Strong Female Characters – Peaceful Reader

29 days of book love…

I read this book on a road trip and annoyed my family for many miles as I exclaimed and read paragraphs to them. And by them I mean my husband as I’m sure Groovy Girl and Teenage Boy had ear buds in. He liked what I read to him, thought it was also good but I think my exuberance for Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming was over the top for him.

I was ready to make it into a play. Even though the book is fiction it is her account of growing up and it’s told in beautiful poetry. I’m not a fan of books told in verse but this one I loved. Her poems really spoke to me. Her family stories move between South Carolina and NYC during the 1960’s.

Now that I’ve reminded myself about how much a loved reading every page of the book I may have to pick it for my 6th grade book club. I’ll have to wait a book or two as we are just finishing up The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly, another strong female character historical fiction for every one to read. So much book love…

and look the awards on both books.

29 days of book love

April is a long way off but I’m looking forward to it for several different reasons.

1. Spring will have sprung and it will be warmer.
2. Our son will turn 21 at the end of April
3. Maggie Stiefvater’s book The Raven King will arrive.

I read her Shiver series first and liked it-the characters especially-I think she has an amazing knack for creating memorable characters and placing them in very unique stories often related to legends or fairy tales. A few years later I fell in love with The Raven Boys. I consumed all books in short order as soon as they were published. In fact one came out after I’d had my kindle for about a year. I hadn’t read one book on it though because it was hypocritical-me being a librarian and all. Then The Dream Thieves came out and I could download it ever so quickly and suddenly I could see the advantages of this Kindle tool.

I love Blue’s character and I thought I could easily have grown up in her household. Crazy aunts, psychic mothers, I would have fit right in. I highly recommend the whole series. Any of Stiefvater’s books are worthy. Also if you every have the chance to go to one of her author events she is entertaining and enjoyable to listen to-she rants, swears, and tells great stories.

Blue Sargent, the daughter of the town psychic in Henrietta, Virginia, has been told for as long as she can remember that if she ever kisses her true love, he will die. But she is too practical to believe in things like true love. Her policy is to stay away from the rich boys at the prestigious Aglionby Academy. The boys there — known as Raven Boys — can only mean trouble. (from the book’s website)

Seven Wild Sisters by Charles De Lint

This charming fairy tale will make a perfect way to introduce young readers to a good fantasy story. Sarah Jane and her sisters live very near Tanglewood Forest and she’s curious about what resides there as her elderly neighbor Aunt Lillian shares stories of the forest creatures with her as they do chores.

The stories come alive for Sarah Jane when she rescues an injured tiny man by bringing him to Aunt Lillian. The two attempt to return him through Lillian’s old friend, the Apple Tree Man. Once Sarah Jane is involved the fighting fairy realm kidnap her six sisters to hold as ransom. None of the girls are capable of using or performing magic but use their heads and hearts to help them out of their trouble. While they witness creatures they never thought real their biggest thought is to get back to mama before she misses them.

Told in 260 pages this is an easy read and will hopefully help many of my beginning fantasy readers transition from the Rainbow Magic series to this as I plan to order several of Charles De Lint books for my school library. I love fantasy yet this was my first introduction to his writing. I’ve already downloaded to my kindle The Cats of Tanglewood Forest which is set several decades before this one. I hope Mr. De Lint has plans to write many adventures with this lively and adventuresome set of sisters.

A quote:

He came out from the far side of the tree and if it hadn’t been for the ‘sangman I’d found, I’d have said he was the strangest man I’d ever seen. He was as gnarled and twisty as the limbs of his tree, long and lanky, a raggedy man with tattered clothes, bird’s next hair, and a stooped walk. It was hard to make out his features in the moonlight, but I got the sense that there wasn’t a mean bone in his body-don’t ask me why. I guess he just radiated a kind of goodness and charm. He acted like it was a chore, having to come out and talk to us, but I could tell he liked Aunt Lillian. Maybe missed her as much as she surely missed him. (69)

And now you’ve met the Apple Tree Man and you probably want to keep reading…
I received this ARC from Little, Brown and Company which in no way influenced my honest review of this delightful tale. Publication date: February 2014, just in time for a sweet little Valentine gift.
I look forward to checking out a published copy as this copy had only little sketches.

My first book of 2014

I want to do a better job of keeping up with book reviews especially when I’m reading such good stuff. This week I finished The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho. He is one of my favorite authors because his writing always stretches my own thinking.

