The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez

Oct15

“From 1960 to 1962, the parents of over fourteen thousand Cuban children made the heart-wrenching decision to send their sons and daughters to the United States . . . alone. . . . They would save their children by sending them to the United States. And so, in 1960, a plan was hatched to help Cuban children escape the Communist island. The plan required the secret transport of documents, an underground network, and the courageous actions of people in the United States and Cuba. For the next two years, Cuban children arrived in Miami, Florida, by the planeload in what would eventually be called Operation Pedro Pan.”

From this actual historic event comes the fictional story of Lucia and Francisco Alvarez, Cuban children whose parents send them to the United States to escape from Castro’s revolucion. This book was nominated for the Cybil Awards in both the the MIddle Grade Fiction category and the Young Adult fiction category. Because of the age of the main character, Lucia, who is a 14 year old teenager with teen concerns as the book opens, and because of a couple of (non-graphic) mentions of aggressive sexual behavior, I would say that the book is most appropriate for teens ages 13 and up. However, don’t let that scare you off even if you have strict standards for that sort of behavior in young adult fiction. The Red Umbrella is anything but salacious, and the picture presented of the evils of Castor’s “Communist paradise” is on target and carries a needed message.

It’s easy for adults to forget and for young people to never be told how very repressive and cruel the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and Cuba were. In Cuba’s case, of course, the repression and tyranny continue to this day. This story, which never descends into political didacticism, will make at least some young people curious enough to find out for themselves how Castro’s Cuba came to be. And that’s a good thing. I love history contained in good historical fiction, and The Red Umbrella is great historical fiction.

Ms. Gonzalez says that this story is based partially on the experiences of her parents and her mother-in-law who were all three as children involved in Operation Pedro Pan. By the third chapter of the book, I was rooting for the children to escape indoctrination by the Cuban Communist regime, and I was soon trying to figure out how it might be possible for the children’s parents to join them in the U.S. Of course, not all of the experiences the children have in the U.S. are positive, but for the most the United States becomes for them The Land of Freedom, even though they miss Cuba and their own Cuban culture and customs.

Other children’s and young adult books about Cuba and Cuban-Americans:
Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale by Carmen Agra Deedy.
The Bossy Gallito: A Traditional Cuban Folktale by Lucia M. Gonzalez.
The Road to Santiago by D.H. Figueredo.
Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba by Margarita Engle. Semicolon review here.
The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle.
90 Miles to Havana by Enrique Flores-Galbis.
Flight to Freedom by Ana Veciana Suarez.
Heat by Mike Lupica. Semicolon review here.
Jumping Off to Freedom by Anilu Bernardo.
Where the Flame Trees Bloom by Alma Flor Ada.
Under the Royal Palms: A Childhood in Cuba by Alma Flor Ada.

My Hands Came Away Red by Lisa McKay

Oct14

Immediately after finishing My Hands Came Away Red, I searched the internet to see what other books Ms. McKay had written. That should tell you something about the quality of this compelling story of a Christian youth missions team in Indonesia. Eighteen year old Cori decides to spend her summer in Indonesia, building a church, out of mixed motives. Yes, Cori is a Christian, and she wants to do something meaningful in God’s service. She also wants to get away from her confusing relationship with her boyfriend, Scott, and she just wants to experience her own adventure. Since the book runs to 386 pages, Cori obviously gets a lot more meaning and distance and adventure than she expected.

And I got a lot more than I expected out of reading this novel. The story represents really sophisticated and deeply significant Christian fiction. Ms. McKay is not afraid to tackle the hard questions: why does God allow suffering? Why do bad things happen to good people? How do Christians pray when it seems as if God isn’t listening? How is Romans 8:28 (“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”) true? Is it true? Really?
Not only does the book deal with these and other hard questions, the writing is also courageous enough not to give simple, easy answers. There’s no ending, or at least no ending that ties up all the loose doubts and uncertainties and issues and presents them to the reader in a neat little package.

