Eulberg tries to incorporate some good messages into this story but I’m not sure she doesn’t undermine herself at most turns. Her biggest messages seem to be:

(1) There is nothing “wrong” with being gay; in fact, there is no reason for gay kids and their romances and romance angstiness to be treated any differently than hetero romance and angst. The author does a great job on this score.

(2) Preoccupation with looks is absurd and does not indicate true worth. Here, I think Eulberg submarines her own case. In the story, Lexi Anderson, 16, has a seven-year-old sister, Mackenzie (“Mac”) who is pretty much a fictional incarnation of Honey Boo Boo (the nickname of seven-year-old child beauty pageant participant Alana Thompson, who appears in a reality tv show along with her family.) Lexi is considered the one with “the great personality” while Mac is “the beauty.” (Lexi explains that “When a guy uses great personality to describe a girl, it’s the polite way of saying fat and ugly.”) Presumably, the author (via Lexi) aims to show us this is not the case. But the way she goes about it actually vitiates her point.

First of all, notice how fat is paired with ugly. Fat is also paired with unpleasantness in general: the mother is not only a horrid, screeching caricature of pageant moms, but is overweight to boot. The obesity helps contribute to her image of being repulsive. Moreover, Lexi frequently makes observations like this one:

One of the benefits of having a morbidly obese mother is that it has made me overly paranoid about my weight. I stick to mostly non-processed foods, which is basically the opposite of what Mom eats. So I’m not fat and I’m not the most disgusting girl in my class, but I’m nowhere near the prettiest.”

Message: fat equals disgusting.

I’d love to be able to report that Lexi goes on to develop some understanding for her mother, who is divorced, emotionally devastated, financially strapped, and afraid for her future. So okay, she might use food as a way to relax and/or as an antidepressant. How many of us are free enough of those tendencies to throw stones and not exhibit a little compassion? But Lexi’s only epiphany is that you don’t need to look like a full-blown beauty pageant contestant (i.e., tons of hairspray, makeup, provocative clothing, and an anorexic frame) in order to thrive and be happy. But a little bit certainly helps, to Lexi’s mind.

In fact, one of the worst things about the book, to me, is that Lexi turns out, when primped up with makeup and short skirts and tight tees, to be “a hottie” afterall. Thus, she really is a babe, destroying the whole argument that one can simply be a great girl with a great personality and still get the guy or be valuable or whatever other positive message the author would like to convey. What if she weren’t actually a “hottie” in disguise?

This is such a common meme it is almost unrecognizable on a conscious level. But think about The Ugly Duckling. Sure, the duckling got its “revenge” against the bullies when it turned into a beautiful swan, but what about if it just grew up to be an older ugly duck?

And then there’s this most awful bit: When Lexi finally starts dressing for school like a sex kitten, her best friend Cam reports that boys are talking about her:

Cam sighs. ‘They’re all like…’ Cam makes her voice low, ‘Dude, have you seen Lexi, she’s looking hot, wouldn’t mind getting me a piece of that.’ You know, stupid guy stuff.”

Wait for it:

Lexi:

‘Really?’ I try to not make it known how happy this makes me.”

Gaaaah! The author never takes this issue on at all (except obliquely in reference to the pageants), i.e., the perception of girls as sex objects and worse yet, girls being HAPPY to be thought of in that way. GAAAAH! How bad is the societal addiction of women to look attractive to men that “finally” being totally objectified makes girls HAPPY? Gaaaaah!

Lexi does manage to have some good insights in spite of these plot elements that negate them. For instance, she comes to understand that:

…high school is exactly like a beauty pageant. … Instead of a tiara,” she observes, “you’re anointed worthy of a spot at the Beautiful People table [in the cafeteria].”

She also has lots to say about the vileness of pimping little girls in the beauty pageants, although disappointingly, no sophisticated insights on gender, sexuality, power relationships, or even sexual trafficking, which could have been appropriate under the circumstances. And finally, both she and her little sister Mac occasionally sound much more sophisticated than their years, although its possible that living on the pageant circuit can do that to you.

So let’s move on to the good things:

1. The book is fast paced, and keeps your interest.
2. The chapter titles are very clever, reminiscent of the style used in Hold Me Closer, Necromancer.
3. I like Lexi’s constant impulse to interrogate her own behavior and motivations, and to try to be a good person, or at least recognize when she is not.
4. As mentioned above, I love the way the author developed the story with Lexi’s BGayFF Benny. It’s done well enough that I [almost] can forgive the tired trope of Lead Girl’s Best Friend Who Is A Gay Guy.
5. There is a lot of humor, and a spot-on description of the concerns a teenage girl would have on her first date.
6. The story has not one but TWO “hair tuck” quotes for my hair tuck database (and once again a cute guy with a “crooked smile.” Why oh why didn’t a start a database for THOSE passages too?)

