Review: One Crazy Summer

One Crazy Summer

by Rita Williams-Garcia

The story of One Crazy Summer opens with three girls flying across the country to meet there mother. When I say "to meet," I do not mean "to meet up with." They are going to meet their mother for the first time in years--since she left them as babies and toddlers in the care of their father in Brooklyn. After a long flight from New York to San Francisco, the girls find themselves face to face with the woman who chose to leave, and this is where the "crazy summer" begins.

We hear this story in Delphine's practical and no-nonsense voice. At eleven-years-old, she is the eldest sister and has basically been the mother her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern never had. Delphine is serious and dignified and often must be the peacemaker between her sensitive little sisters. But what makes Delphine such an engaging protagonist is that every now and then, her kid side comes through. It is heartbreaking because you realize that even though she has taken charge in her mother's absence, it is only because someone had to. Delphine needed (and still needs) a mother just as badly as her little sisters, but as the oldest, she had to step up and be there for her sisters.

This isn't just your average coming-of-age, mother-daughter story, though. Did I mention that it is set in 1960s Oakland, California at the peak of the Black Panther movement? Definitely not your typical middle-grade/young-adult story setting. It soon becomes clear that Cecile (Delphine, Vonetta and Fern's mother) is involved in the movement in some mysterious way. In fact, on their first morning in California, Cecile sends the girls to the Black Panther day camp, where they encounter ideas and personalities that they have never faced before. It is fascinating to see the Black Panther activities through Delphine's eyes. She starts out suspicious, but soon Delphine (along with the reader) starts to see that the Black Panthers are about a lot more than the violence that the news and media (both then and now) portray them to be. One thing is for sure: that "crazy" summer is to be a summer of change--in Delphine, in her mother, in the world.

This is excellent writing about a part of American history that is rarely represented in historical fiction--especially for the under-twenty set. It's great for readers who think they don't like the historical fiction genre because the setting is not oppressive to the story. It provides the perfect frame to a moving story about a girl learning to want a mother's love again after years of having to deal without it.

One Crazy Summer

by Rita Williams-Garcia

Release date:

Newbery Honor, 2011

Things to think about as you read One Crazy Summer:

-Setting (Notice how the historical setting/situation are used to enhance the tension in the story)

-Character development (The characters change a lot over the course of the story. What does this show/teach?)

-Symbolism (What objects and belongings are important? Do they possibly have symbolic meaning? What feelings or ideas might these objects represent?)

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Review: How I, Nicky Flynn, Finally Get a Life (and a Dog)

How I, Nicky Flynn, Finally Get a Life (and a Dog)

by Art Corriveau

Nicky Flynn is a lovable misanthrope. Well, to call him a "misanthrope" may be extreme, but he is, at the very least, quite grumpy. At eleven, he thinks he's got it all figured out and has little patience for the mess his mother has gotten them into (or, at least that's how Nicky sees it).

Nicky's whole world has been turned upside-down. His parents are going through a messy divorce and his mom, as Nicky likes to point out repeatedly, his mom decided she needed to "stand on her own two feet" and moved them from a house in the perfect (according to Nicky's descriptions) suburb of Littleton to a tiny/scuzzy apartment in the rough not-quite-Boston neighborhood of Charlestown. As Nicky narrates the story in a conversational present tense, you can practically see his eyes roll and hear him heave a heavy sigh at pretty much everything and everyone that crosses his path--his therapist's clumsy attempts to get Nicky to "open up," a quirky classmate's odd conversation-starters, and even his mom's surprise gift at the beginning of the novel...a dog!

Man's-best-friend novels always run the risk of being a bit cliched. But what makes Art Corriveau's take on the old boy-and-dog story feel fresh and engaging is that Nicky wants nothing to do with Reggie (a stupid name, Nicky points out, given by a past owner, not himself). The story opens with Nicky complaining to the reader about how irresponsible and typical it is that his mother went out and got this dog without even thinking about the practical side of owning a dog. At first, Nicky tries to avoid Reggie, but when it becomes clear that his mother will not be doing the walking and feeding, responsible and reliable Nicky steps up. Reggie's need for daily walks forces Nicky out of the house into the neighborhood he hates to much. Slowly, Nicky and Reggie begin to share adventures together in Charlestown and Nicky starts to (begrudgingly, and under somewhat unusual circumstances) make connections with the neighborhood and its people.

Nicky's voice is so engaging. No matter how grumpy he is, you see his warm and honest heart shining through. As he and Reggie explore Charlestown and Boston together, Nicky thinks back on a special day he spent exploring the city with his dad. Nicky's holds his dad up on a pedestal, and your heart aches for him as time and time again, his dad bails on weekend plans. As a reader, you try to make sense of the image Nicky paints of his father and the image that the facts seem to show--a dad who just isn't around. You want to comfort Nicky, but at the same time, tell him to snap out of it.

