Ninth Ward

Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Today I present the final Coretta Scott King author award honor book. I would recommend this to girls, grades 5th through 8th. At the moment I am debating whether an additional sticker needs to be added to the spine – the ghost story sticker. The problem is that it isn’t really a ghost story so much as it is populated with ghosts. You see, Lanesha, our heroine, can see and even interact with ghosts. And that is your note of warning. Lanesha is gifted with this ability and her Mama Ya-Ya is gifted with visions of the future. They believe in the old world religions of their African ancestors.


Lanesha’s mother was a fair-skinned, light-eyed girl of wealthy southern heritage. The belief is that her star-crossed lover was from the wrong side of the tracks. Mama Ya-Ya was the midwife when Lanesha was born and her mother died. Lanesha was born with a caul over her head – a thing membrane that must be removed and is considered an ill-omen. Lanesha was also born with light, strange-colored eyes. Her mother’s family would not accept her and Mama Ya-Ya was happy to raise the child as her own – in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans.

Mama Ya-Ya is the only family that Lanesha has ever known. And they love each other dearly. In some respects, they only have each other. Mama Ya-Ya is considered a witch by some because of her strange talent to see the future. She worked as a midwife for decades until the fateful year that Lanesha was born. First she birthed Lanesha whose mother died in addition to the caul and the strange eyes. Then there was the baby that died in childbirth. And finally there was the boy, TaShon, born with six fingers to each hand. Mama Ya-Ya was shunned for the doctors at the hospital from then on.

This novel begins in the days leading up to the devastation that was Hurricane Katrina. Mama Ya-Ya is receiving disturbing visions that New Orleans will survive, but not survive and begins to act strangely in her attempt to figure out the meaning of the dreams. Mama Ya-Ya is not the only character acting strangely, in Lanesha’s opinion. TaShon is suddenly no longer quiet and shy. Lanesha never befriended him because she figured he had enough strangeness on his plate to keep him an outcast without her meddling. Now he’s coming to her of his own gumption. There is also the popular Ginia, who befriends Lanesha. Is it too much to hope that they could become friends?

Lanesha is used to being alone and she is an intelligent and strong girl with tremendous potential. But she is going to have to be birthed again to survive the storms to come. Mama Ya-Ya and her mother’s ghost will be aiding her. Mama Ya-Ya’s words, “The universe shines down with love,” provide hope. Her mother’s final motivation instills pride and a sense of accomplishment. And there are always the signs – like the rainbow that occurs after the flood.

Lockdown

Lockdown by Walter Dean Myers

Another Coretta Scott King author honor book that I’m not quick to recommend. The intended audience is African American teenage boys and perhaps even tweens. There are a couple instances of foul language. There is mention of drug, mental and physical abuse. There is an attempted suicide by a peripheral character. And there are fights – several fights. But the book offers hope and help to those who would wish to escape the downward spiral that crime often begins.

Our protagonist is Maurice (Reese) Anderson. He is put into Progress Center, where nothing seems to progress, to serve time for stealing prescription pads from a doctor’s office and then selling them to a known drug dealer. He needed the money – most likely for a need and not a want. He must serve 30 months.

Because Reese has a high I.Q. and because Reese didn’t commit a violent crime and because his time served has been relatively uneventful, he has been chosen to serve in a work release-program. Ten days a month, Reese is handcuffed by an officer and driven to Evergreen, an assisted-living facility for senior citizens, where he is released to Father Santora. Reese picks up garbage, cleans rooms and helps with one resident, Mr. Hooft.

Mr. Hooft is an immigrant to America from the Netherlands. As a boy, his family moved to Indonesia for his father’s job. And then World War II broke out and they were caught in the middle. Mr. Hooft lived in a concentration camp run by the Japanese and survived. Even though Mr. Hooft is a grumpy old man who refuses to trust Reese because he might be a murderer, they do share something in common. They are both survivors.

Reese is very close to fulfilling his sentence. If he can just make it through another four months without incident, he will have his freedom again. Unfortunately, all it takes is one fight and you can end up in detention or worse. You might be moved from Level 1 to Level 3 or 4. They next thing you know, you are no longer on the road to freedom; you are in the bus headed to the prison for adults. It is no longer your freedom at stake – it is your life.

