Tomorrow is South Africa Youth Day, celebrating the 1976 youth protest in Soweto. Khosi’s mother and father were among the many who fought for freedom from apartheid, the South African government’s brutal racial discrimination policy.
Although apartheid has crumbled, Khosi and Zi are growing up in an era of changes, as traditional beliefs clash with Christianity, and new menaces stalk the villages and cities of Africa. “The disease of these times” Khosi calls it – HIV and AIDS leaves many children orphaned.
I visited with author J.L. Powers at TLA, and she told me of life in today’s South African townships, the funeral bells, the push for education. Reading this strong book, we can believe that Khosi will stay in school and find a way to balance her beliefs, avoid threats to her health, and see a bright future.
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Recommendation: Khosi wants to do well in school, keep her family safe, escape AIDS, “the disease of these times” in South Africa. Life can be so confusing at 14, as she prays to the great God-in-the-sky at the church and also honors her ancestors with traditional ceremonies, uses herbal cures from the sangoma as well as modern medicines from the clinic. Born on the day that her grandfather died, Khosi often has vivid dreams – are they merely warnings from her ancestor or dire predictions of the future?
She and her little sister live with their grandmother in Imbali township, while her mother teaches in another city, coming home on the weekends; their father lives so far away that they see him only on holidays. Khosi wishes that Mama and Baba were married, but during the struggle for Liberation who could afford the lobolo, the bride price?
A widowed neighbor accuses Mama of stealing her late husband’s money, a drunken man near Gogo’s house follows Khosi and Zi home from school every day, and the witch woman calls out that she will take Khosi’s spirit! How Khosi wishes she could just ignore these things and plan her future as someone who heals or dream about her crush on Little Man at her school …
When Mama comes home, sick and skinny and weary, Khosi fears that the neighbor and the witch have cursed her family. What can she do?
Author J.L. Powers’ time in South Africa has given her great insight into the lives of its girls and women, ever-shadowed by HIV, neighborhood violence, and the struggle to rise above poverty, as she brings us a powerful story that still holds hope for This Thing Called the Future. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
A true story becomes even more real in the hands of a talented author.
As we read Heart of a Samurai, we experience the horror that Manjiro and his fellow fishermen felt on the 1840s whaling ship, the sad knowledge that they are forbidden to return home to Japan by their own emperor, the prejudice that John Mung finds in his adoptive New England town.
Interesting to note that another young man was the first known Japanese to arrive in the US, several years before Manjiro, but Otokichi never returned to live in his homeland.
Yes, Heart of a Samurai is a Newbery Honor Book for 2011, but it isn’t yet the bestseller that it deserves to be.
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My Book Talk: Big-nosed barbarians! A ship larger than 7 fishing boats! