Lowly’s Book Blog

This is another book shortlisted for the CBC awards, and it well deserves nomination. But for all kinds of reasons, I hope it doesn’t win. Personally, I am uncomfortable with the level of violence.

The book opens with Dylan ‘dropping in’ on his almost girlfriend Kirsty one Sunday afternoon. Accidently he times his visit to coincide with Kirsty’s stepfather’s fortnightly visit when he returns his daughter after his access weekend. This fortnightly visit follows a long established routine of verbal abuse, denigration, and general bullying that re-establishes Ian’s control over the family for another fortnight.

After witnessing this demolition of people that he likes and respects, Dylan gets angry. As a young social activist, he rushes in with all kinds of advice and good intentions. But Kirsty and Time, the younger brother, gradually help Dylan understand the way they are trapped. They have tried, but Ian has a very aggressive lawyer. Everything got tied in knots and soon all the community services that are supposed to help started avoiding any involvement.

But Dylan is still angry, partially at Ian, but also at his own father who deserted his mother when Dylan was only months old. This level of anger and frustration needs to be vented.

The story rapidly escalates to an incredible level of violence for a book written for young adults. Yes there are moments when all the young people enjoy life, a shopping trip, a pool party, and even a first kiss. But the continual undercurrent of anger and violence is always just below the surface. And then a gun gets involved…

This was an excellent book to read. The writing was strong and the level of tension was maintained throughout. I had great difficulty putting it aside and consequently read it in one day. But I am extremely uncomfortable with the idea that violent behavior requires a violent response. What are we telling our children in this age of road rage and nightclub brawls?

This is a beautiful book for young children. The illustrations are amazing and the very simple story of Tom Tom’s average day is somehow ideal.

Tom Tom is a very young boy who spends every day with his mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, grannys and cousins. He visits Grannie Annie every day, goes to school, then down to Lemonade Springs to swim with his brothers and sisters and cousins, and then home to sleep with Granny May and Grandfather Joe. This is a simple story of an average day. No drama, no disaster, just a warm caring story.

The simple story accompanied by Dee Huxley’s illustrations express to even the youngest child the life of an Aboriginal boy living in Australia’s Top End. This story for an audience of children at about the same age, is sure to improve understanding between the two races that share this country.

Every time a Nick Bland book crosses my desk, I have to stop, make a coffee and read it. With titles like ‘A Monster Wrote me a Letter’ and ‘The Very Cranky Bear’ it is simply not an option to leave the cover closed. ‘Donald Loves Drumming’ is no different. 

On the surface, this is a simple family story about a very normal energetic and noisy boy. Donald loves to drum, and the family find it very difficult. But it is no easier when Donald takes up another pastime like painting or even walking the dog. The difference in this story is the illustrations. They carry the humor of the story even more than the words. 

This is never going to be an award winning book, but I certainly enjoyed this simple family story.

Anger management. This is a phrase we hear all the time in the media. Sportspeople, film stars, and even children are sent to psychologists to learn these important skills. Blobel has made her own contribution to this discussion with this unusual new novel.

Mara has endured times of uncontrollable rage since she was ten years old. She copes with these fits by running, as far and as fast as she can, in order to avoid destroying something. Her life is out of control, and she can see nothing positive on the horizon, that is until she meets Tibor on the late bus home. Through Tibor she finds something worth struggling for. He is friendly, positive and seems interested in getting to know her. That is until she sees him with another girl.

I found this book very disturbing. The story is told from Mara’s point of view, and in her mind her anger is not something to be concerned about. Everything is considered normal. The author doesn’t make an effort to inform the reader that the narrator is unreliable until the very last episode and it’s disastrous consequences. Perhaps it would have been better to indicate to the reader that this anger was a bad thing before Mara went over the edge.

However, I did appreciate the fact that the apology did not immediately restore all to rights. 

Jaclyn Moriarty is writes some of the most popular books in the library. So when this book came to the top of the reading list, I was most surprised to see that it have very few borrowings. Now that I have read it, I think I know why.

Listen Taylor has just started year 7. She and her father have just moved in with a woman called Marbie Zing when Listen finds a spell book with a series of very strange magic spells, including a ’spell to make someone eat a piece of chocolate cake’. At about the same time, her friends dump her and life gets very difficult. And there is this strange Zing Family meeting every Friday night where the adults share the Zing Family Secret. 

Confused? I think that is the idea. However, very gradually the picture becomes clear and everything starts to make sense. It really is a lovely gentle book that has a delightful story to tell.

So why does it sit on the shelf? I suspect that the unclear target audience has a lot to do with it. Moriarty has a solid following in the young adult audience, but this story is told mostly by 12 year old Listen. Many older girls will lose patience with her innocence, especially regarding the spell book. But the story isn’t really for young tweens either. There is a significant amount of adultery contained within it’s pages, and I suspect the tweens won’t feel comfortable with that. 

Although I enjoyed reading the book, I simply have no idea who I would recommend it to.

Every now and then I manage to read the right book at the right time. In the past few days I have been thinking a lot about Obama’s inauguration and how the country where I grew up has changed. Then this book that I have been meaning to read for ages reached the top of the pile.

