A Friendship for Today

The only problem I ever had with this book was its title and that wasn't resolved until almost the last page. Once I understood what it was referring to, I could appreciate it. Either I was being dense, or I had never heard a friendship referred to in that way before. I will clear that up right now. Some friendships are forever and always and others are for a season. A Friendship for Today by Patricia C. McKissack is about a friendship for a season. A friendship developed out of need and common circumstances despite the fact that it was never meant to happen.

My favorite part about this book is that it is semiautobiographical. The heroine, Rosemary Patterson, is based upon McKissack herself. Nearly everything else has been fictionalized "in order not to embarrass anyone and also to tell a good story." The only character that is entirely non-fiction is Rags, the cat, to whom this book is dedicated.

This book takes place during the year after the Supreme Court ruled against segregation in Brown v. Board of Education. Border states like Missouri immediately moved to close the "colored" schools and build new schools for integration. Rosemary's elementary school was closed and all of her friends were split up between the old whites-only schools and the newly built Robertson school. Rosemary and her best friend, J.J., are both to attend Robertson, but Rosemary is left to be the only colored student in her 6th-grade classroom when J.J. contracts polio.

The situation worsens when Rosemary discovers that she is assigned to sit next to Tasteless Grace Hamilton, a white girl from Dead End. Dead End is a section of houses where several white families live and are surrounded by the colored community. Grace and her family have made it firmly clear that they believe coloreds are inferior to whites. It quickly becomes apparent that Grace is shunned by her classmates as much as, if not more than, Rosemary. Grace is poor white-trash and therefore untouchable.

Because both Rosemary and Grace start as outsiders, they become convenient friends. They learn to stand up for each other and in some circumstances protect each other when necessary. Grace chooses to be Rosemary's friend against her family's wishes. Rosemary chooses to be Grace's friend against her better judgement. Turns out they both have something to learn. Grace has been raised to be arrogant, stubborn and  subservient whereas Rosemary has been raised to be "proud but not arrogant, firm but not stubborn, humble but not subservient."

Their teacher, the unprejudiced Mrs. Denapolis, saves the year by making tolerance the word of the year. She shares her own immigrant history and encourages the children to focus on embracing their differences. The class is quite diverse. Stuart is Jewish; Katherine is wealthy; Jason is Chinese; Grace is dirt-poor. Mrs. Denapolis runs a classroom that survives integration because of a positive attitude. McKissack also shows how a child is negatively affected by a prejudiced teacher through one of Rosemary's old school friends who attends a different school.

This book is under 200 pages, but it is full of so much history, and yet it is easy to digest because it is so beautifully written. Rosemary is a stunning character. She lives through so much with a great deal of grace. I had never considered ... The adults, Rosemary's parents, worked and fought so hard against "separate but equal." They understand the benefits and consequences of integration. They understand the quality of education that was being denied them. And yet, the children, like Rosemary, are the one's who must carry the burden without understanding the "why". Rosemary loved her old school. She didn't really understand why it had to close or why the Supreme Court had to "okay" the issue if the whites really wanted to attend school with coloreds. Her old school would have made room for some whites ... Innocence thrown to the lions.

The Lion and the Mouse

So, what does the librarian do when she has two Caudill nominees left and she's only halfway done with the one that was "scheduled" for today? She presents the Caldecott Medal winners and honorees. My first picture books! And, please note, ALL THREE are non-fiction! Woo Hoo!

The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney (J398.2/A) won the prestigious Caldecott Medal this year. Pinkney is both the author and the illustrator of this retelling of the classic Aesop's fable. This book is almost, but not quite, a wordless picture book. There are a few "squeaks" and "growls" here and there. When I first "read" this book to my daughters, I suggested that they narrate the story that the pictures were telling. They declined and the book became tedious. Oh well, the pictures are breathtaking.

