Flight by Lynn Steger Strong
Three siblings, their spouses and children gather at the upstate New York home of one of the siblings (the ones with no kids) for their first Christmas after their mother's death. Normally they gathered at their mother's Florida home, and one thing they have to decide in their four days together is what to do with that Florida house. There's a subplot with a single mom and daughter who are clients of social worker Alice, the childless hostess of this gathering, that provides most of the action in the novel.
I won this advance reader edition in a giveaway that I probably shouldn't have entered, as I found this contemporary realistic fiction to be disappointing. I didn't like any of the characters in the book, and I had a hard time keeping track of which spouse (and spoiled, bratty kids) went with which sibling. The book has some things to say about families and motherhood in particular, but I found it was not for me - too much dysfunctional family-of-origin emotional drama. It reminded me too much (unpleasantly) of my own four siblings, their spouses, and children.
Inland by Téa Obreht
I won this book from Library Thing's Early Reviewer program back in May 2019, but never received a copy from the publisher (Random House). It still appeared on my Not Reviewed list (I've been an Early Reviewer since November 2007), so I checked my libraries and borrowed and read the e-book.
Part historical fiction, part magical realism, Inland has two storylines. One is based on history (the United States Army's Camel Corps), and includes some real people (like Hi Jolly, Greek George, Henry Constantine Wayne, and Edward Fitzgerald Beale - whose diary author Téa Obreht used as a source). It covers an extensive, not clearly identified period of time in the mid- and late 1800s, in a variety of locations in the American West.
The main character in this storyline is fictional - a young orphaned immigrant of uncertain Middle Eastern heritage who becomes a drifter and outlaw known as Lurie. Lurie manages to join in as a cameleer with the other Middle Easterners who accompanied the camels to Indianola, Texas, in 1856. He is plagued by the ghosts of former accomplices from his earlier life of crime.
The other storyline takes place in a single day in 1893 near Amargo, a fictional community in the Arizona Territory. Nora Lark, her family, and others in Amargo are being pressured by a local cattle baron trying to acquire their land by getting the railroad routed through another town. (The "inland" of the title refers to distance from the train tracks.)
Nora is anxiously awaiting the return of her husband Emmett with a much-needed supply of water, as well as her missing two older sons. She's left at home with her elderly mother; 17-year-old Josie, "Emmett's ward and occult cousin" (page 22); her vision-impaired youngest son Toby, who claims to have seen a strange beast; and her daughter Evelyn, who died as an infant but talks to Nora as if Evelyn was the young woman she would have been had she lived.
The two narrative threads are a little hard to follow at the beginning, but they intersect nicely (and surprisingly) at the end. Apparently the ending provides a possible explanation for a piece of Western folklore (spoiler alert on the link). I appreciated this Western with non-typical narrators.
This Is the Sun by Elizabeth Everett, illustrated by Evelline Andrya
This Is the Sun is a non-rhyming cumulative tale about the energy flow (beginning with the sun) in a simple ecosystem. In cumulative stories, all previous events are repeated when a new event happens. Classic examples of cumulative stories include The House That Jack Built, The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, The Gingerbread Man, The Twelve Days of Christmas, and Green Eggs and Ham. The patterns and repetition in such stories are helpful to young readers, and this picture book is aimed at ages 4-7.
The eye-catching illustrations by Evelline Andrya are a mix of traditional media (painted paper scrap collages) and digital collages. This is the first children's book by former classroom teacher Elizabeth Everett, and is from Science Naturally, a publisher of STEM books for young readers. The book is also available in Spanish.
Gabi, A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero
I read this book because a review of it was "in progress" during Banned Books Week 2022 in my racist, radical right-wing rural Republican school district, that had already banned Out of Darkness by another Latina author, for "sexually explicit content." I remember ordering Gabi, A Girl in Pieces in e-book format for my state university library's curriculum collection (used by future teachers) because it won the 2015 William C. Morris Award for Debut Young Adult Fiction.
Gabriela "Gabi" Hernandez is a slightly-chubby Mexican-American high school senior in southern California. The book is her diary/journal, and covers a 10.5 month period from a month before senior year starts, through graduation.