Evaluation: I was made very uncomfortable by the handling of both weight and beauty issues in this book. While it seemed as if the author had good intentions, I think maybe she couldn’t quite escape her own socialization. To me, the story didn’t seem as “empowering” as I think she intended it.

Rating: 2.5/5

Published by Point, an imprint of Scholastic, Inc., 2013

Out of Order, by Sandra Day O’Connor, the first female justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, is an eclectic, somewhat uneven, collection of anecdotes.

At its best, the book features some incisive analyses of major constitutional cases. The author clearly has mastered her craft when it comes to explicating abstruse legal issues. An early chapter covers the history and development of the power relationship between the Court and the President with terse analyses of four seminal cases, from Marbury vs. Madison to Youngstown Sheet & Tube (the steel seizure case). O’Connor shines whenever she states the holding of an important case.

But the book is not pure history or pure law. It is anecdotal without an overriding sense of organization. It jumps from topic to topic, and not all the topics are particularly interesting. For example, it contains an entire chapter devoted to the various oaths (including full quotations of the oaths), judicial and patriotic, that justices take and have taken.

Sandra Day O’Connor taking the oath as an associate justice on Sept. 25, 1981.

Nevertheless, it contains some interesting factoids about the current and previous Courts, such as: (1) written opinions were not required until 1834, during President Andrew Jackson’s administration; (2) the current Chief Justice, John Roberts, was the best oral arguer Justice O’Connor encountered in 25 years on the bench; (3) Justice Antony Scalia produces more laughter (by far) than any other justice; and (4) Justice Byron (“Whizzer”) White led the National Football League in rushing while attending law school. (He played with the NFL’s Pittsburgh Pirates (now the Steelers) during the 1938 season.)

The future Supreme Court Justice Byron White got the nickname “Whizzer” while playing for the University of Colorado at Boulder

The book also contains interesting descriptions of the tribulations of earlier justices, who had to “ride circuit,” (i.e., travel—usually by horseback– around the country and conduct trials) as part of their statutory duties. [Justice O’Connor doesn’t go into it, but many of the justices had to share not just rooms, as she notes, but even beds with other judges or attorneys. Abraham Lincoln got to be good friends with some of his “bedmates” from his (Eighth) circuit riding days!]

In addition, O’Connor’s draws some enlightening and engrossing portraits of earlier justices, in particular, James McReynolds and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

The future Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. as an officer in the Union Army’s 20th Massachusetts Voluntary Infantry

I listened to an audio version of the book rather than reading it. That may have made enduring the chapter on judicial oaths more tedious than it would have been in writing. The reader is Justice O’Connor herself. While that adds to the authenticity of the book, the Justice does not have an especially good speaking voice.

Because its organization is not linear, the book need not be read sequentially. Each chapter stands on its own, and can even be read – in a probable unintended play on title, out of order. Taken as a whole, it is a pleasant introduction to Supreme Court lore for those with no background in such matters. The Justice does not get into current controversial issues facing the Court.

For a more sophisticated collection of Supreme Court historical anecdotes, I would recommend The Nine, by Jeffrey Toobin, a large portion of which – ironically – focuses on the pivotal role of Sandra Day O’Connor in recent Court history (see our review, here.)

Rating: 3/5

Note: I listened to the unabridged audio version published by Random house Audio, 2013, on 6 compact discs.

It’s an immigrant story in a way, about two very different beings who end up in the melting pot of New York in 1899. One is a golem, and one a jinni.

In Jewish folklore, a golem is a human-like figure made out of clay and brought to life by esoteric magic known only to a select few adept at Jewish mysticism, or Kabbalah. Golems – unnaturally strong and unquestionably obedient to their creators – were said to have been created from time to time in olden days to help defend Jews from anti-Semitic attacks.

In Wecker’s story, a Prussian man who cannot find a wife goes to a reclusive old man to request that a golem be made for him to serve as a wife. He packs up the golem and sets out for New York. He dies en route, however, and the golem is left to fend for herself. A kindly rabbi on the street recognized what she was, and took her in to protect her, naming her Chava.

Meanwhile, a parallel story is going on with the unexpected release of a jinni from an old copper flask in a tinsmith shop in New York’s Little Syria. Jinnis (or genies) are the products of Middle Eastern and Muslim mythology, and are said to be spirits made of fire. Many, however, can make themselves look like humans. The tinsmith who inadvertently releases the jinni, in the guise of a handsome young man, vows to protect him much as the rabbi did with Chava, and names him Ahmad.

It is only a matter of time before this woman of earth and man of fire meet, and realize they have more in common than might at first be apparent. As they navigate through their unexpected lives in America, they also get to know each other, helping each other to understand what it means to be human, and maybe even what it means to love.