I would suggest a refresher course on Aesop's Fables is in order. In The Lion and the Mouse, the lion catches an unsuspecting mouse. The mouse begs for his freedom in exchange for the possibility that one day he might return the favor. The lion finds this humorous enough to grant the wish and releases the mouse never expecting to need rescuing. One day the lion finds himself caught in a net and helpless. The mouse appears with a set of chompers and chews the lion free of the net. The moral of the story is that little friends may prove to be great friends.

All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon, illustrated by Marla Frazee (811.6/S) is one of the honorees for 2010. I adore Frazee's illustrations in this book and her other works. I can spot her work easily and it is always pleasing to my eyes. I always get excited to see a new book with her name attached to it. I really wish that it were cataloged as a JE (juvenile easy) rather than as poetry. The book is written in nine rhyming stanzas, yes, but it is my opinion that it will get lost in the poetry section. It would have a higher circulation as fiction. While I have read this book, I have yet to bring it home and test it on the youngsters.

One of the neat things about this book is that the main family is biracial. The mother is white and the father is probably African American. The children are multiracial.

All the World is about how the children, with their parents, explore the world around them. They first interact with nature at the beach and in the rain. Then they get to interact with other families as they go out to eat and then go home to be musical. The book covers a day and shows our part in this wonderful world.

Now here is the book that the Henkel household LOVED. Red Sings from the Treetops: A Year in Colors by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski (J811.54/S) Again I will point out that I SO WISH this book were designated as a JE. It is gorgeous and I love the poetry. Yes, I just said I loved the poetry.

You see, I'm called the Crayola girl. Show me a color and I can name it. I'm not afraid of colors or using them either. My dining room is Candied Yam orange right next to a Faded Denim blue living room. And I can prove that orange and purple go together. Check out the crocuses! And here is a book that was made for me. The author describes what the colors look like, sound like, and even taste like as the seasons change. Ever imagine pink as the color of winter? Why yes, of course, it “prickles: / warm fingers / against cold cheeks.”

The Caldecott Medal, named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott, is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.

Scat

I have a very hard time saying that I don't care for a book. Perhaps, by having the guts to admit I don't really like Scat by Carl Hiaasen, this could be a very interesting review today. I didn't like it!

Let me start by saying that I am in no way a tree-hugging environmentalist. I adore animals. I want to play with lions. I get warm and fuzzy holding a gorgeous python. I can find beauty in feeling a tarantula crawl down my face. Am I sad about the polar bears? Yes. Is saving them my passion? No. Can I get excited about a book all about saving a Florida panther? I guess not.

The Black Vine Swamp is home to various flora and fauna including the endangered Florida panther. There are less than 100 in the world today according to this novel. It is illegal to kill them and illegal to disturb their hunting grounds. Mrs. Starch, 6th-grade biology teacher, possible witch and most-feared teacher in the school, takes her class on a field trip to explore the swamp and its inhabitants. A swamp fire forces the class to cut their field trip short and head back to school. Mrs. Starch stays behind to retrieve a student's inhaler and then vanishes.

In Mrs. Starch's biology class the previous day, she had an altercation with a student, juvenile deliquent, known as "Smoke." She pointed a pencil at him and he not only bit it in half, but chewed it and swallowed it graphite and all. He also threatened her, but you couldn't blame him. Mrs. Starch is known for her bullying of students. So the fire and the disappearance of Mrs. Starch look like the work of Smoke ... a supposed pyromaniac. Of course there is more to that story than meets the eye.

I like the idea of Mrs. Starch. Everyone knows a Mrs. Starch, the hated teacher at school and usually hated because they make you work so hard. Looking back on my own education, these are the teachers I love and respect the most. Her physical description bothers me though. She wears her makeup "rolled on like paint." Her hair is processed. These are things I would definitely NOT associate with a woman who wants to save endangered species. I get this image of a hooker and not an educated, stern environmentalist. It doesn't help that her first name is Bunny.