But at the same time it’s not a hopeless diatribe on the stupidity of simple faith. Cori and her team of five more teens from the U.S. have a horrible encounter with evil and with danger, and they react in all the myriad of ways that a group of young, somewhat immature Christian young people would react. They cry, and they get angry. They are scared, and they sometimes manage to be incredibly brave. They do and say stupid things. They argue, and they support one another. They doubt and become angry with God, and sometimes they experience something that renews their faith in Him. Looking at faith in the face of atrocity and making fun of that faith is easy, but the reality is not that simple. In My Hands Came Away Red, the characters are not allowed to give up on life or on God, even when they do.

Lisa McKay has a degree in psychology, and that background shows in the novel’s vivid descriptions of the psychological trauma that the young people in the story experience. The author has also served on a missions team in the Philippines, and that firsthand knowledge of how Christians really do behave and talk and act like normal young adults also makes the book’s character portrayals authentic and engaging. As I judge in the young adult fiction category for this year’s INSPY Awards for “the best in literature that grapples with the Christian faith,” I will use use this book and a couple of other faith-driven books as the standard by which I judge the entries on the shortlist for this year. It’s that good.

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger

Oct13

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda is soooooo sixth grade/middle school. I felt as if I were transported back in time to my sixth grade year. Yes, there were guys like Dwight who did weird stuff. Dwight carries a talking origami Yoda around on his finger, and Origami Yoda answers questions and gives advice—in strange Yoda-like syntax. “New one must you make.” “Rush in fools do.”

Yes, there were guys (and girls) in my sixth grade like Tommy and Harvey who argued about silly things and became totally involved in investigating ridiculous phenomena. The book is actually Tommy’s “case file” in which he attempts to gather all the evidence to decide whether Origami Yoda is real or just Dwight pretending. When I was in sixth grade, we spent a lot of time trying to figure out whether our sixth grade teacher left in the middle of the year because we drove her insane and sent her to a mental institution.

And yes, sixth grade was full of embarrassing situations, strange obsessions, and awkward situations. In fact, I can admit it here for the first time: I was a little weird when I was in sixth grade. I think, if I remember correctly, I carried a large doll to the sixth grade skating party and dared anyone to laugh or call me a baby.

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand the idea of a bunch of middle school kids putting their faith in the oracles of an origami finger puppet is so ridiculous and superstitious and sort of sad. On the other hand, when I was a kid, a good church kid, my friends and I did many things just as ridiculous. We used “cootie catchers” to answer questions about life and love. We tried out a Ouija board. We sort of, kind of, believed that if you took off the Vietnam POW (prisoner of war) bracelet that you agreed to wear until the POW came home that he never would be released.

It’s kind of like Halloween. As a Christian parent, I don’t think there’s anything harmful or wrong about dressing up in costumes and going trick or treating around the neighborhood. Harmless fun. But I wouldn’t want my urchins to get caught up in the more occult aspects of the Halloween holiday, playing witches and chanting spells and believing that Satan has some kind of extra power on Halloween. Reading about and even playing around with or making your own Origami Yoda is similar. Harmless fun, unless my kids actually started believing that Origami Yoda could give them guidance for their lives. That’s where I’d draw the line.

Bottom line: good book, guy book, funny book with a lighthearted moral: sometimes you’ve got to believe and go for it. Ignore the naysayers.

Just don’t take the whole “believe in Yoda and the Force” thing too seriously. Oh, by the way, there are instructions for making your own Origami Yoda in the back of the book. I think Karate Kid’s going to make me one.

The Strange Case of Origami Yoda has been nominated for the 2010 Cybils Award in the category of Middle Grade Fiction.

The Fences Between Us by Kirby Larson

Oct12

true-blue, in a dither, mind your own beeswax, old battle-ax, can it, the hoosegow, a good egg, bushed, conniption fit, scuttlebutt, shut-eye, cock-eyed, tough cookie, chitchat, discombobulated, peaked, dreamboat, triple whammy, in a funk, hit the jackpot, jazzed, kitty-corner, don’t take any wooden nickels.

