fathers – Peaceful Reader

Happy Father's Day…to all dads

Dear Dad;

You’d be so happy to see how all your children have turned out. Well maybe; we might have happy separate lives but a few of us don’t have much of a relationship. You would have worked hard to help us mend that because you had faith in family. You knew it was important to let the little things go and the big things to because no matter what family is family and they are your first source for love.

Grandkids are good too. You’d be proud of Tristan at University of Iowa, studying and applying himself to make a difference. His major is political science and you would have loved to talk current events with him. He has a real handle on how the world is and loves discussing the bigger picture. My Groovy Teen (the artist formerly known as Groovy Girl) begins 10th grade in the fall. She is a bright light, a dancer, a imaginative thinker, a designer, a friend, a messy multi-tasker, a foodie, and struggles with her idea of perfection. You’d be beyond proud of Kaylee; she still shines in photos and is making it in the big city! She is thoughtful, loves theatre, has an amazing sense of humor, and writes and interviews like a pro. Her posts, tweets, and podcasts keep us all amused.

I’ve talked many times about how much I miss you as evidenced by this Father’s Day post from 2010 and 2016 version and this birthday post from 2016. You are missed. Damn that cancer.

Today as we celebrate my husband with a delicious brunch I’ll be thinking of you, wishing you were here at the table with us, touching my hair, and throwing me that smile that tells me everything is going to be okay.

Laugh with the Moon by Shana Burg + a recipe

I found this at the library one day browsing around like I do; it was on my list to read for possible Iowa Children’s Choice book awards. It was the last one I read in my tall stack of choices and it was one of the best.

I loved that both boys and girls would enjoy the story even though it is told from a 13-year-old girl’s point of view and that we learn so much about the country of Malawi. Clare is a spunky character who is filled with grief over her recently deceased mother. Ever wonder why so many realistic fiction books for kids involve death? Her father is a doctor working for a world aid organization and probably to help his own grief he takes on this journey back to Malawi where he served before Clare was born. I think both parent and child are in need of a change of scenery even though Clare isn’t aware yet of how much this trip will mean to her.

Even though she is completely bitter on the first leg of their travels and her anger grows when she sees the small cabin where they will live she makes friends in the village and at school. She helps to change lives while their as she teaches English to the youngest children at school and gets everybody involved in a play.

A quote:

Outside, Memory shows me a dress that’s hanging from a clothesline behind the hut. In the dusk, I can’t tell if it’s blue or green or gray, but I can see the shape of it just fine. I don’t mean to be rude, but it looks like a pilgrim frock. Still, I’m a firm believer in stretching the truth in the name of friendship. At this rate, Memory might be the only person I’m speaking to on the entire African continent, so I tell her “It’s so cool!” even though I’d never be caught dead wearing something like that myself. (37)

She does indeed end up wearing a dress quite similar to her new friend Memory’s “pilgrim” dress and that is not her only compromise she must make.

I loved this book for the experience it offered me; while lots of books are written about dead mothers, not many share such an interesting path through grief. I love that her mother appears to her when she needs her most and that through their journey we get to see a part of life in Africa especially since this continent is in the news right now. Burg has first hand experience in Malawi and that helps us get a realistic feel for the country.

At the end of the book is a recipe for Sweet Potato Biscuits that I just had to try. I made them, we loved them, and then the dog stole the rest of the biscuits right off the counter and ate every last crumb..

Mbatata (Sweet Potato) Biscuits

Ingredients:
1/4 cup mashed cooked sweet potatoes
1/4 cup milk
4 T melted butter
1 1/4 cups sifted flour
2 tsp baking powder
6 T sugar, plus 2 T to sprinkle on top
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon, plus additional 1/2 tsp to sprinkle on top

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375*. Mix the sweet potatoes, milk, and melted butter and beat well. Sift together the flour, baking powder, 6 T of the sugar, the salt, and 1/4 tsp of cinnamon and add gradually to the sweet potato mixture. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet. Mix the additional cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle on top. Bake for 15 minutes.

They were delicious. Even the dog thought so. I didn’t even sprinkle on the extra sugar topping. I plan to make them again for Thanksgiving.

Read this book, share it with any elementary and early middle school students, share it with your class as a read-aloud. Right now it could provide an empathy for the people of Africa as they struggle with the affects of the Ebola disease.

Shana Burg is also the author of A Thousand Never Evers an excellent historical fiction that takes place in Mississippi in 1963.

Knock Knock; My dad's dream for me.

I came home to two brown paper packages on my living room floor. I ripped into them like it was an early Christmas treat. Books are like that. Inside one of the packets was this lovely book by Daniel Beaty and Bryan Collier (on shelves Dec. 17th).