How I, Nicky Flynn... is a funny, sweet, sincere story. It confronts the fact that everyone makes mistakes, kids and adults alike and that change, scary as it may seem, can be the best thing that happened to you.

How I, Nicky Flynn, Finally Get a Life (and a Dog)

by Art Corriveau

Release date: May, 2010

Things to think about as you read How I Nicky Flynn Get a Life and a Dog:

-Verb tense (Corriveau chose to write in the present tense!)

-Character development (How do the characters change?)

-Unreliable narrator (Do you ever disagree with Nicky's opinions/interpretations?)

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Review: Mockingbird

Mockingbird

by Kathryn Erskine

From the moment we are born, we begin learning. We watch the adults around us and mimic their actions and, slowly but surely, start to get the hang of the basics--sitting up, crawling, walking, talking. There is a whole other set of skills that most of us pick up naturally, not really having to consciously learn or practice them--the skill of recognizing when someone is angry, the skill of seeing that a friend is sad and offering them comfort. But did you ever think of what it would be like if you didn't learn these things? How would your life be different if you had no idea what it meant when someone rolled their eyes at you or lifted the corners of their mouth upward to form a smile?

Welcome to the world of Caitlin Smith. Caitlin, the protagonist of Kathryn Erskine's Mockingbird, is an eleven-year-old girl with Asperger's syndrome. For people with Asperger's, the emotions of those around them are a mysterious and confusing thing. They struggle to identify the emotions of others, and, furthermore, to empathize with them. For example, when Caitlin sees a look on someone's face, she has to think back to a chart of different faces that her counselor, Ms. Brook, has been teaching her. Are the eyebrows raised? Is the mouth frowning? Are the eyes watery? Figuring out the emotion of the person in front of her is like solving a very frustrating puzzle. As you can imagine, this makes social connections very difficult. At the beginning of the book, Caitlin has no friends. And it certainly does not seem hopeful that Caitlin is coming to the end of fifth grade, right when any kid's social life starts to get a whole lot more complicated. Middle school: mean girls, cliques, in-crowds. If identifying a smile is tough, imagine trying to figure out sarcasm!

It doesn't stop there. When you meet Caitlin at the beginning of Mockingbird, you soon figure out that she and her father have just suffered a horrible tragedy--the death of her older brother Devon. Kathryn Erskine does a beautiful job of "showing" rather than "telling" in this book. The reader experiences everything in the novel through Caitlin's eyes. This is especially powerful because very often, Caitlin does not understand the feelings of those around her. Caitlin describes the things they do and say, the tiny movements of their faces and tremblings in their voices, and although she might not know what they are feeling, the reader does. And it is heart-breaking. So many times, while reading this book, I wanted to reach in and comfort the people around Caitlin, who were so clearly hurting from the loss of Devon.

At other times, I found myself wanting to jump into the book and translate for Caitlin. After a few chapters, you find yourself starting to understand Caitlin's logic. Often, what seems like a completely random tantrum to those around her, makes perfect sense if you understand the thought process that led Caitlin there. You start to realize that Devon was Caitlin's interpreter to the world. Through the memories she shares, you learn that Devon understood her like nobody else. He taught her how to interact with people and he was endlessly patient with her. Without him, it's like she has been abandoned in a foreign land without a map.

It is fascinating and beautiful to watch through Caitlin's eyes as she and her father (and the entire small, Virginia town in which they live) try to heal from the loss of Devon. It makes you thankful for things you never before thought of and it makes you realize that there is no one correct way to grieve. And although Caitlin's Asperger's often acts as an obstacle in her attempts to make connections, at other moments, it makes you question the logic of the "normal" way to act. At times, it is Caitlin's blunt honesty (which often accompanies her misunderstandings of other people's feelings) that leads to breakthroughs in her family's and community's mourning process.

Mockingbird is a very special book. It makes you step back and see the miracle of human closeness. Through Caitlin's observations of the world, you realize that human connections are a joyful, messy, complicated and extraordinary thing and that we should be deeply grateful for them. In one scene, she describes a little boy gathering his friends from around the playground. She watches in wonder and notices how "it's like his friends are tied to him with a string because they run to him from all directions until they all end up in front of me" (p. 95). It is often those who do not have something that can describe it the most beautifully and this is true of Caitlin throughout the book. I felt sad to part with her at the end but also felt thankful for all she had taught me. For anyone who would like to step into the shoes of someone you never thought you could understand, Mockingbird is a must-read.

Mockingbird

by Kathryn Erskine

Release date: April, 2010

Things to think about as you read Mockingbird:
-Point of view and perspective
-Internal conflict
-Narrator tone and voice

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