The book opens with Gabi dealing with one best friend (Cindy) who's just found out she's unintentionally pregnant, and another best friend (Sebastian) who is gay and, after coming out to his parents, is kicked out of his home by his father. Gabi has family problems too. Her father is a meth addict, her 16-year-old brother gets arrested for tagging, her hypocritical ultra-religious aunt lives with the family, and her overbearing mother is also pregnant. Throw in date rape, another classmate getting an abortion, teens contemplating sex (and condoms), and dating dilemmas, and you've got plenty here to rile the "Christian" nationalists.
This book reminded me SO much of my own high school journal and letters to my pen pal (Gabi writes letters she never sends, to her dad and others). Similar angst - I'm too fat, does that boy like me, fretting about academics, and so on. Like Gabi, I found solace in my writing (like her, some poetry too), and I think the journal format creates an honesty that many readers will be able to relate to.
So what happened with this book in my local school libraries? Apparently, this book made it through the challenge process (although why it did and Out of Darkness did not is beyond me). As of this writing, the book is still on the shelves and available in the high school library. I borrowed the copy I read from the local public library's young adult section. After I return it, it will be interesting to see if it stays there or, like Out of Darkness, gets moved to the adult section.
ETA 17 January 2025 - Not surprisingly in my right-wing county - the book is gone from the local public library. Not just moved to the adult section - it is gone. Surprisingly, it is still in the public high school library - I find that surprising.
Being Jazz by Jazz Jennings
I read this book because a review of it was "in progress" during Banned Books Week 2022 in my racist, radical right-wing rural Republican school district, that had already banned Out of Darkness by another Latina author, for "sexually explicit content."
Subtitled "My Life as a (Transgender) Teen," Being Jazz is a memoir by transgender Jazz Jennings of her first 16 years. Assigned male at birth, Jazz was diagnosed with gender dysphoria at a very young age. The book details some of hers and her parents' struggles to allow her to dress as a girl at school and play soccer on the girls' team, and later some of their transgender activism.
The book is clearly written by a teen, and would be a good read for teens and tweens (and adults) to learn more about being transgender, recognizing that many transgender youth don't have the supportive parents and family Jazz has. If anything, that makes a book like this even more needed in a repressive community like mine.
So what happened with this book in my local school libraries? Apparently, this book made it through the challenge process (although why it did and Out of Darkness did not is beyond me). As of this writing, the book is listed in the online catalog as available in the main high school library (but not at the alternative high school). I borrowed the copy I read from the e-book collection of another public library in Texas, as my local public library does not own a copy (physical or electronic).
ETA 17 January 2025: The book is still at the high school library - but in "Sublocation: Nonfiction-Crime and Forensics." Our state attorney general (a criminal just like the incoming president) is trying to make being transgender a crime, so I guess that is why.
When We Were Young and Brave by Hazel Gaynor
I won When We Were Young and Brave from Library Thing's Early Reviewer program back in June 2020, but never received a copy from the publisher (William Morrow). It still appeared on my Not Reviewed list (I've been an Early Reviewer since November 2007), so I checked my libraries and borrowed and read the e-book this month.
This historical fiction novel is based on the real-life World War II events at the Chefoo School, a Protestant boarding school for children of foreign missionaries, diplomats, and businessmen in China. Most were British, but some were American or other nationalities. The day after the Pearl Harbor attack, Japanese soldiers start to take over the school. Eventually the students and staff are moved to a local internment site, and then a camp much further away, where they stayed until liberated just after the war's end.
The story is alternately told by two main fictional characters: Elspeth Kent, one of the teachers, who originally came to the school to get away from her British home and memories of a lost love there; and Nancy Plummer, one of the students, who is the daughter of two missionaries and is ten when the story starts.
I particularly enjoyed the incorporation of the Girl Guides (the British version of the Girl Scouts) into the novel. Elspeth and fellow teacher Minnie Butterworth are the leaders of a group of Guides that includes Nancy and her friends and female classmates. The continuance of their Guide activities throughout their ordeal gives them all strength. That, and the setting in China, made this a refreshing, non-typical World War II story.
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