about "The True Meaning of Smekday" and describe her personal experience during the recent alien invasion.

Tip had quite the experience, to say the least.

In this hilarious road-trip story, Tip recounts how her mother was abducted by aliens, how she befriended a Boov alien who goes by the name J.Lo and how together the crossed much of the country in search of Tip's mom.

Although the middle part of the story does feel to drag on a little as Tip and J.Lo go from state to state encountering various characters, I absolutely love the way this novel explores and discusses issue of race, discrimination and the forced relocation of people.  (And those are topics that normally a person would be hard-pressed to say that they "love" anything about discussing them.)

There are so many wonderful humorous moments in the story that even a year after reading this book for the first time, can still make me giggle.

My biggest regret in terms of The True Meaning of Smekday is that I did not listen to or read it soon.  *Bows to Holly who had originally recommended the book to me months and months before I ever got around to reading it.*

I've used this book in my classroom twice so far.  Once, I read aloud a portion of pages 24-29 to demonstrate the misunderstanding of when people (in this case creatures) from different cultures meet and to highlight the power dynamic between different cultures meeting (and from there show how some science fiction novels include cultural critiques and can be a vehicle to discuss race relations as well has historical periods when people from a specific culture were forced to relocate...*wipes brow*  that's a lot for one little read aloud to be able to do.)

The second time I used the book, I first did a pre-reading activity in which my writing students had to invent and describe their own "Smekday" holiday.  Many of them seemed to have a lot of fun with it.  In terms of their thoughts on the book.

I also used the book to discuss audience, since during her narration, Tip mentions several times that she's writing for people in the future.

Mmm, delicious.  So much to talk about.

I have to admit though, *after* reading the book, only a handful of my students enjoyed the book as much as I did.  Many seemed to think it was too long.

My argument that the meandering middle just provided "more for them to love" only went so far.


Dinner Conversation:

"ASSIGNMENT: Write an essay titled THE TRUE MEANING OF SMEKDAY. what is the Smekday Holiday? How has it changed in the year since the aliens left? You may use your own personal experiences from the alien invasion to make your points. Feel free to draw pictures or include photographs" (p. 1)

"It was Moving Day.

Should that be capitalized? I never would have capitalized it before, but now Moving Day is a national holiday and everything, so I think it should be.

Capitalized.

Anyway.

It was Moving Day, and everybody was crazy" (p. 3).

"I remember Apocalypse Hal was on the corner by the Laundromat.  Hal was a neighborhood street preacher who worked at the fist and crab place next door.  He wore a sandwich board sign of Bible verses and shouted angry things at passerby like "The end times are near" and "Seafood samples $5.99."  Now his sign just read "TOLD YOU SO," and he looked more anxious than angry.
"I was right," he said as I passed.
"About the fish or the apocalypse?" I asked.  He followed beside me.
"Both."  (p. 4).

"I stifled a laugh.  "J.Lo?  Your Earth name is J.Lo?"
"Ah-ah," J.Lo corrected.  "Not 'Earth.'  'Smekland'."
"What do you mean, 'Smekland'?"
"That is the thing what we have named the planet.  Smekland.  As to tribute to our glorious leader, Captain Smek."
"Wait."  I shook my head.  "Whoa.  You can't just rename the planet."
"Peoples who discover places gets to name it."
"But it's called Earth.  It's always been called EArth."
J.Lo smiled condescendingly.  I wanted to hit him.
"You humans live too much in the pasttime.  We did land onto Smekland a long time ago."
"You landed last Christmas!"
"Ah-ah.  Not 'Christmas.1  'Smekday."
"Smekday?"
"Smekday"  (p. 28).

"Okay.  Starting before the Boov came.
I guess I really need to begin almost two years ago.  This was when my mom got the mole on her neck.  This was when she was abducted.
I didn't see it happen, naturally.  That's how it is with these things.  Nobody ever gets abducted at a football game, or at church, or right after Kevin Frompky knocks all your books out of your hands between classes and everybody's looking and laughing and you have no choice but to sock him in the eye.
Or whatever" (p. 33).