David is nine, and he is growing up in Tennessee in the 1950s. His father is the town doctor, and David starts to learn the bones of the body as soon as he can read. He shares this knowledge with his best friend Malcolm, so Malcolm knows the bones too. Malcolm can play baseball, and he can draw. Together these boys grow up sharing all the trauma and adventure that is involved. But Malcolm is black. Malcolm has to worry about the Klan, Malcolm knows that no matter how talented he is, he will never play baseball. David can see the injustice, and he is angry. But at nine years old what can you do?

This is a gem of a little book. I have recommended it for middle school students, and I think they can handle it comfortably, even if there is a darkness to the tale. Some may disagree. The writing is strong, the characters consistent and the plot very realistic. I loved it.

And perhaps many men and women growing up in the south like David have made this week’s political activities possible. Right now I am very proud of my homeland.

I really hate reading these books. I know that they are important, and it may be a way in which a damaged child finds the courage to seek help, but sorry I still hate reading them.

Ed (short for Edwina) is a fourteen year old girl growing up in a small town. It seems that she knows everybody, there can be no surprises. But then her best friend’s sister is raped. The town gossips, including Ed’s insensitive mother, go on about how she ‘asked for it.’ Ed is left confused and uncomfortable, watching as Anne-Marie suffers. And then Ed’s father’s best friend Tom starts paying a lot of attention to her. At first she is excited by the attention, almost as if a schoolgirl crush is coming true. She finally has a chance to rehearse all those skills she has been reading about in Dolly. But when things go too far, Ed is left frightened, and alone, remembering what was said about Anne-Marie, she keeps the secret and the sense of guilt nearly destroys her.

This book certainly has a predictable plot. No one in touch with the media reports and child safety notices could fail to predict the plot. But the power of this book is not in the action but the strength of writing of the characters. Ed is one of the most realistic young adults in literature that I have read about in a very long time. Webster has accurately caught the jumble of emotions that young teens feel, often all at the same time.

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t hate the book. I just hate the fact that such books need to be written. Very simply, it is too close to the truth for comfort.

It seems ages since I actually read and reviewed a book intended for an adolescent audience. But yesterday I gave up on my ‘official’ review workload and picked up this little gem for a quick read.

Zac is growing up in a dead end town somewhere in the empty regions of Australia. The nearest cinema is 90km away, as well as shops, swimming pool and most of all skatepark. But Zac and his friends have their own places around town to skate and as long as they rotate through them, there isn’t too much trouble. Zac and his best mate Corey dream of a skatepark for their own town, but it seems a hopeless dream until the school Good Girl gets involved in the issue. Corey teams up with Lauren and together they gather a team that eventually raises the funds necessary to build the skatepark. Then tragedy strikes.

This was a very good read. There is plenty of skateboard action as well as family drama. The characters have a strong realistic voice and the personal reactions to the tragedy ring very true. 

I also liked the fact that the book is presented in large print. There are a lot of reluctant readers that should be attracted to this book and willing to see it through to the end.

How many times have you heard someone say, ‘I’m going to write a book someday.’ Many even have an idea, or a fascinating life story to tell. Nancy Kohner researched this book throughout most of her lifetime, but only put pen to paper after she was diagnosed with a terminal cancer. This book is all we will ever hear from her.

This is the story of three generations of Jews living and working in Podersam, Czechoslovakia. When Heinrich and Valerie marry in 1896 this is all part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Together they raise three children, send one son off to World War I to fight for the Kaiser, see all their eldest son and daughter married, the birth of their first grandchild and the rise of the Nazis. It is made very clear at the beginning of the book that the two sons escaped to England and Ireland, but the fate of the remainder of the family is revealed in context.

This book is very special because Kohner had nearly a century of letters to use as source material. This family wrote to each other regularly and kept all the letters, Even when the boys escaped to England, boxes of letters came with them. Nancy had to have them translated and much of the writing in this book is directly taken from these letters. This gives a wonderfully strong voice to Heinrich and Valerie, people that the author never met.

This book could easily have focused on Hitler, the Nazis and the Holocaust, and as such been lost in the huge volume of literature about those times. Instead the focus is very clearly on the family, their concern for Franz who is fighting on the Russian front in WWI, the fact that as the war continues there is nothing for them to sell in their shop, the joy of their garden. World War II is handled nearly as gently, but it is more traumatic because Heinrich and Valerie have to leave their home and business of 40 years to begin life anew, with both of them well over 60. When the Nazis arrive in Prague, the story becomes very sad. Valerie’s last letters are heartrending.

I thoroughly enjoyed this unusual book. An important story was told with love and respect. History was revealed through the eyes of the people who lived through it, not a historian’s analysis. 

New Year’s resolution time. I am determined to read and review 200 new books during 2009. But first I need to clear the backlog of reviews.

The best of what I have been holding is Kate McCaffrey’s latest(?) In Ecstasy. In her previous novel Kate demonstrated a rare ability to get ‘inside the head’ of an adolescent experiencing real problems. She can clearly explain the little decisions that start the slide and then sympathetically look at the struggle experienced when one tries to solve the huge problem alone. 

McCaffrey has done it again in this book. Two friends, Mia and Sophie, have been friends forever. But when they both get caught up in the party scene, complete with the party drugs, their friendship begins to fray. Eventually the girls get caught up in situations that make them very uncomfortable and struggle to find their way out.

This is certainly an excellent book for 15-17 year old girls. It is a cautionary tale that may help someone from venturing too far into a world that looks can be inviting. But it is also a book for parents, teachers and anyone else who is involved with young adults. It will clearly help explain the attraction of party drugs and lead them to understand why some may believe they need them too survive.