Reading Kirby Larson’s entry into the Dear America series, set in 1941-42, was like revisiting my childhood. Not that I was alive during World War II. But the slang terms and the idioms above that I took from The Fences Between Us were words and phrases that I heard my mother and father use as I was growing up. And they were children during World War II. The language Ms. Larson used in her pretend diary of a 13 year old girl growing up in Seattle was perfect, not overdone as I’ve read in some books that attempt to portray a certain time period, but just enough to make it feel real.

Then, too, I grew up in a Southern Baptist church where we read and studied about “home missionaries” who worked with ethnic churches, and I knew that Ms. Larson’s story of a Caucasian pastor of a Japanese Baptist Church and his daughter, Piper the sometimes reluctant PK, was something that really could have happened. In fact, the afterword to the book says that the story is based on the WW2 experiences of Pastor Emory “Andy” Andrews who “moved from Seattle to Twin Falls, Idaho to be near his congregation, all of whom had been incarcerated in Minidoka“, a Japanese internment camp.

Like all of the books in the Dear America series, the story is written in the form of a diary. Piper’s diary is a gift from one of the members of her church, grandmotherly Mrs Harada, who’s trying to make Piper feel a little better about her brother Hank’s enlistment in the U.S. Navy. Hank enlists in what he thinks is a “peacetime Navy” in November 1941, and he’s soon shipped to Hawaii, a seeming plum of an assignment. December 7, a day that will live in infamy, changes everything for Hank, for Piper, for Piper’s sister Margie, for Piper’s pastor dad, and especially for the members of the Seattle Japanese Baptist Church.

The book isn’t all history. Piper experiences her first romance, and she tries to work out her own feelings about being patriotic while at the same time supporting her friends who are Japanese American and being persecuted and mistreated for no good reason. There are other books for young people about the same time period and about the Japanese “relocation camps”, but I thought this one was a good addition to the category.

Other children’s books about the Japanese American experience during World War II:
Picture Books
Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki.
The Bracelet by Yoshiko Uchida.
So Far From the Sea by Eve Bunting.
Flowers from Mariko by Rick Noguchi and Deneen Jenks.
Fiction
Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata.
Eyes of the Emperor by Graham Salibury.
The Moon Bridge by Marcia Savin.
Journey Home by Yoshiko Uchida.
Nonfiction
Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment by Jean Wakatsuki Houston and James Houston.
The Children of Topaz: The Story of the Japanese-American Internment Camp by Michael Tunnell and George Chilcoat.
The Invisible Thread: An Autobiography by Yoshiko Uchida.

The Fences Between Us has been nominated for the 2010 Cybils Awards in the category of Middle Grade Fiction.

I, Emma Freke by Elizabeth Atkinson

Oct12

I, Emma Freke pushes some of my buttons: homeschooling, family reunions, community. So let’s take them one at a time.

Homeschooling: Emma Freke, age twelve, has a mom, Donatella, who acts about fourteen. When Donatella decides to give Emma the birthday present of being homeschooled, the result is not pretty. Homeschooling is not a choice between child neglect and authoritarian scheduling in a school-like environment. It really is possible to have children who are free to learn at their own pace and even choose many of their own areas of study and who are also required to to be responsible and work at their education. And most people like Donatella don’t last long at homeschooling, which is what happens in the book. I also didn’t like the implication that people tend to homeschool in order to use their children as free labor as Donatella does when she leaves Emma to tend the bead shop. I know lots of homeschooling families, and none of them have their children at home in order to enslave them to the family’s business.

Family reunions: Emma attends a family reunion in Wisconsin in order to get away from her negligent, selfish mother and to meet the extended family of the father she’s never met. The entire Freke family is about as dysfunctional in the direction of controlling and domineering as Emma’s mom is in the opposite direction. In fact, The Freke family is so uptight and scheduled that they’re borderline unbelievable. Again, family is not usually a choice between a mother who’s so permissive that she should be hauled in for child neglect and a father’s family that’s so authoritarian that rebellion is the only option for anyone with a sense of self at all.