The main character is Nick, one of her students. I really don't have much to say about him. He's rather uninteresting really. The most memorable thing for me is that his dad is a Captain in the Florida Army National Guard and is serving in Iraq. He gets injured and is sent home missing his right arm and most of his shoulder. I'm married to a retired Captain of the Illinois Army National Guard. I've lived it. And I don't care for the way it is portrayed in the book. I have a hard time believing that a stereotypical environmentalist can accurately write about the feelings of a military family. It was almost as if he wanted to say something against the war, but didn't do it. I've never met a 6th-grade son of a soldier who is this wishy washy about his father's service to his country.

The true bad guy in this book is Drake McBride. He is the good-for-nothing, greedy son of a wealthy man. His father is giving him one last chance to make something of himself and then he is cut off. McBride uses the last of his funds from his father to start an oil-drilling business on a section of the Black Vine Swamp that he has legally purchased. Unfortunately, there is no oil to be found on his portion of the land. But he knows that there is oil on the adjacent, State of Florida-owned section and he intends to set up a pirate drill and make his jillions illegally. He just needs to keep the authorities away. Jimmy Lee Bayless is McBride's right-hand-man. Among his job responsibilities, keeping the authorities away is first on his list.

Now, while I'm talking about greed and wealth, it bothers me that three of the important adults in this book are wealthy. I've already covered McBride, the bad. There is Twilly the Environmentalist who uses his wealth for the good of the environment. He prefers to sleep in the swamp among the gators rather than to live in a house in the city. His needs, supplies, are all choppered in. At the same time, he leads our young readers to believe that it is okay to strip a guy naked and superglue him to a tree. Or strip a guy naked and spray paint him orange. Or steal pipes. Or disable a pickup truck as long as you are on the right side.

The third rich adult is Millie Winship, Smoke's grandmother. She pays for his education at a private school. She makes donations to ensure that he is not expelled. She buys high-powered lawyers to plea bargain for her delinquent grandson. And she takes her grandson and son-in-law out to dinner perhaps to alleviate the guilt she feels that her daughter abandoned the two. Really, is this a book for middle and high schoolers? Or is it an adult book that is toned down with a few kids thrown in for a greater audience?

This is Hiaasen's third novel for juveniles. He primarily writes for adults. I've read Hoot, but not Flush. I don't think I will. I've heard that he uses the same plot lines and Scat was relatively predictable. Still there are many that LOVE it. Just not me. And that's okay. By the way, there are a few instances of "damn" said by adults and one "dumbass". (I'd give you the links for Hoot and Flush, but the server seems to be down. My apologies.)

Yellow Star

Does your family have a story? Some are funny. My Grandma and her sister married twin brothers. Her son, my dad, and his brother, my uncle, married sisters! I broke that tradition. Some are sad. I know I had a great great uncle from Austria who fell overboard on his way to America. Some are tragic. I know my husband had an aunt who was kidnapped by Nazis and was never seen again.

Within some tragic stories, there is hope and survival. Yellow Star by Jennifer Roy is such a story. Roy's aunt, Syvie Perlmutter, was one of only twelve children to escape the Lodz Ghetto in Poland. Yellow Star is her story, remembered and told decades later. Syvia, now called Sylvia, told her story to her niece in phone conversations across thousands of miles. Roy was uncertain of how to tell her aunt's story, but knew it needed to be saved for future generations.

The result of Roy's efforts is a short book in free verse. It is a quick read, but heavy in pain, sorrow, terror. It is divided into years and seasons and events. The monotony of Syvia's days is captured quickly, but it is the moments that are etched in her memory that move the book forward.

Syvie was only 4 years old when the Nazi's invaded Poland in 1939. Within months, her family and more than 250,000 Jews were forced to move into the Lodz Ghetto, packed in like sardines at first, but violence, starvation and eerie vanishings quickly cut their numbers. Syvie parents had to work, and her older sister was old enough to work herself and earn another ration of food. Syvie was forced to stay at home alone. There was no school for the Jewish children. Syvie occupied her time keeping the small apartment clean and playing with dust bunny "dolls". After children started disappearing, Syvie was required to stay indoors at all times for her safety.