"My birth certificate says "Gratuity Tucci," but Mom's called me Turtlebear ever since she learned that "Gratuity" didn't mean what she thought it did.  My friends call me Tip.
I guess I'm telling you all this as a way of explaining about my mom.  When people ask me about her, I say she's very pretty.  When they ask if she's smart like me, I say she's very pretty" (p. 37).


Tasty Rating: !!!!!

REVIEW: Mad Love (is tons of mad fun!--but maybe a little too chaotic)

Selfors, S.  (2011).  Mad Love.  New York:  Walker & Company.

323 pages.


Appetizer:  Alice has been telling a lot of lies lately.  She's had to.  The biggest lie is that her mom, a semi-famous romance author, is "overseas," researching her next book.  The reality is far less glamorous, and despite being tired of the lies, Alice does everything she can to maintain her family's secrets.  This becomes almost impossible though, when the family savings are close to gone, her mom's publisher is demanding the next book and Alice speaks on her mother's behalf at a book event and a strange young man in the audience insists Alice tell his story.

The possibly crazy/super attractive/vaguely stalkery guy always wears a black hoodie and claims to be Cupid.  Yes, The Cupid.  But he goes by Errol now.

When Alice refuses to write "Errol's" story, he begins to make her romantic life (or lack there of) complicated.  The skateboarding boy--Tony--who Alice has been admiring from afar is suddenly in her life adding just enough stress that Alice might go crazy (one of her biggest fears).

I know it may seem like it took me over a month to read this book, but don't take that as a judgment on Mad Love.  Blame moving across the country and starting a new job.

I wanted to sit around and read this book.

What a breath of fresh air!

If you may remember, few but dear readers, I complained during my Starcrossed review that I was stuck reading a string of mediocre books that were related to Dudley the Dissertation's topic, the gods and creatures of myth.  Mad Love has cut the string!  It felt sooooo good to dip into a book by someone who can string a bunch of words together in a way that is clever, amusing and tells an engaging story.

This book is well-written and funny.  I liked the exploration of Alice struggling to write a romance novel.  I actually wound up reading a portion aloud to my writing class (When Alice looks at writing guides and lists the rules for writing a romance:  pp. 82-85.)

Although, by mid-novel, I did wish things would speed up plot-wise and that there'd be a little less random craziness and some more clear direction of where the story was going (and that Alice would make more progress on her goals).  That feeling didn't leave as I continued to read.  (Random horrible storm that Alice must go out in to rescue someone at the end?  Whattheheck?!)  In the Author's Note, Suzanne Selfors noted that she had to revise this story extensively.  Frankly, I thought it could have used another revision or two.  It felt like there were a lot of wonderful pieces that just didn't quite fit together.  My  head was left feeling a little crowded by the book's end.  Crowded, but also amused.


Dinner Conversation:

"When you're sixteen, summer is supposed to spread before you like a magic carpet, waiting to carry you to new, exciting places.  Paperback novel in hand, bare feet buried in speckled sand, long kisses with a boy in a kayak--that's what it's supposed to be about.  Summer, with its coconut and pineapple flavors, with its reggae rhythms, with its endless possibilities for adventure and romance.
But if you asked me on that Monday in July, I'd tell you that there was nothing exciting about my summer forecast.  My magic carpet looked more like a plain, beige indoor-outdoor kind of thing and it was nailed solidly to the ground" (p. 3).

"It's easier to tell lies when there are no loving eyes staring back at you.
I told lots of lies.
Deception had become my life.  It wasn't a compulsion.  I didn't do it for some sort of thrill.  I lied constantly because I'd promised my mother that I'd never tell anyone the truth about our situation.  Lie upon lie upon lie, heaped into a great big pile.  Like a dung beetle, I maneuvered that pile everywhere I went.  And I was sick of it" (p. 9).

"The guy stood.  "I have a question for Alice."
I tapped my flip-flops against the floor.  Though his eyes were somewhat shaded by the rim of his hood, his gaze was intense.  "Yes?" I asked.
"I have a love story to tell," he said.  "And I need you to write it for me.  When can you get started?"
A few women chuckled, then a long span of silence followed as the guy continued to stare at me.  Was this a joke?
Tom cleared his throat.  "You mean you want Alice's mother to write it?  Alice is the Queen of Romance's daughter.  Maybe you didn't hear my introduction."
"I know who Alice is," the guy said.  "I want her to write my story."
The word "want hung in the air, adding an eerie note to the atmosphere.  I shifted in my seat.  "Well, that's very nice and everything, but it's your story so you should write it yourself."
"I'm not a writer," he said.  "But I lived the story, so I remember every single detail.  All you have to do is read through my notes, then write it" (p. 15).

"My name is Errol, but I used to be called Eros.  Most know me as Cupid."  He continued to stare out the window.  "I wasn't named after Cupid.  I am Cupid.  The original, one and only Cupid."
Music and customer chatter competed with his statement, so no one turned to gawk or snicker.  But I'd heard him.  A pained smile spread across my face as I pretended to be interested.  My suspicions were proven.  Something was wrong with him and the last thing I needed was to be on his radar.
"There's only on thing I want," he continued.  "And that is to tell my love story to the world.  Not the version you find in mythology books, but the real story.  The true story.  I'm the only person who can tell  it and I want you to write it" (p. 55).

"Why couldn't I write Untitled Work in Progress for my mother?
Being the Queen of Romance's daughter made me the Princess of Romance.  I may not have inherited her Nordic bone structure, her sexy figure, or her naturally plump lips, but surely I'd inherited something.  And maybe that something was the knack for storytelling.  I'd gotten Bs in English.  I'd been raised on the romance genre.  It was such an obvious answer.  And what else was I doing with my summer?
Nothing!
I could devote every minute of every day to the project.  It didn't have to be a Pulitzer Prize winner, just something that Heartstrings Publishers would accept.  This could work.  It would work.  It had to work."  (pp. 81-82)

"Someone was watching me.
Errol.
He stood across the street, looking right at me.  Foreboding rolled over me, dark and sinister.  If ever there was a time to run, it was then.  But I didn't run.  I couldn't.  Like in a nightmare I stood rooted to the spot.
"Alice?" Tony touched my arm.
Errol's hood concealed most of his face, but his mouth was tight with determination.  He held his left arm  straight out.  Then he pulled his right hand to his chest.  Something was going to happen.  Something bad.  I felt as helpless as a small creature caught in headlights.
And then, BAM!
Something collided with my chest.  A jolt shot through my body, electrifying the tips of my fingers and toes" (pp. 87-88).

"In an odd way I suddenly felt better, because of the two of us standing in that bedroom, Errol was clearly the crazier.  He thought he was the Roman god Cupid.  Sure, I might have heard a voice in my head; sure, I might have gone a bit wacko for a few hours, but I had no delusions about my identity.  I wasn't Isis, or Supergirl, or Bella Swan.  I was Alice Amorous, daughter of a semifamous, mentally ill romance writer, who would soon be getting food stamps if her mother didn't turn in another book.  Which I was supposed to be writing." (p. 137)


Tasty Rating:  !!!!

REVIEW: Wonderstruck (I wasn't struck)

Selznick, B.  (2011).  Wonderstruck.  New York:  Scholastic Press.

629 pages.

Appetizer:  Set in Gunflint Lake, Minnesoa in 1977, Ben is missing his mother who recently died in a car accident.  During a stormy night he walks to his old home from his aunt's house.  Among his mother's stuff, he finds her rainy day fund and a book called Wonderstruck with a hand-written note that mentions a man named Danny and a bookstore bookmark of a store in New York City.  With these few clues, Ben hopes that he may finally find and know his father.  Just as he picks up the phone and try to call the number for the bookstore, lightning strikes the house and Ben's life is once again changed.

This picturebook/novel is also the story of a lonely girl named Rose in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1927.  She admires an actress in a silent film named Lillian Mayhew.  After learning that Lillian will be in a play in New York City, Rose decides to run away to see her.

Both of their quests will take Rose and Ben to New York City and to the American Museum of Natural History.

Ben's story is told almost entirely in text and Rose's story is told almost entirely in illustrations.  Despite the differences in settings, there are moments when the tales connect and (eventually) unite.