{2006}

A Middle Eastern couple from Beirut travel to Romania to adopt a child. They have a wonderful life and feel that the only thing missing is a child. After days of trying to decide on one baby in an overflowing orphanage the woman chooses a gypsy baby and names her Sherine. A family uncle later reminds them that Sherine, now a young lady, will want to go out into the world with a less ethnic name and he nicknames her Athena. She adores this new nickname and perhaps that small gesture of a name change helped to transform her. She has always been a religious child and feels a deep connection to the church.

She marries young, bears a son but chooses not to stay married and to raise her son on her own. Her love for her son transforms her everyday life and she begins to look more deeply into her heart and soul. Coehlo writes so gracefully that you fall in love with this woman as she questions, transforms and believes in something greater in all of us. Told through alternating points-of-view we get to see Athena from all angles and how each person is affected by her. Through some of the more learned characters seeking answers about Athena{the witch} we get some profound dialogue:

The character Antoine Locadour, historian explains life and the changes that Athena is experiencing using the philosophy of Carl Jung:

“…we all drank from the same spring. It’s called the “soul of the world.” However much we try to be independent individuals, a part of our memory is the same. We all see the ideal of beauty, dance, divinity, and music.” (170)

and

“Society, meanwhile, tries to define how these ideals should be manifested in reality. Currently, for example, the ideal of beauty is to be thin, and yet thousands of years ago all the images of goddesses were fat. It’s the same with happiness; there are a series of rules, and if you fail to follow them, your conscious mind will refuse to accept the idea that you’re happy.” (170)

and continues with

“The Shadow is our dark side, which dictates how we should act and behave. When we try to free ourselves from the Persona, we turn on a light inside us and we see the cobwebs, the cowardice , the meanness. The Shadow is there to stop our progress, and it usually succeeds, and we run back to what we were before we doubted. However, some do survive this encounter with their own cobwebs, saying: ‘Yes, I have a few faults, but I’m good enough, and I want to go forward.” (171)

Athena, through her encounter with Edda learns more about her own female center and to trust in herself and what she understands as Mother Earth, a female God. I loved the journey this book took me on as I have every book Coehlo has written. My other favorites are The Alchemist and By the River Piedra I sat down and cried. Find Paulo Coelho at his website. I picked this one up at a used book sale and I’m making it my quest to read the rest of his books.

Weekend warrior.

Woe is me! I have to spend half my day sitting around Barnes and Noble today, browsing through books. My daughter is in the local production of Junie B., Jingle bells, Batman smells! and they are performing from 1-3 to happy book shoppers. I’m sure I won’t leave empty handed and I wish I could take a handful of book bloggers with me! I can think of much worse places to wile away my afternoon.

A concentration camp would be top on that list after spending several hours in the middle of the night reading the end of Elizabeth Wein’s finely crafted historical fiction Rose under fire. Brutal, well-written, but brutal, brutal, brutal. The bonds she made in the women’s concentration camp carry you through the most horrible descriptions. I loved Code Name Verity and this is a companion novel, making use of the same war, different setting with kick-ass female characters/heroines and a few carry over characters. Both Wein’s novels and Junie B. have nothing in common except they all feature powerful young women.

A sample:

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Rose explains to her boyfriend Nick her aspirations and frustrations:

Finally Nick said sympathetically, “What’s made you so
bloodthirsty?”

“I’m not bloodthirsty.
There’s no blood in a pilotless plane, is there? I’m a good pilot. I’ve probably been flying five years longer
than half the boys in 150 Wing. I flew with
Daddy from coast to coast across America when I was fifteen and I did all the
navigation. You’ve never flown a
Tempest, or a Mustang, or a Mark Fourteen Spitfire-I’ve flown them all, dozens
of times. They’re wasting me just
because I’m a girl! They won’t even let
us fly to France-they’re prepping men for supply and taxi to the front lines,
guys with hundreds’ fewer hours than me, but they’re just passing over the
women pilots. It isn’t fair.” (14)

Have a happy Saturday. Here in Iowa it is a gorgeous day outside and I have to finish cleaning up my garden.

2 Excellent YA Stories

I recently went on a YA craze so I could vote for Iowa Teen summer reads. I’ve waited all summer looking each time at the library for Eleanor and Park at my closest library and it was always checked out. I got lucky one day and found it sitting there waiting for me.

Eleanor and Park (2013) by Rainbow Rowell

What a fantastic read this is! Eleanor re-enters her family life after having spent the last year living with a family friend. She meets Park on the bus as she makes her way to her new school. Nobody else wants her to sit with them, that awful thing that happens on school buses across the nation when someone new comes to town and they are a little gawky, unusual, or overweight. She’s shunned by everyone but Park as their relationship begins with little more than head nods and small smiles. Eleanor hides her family life from him as much as possible and as a reader my heart went out to her as she attempted to feel comfortable in Park’s “normal” household, with two loving parents and food in the refrigerator. Their relationship blossoms and they are both changed by it. I loved this stark look at how a child from an abusive home and in poverty struggles to maintain just a small glimmer of hope through all that is her regular life. Every character in the story is one you will love (or hate) and you will want their lives to continue even as you turn the last page.

