Book #10 Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor & Park

Here's a copy of the cover for the UK version 

Want a feel-good romance to read during the semester break? Eleanor & Park is for you. Seriously, if you’re a child of the 80s, E&P will bring you back to the days of mixed tapes, comics, and school buses (ala John Hughes—the opening scene on the school bus, with it’s colorful use of cuss words seems quite realistic). Eleanor and Park are an unlikely pair thrown together through circumstance. This is the story of their love affair as sixteen year olds, and the type of friendship in which one will endure pain, triumph, and frustration just for a few moments to be with the one they love.

After reading this book, I wondered if the author set it in the 80s in part to appeal to readers like me. The New York Times reviewer of Rapture Practice made a similar case about that book, but my writer husband just says it’s probably the authors reliving their own childhood. I think I agree with him.

The theme of this book really seems to be captured by a comment Park makes about the lasting relevance of Romeo & Juliet “Because people want to remember what it’s like to be young[.] And in love[.]”  Rowell excels at this, and passages will make one remember what it was like really holding hands for the first time or the excitement of finding a moment to be alone together. And, there are the moments of embarrassment and cruelty we may or may not have experienced but were more than likely aware of. There are all sorts of parents in this book; and we find just as many loving, competent adults as we do incompetent, cruel ones.

Finally, thanks to Rowell for offering some hair tips for girls with curly hair (from the author picture on the jacket, it appears as if she has curly hair, too). As a teen who had hair that would never, could never, look like the other girls’, I think it’s important to encourage girls to embrace their individual looks.

Book #9 Aaron Hartlzer’s Rapture Practice and bonus parenting book

Rapture Practice is Hartlzer’s memoir of growing up on a conservative Christian family. He struggles with the strict rules his mother and father enforce mainly through guilt and tactics such as reminding him “God will know if you [insert sinful behavior here]. Hartzler endures a number of public apologies (sort of reminiscent of those religious leaders who publicly confess their sins) for his sins (ranging from listening to a soft rock radio station to drinking alcohol at a New Year’s party) and with each one, he resolves to hide his behavior better and looks to the day when he will be on his own.

Hartzler’s title is great—probably the best one out of the bunch I’ve read so far. It’s the kind of title that has several possible meanings and captures the themes in the book wonderfully.

Memoirs aren’t really my choice of book, but I have a graduate student who just earned her PhD whom I think will enjoy this book. Her dissertation was on using young adult memoirs with teachers in the hopes that they will use them with their students, and she was saddened by how many of them found the books to be too controversial to use in their classrooms. RP would probably have generated the same response.

I think my favorite parts of Hartlzer’s book are the moments he spends with his grandparents, especially his grandmother. We travel to Emery’s grandparents’ houses several times each year and I hope he is able to form a close relationship with them during these brief visits.  

And now for the bonus book.

I always feel the need for some self-help reading when I get overloaded on children’s and young adult books (I had just read Fako Mustache over the weekend after Emery asked me too—it’s a great, funny read for a boy or a girl and yes, it’s about a fake mustache). So, I was browsing my public library’s digital offerings on my Nook, when I came across Rosalind Wiseman’s Masterminds and Wingmen (she’s the author of Queen Bees and Wannabees).

Masterminds and Wingmen is a perfect companion to Rapture Practice. For example, every time Aaron gets in trouble for doing something “wrong” he vows not to get caught again. According to Wisemen, this is part of an adolescent boy’s behavior. In her chapter “Lying and Reconnaissance,” she writes:

"Don’t take your son’s lies personally. If you do take his lies personally, your anger, embarrassment, and frustration will stop you from teaching him that being truthful is worthwhile and you will teach him instead to hide and deceive more."

I think this statement, in part, explains what happens in Hartlzer’s family each time they catch him lying (apparently, I'm not the only one who noticed the lying part, here's a link to a New York Times review noticing the same thing--also contains a review of Openly Straight, which is also in my box). If you read the author’s blurb about him, you learn he goes onto being an actor and lives with his boyfriend (and I just checked Aaron's site and according to twiiter, they are engaged! Congrats!). At the end of the memoir, I can’t even imagine how he gets to that spot without a tremendous amount of hard work, perseverance, and tears. I would like to know that story too.

Do you have any recommendations for pairing children’s/ young adult books with books about parenting? 

Just another example of how nerdy my family is

For the third year in a row, I’ve helped host (along with my students) a book battle at a local library. It wasn’t my idea originally, but basically teens put together teams to answer questions about popular young adult books. It’s basically like one of those trivia nights you see in bars sometimes. In organizing the event, my students learn what teens are reading these days and just how motivated they are at answer questions about books for simple rewards like bragging rights and pizza.