Reese is not a bad kid. If anything, he is too caring. He doesn’t want to see the underdog get hurt. He easily identifies the kind of kids that get picked on and he has a hard time not stepping in to protect them. This is the reason why he ends up in many fights – he’s protecting the little guy. But “The Man” doesn’t care who is in the right.

Incredibly, I found myself commiserating with Reese. “Tired. Tired and sad. It was better to get mad at somebody and fight than just to feel so tired and sad all the time. The idea came to me, came like I should have known it all the time, that tired and sad was how I always felt. I knew I had to get to someplace else, someplace where I wasn’t tired and I wasn’t beat down and sad.”

Yep, that’s me too!

Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty

Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty by G. Neri

I have finished the Newbery Awards. I have already reviewed the Coretta Scott King author award winner, One Crazy Summer which was a Newbery Honor achiever as well. There are three Coretta Scott King author honors that I will be presenting next. The first is Yummy.

I will reiterate that I don’t read Juvenile Non-Fiction. Oh, I flip through the pages as part of my job. I might even read a non-fiction picture book if it’s not sports related. If the topic is particularly interesting to me, I might actually read through it. I’m more apt to look at all of the bright, beautiful pictures in a Nic Bishop “insert-animal-species-here” than read about the animal in the photographs.

Having said that, when I realized that Yummy was a graphic novel, I hesitated. I hesitated a long period of time. I requested it through interlibrary loan. (Decatur Public might not get it at all...) When I had it in my hand, I still didn’t commit to reading it. It’s a fictionalized account of a true story. Do I refuse to read it because it’s non-fiction? Do I make myself read it because it’s fictionalized like yesterday’s Samurai? Do I refuse to read it because it’s a graphic novel? I REALLY don’t care for those. They are too distracting in my opinion (said the girl who really wants a copy of the Bible in graphic novel format. Hmmmmm.)

In the end, it was only 94 pages and I read the first 20 pages zippity quick, so....

Why am I procrastinating with this review? I’m not quite sure who I would recommend it to if I were even going to recommend it. This is the story of the 11-year-old boy who made the cover of Time magazine with the headline, “too young to kill; too young to die.”

Yummy, as he was known to his classmates because he enjoyed sugary foods, lived on the south side of Chicago and was a member of the Black Disciples, a gang. Trying to prove his loyalty and gumption, he pulled a gun on a rival gang member and shot. Unfortunately, he missed and shot and killed an innocent bystander instead – a 14-year-old neighborhood girl with aspirations to become a hairdresser.

Yummy is on the run from the police. At first, the Black Disciples assist in hiding him right under the noses of the cops. But as the story goes national, the attention is too much for the Black Disciples and they start to hunt for Yummy as well. Yummy is shot and killed by his own fellow gang members.

This graphic novel, illustrated in stark black and white pictures, is written in the voice of another boy, Roger, of the same age as Yummy. They knew each other, lived in the same neighborhood, and attended the same school. Roger’s older brother is in the Black Disciples also. Roger is trying to decide “why?” the boy who slept with a teddy bear and could be very normal had turned into a monster.

The book seems more appropriate as a reading assignment in a college sociology class, the topic being “violence in inner city, black communities.” Why is it? And how can we stop it?

Very eye-opening.

Heart of a Samurai: Based on the True Story of Nakahama Manjiro

Heart of a Samurai: Based on the True Story of Nakahama Manjiro by Margi Preus

Hey! A book I can recommend to junior high boys! Who like historical fiction or books based upon true stories.

Heart of a Samurai is based upon the true story of Manjiro, a Japanese fisherboy who is better known as both “the boy who discovered America” and perhaps the first Japanese person to set foot on American soil.

Manjiro was a common boy, the son of a fisherman, with no hopes or dreams higher than following in the footsteps of his deceased father. Manjiro went fishing off the coast of his small village with four of his older friends. An unexpected storm blows them far away from the only land they know. They manage to find safety on bird island.

The boys are stranded in the early 1800s when Japan, called Nippon then, was living under an isolationist policy that lasted for 250 years. No foreigner was allowed to set foot on Japanese soil. AND, no native who left, either purposefully or accidentally, was allowed to return. Stranded sailors like Manjiro and his friends knew that at best they could never return to Japan. At worst, they could try and be executed for the attempt.