Community: The theme of the book is finding home, finding the place where you can fit in and feel accepted and loved for yourself. Emma, with her strange name and her height (six feet tall at age 12) and her advanced intellectual abilities and her odd family, doesn’t fit in anywhere. She’s not only a Freke, but she feels like a freak. And don’t we all sometimes? Especially young teens? This aspect of the story really communicated to me, and I felt as if the target audience, middle school readers, would identify, too.

I’m not sure about the portrayal of homeschooling as an alternate lifestyle for neglectful parents nor about the family reunion that’s too structured to be true, but the story transcends these lapses. The supporting cast in the book, Donatella, Aunt Pat Freke, Nonno, Emma’s grandfather, and others, all tend toward caricature. However, Emma Freke is a great character, and she deserves the happy ending that she gets at the end of the story.

I, Emma Freke is nominated for the 2010 Cybil Awards in the the Middle Grade Fiction category.

Tortilla Sun by Jennifer Cervantes

Oct11

This is a cuento, a story about magic, love, hope, and treasure. If you read this under the glow of the moo or by the light of the summer sun, listen for whispers in any breeze that passes by. Then close your eyes and let the cuento take you to where magic still exists and spells of fear and hope are told through the heart of the storyteller.

Jennifer Cervantes’ Tortilla Sun certainly captures the atmosphere of a small village in New Mexico. The plot didn’t really grab me, but I did like the setting and the many, many vivid descriptions of the Southwest.

“I followed her past the long tables and into the sky-blue kitchen. Dried flowers and plants hung in tied bunches from the ceiling, making the kitchen smell like a freshly lit cranberry candle.”

“Two French doors opened to a walled courtyard with a brightly painted yellow and purple fountain.”

“The whole yard smelled of Mexican spices and roses.”

“We made our way through a small courtyard, where pink geraniums hung over the sides of terracotta pots lining the walkway. Above the bright turquoise door was a small painted tile that read Mi casa es su casa.”

“Beyond the village, the Albuquerque lights flickered like a thousand tiny twinkling stars. A distant howl flew on the edge of an approaching wind; withn seconds it had found us on the mesa. It whipped around, loosening Nana’s bun and then descended into the village below, gliding like a ghost.”

Can’t you just imagine yourself in a New Mexico village with the adobe houses and the flowers and the wind whistling through the trees and the smells of chili powder and comino (cumin) and candles burning?

I grew up in West Texas, and I had Hispanic friends who lived in houses like those in this book and whose mothers and grandmothers made tortillas and empanadas and other comidas muy deliciosas. Reading Tortilla Sun took me back. The story of a girl trying to reconnect with her dead father and New Mexico, Hispanic roots was OK, but somewhat predictable; however, if you have ties to New Mexico or to Hispanic culture or just want to read a story evocative of those ties and that cultural experience, Tortilla Sun is worth finding and reading and savoring.

And there’s a recipe in the back of the book for homemade tortillas that I may try. I won’t give you the long version of the story of the last and and only time I tried to make tortillas, twenty-five years ago, but I called the experience The Great Tortilla Battle. Maybe Ms. Cervantes’ recipe would, like her prose, cause something magical to happen and transform my tortillas into something edible.

More good books for children and young adults set in New Mexico:
The King’s Fifth by Scott O’Dell. Esteban is accused of withholding the fifth of the treasure that by law belongs to the King of Spain in this adventure set during the time of of the Spanish conquistadors and the search for gold and for the city of Cibola. YA

Josefina books by Valerie Tripp. Set in 1824, these six books in the American Girl series tell about Josefina, a Hispanic girl growing up on a ranch in New Mexico.

The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow: The Diary of Sarah Nita, a Navajo Girl, New Mexico, 1864 (Dear America) by Ann Warren Turner

And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold. Miguel is the son of a sheep rancher who longs to join the men as they take the sheep to summer camp in the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Krumgold’s book won a Newbery Medal in 1954, and it is deserving of that recognition. However, you’ll have to slow down and savor the descriptions and the details to enjoy the story.

