boy characters – Peaceful Reader

First two books of summer…

I’ve been on summer break for four days so far and I’ve finished two fantastic books. I’ve also deep cleaned parts of my house that are regularly forgotten. I made a few delicious meals while my stepdaughter was here. I’m also packing for our upcoming trip to the East Coast. In between all that I managed to finish these two:

Defending Jacob (2012) by William Landay is our book club choice for June. I won’t be here for the gathering but the book was so highly recommended by my friend Sue that I had to read it anyway. One morning I was reading it at the breakfast table and after checking out the cover she said “That does not look like your kind of book Mama.” She’s right…The cover looks adult and mysterious; not fun but read it I did and loved it. Perfect reason to be in a book club as I’m pushed to read outside my normal reading zone.

The story, narrated by Andy Barber, assistant DA, revolves around the murder of a young man, a classmate of Barber’s son, Jacob. Andy is a loving father and a great lawyer and eventually both those attributes are called into question as his son is arrested for the boy’s murder. This is a precise look at what can happen to a family when they are pushed to the brink of despair. Defending Jacob is filled with plot twists and interesting character portrayals. Landay is a former District Attorney himself so the courtroom drama and lawyer speak is accurate and intense.

Sample:

“Worse, the eighth graders at the McCormick were not especially competent liars. Some of them, the more shameless ones, seemed to believe that the way to pass off a lie convincingly was to oversell it. So, when they got ready to tell a particularly tall one, they would stop all the foot-shuffling and y’knows, and deliver the lie with maximum conviction. It was as if they had read a manual on behaviors associated with honestly-eye contact! firm voice!-and were determined to display them all at once, like peacocks fanning their tail feathers.” (48-49)

If you are looking for a great crime story Landay’s book is definitely worth reading. It would make a great Father’s Day gift for a mystery buff.

Same is true of Boy Still Missing (2001) by John Searles. My husband read this and couldn’t stop chatting with me about it. At my last book club meeting he even mentioned it to them with a slight tone that eventually I would get to it on my PILE. So after I finished Defending Jacob I shocked him by picking Boy Still Missing next off the large stack. I read it in under a week and will add John Searles to my growing list of favorite authors. He told a most interesting story without bogging it down with too much detail and he seamlessly snuck in some important feminist rhetoric weaving it right into the story.

Dominick helps his mother track down his wayward father whether the father is out drinking or sleeping it off with a trail of women. Dominick gets caught up with one of his father’s cast-off girlfriends, Edie, and his life is forever changed as he turns his back on the mother that needs him. His chance encounter with Jeanny, a young protestor for change, pulls him back to earth as he struggles with the direction his life has taken. Sexual explicit details make it not for everyone but fit with Dominick’s experiences.

Sample:

“I peeled back the rug where I had been skimming money for the last two months. Ever since the radiator broke, most of the usual smells of our apartment-canned food, cooked beef, furniture polish-had been muted. But beneath the rug the musty earth scent was as strong as ever. I grabbed three stiff hundred-dollar bills and shoved them into the pocket of my sweatshirt. ‘Just a few Bennies,’ I said under my breath, thinking it sounded cool.” (51)

Both stories feature young men as they struggle through rough times. Boy Still Missing is told from Dominick’s point-of-view and Defending Jacob is shared from his father’s narration. Both have unexpected surprises in store for the reader.

Last week I took both College Boy and Groovy Girl to our local library to check out books for summer and our approaching vacation. I found The Red Book by Deborah Copaken Kogan which I started late last night and continued reading early this morning before I hoisted myself out of bed for some yoga and breakfast. Ahh, summer sleep-ins are treasures.

Weekend Cooking; Little Klein by Anne Ylvisaker

Weekend Cooking is a weekly meme over at Beth Fish Reads. Pop over and see what she’s talking about.
This week I’ve been on the North Carolina coast (the Outer Banks) and I’ve done a fair amount of reading (5 books) but only a minimal amount of cooking as we’ve shared kitchen duties and handsome husband and I only had one night to cook. We made a variation of fish tacos after visiting a local fish market. Oooh, I loved picking out fresh caught fish and after thinking about mahi-mahi we choose sheepshead at the recomendation of the fish guy. We also bought a pound of fresh prawns, deveined them, sauteed them in butter and white wine and gobbled them up for an appetizer.

Another night we headed into town and on a friend’s recommendation and ate at Owens’ Restaurant in Kill Devil Hills. It was a culinary delight. The calamari appetizer was yummy as was the bottle of white wine we shared and toasted with to celebrate my in-law’s 50th wedding anniversary. I had the grouper and shrimp special with delicious sea breeze mashed potatoes! All ten family members loved their meals, except Teenage Boy who deemed his clam linguine a little too “saucy.” He didn’t leave unhappy though and I would recommend this excellent restaurant to anyone traveling to the Outer Banks.

One morning I made these banana pancakes thanks to Janssen at Everyday Reading-they were a huge hit. Thank you Janssen for sharing this recipe.

Our vacation is winding down (only one more day-aaaggg), we’ve had a great time and I’ll be sad, sad to leave the beach behind. I did read several fantastic books on this trip and one of them was… Little Klein by Anne Ylvisaker.

I adore this little book and will recommend it to everyone this year. One chapter in particular whispered “weekend cooking post”–Recipe for Sleep. It’s dear. Harold Sylvester George Klein is the smallest Klein boy surrounded by three older brothers, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and an exhausted but nurturing mother. Little Klein’s mother worries and doesn’t like him to be out on his own-she’s keeping him her baby as her last little one. (I can relate) LeRoy, a stray dog with his own sweet character voice in the book, finds the Klein boys and loves the smell of them. Everybody should read this book.

Recipe for Sleep is one of the sweetest chapters I’ve ever read in a book. Little Klein is having trouble sleeping while his older brothers are gone and he’s plagued by nightmares and worry. He begs Mother Klein to let LeRoy sleep with him but she resists. Instead she reads to him, sings to him, tells him stories but nothing much works.

“Would you read to me about cake?” called Little Klein from the bedroom one night.
Mother Klein shrugged. “What do you mean?” she called back.
“I mean, will you read to me about cake? You know, crack an egg, one cup of flour, like that.”
Mother pondered.
Though he was small for his age, Little Klein had the appetite of one of the Bigs. He was transfixed by the magic with which water and heat turned crisp dry oats into warm mush for breakfast and the way an unappetizing lump of raw eggs and flour and cocoa could turn into a cake with the texture of a spring meadow. Even the power of butter to fuse two pieces of bread together delighted Little Klein.
“Well, excitement is in the mind of the beholder,” said Mother Klein. She pulled her worn cookbook off the shelf and opened it. “It’s worth a try.”
“What kind of cake?” she asked.
“Chocolate,” said Little Klein, snuggling down into his blanket. (199-120)

Charming and beyond. This chapter’s close connection to comfort food make me think Ysvisaker probably is no stranger to the kitchen! Mother Klein goes on to read recipe after recipe to Little Klein.

What a great book!!
Click for Anne Ylvisaker website.

Saraswati's Way

by Monika Schroder

2010

233 pages, including glossary

I love to get books directly from the author. Monika Schroder contacted me and asked if I would read and review her book and I casually replied “Yes, I’d love to…” and at that point you never know how it’s going to turn out but the book was wonderful. I especially loved learning more about Indian culture and I fell in love with Akash and his passion for learning.

Summary: Leaving his village in rurual India to find a better education, mathematically gifted, twelve-year-old Akash arrives at the New Delhi train station, where he relies on Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of knowledge, to guide him as he negotiates life on the street, resists the temptations of easy money, and learns whom he can trust.

Akash’s story demonstrates how difficult in many cultures it is to become educated and even though the United States has a public school system we experience the same; if your family does not value education that fact alone will make it hard to be a good student. Akash has been in school but his math knowledge exceeds his teacher’s and he needs to locate and pay for a math tutor so he can pass the a test and get a scholarship to get into a good high school. His father believes in Akash’s education but when his father dies his grandmother is quick to send him off to work in the rock quarry.

After only a few days at the rock quarry Akash has the chance to “see” the ledger keeping all the accounts for the quarry. When he realizes it will take him years and years to pay off his grandmother’s debt he chooses to run away. He knows he has what it takes to change and his desire is to be educated. Jumping a train to Delhi Akash is hidden by a portly train employee.

In Delhi he doesn’t know anyone and ends up sleeping in a box through the night. While he’s taken himself out of one bad situation (rock quarry) he quickly finds living on his own has its drawbacks. He has to deal with other boys fighting to stay alive, police, and drug dealers. While Akash makes some good decisions and some bad ones he learns to keep his focus on finding an education. On the train platform he eventually meets Ramesh-ji who runs the magazine stand. He lets Akash sleep on top so he isn’t bothered by the police officers in the night. Ramesh and Akash build a good relationship, realizing there is more to each of them than one would think.