The Raven Boys (2012) by Maggie Stiefvater

I loved Stiefvater’s Shiver series so I’m not sure what took me so long to pick this one up off the shelf. I don’t think I even investigated what it was about yet when it appeared on my teen list to read for the summer I was anxious to read it. Once I started I had trouble putting it down. Work kept getting in the way! Blue is the daughter of the local psychic in Henrietta and their house is filled with a merry group of friends who also dabble in the magical arts. Her relationship with her mother is solid and happy until a group of Aglionby Academy boys enter into Blue’s life. The group of boys led by Gansey are all looking for a ley line that runs through Henrietta. Gansey knows who ever unlocks the ley line will hold it’s power and help him in the search for Glendower the Welsh king. I’m a fan of fantasy and enjoyed all parts of this intricately-woven tale. I wanted to sit at the table in Blue’s house and have my cards read by Maura, Persephone and Calla. I’m now very excited to read The Dream Thieves out September 17-just around the corner.

I would add both titles to my best of YA along with Ask the Passengers and The Miseducation of Cameron Post. Have you read any these books? Which one resonated the most for you?

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Wow. This book stunned me. What a fascinating look at WWII. There are so many fiction stories from a variety of viewpoints and I’ve read quite a few from this time period but this is the first one that gave me insight into the role women played in the war.

I have a terrible summer cold and my chest hurts and I smell like Vick’s-this book helped me get through a few sleepless nights. I’d read a little then try to go to sleep, fail, then read a few more sections. Invariably something would completely hook me and I’d have to read just ONE more section. And then I wake up super groggy and still smelling like Vick’s.

A sample:

We weren’t allowed to talk to the pilots, either. I made three jumps that week-the women do one less training jump than the men, AND they make us jump first. I don’t know if that’s because we’re considered cannier than men, or braver, or bouncier, or just less likely to survive and therefore aren’t worth the extra petrol and parachute packing. At any rate, Maddie saw me twice in the air and never got to say hello.
I got to watch her fly, though.
You know, I envied her. I envied her the simplicity of her work, the spiritual cleanness of it-Fly the plane, Maddie. That was all she had to do. There was no guilt, no moral dilemma no argument or anguish-danger, yes, but she always knew what she was facing. And I envied that she had chosen her work herself and was doing what she wanted to do. I don’t suppose I had any idea what I “wanted” and so I was chosen, not choosing. There’s glory and honor in being chosen. But not much room for free will. (140)

Elizabeth Wein created an enviably strong friendship between these two young women characters and weaves an amazingly, intricate tale around them. I know many have already read this one but if you haven’t you must and it is best to read it fresh without a lot of blah-blah from reviewers/bloggers.

Find Elizabeth on twitter @EWien2412 and at her website. Wein’s new title, Rose under Fire, was released in June.

Museum of Thieves (great little chapter book)

I bought this one awhile ago at the Fall Scholastic Book Fair and catalogued (one of the talents I have as I have a Library Science degree) it into the library. I read a few pages and knew it was going to be good. Then I set it down and went about my business.

I picked it back up two years later. None of the kiddos were reading it so I had to investigate further and I loved it. I’m ready for the second one to come around, which upon investigation is out and so is the 3rd one! This is the bonus of reading books before you recommend them; this morning I had a student come in looking for something “mysterious”-I handed her this one and told her to give it a try.

Synopsis:

Welcome to the tyrannical city of Jewel, where impatience is a sin and boldness is crime. Goldie Roth has lived in Jewel all her life. Like every child in the city, she wears a silver guardchain and is forced to obey the dreaded Blessed Guardians. She has never done anything by herself and won’t be allowed out on the streets unchained until her Separation Day.