The Staircase by Ann Rinaldi. 13 year old Methodist Lizzie, left by her father in a convent school in Santa Fe, is confused by the Catholic teachings and the culture of the all-girls school. But she is able to help the nuns and the girls find a carpenter to build a much-needed staircase for the convent’s new chapel. YA

The Last Summer of the Death Warriors by Francisco X. Stork. Semicolon review here. Definitely YA or adult.

More books set in New Mexico at Wrapped in Foil, a website which lists children’s books by state setting.

Tortilla Sun is one of the books nominated for the 2010 Cybil Awards in the category of Middle Grade Fiction.

Sunday Salon: Books Read in September 2010

Oct10

Children’s and Middle Grade Fiction:
Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm. Semicolon review here.

The Reinvention of Edison Thomas by Jacqueline Houtman. Semicolon review here.

The Kneebone Boy by Ellen Potter. Semicolon review here.

Emily’s Fortune by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Semicolon review here.

Young Adult Fiction:
Cate of the Lost Colony by Lisa Klein. Semicolon review here.

Diamond Ruby by Joseph Wallace. Semicolon review here.

The Fool’s Girl by Celia Rees. Semicolon review here.

Illyria by Elizabeth Hand. Semicolon review here.

The Serpent Never Sleeps: A Novel of Jamestown and Pocahontas by Scott O’Dell.

The Space Between Trees by Katie Williams. Semicolon review here.

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. Semicolon thoughts here.

Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson. Semicolon review here.

Wishing on Dandelions by Mary DeMuth.

Saving Maddie by Varian Johnson. Semicolon review here.

Finding My Place by Traci L. Jones. Semicolon review here.

Jump by Elisa Carbone. Semicolon review here.

Somebody Everybody Listens To by Suzanne Supplee. Semicolon review here.

The Heart Is Not a Size by Beth Kephart. Semicolon review here.

Adult fiction:
The Passion of Mary-Margaret by Lisa Samson. Semicolon review here.

June Bug by Chris Fabry. Semicolon review here

Veiled Freedom by J.M. Windle. Semicolon review here.

Nonfiction:
1776 by David McCullough. Semicolon review here.

Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling by Andy Crouch.

Beginning October 1st and continuing through the rest of the year, I’m going to be busy reading for two different awards for which I am a judge: the Cybils, and the INSPYs, the Bloggers’ Award for Excellence in Faith-Driven Literature. I’m not allowed to review the nominees on the shortlist for the Young Adult fiction INSPY until after the award is decided and announced on December 13, 2010. So you won’t be seeing those excellent books highlighted here at Semicolon until then. You can download a printable list of all the shortlisted books for the INSPYs here, read, and make your own judgements. I may be reading and reviewing some of the INSPY shortlist in other categories here at Semicolon, if I can find the time.

6a00d83451b06869e20133f32ecba3970b-200wiBut you will be seeing a LOT of middle grade fiction reviews in the next couple of months. That’s because there will be over 100 books nominated for the Middle Grade Fiction Award for the Cybils, and I plan to read as many of those books as I can. I’m having a great time finding the books at the library even now while nominations are still open. I and six fellow panelists will be reading, winnowing, discussing and trying to agree on a shortlist of five to seven books that are the best of the best in middle grade fiction for 2010. I hope the reviews I post in the next two months will also be helpful to my blog readers as you choose Christmas presents, as you look for reading for your students, homeschooled and otherwise educated, and as you read for your own enjoyment.

Let the reading fun begin!

The Cardturner by Louis Sachar

Oct9

Last week I was reading about the (insane) World of Rock Climbing and the (dangerous) World of Nashville Country Music, and this week it’s the (philosophical) World of Duplicate Bridge. I must warn would-be readers that there is a LOT of bridge in this YA fiction book about a boy and his curmudgeonly, rich uncle. Uncle Lester, or as he’s affectionally known, Trapp, is an expert bridge player. He’s also blind. So Alton, his nephew, becomes Trapp’s “cardturner.” Basically, Alton plays the cards, and Trapp tells him what cards to play.