Luckily, the stranded boys are discovered by the John Howland whaling crew. The American Captain rescues them, clothes them, feeds them and provides a temporary home for them. And this is their first experience with non-Japanese men. Until this point, the boys have only heard stories of cannibalistic, goblin men with horns, big noses and hairy faces. Only the latter two attributes are true.

Manjiro will discover that as much as the Japanese people find everyone else to be barbaric, Americans are equally repulsed by Manjiro and his people.

Manjiro proves to be an incredibly intelligent young man, as well as open-minded and a quick learner. He learns English effortlessly and thirsts for all knowledge to aid him in returning home someday. Unlike his fellow fishermen who remain passengers on the John Howland, Manjiro soon becomes a member of the crew through his natural abilities.

When the ship arrives at port in Oahu, the Captain helps the fishermen find a place to stay with the anticipation of ships returning to Japan and attempts to return home. But the Captain offers Manjiro an alternative – to return to New Bedford and home with the Captain. It’s a hard decision, but Manjiro has forged a special relationship with the Captain. The Captain says that American is the land of opportunity and Manjiro would like to see what that means.

An enjoyable and inspiring true story about a boy who would someday become an agent of change.

The Sable Quean

The Sable Quean by Brian Jacques

On the evening of Saturday, February 5, 2011, the brilliant author, Brian Jacques, passed away. I found it only fitting that the next book on my shelf to read was Jacque's 21st novel of Redwall. I had mixed feelings when I realized that The Sable Quean might very well be the last Redwall novel I would have the pleasure of reading. I checked the Official Redwall website to find that The Rogue Crew was set to be published in 2011. I wonder if that will still happen.

The series began in 1986, when I was a high school freshman, with Redwall. Matthias, an awkward novice mouse of Redwall Abbey, must come of age and follow the legendary sword of Martin the Warrior to save the Abbey from the evil Cluny the Scourge. And I was utterly unaware. I didn’t discover the book until 2003 or 04 as boy after boy trouped into the Children’s Department seeking Redwall and Mossflower, its prequel. I discovered the series had quite the following and dove right in to see the magic for myself.

Jacques went on to publish a new addition to the series nearly every year up to 2011 – I hope.

It has been a challenge to keep up with Jacques. It always seemed that I was finishing the series only to find another one on the New Book shelves. It would not be necessary to read them in publication order. If you’ve read the first two, you have everything you need to enjoy the rest. I find it nearly mind-numbing that Jacques has continued to write so many Redwall books and each shines. I have yet to grow tired of them. I long to attend a Redwall feast and try the meadow cream, pasties and strawberry fizz that the Long Patrol Hares scoff themselves silly with!

I cannot determine which characters are my favorites. The aforementioned Hares are hilarious warriors – wot wot! The great Salamandastron Badger Lords can be both bloodwrath-filled berzerkers or gentle leaders. My favorite dialect in the series is supplied by the gentle, humble moles, burr oi! In the end, I personally always fall for the Dibbuns – the young ones, the h’infants as it were. And those are only the good guys.

The bad guys consist of rats, stoats, weasels, foxes, snakes, cats and the like. In this entry to the Redwall books, there are two evil leaders who happen to be sables. There is the Sable Quean, Vilaya, and her right-hand “man”, Zwilt the Shadow. Vilaya wants to take Redwall Abbey for her own personal residence. With the help of Zwilt and his gang of Ravagers, she kidnaps the Dibbuns of Redwall Abbey to hold hostage in exchange for the Abbey.

Who saves the day? Blademaster Buckler Kordyne, Hare extraordinaire of the Salamandastron Long Patrol and his best friend Subaltern Meliton Gubthorpe Digglethwaite, better known as Diggs, the tubby hare. They will be joined by a warrior mole, a stone-slinging badger, a runaway shrew and many others in their quest to find the precious Dibbuns.

If you can’t find The Sable Quean on the shelves, satisfy yourself with any of the others and be happy that there are so many to choose from!

Moon Over Manifest

Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool

I have said it here before. I generally prefer the Newbery Honor books to the winner. I wonder how much this belief colors my perception when I read the new Newberys. This much I know for fact - I read Turtle in Paradise in a day and I read One Crazy Summer in two. I figured I could read Moon Over Manifest in four due to its 350 pages. (Yeah, I’ve set up a schedule to avoid fines and put these books back in the system as quickly as possible.) And I tell you what. I really had to push it. I kept falling asleep.