When Separation Day is cancelled, Goldie, who has always been both impatient and bold, runs away, risking not only her own life but also the lives of those she has left behind. In the chaos that follows, she is lured to the mysterious Museum of Dunt, where she meets the boy Toadspit and discovers terrible secrets. {back cover}

I have post-it notes littered throughout the book of quotes I just couldn’t resist:

But she (Olga Ciavolga) was smiling when she turned back to Goldie. “But there are some things, child, that you should steal, if you have enough love and courage in your heart. You must snatch freedom from the hands of the tyrant. You must spirit away innocent lives before they are destroyed. You must hide secret and sacred places.” {122-123}

There are different sorts of fear, she (Goldie) realized that now. There was the fear of having a musket held to your head, or having black oily water try to snatch you into its depths. There was nothing easy about that fear. It made your heart nearly tear itself out of your chest, and weakened the long bones in your legs so that you could barely stand. It made you want to vomit with fright.
But there was another sort of fear, the fear that you would never be allowed to be who you really were. The fear that you true self would have to stay squashed up, like a caged bird, for the rest of your life. That fear was worse than any soldier. {179}

and one more…

“The museum should never have become so full of wild and dangerous things,” said Sinew. “But the people of Jewel are like Guardian Hope, with her planks and hammers. They tried to nail life down. they wanted to be completely safe and happy at all times. The trouble is, the world just isn’t like that. You can’t have high mountains without deep valleys. You can’t have great happiness without great sadness. The world is never still. It moves from one thing to another, back and forth, back and forth, like a butterfly opening and closing it’s wings.” {197}

Goldie is a brave young girl who listens to her inner voice which takes her places she’d have never thought to venture otherwise. Her and Toadspit try to think through how to solve the problems they face. They are surrounded by interesting adults who guide them. What’s not to love??

Lian Tanner’s Website-with games for the museum!
Random House fun website for this series.

Happy Friday!

Top Notch Elementary Fiction; The Humming Room by Ellen Potter

I’ve had so many new books arriving over the last few weeks and I’m trying to read some of them as fast as I can.

The Humming Room (2012) was in paperback at our book fair a few weeks ago and had me intrigued. I’ve read the first Olivia Kidney book and liked it well enough but last summer I read The Kneebone Boy and was blown away by its quirky characters. Potter’s wonderful writing style carries over to The Humming Room which is loosely based on the classic The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Roo Fanshaw, the young main character, is orphaned when her father and his girlfriend are both killed in a drug-related shooting. Roo is very adept at hiding in small places and going unnoticed. Lucky for her her rich uncle’s assistant comes for her and they make the journey to his island house. On the island Roo is out of place at first but easily slips around to discover mysteries and she begins to enjoy her surroundings. The house was once a tuberculosis sanitarium and Roo explores where the children lived and died. This book has a cast of interesting characters and just enough creepiness to keep 4th-6th graders interested.

Ransom quote:

Pressing her ear to the ground, she closed her eyes and listened to the hushed singing in the soil. It was such a tiny, complicated sound that it required the steadiest concentration. The stirring of worm’s eggs in their cocoons, the pulse of roots, the minute shifting of bugs. Immediately Roo felt herself relax. Her world collapsed down into a tiny little bundle, just the way she liked it. (65)

You Tube book trailer

Another Outstanding elementary fiction

My friend Tina is an extremely avid reader and usually has great recommendations. Last time we were at the library together she loaded me up with several good choices. This was one of my favorites!

Something to Hold

Katherine Schlick Noe

2011

250 pages

Something to Hold takes place in 1962 on the Oregon Indian reservation, Warm Springs. Kitty’s dad works for the government forestry service putting out forest fires in the great Northwest. Her family lives on the reservation, which is fine, but she and her siblings will attend the reservation school as well. She’s unsure of how this will go as she already feels uncomfortable feelings from some of the local children. This is such a great description of what Native life would be like then and probably now as well. The story is based on the author’s own growing up experiences and as a reader I enjoyed her recollections immensely. Noe’s website has an interesting biographical information about her years on the reservation.

Quote that made me mad as Mr. Nute their teacher “teaches” them about Columbus Day as they prepare for a celebration honoring Mr. Columbus and the Native children don’t know or understand the state song:

“We are all immigrants,” he says, “And America is the greatest country in the history of mankind. It was established on the backs of those who came before us.”
Mr. Nute pauses for a second to let that sink in, then he unleashes an oration on Columbus Day and the ideals on which this country was founded. All made possible, Mr. Nute tells us, because this one man and a bunch of others who came after him had the courage and vision to seek out this empty and savage New World, to plant their flags so that civilized men could tame it, men like our country’s forefathers and the great exploreres who made the Oregon Territory safe for the pioneers, all of whom sacrificed so much so that we can have the freedom-the unearned and unappreciated luxury-to sit here and wallow in our ignorance.
“Now, let’s take it from the top,” Mr. Nute says quietly. “One more time.” (56)

This is a lesson for Native children? Yes, I know. The audacity. This attitude is still what gets our country into trouble. This story grabbed me as Kitty deals with friendship, bullying, racism, and attitudes. She learns so much about herself in this one important year. Tina said it first so I’m just agreeing and repeating but this one should be honored with an award this year.