When I began reading, I was frustrated because of the seemingly wide gaps between the two stories.  Initially only images like stars and lightning connect the two.  My brain was desperate for the two stories to unite.  Part of what made me fall totally and completely in love with Selznick's previous giant-picturebook/novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, was the way the setting, medium and content all worked together to add meaning to the story.  By the third or fourth time that I read The Invention of Hugo Cabret, I was still finding new meanings and connections among the different aspects of the story.

I can't say the same will happen with Wonderstruck.


Don't get me wrong, this novel is still impressive.  It has a E.L. Konigsburg, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler feel to it.  It just didn't *capture* me the way Selznick's Hugo Cabret did.

As a book, it does demonstrate a love of astronomy, dioramas, wolves, and museums, expresses a sense of loneliness and searching that I found very relatable and shows examples of the experience of being deaf in different times.

But still, Wonderstruck didn't capture my imagination or impress me the way The Invention of Hugo Cabret did.  (Not that books should always be compared.  But since these two stand alone in terms of their form, it's hard not to make comparisons.)

I'd be curious to know what some of you thought of the book, Few But Dear Readers.  Am I alone in my stance?

For the time being, here's one of the early moments when the stories overlap for you to enjoy.  Mary is watching a movie of a storm and Ben is in his mother's house, looking through her stuff as a storm approaches.  Enjoy.

(pp. 120-126)


Dinner Conversation:

"Something hit Ben Wilson and he hopened his eyes.  The wolves had been chasing him again and his heart was pounding.  He sat up in the dark room and rubbed his arm.  He picked up the shoe his cousin had thrown at him and dropped it on the floor.
"That hurt, Robby!" (p. 16).

"Ever since the accident, the wolves had appeared, galloping across the moonlit snow, red tongues wagging and white teeth glistening.  He couldn't figure out why they were stalking him, because he used to love wolves.  He and his mom had even seen one once from the front porch of their house.  The wolf had looked beautiful and mysterious, like it had stepped out of a storybook" (p. 17).

"He had believed his mother when she told him he'd never be lost as long as he could find the North Star.  But now that she was gone, he realized it wasn't true.
The mysterious quote from his mom's bulletin board echoed again in his mind.
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars" (p. 27).

"Was it days later or only a few minutes when his aunt Jenny appeared?  Her eyes were red and watery. She sat on the bed and stroked his hair.  He thought he could smell the food she'd been cooking at the lodge as she ran her fingers down his cheek just like his mom used to.  He watched her lips move.  He looked at the nurses talking to each other.  His head felt like it was full of leaves.  He opened his mouth to say he couldn't hear but nothing came out.
The nurse handed Aunt Jenny a piece of paper and a pen.  She wrote a note and handed it to Ben.
"I know you can't hear.  Don't try to talk.  Just lie still."
Ben's head throbbed.  How did she know what he'd been thinking?
"You've had an accident.  You're going to be okay, but you were hit by lightning." (p. 175)


Tasty Rating:  !!!

REVIEW: The Facts Speak For Themselves (but don't use quotation marks)

Cole, B. (1997). the facts speak for themselves. New York: Puffin Books.

184 pages.

Appetizer: Thirteen-year-old Linda was escorted into the police interrogation room with blood still under her nails. After being interrogated about the deaths of two men (a murder-suicide situation between the boyfriend and boss of her mother that Linda is somehow at the center of), Linda is separated from her little brothers and mother, who need her to watch over them, to stay at a center run by nuns.

She has meetings with a social worker to discuss her childhood of abuse, discrimination, abandonment and responsibility over her brothers.

Linda's story is touching, heartbreaking and the amount of responsibility she took on at such a young age is shocking.

This can be a wonderful book to give voice to the secret pains and dark scars that many children and adults have.

Although, as I was reading, I did wish that quotation marks were used to better mark dialogue.

This book may be dark, but it is also real...and difficult to put down after you start reading. (I know that if it were a movie, I'd hate it. It's kind of like Requiem for a Dream. You just know things are going to get worse and worse.)