I tell you what disappoints me. We have three or four copies of Moon and they have yet to sit on the New Book shelf. The request list is eight to ten people long because it won the award. We have three copies of Crazy and they are all on the New Book shelf. We even have a special Coretta Scott King Award display to feature Crazy. But I am selling it like crazy!

For me, the most exciting part of Moon is that Decatur, yes, Decatur, Illinois, is mentioned TWICE. I kid you NOT. Also Springfield, Peoria and Quincy. Neil Gaiman mentioned Decatur in a book and Mr. John, one of my partners in crime, wrote to the author and he responded! We’re thinking Mr. John might try it again! Let’s see, So I Married an Axe Murderer, the movie, features a map with Decatur in plain sight. The movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off also mentions Decatur. These things stick out in my mind. LOL.

But enough about quirky me. I recommend this book for kids in 6th through 8th grade who enjoy Historical Fiction. I believe adults will enjoy it more. My guess is that it will be a hard sell to boys even though a main character is a boy, but the primary main character is a girl even if she is a tom boy.

Abilene Tucker has spent her childhood traveling from railroad job to railroad job with her father, Gideon. Gideon has determined that his newest job is not a good fit for a man with a child and so he sends Abilene to Manifest, Ohio, his claimed hometown, to live with Pastor Shady for the summer.

Pastor Shady is an intriguing character. He is the temporary pastor of the First Baptist Church. The church burnt down 14 years ago and the former pastor left. Shady has been preaching ever since from his pub. And he at least used to make moonshine there …

The book is a story within a story. Abilene is living in the summer of 1936 amidst the Great Depression. Abilene learns about her father’s 1918, WWI Manifest through newspaper articles and a Diviner – fortune-teller. She is hoping to find her father’s mark to no avail, but she is entranced with the stories of a young orphan, Jinx, and his escapades. Boys would appreciate this part of the book. Jinx is a schemer.

Why I’m not entranced? Number one – Abilene never engaged me. Number two – I understand the beauty of the blueprint of the book, but in the end, I’d rather just have the meat without all of the extras. If the story is remarkable on its own, then why all of the fancy explaining? I liked Jinx’s story. I would have left out 1936. Then it would be a lovely boys’ novel. Now, I’m not sure what audience, the novel is searching for.

Sapphique

Sapphique by Catherine Fisher

The hardest reviews to sit down to are the ones of books that left me disappointed. That is a horrible sentence, but I simply don’t care. A rewrite would leave me disappointed. Last night, I almost posted that I liked the movie Slumdog Millionaire better than the last two books I’ve read. I don’t know but that means the movie was truly Oscar worthy. The dance sequence at the end left me smiling and wanting to dance. The books left me no such motivation.


Should I even bother to write the reviews… It was someone else’s review that left me with higher hopes…

Sapphique is the second part of what turned out to be a really long book. The first half is called Incarceron (review) which I added to my list of favorite dystopian novels. (The list is actually taking physical form, slowly.) You will most likely find the two in Young Adult collections. I would recommend it to voracious, junior high readers through 20-somethings. I would call it complex or difficult, but in positive terms. It is a book for thinkers. If you like conundrums …

As proof that different readers read books differently, I will present you with a snippet of the recommendation I received. I was told that a character hidden in plain sight became a major player concerning the outcome of the story. I truly appreciate the fact that I was given glowing recommendations in extremely vague terms so as not to give away any secrets. However. Their character that was “hidden in plain sight” was perhaps my favorite character and so I always had high hopes for the role that person would play in the end. Ugh. I spent a good portion of the book paying closer attention to lesser, in my opinion, characters. Misdirection. Sleight of Hand. Illusion.

Interesting. A great portion of this book deals with the Art of Illusion, Magic. Nothing being what it seems.