Three Quotes:

Other street boys befriend Akash and teach him the ways of the station. They all have ways to deal with their homelessness and hunger.

“I will fly away,” Deepak said, fluttering his arms. His face distorted to a horrid grin.

“Are they okay?” Akash asked.
“I told you,” Rohit said. “The glue makes you see things that are not there.”
“At first,” Sunil said. “Then it makes you drowsy and when you can’t stop it turns your brain into glue.” (31)

and

“How come you didn’t go to the movies?” Ramesh asked. “Isn’t it Friday today?”
“I didn’t want to go. I need to save my money for a tutor. I found a man at Pahar Ganj who will teach me math.”
“That is very wise of you,” Ramesh-ji said, suddenly speaking in English.
“Ramesh-ji, I didn’t know you spoke English.”
“Maybe you would like to practice your English with me. For the kind of school you want to go to, you need to speak, read, and write English well. Didn’t you even bring an English textbook?”
“How do you know English?” Akash asked.
“I used to work as a cook for British people,” Ramesh said. “That was a long time ago.” (35)

Schroder does a great job of intergrating Indian culture so anyone reading will have learned from their experience…

Akash would have like to accompany him to the temple, but since Ramesh didn’t offer to take him, he didn’t dare ask. Navratri, the nine nights before Dussehra, had always been one of his favorite festivals. In the evenings he had joined the other youths from the village to watch the dandia dance. The men would form a circle on the outside and the women one in the inside. When the music began each cirle started to rotate slowly in opposite directions. (34)

I loved reading this book and couldn’t wait to see how Akash dealt with the street boys and the drug dealers, especially when he decided to become a courier to make some money. It is an intense story and I was cheering for Akash to get back on the right path. Luckily his deep desire for an education does win out and Akash and Ramesh find a way to work together.

This is a perfect middle school mulitcultural read. Thank you to Monika Schroder for sensing my need to read her gem. To find it at an Independent bookseller near you, click on the title…Saraswati’s Way

What Should I Make?

by Nandini Nayer
illustations by Proiti Roy
(2009)

This book was originally published in India, in English and in Hindi. Neeraj’s mother is making dough, rolling it into chapatis and hands him some dough to play with. Neeraj is a cute boy with hair going everywhich way and he takes that dough, uses his imagination and makes all kinds of creatures.
“Neeraj rolled th edough back and forth, back and forth, into a long rope. At one end of the rope, he poked two tiny eyes. The other end became a pointed tail. ‘A snake! A snake!'”

Even though we never see all of Neeraj’s mother we can tell she is dressed in a flowing green sari and with bangles at her wrists. She has few lines in the book as well but they are playful as she encourages him to play with the dough. I’m happy the author choose to make the main character a boy, crossing the stereotype of girl’s helping mother’s in the kitchen.

I love the heck out of this book, especially the back section, which provides directions for making chapatis. The recipe is simple and I think we will make them some time soon.

She’s Too Fond of Books loved this book as well.

On the other end of the spectrum we read an awful picture book during storytime. The cover is attractive but it ends there. This book scared Groovy Girl right before sleeping. Should I have to preview books before bedtime? No. The illustrations are like clay puppets; think Coraline in the “other world”. The second disturbing thing was the text is scrawled in cursive. She was supposed to be reading it to me but she handed it to me and said “I can’t read that!” I said but you are learning cursive…She said “Not like that.” So I read and well, we finished it but are both unhappy for it.

The Look Book: Two siblings are bored on summer break and their mother sends them outside. Outside they see different things, in contrast.
One page:
“Ann saw a whole pie.”
Next page:
“Ian saw a pie hole.”

farther along:
“Ian saw a car get towed.”
“Ann saw a car get a toad” (picture of blood stained road after the car has passed)
“Ian saw a bird soar overhead”
“Ann saw a bird with a sore head.” ( an axe in a stump next to a chicken head, a chicken’s body running in front of Ann)
After many weird and scary homonyms they return home and tell their mother they saw nothing…there I’ve ruined the end for everyone. This is a perfect book for someone with a wry or slightly twisted sense of humor. Creative-Yes, Perfect storytime book-Nay!

The images and the text are disturbing and I’m not sure who made the decision to market this for children. Boo.
If It’s Hip, It’s Here has another take on the book.