Dinner Conversation:

"The woman policeman says why don't you come in here, and so I went. It was a little room with a table and some chairs. That was all. Instead of a window, there was a big mirror. I wouldn't look at that. I didn't want to see myself. I sad down and folded my hands. There was still blood under my nails, so after a minute I put them under the table" (p. 9).

"Listen, young lady, Sister says. You're not in charge anymore. This is a difficult situation, and it's going to take a little time to straighten out. Two men are dead, she says and bites her lip.
What two men?
Mr. Green and Mr. Perry.
That was how I found out. Jack had died in the ambulance and Frank had walked down into the basement of the parking ram and shot himself" (p. 20).

"I gave her the facts, and she wrote them up in a preliminary report. I know, because I got it out of her bag when she came back one afternoon to warn me about what was going to happen.
There's going to be a hearing, she says, and I want you to be as straight with the judge as you are with me" (p. 23).

"I want to write my own preliminary report, I said.
She looked at me a long time.
I think that's a very good idea, she says finally.
Will they read it?
Yes, she says. I'll make sure they do" (p. 25).

"Looked at in a certain way, the whole history of the world seemed arranged so we could meet that first time.
He said we were doomed by circumstance. Our fate was in the facts" (p. 141).


Tasty Rating: !!!

Louisiana Series: An audio Book review of My Louisiana Sky (AKA the day I began to worry about Coral Snakes)

As a way to get to know my new state of residence, I've been trying to read literature about Louisiana. 

(The selection has proven to be a little...pathetic.  There's not much of a selection.  Especially since I'd like to read about more than just New Orleans.)

First off, let me tell you that my general knowledge of Louisiana was very limited before moving here:  Hurricane Katrina, other hurricanes, cajuns, Remy from the X-men, alligators, oil spill, Mardi Gras, True Blood/The Southern Vampire series (which, admittedly I've seen every episode of/read every book).

It's a pretty limited view of an entire state.

I actually had to bite my tongue during my initial Skype job interview to stop myself from asking if alligators and hurricanes were something I should worry about in the area I would be moving (Answers:  Not too concerned unless a hurricane displaces the alligators and Yes, be concerned:  power outages possibly lasting weeks, high winds and rain during the storms.)

So, I was left feeling like I wanted to see some of the other ways that my new state is presented.  I--of course--turned to children's literature.

I decided to begin my acquaintance (and this new series of reviews) with Louisiana in children's literature by listening to the audiobook of Kimberly Willis Holt's My Louisiana Sky.  She's the author of When Zachary Beaver Came to Town, which I read five or six years ago and remember enjoying.

The premise is that Tiger Anne--a girl living in Saitter, Louisiana--faces a choice.  She and her grandmother have always had to look after Tiger's mother and father who are both "retarded" (to use the dated language in this historical novel).  When tragedy strikes, Tiger must face the choice of moving to Baton Rouge to live with her stylish aunt and staying home to care for her parents.

An angsty premise that is one-part coming of age story and two-parts character figuring out her own identity through a major decision story.  I could get into it.

I especially liked that Tiger was a tomboy who played baseball better than most of the boys.

I downloaded and started listening...and absolutely *hated* the tones the narrator used to voice the various characters.  Sometimes her Southern accent didn't match the Louisiana accent I've been enjoying for the past few weeks.  Often when she gave voice to minor characters, she spoke in tones that made them sound completely and unnecessarily idiotic. 


I was not a big fan.  I probably would have enjoyed the story more if I read it.

I did eventually ease into the story.  Especially when a character died of a heart attack after seeing a coral snake.  (So...coral snakes...is this something I have to worry about now?)

Louisiana, please advise.

Then towards the end of the book, there was a hurricane.

Sigh.

At least there weren't any alligators.

How much I learned about Louisiana:  Not too much.
How much I felt comforted about some of the supposedly-scary aspects of the state usually presented by the media:  Also not too much.

I have since discovered there was a children's movie made of the My Louisiana Sky, starring Juliette Lewis and a younger Michael Cera, among others.

...

Netflix guesstimates I'd give the movie two stars.

...

I did add the movie to my queue.  It will stay at the bottom and I'll get to it when I get to it.