Sapphique begins where Incarceron ended. Finn is on the Outside with Claudia, but Claudia’s father, the Warden of Incarceron, is in the Inside of the prison. Claudia has two problems now. She must prove that Finn is the Crown Prince of the Realm even though he still has troubles with his memory and he is not very convincing as royalty. He looks and acts more like the prisoner that he has been inside Incarceron. Her second problem is getting into contact with her father. He is the only one who knows where Incarceron is and how to get in and out. She is also in desperate need of his authority and power in the Realm.

Claudia knew that Incarceron had awakened and had become a thinking entity, but she is unaware of a new problem. Incarceron is no longer satisfied with his own “realm”. He wants to come Outside. He wants to escape like Sapphique. And he needs a body to do it.

Pretties

Pretties by Scott Westerfeld

Pretties is the sequel to Uglies (review) and can be found in Young Adult. I am recommending it for girls in High School. The Junior High girls will like it also, but there are a couple things to be aware of.

New Pretties drink and drink heavily. Any party is an intoxicated party. New Pretties regularly wake up with hangovers and quickly take the “cure” so they can begin drinking again. It might seem gratuitous at first, but there is actually a reason for the drinking. The New Pretties are not aware of the reason. Special Circumstances encourages the drinking because alcohol numbs the senses. Alcohol keeps the New Pretties under control.

Pleasure, like intoxication, keeps the New Pretties content and under control. New Pretty Town consists of co-ed dorms and pleasure gardens. There are no rules against co-habitation and everyone uses the pleasure gardens. Our heroine, Tally, actually lives with her New Pretty boyfriend, Zane, for a couple months, but there is no sex mentioned. The author goes no further than a few well-placed and important kisses. There is nothing as powerful as a New Pretty’s first love.

In Uglies the reader was allowed to experience the life of an Ugly and a Smoky through Tally Youngblood. Tally discovers that the mandatory surgery given to 16-year-olds goes deeper than making the teens physically pretty. The surgery also alters the brain – they receive a small lobotomy. Rebel doctors have found a cure, but it needs testing. At the end of Uglies, Tally offers herself as a guinea pig. She will turn herself in to Special Circumstances, become pretty, and then take the cure. There is major obstacle – Tally will not remember her previous convictions.

Reading a book about New Pretties can be annoying. It is kind of like listening to a Valley Girl in the 1980s OR watching the movie Clueless from the 90s. For example: This champagne is so dizzy-making. Your eyes earn 500 milli-Helens. I hate semi-formals; they are so bogus. I prefer black tie. You know what to wear. Jumping out of that Hot Air balloon was so bubbly-making. Let’s be best friends forever. Right? Get the point?

What I find interesting … while alcohol and pleasure numb the senses and satisfy the masses, there are some actions that actually focus the brain and heighten the senses. Tally and Zane discover moments of clarity when their lives are put at risk. They climb a tower without safety devices, approach death’s door, but come away remembering elements of their time as trick-playing Uglies.

Tally remembers her mission, but she still needs to find a way out of New Pretty Town without drawing attention to herself and she wants to save as many of her friends as possible. She escaped once. She can escape again.

One Crazy Summer

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
Today, it is my pleasure to present the 2011 Coretta Scott King Author Award winner. In addition, it also received a Newbery Honor this year, and I actually have to agree that it deserved the double recognition. The book is recommended for grades 4 through 7. I will go farther and say that is definitely a book for girls. The heroine is 11-year-old Delphine and she is followed by younger sisters Vonetta, 9, and Fern, 7. The setting is the summer of 1968, Oakland, California. The sisters get their first opportunity to see Black Panther rallies up close. Previously, they were only exposed to the protests via the news and tempered with their grandmother’s own beliefs.

Delphine’s last memory of her mother, Cecile was when she was four. Cecile nursed baby Fern, placed her in her crib and walked out on them. Big Ma, their father’s mother, moved up to New York from Alabama to take care of the girls. And everything they know about their mother, including why she left them all, is colored by Big Ma’s dislike of Cecile. Why did Cecile leave? Because the girls’ father wouldn’t let her name the new baby.

Seven years later, the sisters are on a plane to Oakland to visit their mother for 28 long days. It is against Big Ma’s best judgment. She doesn’t believe Cecile deserves the chance to see the children she left behind. But their father stands firm that the girls should know who their mother is.