The only reason I got through all the technical jargon and card-game-play-by-play in this book was that I have a secret history that I’ve never told anyone, at least not lately and not on this blog. Nope, I’ve never played bridge. However, back in the day, when I was in college, I used to hang out at the Baptist Student Union. And at the BSU there were almost always two games going: a game of spades and a game of 42. Spades is a card game, and 42 is sort of like spades, but with dominoes. well, it turns out that Spades is a much-simplified version of bridge. According to Wikipedia, “Spades is a descendant of the Whist family of card games, which also includes Bridge, Hearts, and Oh, Hell.” I played a lot of spades and 42 in between classes, while skipping classes, and before and after classes. So, since I used to know how to play both spades and 42 about thirty years ago, I could sorta, kinda, follow the very long, involved, complicated explanations about specific hands of bridge and how they were played, won, and lost.

And I thought the whole book was fascinating. I’m funny like that. I like being introduced to worlds I never knew existed. I’ve heard of bridge, but I thought it was just something blue-haired little old ladies and retired army colonels played in Agatha Christie murder mysteries. I had no idea there were bridge clubs, and national championships, and master points to be gained, and mastery levels to be attained. Did you know that you can become a Grand Life Master bridge player if you rack up enough points? And did you know that people who play competitive duplicate bridge scorn the casual living room players who discuss other things while playing bridge? If you’re going to play bridge with the big boys (and women) apparently you have to behave and concentrate on the game. Did you know that the sides of the table in bridge are named for the cardinal directions: East, West, North and South?

Louis Sachar is the author of the Newbery Award-winning book, Holes, which means he’s got a good readable style and kind of quirky characters. But don’t expect a story like Holes if you decide to give The Cardturner a try. As I said, I liked The Cardturner a lot, but I can see that it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. There’s a plot, about Alton and the uncle developing a relationship and bonding over bridge, and there’s a theme, about life being a lot like bridge and about synchronicity. But this book really is about the bridge. It was worth all the bridge (I admit to skimming through some of the play by play) to get to chapter 76 (short chapters) which encapsulates the moral of the story. I was going to quote it, but I think I’ll let you work a little to get there. And I’m not sure how meaningful the lesson would be in isolation anyway. Suffice it to say by the end of the book I think Alton’s on to something in relation to faith, coincidence, synchronicity, and the meaning of life.

The Cardturner by Louis Sachar has been nominated for a Cybil Award in the 2010 Young Adult Fiction category.

Other reviews:
Presenting Lenore: “After reading this novel, I’m convinced Sachar can make any subject fascinating. I went in knowing next to nothing about bridge, and I put the novel down at the end not only with a rudimentary understanding of the game, but a healthy appreciation for it.”

Melissa at Book Nut: “It works, primarily, because of the narration. For starters, because Alton’s about as clueless at bridge as we are (I’m assuming you’re as clueless as I am), it helps that he stops and explains it as we go. Amazingly, it doesn’t halt the plot, but it’s woven into it almost pretty seamlessly.”

TheHappyNappyBookseller: “By the time the game of bridge was introduced, Sachar already had me with Alton. His parents were very interesting, at times inappropriate and always funny. Alton’s, 11 yr old sister, Leslie was smart, sweet and a natural at bridge. I really liked the brother sister dynamic in this story.”

So you see, even if you don’t think you’d like to read a book that’s mostly about bridge, a game that’s mostly played by old people and people in books, you might want to give The Cardturner a try. Oh, the subtitle is pretty good, too: A Novel About a King, a Queen, and a Joker.

Shooting Kabul by N.H. Senzai

Oct8

Isn’t it interesting how much attention a country gets when we (the U.S.) go to war with or invade them? How many children’s books can you name set in Sri Lanka, Armenia, or even modern Italy? But there are several set in in Vietnam and now in modern Afghanistan. That’s not a criticism, just an observation, perfectly understandable.