Knock Knock; My dad’s dream for me (2013) from Little, Brown, and Company is a beautiful story told well both through Beaty’s writing and Collier’s illustrations. A young boy shares his joy of his father’s presence in his life; their morning routine and what his dad means to him. And my first thought was “how nice, the book is going to share the loving relationship between dad and child.” Did not happen; dad is suddenly gone and the young boy is sad, misses his dad. He writes his feelings down for his dad in a letter and leaves it on his desk. I loved this illustration as Collier sends the boy flying up into the sky, searching for his father, on his paper airplane letter.

I was left wondering what happened to this daddy and because of that, as a reader, I was even more affected. I missed the dad too; I could feel the son’s confusion and loneliness. Dad answers the son back in an letter on his desk, telling the young boy that he is sorry he can’t be there too and gives hiim important growing up instructions and we see the son emerge as a young man, wearing his father’s ties, maturing into a man.

This story stunned me because I teach all these wide-eyed beautiful children, many of whom have something in common with this young man; they miss their dads. They easily talk about it often blurting it out during story time or when the topic of family comes up. “My dad’s in jail.” “My dad doesn’t live with me.” “I don’t have a dad.” My heart shudders for them. Ive read other books about loss to my students but this one sends forth a more raw emotional connection between the reader and the father/child relationship.

End notes are included for both illustrator and author and Beaty writes that his father was his caregiver until he was incarcerated. I think it is easy to feel that emotion throughout the book. I received my copy from the publisher and still my thoughts on this book are my own. Always.

Anne Ylvisaker and The Book Club

Author Anne Ylvisaker

I was the host of our book club last night and we had a a fantastic time. Through a round of chance encounters (one of our members worked with Anne’s husband in Cedar Rapids a few years back) and after I’d read and loved Little Klein we cooked up a plan to read a few of her books and see if she would skype with us. We’re so happy she agreed.

Ylvisaker grew up in Minnesota; in the St. Paul area, her father was a minister and she spent time in Iowa as an adult as well. All three of her fiction books take place in these Midwest settings. She had a lot of good stories to tell; some about her family and some about her writing process. I particularly loved this one…her writing group at one time gathered words and shared them with each other; using them to write with that week. She could pick them out of Little Klein and demonstrated how they raised the story up. She also shared many of the personal family stories that have became part of her books.

It was one of the best book club experiences we’ve had and it had nothing to do with the delicious food or the wine. It was the lively conversation we had with her and the discussion we had after we hung up the camera.
I’m a huge fan of hers and hope you will take time to read any of her fiction books for fun.

I read Dear Papa recently (2002) a wonderful elementary/middle grade fiction that shares the letters Isabelle writes to her deceased father and other family members as she deals with her grief and her mother’s eventual remarriage. The book is filled with daily joys and disappointments…just like real life. It takes place in Minnesota around the second World War.
Here’s a snippet:

“Dear Papa, Jan. 1, 1944 It’s a brand-new year. I have made some resolutions: Help the first time Mama asks. Hang up my clothes before bed. Go to church with a willing heart. Keep our family together. Your daughter,Isabelle, nine and a half today” (15)

I also read her latest book, The Luck of the Buttons (2011) about a young Iowa girl, Tugs Buttons, who is cursed with an unlucky family. Tugs changes her stars as she wins a three-legged race, an essay contest and a raffle all at the 4th of July celebration. She suffers some hard times but in the end she is able to show her family sometimes you got to make your own luck happen. Tugs is another positive young heroine!
Another snippet to share:

“Tugs shrugged into yesterday’s clothes, which still lay in a heap on the floor, slipped past Granny, who was writing a letter at the kitchen table, and collected five pennies from her mother on her way out the door. Wednesday mornings were Granddaddy Ike’s checkers mornings. and in the summer, Tugs was in charge of walking him from his house to Al and Irene’s Luncheonette…”(60)

We found out she has two more books in the works about this Button family and the next one up is Button Down, featuring Tugs’ cousin, Ned. Read my review of Little Klein here, which features an adorable boy and a dog combo that will make you smile to the heavens.

There was a grand moment for me when Ylvisaker recognized the “Peaceful Reader” name and asked if we were not on twitter together…I was over-the-moon-thrilled!

Thank you to Anne for taking time out of her busy schedule (her children had just returned home for the holidays) to talk with our group and to all authors who make themselves available to us, their adoring readers.
Thank you to my book club friends for willingly taking this leap of faith with me and Kay!
(now I’m thinking why didn’t I ask her for a preview copy of Button Down…silly me)
Enjoy.

River House; A Memoir by Sarahlee Lawrence

I picked this book up from the public library a few weeks ago and enjoyed reading Sarahlee’s story. At the start Sarahlee is in Peru preparing to raft a river with her friend Marco. She’s always enjoyed the water, taking after her father in this regard, although his first love is the ocean. Sarahlee applied for and received a grant right out of college allowing her to travel for a year to a variety of different rivers and she loves it but as she is running the rivers she begins to miss home. She gets a letter from her dad that a family friend, Geraldine, has died and her dad is saving her woodstove for the time when Sarahlee builds her own home. She also reads Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Waldo as she is traveling, which creates a longing for land as well.