Delphine is given money for special adventures like trips to Disney Land, San Francisco, and Hollywood. She is also given special instructions. She is to take good care of her younger sisters. As the eldest, she is responsible for them and she has been taught well. And they are to represent the Negro race in the best manner possible. Don’t bring shame upon Negros by bringing too much negative attention to them. Not an easy thing when they represent nearly half of the Negros on the plane and are young siblings besides.

What the girls find in Oakland is NOT a mother, but that doesn’t really surprise Delphine. Cecile is more of a secret agent in disguise. She wears men’s trousers, enormous sunglasses, a scarf and a hat on an untamed afro. The woman doesn’t even own a hot comb! And her friends are Black Panthers who call her Sister Nzila.

Cecile’s wish is for the girls to stay out of her way, out of her business, and out of her kitchen. She prefers the girls to get their breakfast at the summer camp run by the Black Panthers, stay for the activities, play in the park until dark, and buy their dinner at Mean Lady Ming’s Chinese Takeout around the corner. EVERYDAY for 28 days.

And so begins the girls’ education in the rhetoric of the Black Panthers. “Power to the People” and “We are citizens, and we demand respect.” And it is opposite to the way they have been raised by Big Ma.

How is Delphine supposed to take good care of her siblings under these conditions? She cannot even cook them a decent home-cooked meal without access to the forbidden kitchen.

It is not necessary that I cry for a book to be considered good in my opinion. But I did cry. And it is the reason that I cried that made this a remarkable book for me. I became Delphine so easily. The author made it possible for me to identify with a young, motherless, black girl. Delphine wants what so many of us want – recognition, respect, affirmation. And Delphine went above and beyond the call of duty. She held so much more responsibility than I ever had to as a child.

She didn’t get all of the answers to her questions, but she received some and from the source. It was refreshing enough that I could cry. Not a lot, but just enough.

Clockwork Angel

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

You are going to find this book in the Young Adult section. Characters are generally teenagers and young immortals. My definition of young immortals is centenarians that look perpetually teenaged and sometimes act as such. I would recommend this book to kids in high school and early 20-somethings. There will be junior high kids clamoring to read it as well. The book goes no further than a couple of passionate kisses, but there are innuendoes and implied sexual relations. Followers of the Twilight Saga, including the moms, will enjoy these books although they are not as emotionally powerful.

Clockwork Angel is the first of a new trilogy called Infernal Devices. This trilogy is a prequel to the Mortal Instruments trilogy that began with City of Bones which won the Abraham Lincoln Young Readers Award. Where City of Bones (review) was set in present day New York, Clockwork Angel is set in Victorian London.

Nathaniel and Theresa Gray are orphans who grew up living with their aunt in New York. Nate moved to London to take a job with their father’s former employer when he came of age. The book begins when Tessa Gray travels from New York to London to join her brother Nate because their aunt has died.

Excited to see her brother, Tessa is chagrined to be picked up by two strange women called Mrs. Black and Mrs. Dark who present her with a letter from her brother. In writing, Nate assures her that she will be well taken care of. Instead, the women force her to train in her, until then, unknown, supernatural ability. Tessa fears for her brother’s life as the women threaten to harm him if she does not comply. They abuse her as well until gradually she learns to “change”.

Tessa is a shape shifter. If she holds an article belonging to a person, she can turn into that person, even if the person is dead. She looks like the person and sounds like the person. With experience, she can access the other person’s thoughts and feelings and can act like the person. Because she can share their memories, she has the ability to see their experiences – how a person was murdered for instance.

Quite by accident, she is rescued by a beautiful young Shadowhunter named Will Herondale. If you are familiar with the first trilogy, you will recognize some family names. He takes her back to the London Institute for Nephilim and they offer her sanctuary. In exchange for her help with their investigation of certain strange, mundane deaths – deaths of mere humans – and the use of her truly rare ability, Tessa is promised the help of the Nephilim in finding Nate.

As with the first trilogy, there are many secrets (is Tessa a warlock and how?), hidden agendas (why is a vampire helping them?), love triangles (will she fall for Will or Jem?), vampires and warlocks (remember Magnus Bane?). Everyone has a hidden background that they are either unwilling or unable to share. And most questions will go unanswered, leaving you impatient for books two and three. The book is enjoyable if mostly predictable. The overall blueprint is the same as for her previous works. The surprises are in the small change in details. I will admit I prefer this setting.