Discussion: The author’s depiction of the ways the golem and the jinni taught each other how to be, and learned to respect each other’s perspectives, is thoroughly engaging. I also enjoyed the author’s exploration of what it might be like to wake up in an alien world, all alone, having to hide one’s true nature and learn to survive. There are the inevitable humorous moments, as when the jinni, who was born in the 7th Century, marvels at humans:

What drove these short-lived creatures to be so oddly self-destructive, with their punishing journeys and brutal battles?”

Or when the jinni is talking to his benefactor, Arbeely, trying to understand what Christianity is:

‘Let me see if I understand correctly now,’ the Jinni said at one point. ‘You and your relations believe that a ghost living in the sky can grant you wishes.’

‘That is a gross oversimplification, and you know it.’

‘And yet, according to men, we jinn are nothing but children’s tales?”

Later, he talks to Chava about it, who offers a more nuanced perspective:

‘…perhaps the humans did create their God. But does that make him less real? Take this arch. [They are in Central Park.] They created it. Now it exists.’

‘Yes, but it doesn’t grant wishes,’ he said. ‘It doesn’t do anything.

‘True,’ se said. ‘But I look at it, and I feel a certain way. Maybe that’s its purpose.”

And there are plenty of touching moments, such as when the rabbi who “adopted” Chava, and who is an aged widower, explains to her his idea of what love is:

All of us are lonely at some point or another, no matter how many people surround us. And then, we meet someone who seems to understand. She smiles, and for a moment the loneliness disappears.”

As an interesting side note, the author has said in interviews that she is Jewish and her husband is Arab American; their fathers were both immigrants to the U.S.

Evaluation: This author clearly loves her characters, and I couldn’t help but do the same! I was enchanted by this unusual, imaginative, and heartwarming story, and would love to see a sequel!

Rating: 4/5

Published by Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2013

Aneel’s grandparents have come from India to stay with them in America. Dada-ji, as you learn in the Hindi glossary at the end of this book, means paternal grandfather. Aneel loves learning from Dada-ji how to stand on his head and sit like a lotus plant. He also loves hearing about his grandparents’ village while he sits “on his grandfather’s lotus lap.”

Dada-ji has great stories. He avers that eating “hot, hot roti” gives him superhuman strength. (Roti means “bread” in Hindi, and is basically a round, flat, unleavened bread cooked on a griddle.) Like Popeye and spinach, when Dada-ji eats roti, he claims he can wrestle water buffalos and tie cobras in a knot!

Aneel decides he needs to make some roti and everyone helps. Dada-ji eats one after another, all the while saying how good it is and how powerful he feels. Together, he and Aneel go outside and have some adventures. Dada-ji says to Aneel:

The power of the hot, hot roti came back to the lad from a village far, far away. Thank you, my tiger. Thank you!”

Evaluation: I love Dada-ji! Everyone needs a fun, supportive grandpa like him! It’s a great story, and the illustrations by Ken Min are very entertaining! As a bonus, there is a glossary of relevant Hindi terms in the back, and on their website, Lee & Low provides a recipe for “hot hot roti.”

Rating: 4.5/5

Published by Lee & Low Books, 2011

For more multicultural picture books, check out all the resources at The Birthday Party Pledge, a new website dedicated to promoting gifts of multicultural books to the children in our lives.

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For more reviews of books for children and teens, go to Booking Mama’s feature, Kid Konnection, posted on Saturdays. If you’d like to participate in Kid Konnection and share a post about anything related to children’s books (picture, middle grade, or young adult) from the past week, leave a comment as well as a link on her site.

In the background, a parallel story recounts the repression and turmoil of the current political regime. Kambili’s family is keenly aware that speaking out against injustice can get you imprisoned or even killed, just like speaking out at home can earn Kambili and Jaja a scalding by their father, or worse.

Kambili and Jaja are submissive and dutiful, “until Nsukka.” This is where their Aunty Ifeoma lives, and where they unexpectedly get to spend some time on a visit. There, they see a different vision of family, and learn how good it feels to be free – to laugh, even to cry.

But the regime is not about to give, nor is their father.

Discussion: There are so many momentous themes and symbols and parallels running through this very impressive book. One leitmotif is the tension between those Nigerians who slavishly parrot the colonialist lines (including the one that maintains that whites and everything about them are superior), and those who find value in their own culture and even appearance. Another is the hypocrisy of some fanatic forms of Christianity. The second class role of women is also a theme (and simultaneously a reflection of both the paternalism of the regime and of the father of this household), and leads to perhaps the biggest issue of the book: domestic abuse of women and children, and its enduring devastating effects (not only physical but mental).

Eugene is not just a cardboard evil character. He is loved and respected by those outside his family for his very generous charity and courage. The love that everyone feels for Eugene affects Kambili: though she is afraid of her father, she admires him, and wants nothing more than to please him and for him to love her. The mother wants the same things, although in part, her position is dictated by the strictures imposed on women by society. If Eugene doesn’t want her, her very survival will be in jeopardy. After a particularly brutal beating, she tells Ifeoma:

‘Where would I go if I leave Eugene’s house? Tell
me where would I go? … Do you know how many
mothers pushed their daughters at him? Do you know
how many told him to impregnate them even, and not
bother paying a bride price?”

There is some riveting dialogue in this book that bring to life the many forms of repression of the book, as with the following discussion of religion. At one point, Kambili, trying at all times to parrot the phrases she knows will make her father happy says:

God knows best… God works in mysterious ways.”

Then, Jaja, who has been infected the most by the “undertones of freedom”, snorts at her:

Of course God does. Look what He did to his faithful servant Job, even to His own son. But have you ever wondered why? Why did He have to murder his own son so we would be saved? Why didn’t He just go ahead and save us?”

Evaluation: While this may sound like it is a depressing book, it is not. It certainly has dark moments, but they are counterbalanced by examples of true family love and support; of those who practice a more truly “Christian” faith; and spectacular descriptions of the sights and sounds and smells of Nigeria, with the fragrance of frangipani and hibiscuses mixing with the curry, nutmeg, herbs, and oils. What amazingly complex characters! I am still trying to digest what I think of all of them. And what craftsmanship in the writing! It isn’t easy to weave in so many parallel themes without sounding didactic, and managing to engage our sympathies for every one of them.

This would make one of the best book club discussion books that I have read in a long time!

Rating: 4.5/5

Published by Anchor Books, a division of Random House, Inc., 2004

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Note: For more information about Ms. Adichie (pronounced “ah-DEE-chee-eh), you can watch her speak here on “The Danger of a Single Story” or read the transcript here. (Thanks to Nymeth for the lecture referral.)

In any event, for some hazy reason probably having to do with marketing, today is “universally acknowledged” (to paraphrase Jane Austen) as being National Chocolate Chip Day. I always try to support national holidays, and thus will do my part.

By the way, if you are attempting to sound erudite about chocolate, it helps to know that the plant from which it comes – the cacao tree – is pronounced kah-KOW. I just include this because of the way I always used to say, “c-a-c-a-o however it is pronounced.”

Chocolate comes from the cacao tree, which is formally known as Theobroma Cacao.

What are the essential properties of a dessert utilizing chocolate chips? In my opinion, the most essential is gooeyness. (In fact, I consider gooeyness the most essential for most food, but I’ll wait for other holidays to tell you about that.)

But you know what? You are going to see zillions of recipes today for chocolate chip cookies to help you celebrate this day, so I’m going to go a little outside the box here and offer two alternatives, both of which are from my recipe pins on Pinterest. (Even if you didn’t know which Recipe Board was mine, you could probably guess since almost every recipe label starts with “Gooey” or “Ooey Gooey” or, of course, “Chocolate.”) Because they come from other blogs, I will just link to them, for your clicking, viewing, and cooking pleasure.

First, for an insane sugar rush to start your day, I present:

Glazed Cinnamon Rolls Stuffed with Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

And then later, you will need dessert! And so I present Deep Dish Salted Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie

Click on the links for wonderful recipe ideas, and wonderful ways to celebrate this important day!

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This post will be linked to this Saturday’s Weekend Cooking, hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. where bloggers share food-related posts. Stop by her blog and see what’s cooking this week!

With a story told so often, what does Philbrick do differently to justify this new volume?

For one thing, he includes many details that are generally omitted from popular representations of the rebellion of the colonists. For example, he explains why greed was a more salient motivation for the Boston Tea Party than outrage over an unfair tax, and he exposes the culture of collective violence that characterized Boston at that time. He records the hypocrisy of these early patriots, who wanted services and goods from the Crown, including military protection, but didn’t want to pay for these things, and who were outraged that the British would try to encroach upon their freedom by offering freedom to their slaves! They loved the idea of liberty, Philbrick points out, but not for everyone. They were quite pious (although there was enough prostitution to result in an area of Boston being named Mt. Whoredom), but they didn’t want Catholics to be able to practice. And they especially resented the way the British were trying to enforce treaties made with the Indians, so that they, the erstwhile recipients of God’s Manifest Destiny, could not expand into the West. [Many other colonists resented this as well, including one of the biggest land grabbers, George Washington.]

From Boston Magazine, 4/20/2013

Philbrick also does an excellent job of conveying just how confused and unorganized all the parties were in those early days – not just the patriots, who were from different colonies and had various and competing interests, but even the British, who weren’t sure how to proceed against an army of British subjects! The British also had to wait for orders that could take up to a month by ship to reach them, eliminating the advantage of acting swiftly and decisively.

Communications within the colonies weren’t much better. An informal network of couriers helped, but there was not really a clear central authority, and certainly no means of enforcement. The Battle of Bunker Hill (which actually took place on Breed’s Hill) was fought by a group of rival generals carrying out rival plans with separate groups of soldiers.

Thus, with the absence of good information and a definite line of command, rumors ran rife, and potential disasters from misinformation and political disarray were a continual threat.

The appointment and arrival of George Washington two and a half weeks after Bunker Hill changed a great many things: Washington sought to forge a national army, but it was slow going at first. And the appointment might not have happened at all, Philbrick argues, had Joseph Warren, the most esteemed man in Boston, not been killed on Breed’s Hill.

Dr. Joseph Warren, who was killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill just six days after turning 34

In fact, most of Philbrick’s book is focused on Warren, and his leadership of the Boston movement, which distinguishes this account from many others. We get to know some of the British officers as well, including Thomas Gage and William Howe. We also get a brief look at some of Washington’s more colorful cronies, including Henry Knox and Nathanael Greene.

The amazing Henry Knox, as pictured by Charles Willson Peale in 1784

Evaluation: The beginning of any revolution is a time of monumental import. This is a great story, and Philbrick tells it well. There are a lot of names and places thrown at you that may seem daunting if you are unfamiliar with the history of the American Revolution, but a good many of the characters are American icons, and should be fairly well-known. There is so much action and excitement, it is not a surprise to learn that a movie studio has purchased the dramatic rights!

Rating: 4/5

Published by Viking, a member of the Penguin Group, 2013

Note: The book includes a number of helpful maps and pictures.

Seamus Heaney

In this excerpt from the wonderful poem about his mother, “In Memoriam M.K.H., 1911-1984” he muses on how doing together the simplest everyday necessities can foster an unparalleled closeness:

When all the others were away at Mass

I was all hers as we peeled potatoes.

They broke the silence, let fall one by one

Like solder weeping off the soldering iron:

Cold comforts set between us, things to share

Gleaming in a bucket of clean water.

And again let fall. Little pleasant splashes

From each other’s work would bring us to our senses.



So while the parish priest at her bedside

Went hammer and tongs at prayers for the dying

And some were responding and some crying

I remembered her head bent towards my head,

Her breath in mine, our fluent dipping knives –

Never closer the whole rest of our lives.”

He ends by observing the “heft and hush” of the world without her, how when people die, you feel above all the presence of their absence:

A soul ramifying and forever

Silent, beyond silence listened for.”

Happy Mother’s Day to our mothers, present in whatever form, always there, no matter how or where.

Brian Selznick, creator of The Invention of Hugo Cabret and Wonderstruck – has created a poster to illustrate the idea that books can take you anywhere.

Events are taking place all over the United States. You can check them out here.

You can also download the official 2013 Children’s Book Week Bookmark by Grace Lin (author of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon) here.

And how fun is this? From the The United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY), a Google Map of Outstanding International Books 2013, here.

For multicultural picture books, check out all the resources at The Birthday Party Pledge, a new website dedicated to promoting gifts of multicultural books to the children in our lives.

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For more reviews of books for children and teens, go to Booking Mama’s feature, Kid Konnection, posted on Saturdays. If you’d like to participate in Kid Konnection and share a post about anything related to children’s books (picture, middle grade, or young adult) from the past week, leave a comment as well as a link on her site.

Finley McManus is a high-school senior who lives in a working class Irish and Black mob-dominated town outside of Philadelphia with his depressed single father and his amputee alcoholic grandfather (“Pop”). We don’t know how they got into those straights, but Finley, the narrator, isn’t talking about it. He doesn’t like to think about unpleasant aspects of his life and so instead, he plays basketball, practices basketball with his girlfriend Erin (who also is a good player), and makes out with Erin when it’s too dark to play. Erin and Finley are not harassed by local gangs only because Erin’s older brother Rod provides protection for the whites in the neighborhood.

Everything in Finley’s life changes when his coach insists he befriend a new kid, Russ Washington, who is the son of friends of the Coach. Russ’s parents were recently murdered, and Russ has taken on the persona of “Boy21” from Outer Space. Coach wants to help him get back to “real life” and especially, to basketball, because back in LA, Russ was a big basketball phenom. But Russ not only plays Finley’s position, he wears Finley’s number. Can Finley give up what is so vital to his sanity to help someone else? Can Boy21 return to Earth?