Her river images and her athleticism at manning the boats is an incredible part of her story but eventually she winds her way to Oregon and talks her dad into building a log home with her. There is a lot of family history to understand; how her mother has always lived in this part of Central Oregon and is passionate about horses, how her father grew up on the beaches of California, surfing day in and day out and how all three of them are hearty, strong and determined.

It is always difficult to move home after flying free for a few years of college but Sarahlee comes happily home, moves back into her old room and begins 12-15 hour work days, helping her dad with ranch chores and then planning, laying the groundwork and building her log home. It’s exhausting and at times they struggle with all they try to juggle as a family. She finds out a few personal things about her father and how he has and continues to struggle with daily life on the ranch. Their relationship as a family was interesting but I prefered the interactions between her and her mother. Her mother was low-key and calm; not filled with such frenetic energy.

I was drawn to this memoir because of the father/daughter relationship and Sarahlee and her father’s ties are strong but volatile, and eventually they learn to accept what is good about the other but it is a long journey together. I liked that Sarahlee strived to be intuned to nature, thinking about the placement of her home and how she cared about the earth around her. What bogged me down was all the log cabin building lingo…I’m not a builder and I understand about as much as how Lincoln Logs notch together. It was interesting but I found myself skimming some of the paragraphs about the house going up and the logs notching together just so. I did fully understand how complicated and delicate of an operation it was.

Checking out her website I discovered that she’s begun an organic vegetable farm and I would love to read more about this project. I’ve already recommended this book to several very outdoorsy friends and family as well as to other members of my Good Spirits Book Club. Be forewarned; the book contains swearing and a lot of references to her father’s pot smoking and drinking habits.

Find the author here –Sarahlee Lawrence.

The Award-Winning Moon Over Manifest

by Clare Vanderpool

(2010)

342 pages

I would love to be the kind of person who is able to read the Newberry winner right away or even better, to have already read it before the announcement. But let’s face it, I have a busy life with family, school and all the other books on my stack(s). There is a certain amount of guilt involved as a librarian until you’ve read the Newberry there. Ahhhh. I feel so much better now and I know the committee made a worthy choice.

When this one was announced it wasn’t even on my radar so I quickly ordered it for my school and then, let it languish around the library. One day in trying to model good reading to a class I picked it out of a stack and started reading while I wandered among the fourth grade students. I was hooked.
Abilene’s voice is strong, clear and interesting. Here she is getting ready to jump off the train:

At the last car, I waited, listening the way I’d been taught-wait till the clack of the train wheels slows to the rhythm of your heartbeat. The trouble is my heart speeds up when I’m looking at the ground rushing by. Finally, I saw a grassy spot and jumped. The ground came quick and hard, but I landed and rolled as the train lumbered on without a thank-you or goodbye. (3)

Summary from GoodReads:

Abilene Tucker feels abandoned. Her father has put her on a train, sending her off to live with an old friend for the summer while he works a railroad job. Armed only with a few possessions and her list of universals, Abilene jumps off the train in Manifest, Kansas, aiming to learn about the boy her father once was.
Having heard stories about Manifest, Abilene is disappointed to find that it’s just a dried-up, worn-out old town. But her disappointment quickly turns to excitement when she discovers a hidden cigar box full of mementos, including some old letters that mention a spy known as the Rattler. These mysterious letters send Abilene and her new friends, Lettie and Ruthanne, on an honest-to-goodness spy hunt, even though they are warned to “Leave Well Enough Alone.”

Abilene throws all caution aside when she heads down the mysterious Path to Perdition to pay a debt to the reclusive Miss Sadie, a diviner who only tells stories from the past. It seems that Manifest’s history is full of colorful and shadowy characters—and long-held secrets. The more Abilene hears, the more determined she is to learn just what role her father played in that history. And as Manifest’s secrets are laid bare one by one, Abilene begins to weave her own story into the fabric of the town.

Powerful in its simplicity and rich in historical detail, Clare Vanderpool’s debut is a gripping story of loss and redemption.

My thoughts:

The last sentence says it all…It is a powerful tale! It is a gripping story! One of the reasons I love historical fiction is because there’s a lot to learn while reading and I AM a life-long learner at heart. This story is special because you get two sets of histories; Abilene’s in 1936 and her father’s in 1918, which Abilene begins to understand as she tries to piece together her father’s part in Manifest’s history. The result is back and forth storytelling brought on by one of my favorite characters, Miss Sadie, a soothsayer or fortune-telling woman of Manifest. As Miss Sadie tells her remembrances a beautiful picture of Manifest is created for Abiline and her friends.