This year I allowed my son to participate even though he’s technically one year away from being eligible (the Harry Potter and Percy Jackson series were two of the five series chosen). He had a blast.

My husband apparently felt a little left out because the very next day, a Tech-Free Thursday (see earlier post), he made his own trivia questions on The Hobbit (which he and Emery saw tonight) and Lord of the Rings. Who on earth remembers the names of the ponies brought along on the trip or the tavern at which they first stop (The Prancing Pony, hmmm. .  . another pony question). Anway, the success and fun of that night led to Emery’s making his own Spongebob trivia quiz (equally as hard as Victor’s). Which led me to offer to make Harry Potter questions for a Harry Potter themed dinner next week. And that’s what happens in families in which both parents have masters in English, although shouldn’t we be writing questions about Shakespeare? Maybe we are just nerds.

Anyway, if you have suggestions for Harry Potter questions, I’ll take them. But, make them as hard as Emery’s question “What is the name of the crook Sandy dreams about during in hibernation?” (which prompted Victor to point out that she dreams about two crooks, sigh, I didn’t stand a chance.)

Book #8 Matthew Quick’s Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock

As I sit down to write this entry, I just heard the story about the school shooting in Colorado—it’s so scary to be a parent and have to worry about school shootings in addition to all of the usual worries parents have (I’m terrified at the fact Emery will drive a car someday). I can’t imagine how those parents in Colorado, or anywhere else school shootings have happen, feel.

School shootings is a subject a few young adult authors have taken up; the last one I remember trying to read was Jennifer Brown’s Hate List, which I couldn’t finish, but I’m told is good.

Matthew Quick’s protagonist Leonard Peacock is a teenaged boy who brings a gun to school for the purpose of committing a murder/ suicide later that day. I think that’s all I’m going to say because I don’t want to give too much away. But, first, here are some things Quick’s book makes me think about:

1.   I despise parents who are absent in their teenagers’ lives. For example, the parents in Anderson’s Speak are atrocious. Are there really parents out there who are so pre-occupied with their lives that they ignore their children to such an extreme?

2.   Authors like Quick, Asher, Anderson, Walter Dean Myers, and Hopkins (not to mention Sapphire’s Push, which I couldn’t finish either) introduced me to characters who experienced horrific acts—ones I could have never imagined, and I so wish don’t exist. And, often they have no control over what happens to them.

3.   Which makes me want to cry. As with Gerald from Reality Boy, I grow to love these characters and I want things to go well for them—exceedingly well—I want their parents to “WAKE UP” or for them to win scholarships or something. But, these superb authors resist giving readers unrealistic contrived endings that makes one wonder what will happen to them.

I like Quick’s work and Boy 21 is one of my all-time favorite ya books. FM,LQ is great, yet I’ll probably suggest it to older readers. And, Mr. Quick, thank you for giving us yet another fabulous teacher.

I think I’m going to try to find a fantasy book to read next. 

Book #7 Alexander Gordon Smith’s The Fury

Here are the U.S. and U.K covers for The Fury. 

The Fury is the name three adolescents give to the unknown force behind the cause for everyone trying to kill them. Literally, these few adolescents are relentlessly attacked by huge mobs of people for no apparent reason, and they try to hide from those affected by The Fury. I don’t know if this book is the first in a series, but I’ve seen the #1 next to the title on some websites.

And, no, all humankind has not become zombies. In fact, the reason for The Fury is quite interesting as is how the heroes of the story battle it. I’m just not sure the story needed to be told in 681 pages. That’s not quite right; I don’t think the final battle scene needed to be as long as it is and while I did not skip pages, I did read through them rather quickly (especially since I wanted to see what happened to some of the characters). For me, the more interesting bits are the back stories of the adolescents who team up to fight (somewhat reluctantly) The Fury. But, I am probably not Smith’s intended audience.  

Alexander Gordon Smith is a successful UK author and has been compared to Stephen King and I might try reading Lockdown as it too sounds like an interesting premise. According to his website, he visits schools frequently and I can attest to his skills as a speaker—I heard him speak at ALAN.

Horror is not necessarily my favorite genre, but there are a few books I’ve enjoyed in this genre—Monstrumologist and The Thin Executioner are two of them.

What horror titles do you enjoy? 

ProfessorMom Volunteers

Emery doesn’t participate in many activities that require parental participation or even attendance. I suppose that’s good as I have a problem as a competitive mother/ person. I even interrupted his performance at master class last week.

But, as a teacher, I know how important volunteers are. Currently, I’m trying to make sure an event I have at a school library next week is successful—and that means recruiting my students and hoping they will be generous with their extra time.

So, when Playmakers need volunteers for productions, I always try to volunteer. In the past, it’s been mainly by donating money and chaperoning backstage, but this time, I thought I’d help out decorating the lobby.

Well, that was a mistake. As someone who hasn’t even decorated her own house for the holidays, I should not have volunteered to decorate the lobby. I’m not going to go into details, but I didn’t even last an hour and I think the group of moms stayed there to decorate for at least 5 hours.

I guess my guilt got the better of me, but I learned my lesson—don’t volunteer for something that you’re not suited too. Better to say no and offer to help in a way that you can. Which is why I offered to take tickets today.

Needless to say, Emery was awesome in Broadway Santa, which is a really cute holiday musical. If there’s a show near you—go see it.

Have you had any disastrous experiences volunteering? 

Book #7 Alexander Gordon Smith’s The Fury

The Fury is 681 pages long; I’m on page 366. I will probably finish and post my review tomorrow, but right now I have to get back to the scene where mobs of people are trying to kill our leading characters.

Book #5 Gene Luen Yang’s Boxers

As you can see I have quite a few books to read.

Now that the holidays are over, I’ll probably only be able to post a review every other day—time to wrap up the semester and attempt to finish a few of my own writing projects.

Finally, something unlike the other four books I’ve read so far. Boxers is set during the Boxer Rebellion in China and has a companion novel Saints. I was lucky enough to get copies of both and talk with the author about his work. As a fan of American Born Chinese, I couldn’t wait to read these books, and I think I like Saints just a little bit more than Boxers. But, first, Boxers is the first historical fiction graphic novel I’ve read. 

Set in the late 1800s, Boxers is Bao’s story, a Chinese boy whose village’s statue of their earth god, Tu Di Gong, is destroyed by a Catholic priest. When Bao’s father tries to seek compensation for the destruction, he is attacked by foreigners on the way and returns to the village broken. Angered by these experiences and guided by the spirits of the gods from the operas he so admires, Bao trains in kung fu and joins the Big Sword Society in order to rid his country of the “foreign devils” and their converts.  

I don’t claim to be a scholar of graphic novels, but color seems to play a large role in Boxers and Saints. Saints, for example, is noticeably less colorful than Boxers; in Boxers color comes through with the different gods, with the blood shed in battles, and with the items associated with religion—the building that serves as the Catholic Church and the statue of Tu Di Gong. (Lark Pien is the colorist). As Bao and his fellow soldiers battle, they are filled with the sprits of gods and those forms fill the battle pages, and now I understand how Yang associates them with superheroes—they float, they fill the pages, and next to the soldiers in their uniforms, Bao’s army represents the passion found in the stories he has grown up with.

I was sort of hoping that there would be author’s notes at the end of each book, as I love reading the “real” stories that inspired the author, but Yang instead provides a short list of further reading and his website provides some further background information as well as some interesting commentary, for example, how Chinese opera and American comics are alike.

The teacher in me hopes these books are used in the classroom. I know many teachers who use graphic novels in their classroom these days, and these two novels offer important insight into an historical period. Furthermore, the genre itself offers additional opportunities for teachers and students to discuss representation.  It would make a perfect addition for a 10^th grade world lit class or an interdisciplinary unit for 8^th graders. 

Book #6 Gene Luen Yang’s Saints

There’s a scene in Boxers where Bao sees a girl whose face resembles one of the masks found in the operas he loves.  Saints is the story of that girl. Four-Girl finds herself learning about Christianity and is visited by a spirit (see the cover of the novel) who inspires the role she wishes to take in the church. I don’t want to say more because I was pleasantly surprised by many of the events in this work.

Like Boxers, Saints uses color to emphasize certain aspects of the story. There are no colors other than shades of beige, white, and gray, and the occasional gold to represent the spirits. Even the blood is a muted shade, unlike its vibrancy in Boxers. 

While I like both books and like their pairing even better, I do like the story of Saints just a little bit more. Perhaps it’s the female protagonist or the special gift she gives Bao. Four-Girl never seems to be taken in by someone else’s wishes or doctrine, and her spiritual guide is more of a guide. And she is alone, unlike Bao who manages for a time to have a supportive group of brothers. Four-Girl must also deal with her society’s gender expectations—and her own. Or maybe it’s just because as a Catholic, I am painfully aware of my religion’s own shortcomings and its beauty. Yang straddles both worlds as he discusses in this New York Times interview.