The German soldiers required the Jews in the Ghetto to work for them. Any person who was too frail or too weak, too old or too young was a "waste" of food and space and the Germans began to systematically kill or take these people "away." Eventually, the soldiers began a thorough search for any children below the age of twelve. They took them away from their families and put them on trains. The soldiers said that the children were going to a better place, but it was a lie. They were going to the concentration camps and then on to the gas chambers. Syvie was lucky that her father was smart and always ahead of the game. For awhile, they hid in a hole in a graveyard together, night after night, to avoid the raids.

The Russians finally freed the Jews of the Lodz Ghetto in 1945 when Syvie was ten. Unfortunately, there were only about 800 Jews left and only 12 children. Children that had been hid in graveyards, on rooftops, in the woods and in cellars over the last five years and rarely ever seeing the light of day.

This book is all the more powerful because it is written in the first person, in the voice of young Syvie herself. It was difficult to read because I could imagine having to fight for the right of my own daughters to live. I cannot imagine leaving my youngest home all day, alone, without food or any supplies of any kind. I could not eat or sleep at night thinking that my child's life might not have a future beyond tomorrow. It is books like these, that recreate actual history, that make The Hunger Games and the like either look tame or look possible. Both of which are frightening ideas ...

Waiting for Normal

Every story has bad guy, an enemy. Chains has slave-owners; The Boy Who Dared has Hitler; Found has time-travelers; Schooled has bullies; The Alchemyst has Dr. John Dee and the Dark Elders; and in 11 Birthdays the main character's worst enemy was herself though she thought it was her former best friend. Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor also has a bad guy, unfortunately, it is the main character's own mother.

Twelve-year-old Addie calls her mother "Mommers" which sounds cutesy, babyish and affectionate. Her mother, Denise, does not deserve such a term of endearment. I am grateful that I am not required to like this character. And my mind keeps telling me, especially as we draw nearer to Mother's Day, that mothers provide unconditional love and should receive it back. I absolutely detested Mommers because she just doesn't understand LOVE.

Addie belongs to Mommers and Mommers alone. Addie never knew her father and he was probably never truly in the picture to begin with. Mommers married Dwight and he is the best thing that ever happened to the two. Addie loves her step-dad. Mommers and Dwight have two more daughters together and Addie loves them dearly and takes good care of them. Dwight sure tried to make it work. Unfortunately, Dwight's line of work takes him away from home for extended periods of time. During one of these absences, Mommers up and leaves too and Addie stays home to care for two babies by herself for several days. That's the end of "close to normal."

Dwight and Mommers divorce and Dwight receives custody of the two babies, but he cannot have Addie unless Mommers willingly gives up her rights. And she will NOT. Dwight still goes out of his way to help the two because he loves Addie so much. He really wants her for his own. Instead, he buys them a trailer in Schenectady and sends monthly alimony checks. He also checks in on Addie and makes sure the sisters get to see each other periodically.

Addie quickly makes friends in the community. The local convenience store is run by Elliot and Soula, and they genuinely like Addie and welcome her into their lives. Soula is undergoing chemotherapy and often doesn't feel well, but she always likes to have a laugh. Elliot is Soula's co-worker and, in a way, her care provider. Elliot has a boyfriend Rick who runs the local diner, another place where Addie feels acceptance, importance and love. Then there are her friends at school and the stage orchestra where Addie plays the flute. So when Mommers starts disappearing for days at a time again, Addie manages by spending time with her friends.

As I mentioned above, there is a gay relationship in this book, but it is not sensationalized or moralized. It's just a fact of life and only appears in one chapter where the relationship is revealed. Rick writes a letter to leave for the love of his life - Elliot. Addie is confused because she thought Elliot was Soula's boyfriend. Worse, is Mommers behavior. She finds a new boss, but a better word would be boyfriend. When she disappears, she is with the boyfriend - Pete. We never - Addie never meets Pete. Pete is unaware of Mommers' family. Mommers eventually tells Addie that things will change when Pete finds out about "the baby". Yes, Mommers is really good at having babies, but she has no idea how to take care of them and provide for them.