If you haven’t had a chance to read this award-winner take the time as it is richly written.

To find this book at an independent bookseller near you, click on the title, Moon Over Manifest

My Abandonment

by Peter Rock

(2009)

I finished it yesterday which gave me some time to knit and start the third book I brought on our trip to Oberlin. My new book is A Curse as Dark as Gold by Elizabeth Bunce. I am reading it for my long distance book club and it is on my reading from my own shelves challenge, which I am wayyyy behind on.

My Abandonment is still twisting around in my brain, which I always take to mean well-written-the characters are often still poking me. I do think this is a literary story but I am left with questions.

Good Reads Synopsis:

A thirteen-year-old girl and her father live in Forest Park, the enormous nature preserve in Portland,Oregon. They inhabit an elaborate cave shelter, wash in a nearby creek, store perishables at the water’s edge, use a makeshift septic system, tend a garden, even keep a library of sorts. Once a week, they go to the city to buy groceries, attend church, and otherwise merge with the civilized world. But one small mistake allows a backcountry jogger to discover

them, which derails their entire existence, ultimately provoking a deeper flight.

My thoughts:

I enjoyed Caroline’s narrator voice and the in-the-present-moment telling of this tale. The father obviously has had trouble fitting back into society after his soldier experience. He is paranoid and has taught his daughter how to stay below the radar in any given situation. I’m torn as to whether this is really his daughter. Rock has left it up to the reader to decide and I feel like I’ve fallen into a paranoid trap by thinking automatically that she has been kidnapped. Why do we assume the worst? It is perfectly logical that a father, having experienced war at it’s worst, would lose his daughter to a foster situation but then still want her back. When the police do pick them up they must run her picture, right? If she truly were a kidnapped child wouldn’t it show up then.

Beyond these questions my heart felt a deep sadness for Caroline. She wants a friend and liked thinking about a regular life (riding a bike is a big one) she misses out on making choices for herself. I do like how she is changing her path by the book’s end but she will always be on the perimeter, always having a difficult time forming friendships and trusting. I will recommend this book, can’t wait to hear what my book club has to say about it tomorrown night and would love to know other’s thoughts on whether this is her father or not?? Read it.

One Crazy Summer

by Rita Williams-Garcia
(2010)
215 pages

It’s 1968 and LBJ is president, the Vietnam War rages on and Robert Kennedy’s funeral takes place at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in NYC. The Yippie Movement lead by Abbie Hoffman is in East Coast while on the West, the Black Panthers lead their own movement. While they protest Huey Newton’s arrest and the death of young Panther, Bobby Hutton, the Panthers also run a summer camp of sorts, a free health clinic and provide breakfast for thousands of children in the Oakland neighborhood. It was fascintating stuff learning more about this organization, generally shadowed in a negative light.

The book opens with three sisters, Delphine, Vonetta and Fern, flying from NYC to Oakland, CA where they will meet their mother-the mother who abandoned them years earlier when Fern was a baby. She chose poetry over her own children but their father feels it is important for the girls to see her.

The meeting:

The stewardess marched us on over to this figure. Once we were there, face-to-face, the stewardess stopped in her tracks and made herself a barrier between the strange woman and us. The same stewardess who let the large white woman gawk at us and press money into Fern’s hand wasn’t so quick to hand us over to the woman I said was our mother. I wanted to be mad, but I couldn’t say I blamed her entirely. It could have been the way the woman was dressed. Big black shades. Scarf tied around her head. Over the scarf, a big hat tilted down, the kind Pa wore with a suit. A pair of man’s pants. Fern clung to me. Cecile looked more like a secret agent than a mother. But I knew she was Cecile. I knew she was our mother….

Cecile finally turned as she got to the glass doors and looked to see where we were. When we caught up, she said, “Ya’ll have to move if you’re going to be with me.” (18-19)

It is an amazing summer of connections but not between Cecile and her girls but the community and the girls; a world far away from their sheltered life with Big Ma and their Pa. Here they go to get dinner for themselves from the Chinese restaurant on the corner. They become part of life at the Black Panter Community Center. As they move into the larger picture of the world, Cecile realizes a thing or two about these girls she does not claim.

My thoughts: I loved reading about this era and felt Rita Williams-Garcia did a great job of portraying this very hip, yet dark time in our history. Each character had very distinct qualities and even Cecile had some hidden treasures with in her odd personality. Even though I despised her abandonment I know in my heart many women are just not mothers. The sisters are loveable and fiesty-how could Cecile not love them fully-and end up understanding her despite her shortcomings as a mother. I think this one will win an award or two!

Other Reviews:

Stacy at Welcome to my Tweendom
Nicki at Dog Ear
Jennifer Represents…
Sommer Reading

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