Discussion: This is the first book in a long time that, for me, approached the quality of a John Green book. It has heart and soul and characters you just fall in love with. At times it’s hilarious. It skirts around being heartbreaking but never really falls over the cliff, because the love and hope and faith of the characters keep both them and you from tumbling over the edge. Does the girl, Erin, remind me of Jennifer Lawrence in the movie “Silver Linings Playbook”? Well, yes, but that’s not a bad thing! And the young boy, Finley, is a doll. Erin, who is his girlfriend, is trying to explain to Finley why the troubled Boy21 likes him:

It’s because you’re a good person. It’s because you’re easy to be around. It’s because you are you. You don’t put demands on people and you never say anything negative – ever. So many people suck the life out of everyone they’re around, but you don’t do that. You give people strength just by being you.”

I wish I were like that. But since I’m not, it’s great to “get to know” characters who are, in a book like this.

Evaluation: Matthew Quick wrote Silver Linings Playbook, and you can recognize many of its same qualities in this terrific book: warmth; quirky humor; love and loyalty of family and friends; the role sports plays in cementing relationships; and the tragedy and beauty of the human condition. Highly recommended!

Rating: 4.5/5

Note: While sports plays a role, this is not a sports story!

Published by Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc., 2012

Meacham is an author who is willing to acknowledge some of Jefferson’s most glaring shortcomings, but would like us to focus on those aspects of Jefferson that in the final analysis make him an enduring icon. In particular, Meacham is impressed by Jefferson as a polymath, and he goes into great detail about how broad Jefferson’s interests were, how forward-looking, and how impressive he seemed to his peers. (Personally, I think I also might have time to develop skills in a lot of areas if I had 200 slaves.)

On the subject of slaves, Meacham’s view is that Jefferson tried to push for abolition, but when it proved to be politically unpopular he abandoned his efforts. He further contends that we must not judge Jefferson by the standards of our own time. Meacham does briefly admit that there were plenty of eminent people in Jefferson’s own time who had the courage and perseverance to fight for slavery and who refused to own slaves themselves, but this information is downplayed.

Meacham also spends a great deal of time detailing the reasons justifying Jefferson’s mistrust of Hamilton, but hardly any time at all explaining why that mistrust may have been misplaced, and no time whatsoever on the steps Jefferson surreptitiously took to destroy Hamilton and his career.

He does fully expose how, in contrast to Jefferson’s voluminous writings about the evils of a strong executive (and the evils of those who would advocate such a position), Jefferson in fact expanded the power of the presidency more than any U.S. president prior to himself. Meacham avers this demonstrates Jefferson’s practicality, rather than his hypocrisy.

Evaluation: In sum, one might call this a modified hagiography of Jefferson. It isn’t totally uncritical, but it doesn’t seem to me to be totally honest or objective either. Nevertheless, it is good reading (and listening) and I recommend it as supplemental reading with other accounts of Jefferson.

Notes on the audio production: I thought actor Edward Herrmann did a very good job at narrating, and the text (in spite of my complaints about its selectivity) never lost my interest.

Rating: 3.5/5

Published by Random House Audio, unabridged on 15 compact discs, 2012.

Note: For a more detailed review of this book, see the one posted on our sister blog, Legal Legacy, here.

Reese Holloway and David Li, juniors at Kennedy High School in San Francisco, are in Arizona for a national debate competition when planes start falling out of the sky. All of them allegedly crashed because of bird strikes. Reese, texting her BFF Julien, finds out that there are theories of a government cover-up of even more crashes than have been publicized, combined with a suspicious media blackout. Thus, Reese, David, and their debate coach decide to drive back to San Francisco instead of risking their lives in the air. But much goes wrong on the way, and Reese and David end up in a life-threatening accident close to Area 51.

[Area 51 is a secret military base in Nevada. Rumors have abounded over the years that this is where the military has sequestered extraterrestrials, and that this secret has been kept from the public (with or without government complicity, depending on the particular conspiracy theory).]

Reese, it must be noted, has been harboring a secret crush on David. Maybe David likes her back or maybe not. The accident makes all that moot. And when David and Reese are released from their hospital after a month of being in medical-induced comas to save their lives, all they know is that they are now different somehow … in a very freaky way.

Moreover, after they are back home, Reese meets a very striking girl, Amber, and develops a crush on her too.

Is this coming of age? Or something spookier? Because nothing has been the same since Reese and David were OPERATED ON in Area 51!

Discussion: For me, this book exhibited both strengths and weaknesses.

What I liked:

You have to love a book full of bisexual, gay, and straight characters and everyone is cool about it.

And did I mention mixed races of all sorts?

What I didn’t like:

Reese is 17, but she usually acts much younger. She can be incredibly naïve, immature and stupid for someone her age.