This book was especially hard for me to read because I see these kinds of families most everyday. Kids taking care of younger siblings because the parents are out of the picture most of the time. We have kids who will spend an entire day at the library on the computers. They won't even leave for lunch or a snack. When it is time to go home, they call their parents to come pick them up, and the parents tell them they can walk home. Even if it's 9pm on a school night. It's also not unusual for some of these kids to turn into toublemakers. Addie is not a troublemaker.

Addie is an amazing girl who gets along so she can get along. She makes dinner for her and her mother. She makes sure there is food in the pantry. She cleans up after herself. She makes sure she gets to school on time. She works extremely hard to learn her flute music so she won't let down her fellow musicians and teacher. And she doesn't want anyone to worry about her. She feels that Mommers needs someone and since Addie is hers and hers alone, it is Addie's responsibility to stick it out with Mommers. Even when Mommers ditches her for Christmas to go sleigh-riding with Pete! Detestable.

The hardest part is occasionally she gets to spend time with Dwight and her sisters. And Dwight has met and fell in love with a wonderful woman. As Addie's life gets worse, theirs gets increasingly better. What should be a positive thing becomes a painful thing. All Addie wants is to be a part of "normal". Don't we all?

Trouble

I am always shocked to find unusual similarities between the last book I read and the current book I'm reading. They always seemed connected - like I was meant to read them in that order. This has been happening to me for years and I can't possibly go back and catalog all of the instances. Someone else might not think anything of it, but it always seems "other-worldly" to me. Occasionally, the books aren't read consecutively, and this is such an instance. I read Trouble by Gary D. Schmidt several books ago and I'm currently reading Scat which I will get to here in a few days I'm sure. In both books, a character loses an entire arm. That JUST occured to me this morning. Now that I'm sitting here, Shark Girl from last year's Caudill list also had a character losing an arm! Maybe that's not so unusual after all. It just sets mind off wondering about the implications of losing a limb ... Perhaps this isn't such a profound "similarity" as I usually find. But it was a jolt to my system.

Schmidt is an author that has come to my attention through Newbery Honors. He has written Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy and The Wednesday Wars. The latter is one of my all time favorites! It is so funny that I had to read a chapter out loud at the breakfast table. I HIGHLY recommend it. The first is also very well-written and I enjoyed it, it is just that The Wednesday Wars is, in my opinion, one of the best. All three deal with race-relations and prejudice to some extent. And all three are also, considered historical fiction, by the standards of our young readers. They are all set in the twentieth-century. Trouble is set in the long ago 80's, although I must confess that I didn't notice that until now. Must be my age. I will have to go back and read it now that I know these kids are MY age!

I was surprised by Trouble, initially, because it was already in Young Adult, and Juvenile didn't have a copy. Always makes me wonder why we don't have it. What was the deal-breaker? Then I was startled by its dark tragedy. It is so very different from the humorous WW. Henry Smith and his family are from a wealthy and long-established New England family. The Smith family home was built 300 years ago in Massachusetts and the Smith's have always lived there. Henry's father has always said that you live far from Trouble and Trouble will never find you. Except that Trouble has found the Smith family and it doesn't matter how hard they try to hide from it, there is no escape from Trouble.

Henry is finishing his years at a prestigious junior high and looking forward to joining his older siblings at an elite high school. Henry has an all-American older brother, Franklin who can do no wrong. Henry idolizes him and his accomplishments and feels like he can never catch up, let alone surpass, next next "American Hero". Henry's older sister Louise has also established herself as both an academic and an athlete. This is too much pressure for Henry and it doesn't help that his brother teases and bullies him, but he accepts it as his lot in life.