Shooting Kabul takes place in 2001 when Fadi and his family flee Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. In the confusion of their escape, Fadi’s six year old sister, Mariam, is left behind. And each person in the family feels guilty for having let it happen. Fadi’s father, Habib, feels th loss of honor for not having taken care of his daughter. Fadi’s mother, Zafoona, knows that it was her responsibility as a mother to make sure Mariam was on the truck that took the family across the border into Pakistan. And Fadi’s older sister Noor says that it was her job to look after the younger chldren, so it’s her fault that Mariam was left behind. However, Fadi knows that it was his refusal to help Mariam with her beloved doll, Gulmina, that really caused Mariam be left, and now it is twelve year old Fadi who must get Mariam back. Can he win the photography contest and the airplane tickets to India and find Mariam?

Fadi is a great character, a kid who worries about his family and his responsibilities and his honor. Kids do worry, and adults sometimes don’t realize how complicated and difficult a young person’s decisions and dilemmas can be. I liked the photography angle in the story and the details about what makes a good photograph and how to deal with lighting and other technical difficulties. I also liked the glimpses of a modern Afghan family integrating religious beliefs, cultural practices, and family crises in a new and somewhat trying environment, San Francisco, CA.

The story is partly about adapting to a new culture, but the overriding theme is that of blame and shared responsibility and a family caring for one another. Fadi’s family share the guilt that comes from having left Mariam behind, and they share the sense of obligation to do everything possible to find Mariam and bring her home. It’s an exciting, yet realistic, story that kids can connect with and grow from reading.

More kids or YA books set in Afghanistan or about Afghans:
Wanting Mor by Rukhsana Khan. Semicolon review here.
The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis.
Parvana’s Journey by Deborah Ellis.
Mud City by Deborah Ellis.
Camel Bells by Janne Carlsson.
Under the Persimmon Tree by Suzanne Fisher Staples.
Thunder Over Kandahar by Sharon McKay.
Count Your Way Through Afghanistan by Kathleen Benson, James Haskins, and Megan Moore.
Afghan Dreams: Young Voices of Afghanistan by Mike Sullivan and Tony O’Brien. Reviewed at The Well Read Child.
Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan by Jeanette Winter.

Shooting Kabul has been nominated for the 2010 Cybil Awards in the Middle Grade Fiction category.

No and Me by Delphine de Vigan

Oct7

I got an ARC of this YA novel, originally published in French, several months ago, but I’m just now getting around to reading it. The atmosphere and feel of the story was very European, very French. It’s a story about a thirteen year old, intellectually gifted girl named Lou Bertignac and her friendship with a homeless eighteen year old girl, No. (I must admit that I originally pictured No as Vietnamese or at least Asian because the name sounded Southeast Asian to me, but No is later described as dark-haired and pale-skinned, typical French. No is short for Nolwenn.)

The gist of the story is that Lou tries to “save” No, to give her a home, help her to become self-supporting, be her friend, improve her life. The plot reminded me of a book I plan to read that was being touted in Eldest Daughter’s church when I visited her in Nashville, When Helping Hurts: Alleviating Poverty Without Hurting the Poor. . .and Ourselves by Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett. I haven’t read this nonfiction title yet, but I am well aware that helping people who are homeless or mired in poverty isn’t a straightforward or uncomplicated matter simply of finding them a job and a place to live. In No and Me, Lou finds out that helping No isn’t easy, and although Lou never gives up hope and tries to walk alongside No even when No herself is choosing to engage in self-destructive behavior, the story is realistic in showing that persistence and dedication may not always be enough.

No and Me was the Winner of the 2008 Prix de Libraries (Booksellers’ Prize) in France, and the translation is, as far as I can tell, well done. The ending of the novel was somewhat ambiguous, in keeping with the tone of the entire book. Teens who are interested in helping the homeless or who want insight into European culture and issues would appreciate this look at homelessness in France and one girl’s attempt to do her part to make a difference.

No and Me by Delphine de Vigan from George Miller on Vimeo.