The girl-with-the-gay-best-friend plotline is getting old…

The actions taken on the roads by panicky people and a suddenly-fascist military seemed pretty unlikely to me.

The government official characters (each with names like Special Agent X) seemed more like over-the-top movie caricatures (wearing dark glasses of course) than realistic officials under those same circumstances.

Last but not least, there is a scene that is so Richard Dreyfuss-and-the-mashed-potatoes that I couldn’t believe the author would include it without having to include an acknowledgement to “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”!

Evaluation: Easy recipe for this book: Take a well-worn movie plot full of well-meaning aliens and evil government officials and re-tell it for a YA audience. Throw in all sorts of diversity. Add a semi-cliffhanger at the end so readers will be back for Book Two. (Some readers, that is…. Probably not this reader.)

Rating: 2.5/5

Published by Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc., 2012

Red Kite, Blue Kite is a lovely story that takes place during the Cultural Revolution in China. Tai Shan loves to fly kites from the rooftop with his father, Baba. Tai Shan’s is red and Baba’s is blue.

One day, Baba is arrested:

Then, a bad time comes. My school is shut down. Soon all the schools are shut down. People wearing red armbands smash store signs and search houses. Men and women are sent to labor camps to work.

Baba is one of them.”

Fortunately, Baba’s camp is not too far away, and for a while he can visit every Sunday. When he is no longer allowed to leave the camp, he proposes to Tai Shan that he fly his red kite every morning, and Baba will answer with his blue kite at sunset. Tai Shan loves the idea of sharing a secret signal, and flies his red kite in the morning:

Before sunset, I go back to the hill and climb the elm tree. I wait and wait. Finally, Baba’s blue kite sways into the white clouds. The kite waves at me and whispers, ‘Here I am, my son.’”

But one day Baba’s kite doesn’t appear, and Tai Shan finds out Baba must be transferred far away. Baba now asks Tai Shan to fly both kites every day:

When you fly our kites, know that I am looking at the same sky and thinking about you.”

Tai Shan flies the kites, and is happy:

I smile with hope. Baba is watching. He is with me. We are above but still under, neither here nor there. We are free, like the kites.”

Finally, one sunny afternoon, Baba returns, and everyone in the village celebrates by flying kites.

Evaluation: I have to admit I was scared reading this book, because, having an adult’s knowledge of China during the Cultural Revolution, I was not optimistic! But the author based this story on the actual experience of a family friend whose father did survive. And I think most children will not be predisposed to be as pessimistic as I! For innocent children, this is a beautiful story of familial love and hope, and Greg Ruth’s ink-and-watercolor illustrations are very appealing.

Rating: 4.5/5

Published by Hyperion Books, an imprint of Disney Book Group, 2013

Product Details
Reading level: Ages 5 and up
Hardcover: 32 pages
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1423127536
ISBN-13: 978-1423127536

For more multicultural picture books, check out all the resources at The Birthday Party Pledge, a new website dedicated to promoting gifts of multicultural books to the children in our lives.

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For more reviews of books for children and teens, go to Booking Mama’s feature, Kid Konnection, posted on Saturdays. If you’d like to participate in Kid Konnection and share a post about anything related to children’s books (picture, middle grade, or young adult) from the past week, leave a comment as well as a link on her site.

Bernadette Fox is a former recipient of a genius grant because of her innovative architectural design. Now she is a frustrated angry housewife but loving mother to Bee, 15 and gifted. Bernadette’s husband Elgin is a top-level designer at Microsoft, who puts in long hours and exercises religiously when not at work. The family lives in a crumbling former school at the top of Queen Anne Hill, a neighborhood in Seattle.

As you can glean from the title, the plotline concerns the sudden apparent disappearance of Bernadette.

Much of the fun in this mostly-epistolary satirical book comes from the setting: from the climbing blackberry vines on the hill to the status-climbing parents at Bee’s school; from the hilarious send-up of the Seattle lifestyle to the ubiquity and comic possibilities of outsourcing; and of course from the hypocritical and fickle nature of humankind.

But this delightful book isn’t all about carping; it’s also about love, and how one will literally go to the ends of the earth for it. I’d call this a “don’t miss this” book!

Evaluation: After reading this, I immediately emailed everyone I knew looking for a good book. This one is imaginative, funny, and poignant, with witty and penetrating social commentary that is right on target.

Rating: 5/5

Note 1: Sandy of You’ve GOTTA Read This says the audio version featuring narrator Kathleen Wilhoite is terrific.

Note 2: Jim also enjoyed this book a great deal, but he wouldn’t give it a 5 because after he gave Moby Dick a 5 he feels he can never give anything else a 5. Plus, he thinks I gave it a 5 because, as he writes, “Jill overrates this very good book because the eponymous Bernadette is so much like Jill.” [...to which I would respond: pffftt.]