Then the fateful night arrives when Franklin is mortally injured by a hit and run driver. Franklin is in a coma and he has lost an arm. "Bigger Than Life" Franklin has been reduced to a pale shell of his former self. The family is forced to wait for a final outcome. Franklin's brain shows "indeterminate activity" which particularly bothers Henry. Henry tries to continue a normal life with his mother stoicly chauffering him around. Louise won't leave her room even to eat. Henry's father won't leave the house even to go to his job. Henry doesn't know what is worse. His father's grief or his mother's stoicism. Henry's best friend provides the comic relief and fills in with the ribbing where Franklin has had to leave off.

Not far from Henry's quaint New England town, is a blue collar ghost town that has been recovered by Cambodian refugees. One refugee, Chay, attends the same private high school as the Smiths. His family has worked hard and sacrificed much to get him a quality education. It has not been easy for Chay to attend a White Anglo Saxon Protestant dominant high school. He has been hazed by students and treated unfairly by the administration. It doesn't help that Chay turns himself over to the police for hitting Franklin with his pickup truck. It hurts community and race relations further when a plea bargain gives Chay freedom on probation instead of jail time.

This is not the whole story. There is a stray dog to save. There is a mountain to climb. There is a ship in the harbor to uncover. And there are two families suffering that want to be left alone by the media and the community, but are hounded at every turn. There are more twists and turns in this novel than I was prepared for. I love its story of forgiveness and also the message that sometimes the bullies you should be most frightened of are the bullies that you live with.

Schooled

First, a definition of "commune" from Wikipedia. "A commune is an intentional community of people living together, sharing common interests, property, possessions, resources, work, and income. In addition to the communal economy, consensus decision-making, non-hierarchical structures and ecological living have become important core principles for many communes." In the 60's they were "free-love refuges for flower children."

In Schooled by Gordon Korman, we meet thirteen-year-old Cap, short for Capricorn, who has grown up on a commune with his Grandmother, Rain. This particular farm-commune was established in the 60's by Rain and other, like-minded hippies. Unfortunately, in the 00's, the Garland Farm has only two residents - Cap and Rain. When Rain falls off of a ladder and breaks her leg, she is no longer independent. She needs hospital care and then physical therapy. Cap can't stay at home, so he moves in with a social worker who happens to know a little something about Garland Farm.

Cap knows how to drive a pickup, but has never seen a TV. He knows when and how to harvest the fruit grown on the farm, but he has never eaten pizza. Rain has homeschooled him according to the law of the land so he would pass a Constitution test, but he doesn't know what "dial 9-1-1?" means. We first meet Cap when a police officer arrests him for driving without a license. Cap doesn't understand what is wrong because Rain taught him to drive when he was eight!

Things go from strange to crazy when Cap is enrolled into Claverage Middle School. The student body calls it C-average. We get to meet several members of the student body. There is the jock, the bully, the geek, the popular girl and the wannabe. The bully, Zach, intends to carry out the 8th grade tradition of nominating the geek for Student Council President and ensuring that s/he wins and making the year shear torture for the geek. Nervous break-downs are not uncommon. Lucky for the resident geek, when Cap comes to town, he moves up the scale a notch. Zach sets his sights on Cap instead. Let the jokes/pranks begin! What Zach doesn't see coming? Cap takes the job seriously and the pranks seriously too. Zach finds himself on the receiving end.

I have seen this book paired with Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli, a book that was widely circulated a few years ago because of its message against bullying. To put it another way, a message for embracing our differences. Cap is teased and plotted against because he is different - strange. He is peaceful and accepting. Everyone is his friend, but even the geek, the first to befriend him, turns against him for his own benefit eventually. This book is a fine example of mob-mentality. Someone identifies the weakest person and everyone follows to make that person's existence miserable. In Cap's case, he was raised to be an independent free-thinker and a member of a society where even his wishes are given full consideration. He is strong enough, or perhaps naive enough, to continue to love and even win the hearts of the mob.

It is fun to see what all kinds of trouble Cap can get into because of his naivete. His is arrested more than once. He's always the hero despite the misunderstandings and miscommunications.