Published by Little, Brown and Company, 2012

Posters of Rilke fill college dorms. This one includes a portrait done in 1906 by Paula Modersohn-Becker, an early expressionist painter, along with a quote from the first of the Letters to a Young Poet

Rilke’s poems are considered quite difficult to translate from the German, and frankly, I even have trouble understanding them in English. His letters, on the other hand, are quite comprehensible and even inspirational.

This little volume is the latest of one of many translations of Rilke’s famous set of ten letters he wrote between 1902 and 1908 to a “fan” – an aspiring poet. The young man, Franz Kappus, 19, sent Rilke some poems and asked him if he would evaluate them, and whether he, Kappus, should risk all by becoming a poet full-time. Rilke, then only 28, answered generously, at length, and in great detail about what constitutes creativity and poetry, and how to channel the former into the latter. (What a dream-come-true for a “fan” of an author!)

Rainer Maria Rilke in September 1900

The letters give you a sense of Rilke’s great facility with words, and provide an interior portrait of an artist (himself) that is revelatory and moving.

Don’t stop at the first letter; in it Rilke claims no one can help another with writing. But thereafter, Rilke goes on to advise Kappus about how and where to find the creative thoughts within himself. (Not only within: he does go on a bit about how “creativity of the spirit has its origin in the physical kind, is of one nature with it and only a more delicate, more rapt and less fleeting version of the carnal sort of sex.”)

Poetry and sex. Who knew?

But here, perhaps, is a better example of the beauty of his writing, when he explains to Kappus how Rome has helped his equanimity:

No, there is not more beauty here than elsewhere, and all these objects which generation after generation have continued to admire, which inexpert hands have mended and restored, they mean nothing, are nothing, and have no heart and no value; but there is a great deal of beauty here, because there is beauty everywhere.

Infinitely lively waters go over the old aqueducts into the city and on the many squares dance over bowls of white stone and fill broad capacious basins and murmur all day and raise their murmur into the night, which is vast and starry and soft with winds. And there are gardens here, unforgettable avenues and flights of steps, steps conceived by Michelangelo, steps built to resemble cascades of flowing water – giving birth to step after broad step like wave after wave as they descend the incline. With the help of such impressions you regain your composure, win your way back out of the demands of the talking and chattering multitude (how voluble it is!), and you slowly learn to recognize the very few things in which something everlasting can be felt, something you can love, something solitary in which you can take part in silence.”

Discussion: Can the prowess of Rilke be evinced through this (or any) translation? I have no idea. Rilke himself said in a letter to his long-time friend/lover Lou Andreas- Salomé that when he wrote on the same subject in French as well as German, the content “developed very differently in the two languages: which argues strongly against the naturalness of translation.”

Lou Andreas-Salomé, psychoanalyst, writer, and associate of Rilke, Freud, Nietzsche, Wagner, and others

I cannot read Rilke in German, and thus I don’t feel able to say how good this particular translation is, although it is easy enough to find and compare others. Take, for example, the passage cited above about Rome. In this version, the translator has Rilke saying that “inexpert hands” have mended the beautiful objects of Rome. Another version I checked uses “workmen.” My impression is that restoring objets d’art is an extremely painstaking process requiring great skill, so I don’t find those concepts fungible. But, I have no idea what the passage says in the original German, so I have no knowledge about which construction is closer to Rilke’s intent. And in any event, otherwise I thought that this beautiful passage comes forth much clearer in this translation than the other. Generally, however, among translations, I think there is more variation in the associated matter (intro, notes, and the like) than in the text itself.

What I can say that I found Rilke’s thoughts riveting. In the course of talking about creativity, he also muses on power relationships, love, gender roles, sickness and health, cowardice and fortitude, and how to think about what happens in life generally. I especially like this passage:

… imagining an individual’s existence as a larger or smaller room reveals to us that most people are only acquainted with one corner of their particular room … That way, they have a certain security. And yet … perilous uncertainty … is so much more human. …

How can we forget those ancient myths found at the beginning of all peoples? The myths about the dragons who at the last moment turn into princesses? Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses, only waiting for the day when they will see us handsome and brave? Perhaps everything terrifying is deep down a helpless thing that needs our help.”

A beast can become a prince…

These letters will give you a very good sense of Rilke’s genius, his quixoticism, and lots of ideas to think about as well. And I particularly enjoyed being able to read something by Rilke that I actually understood….

A 1902 portrait of poet Rainer Maria Rilke by Helmut Westhoff

Note: This edition was translated and edited by Charlie Louth, and contains an introduction by Lewis Hyde.

Published by Penguin Classics, 2013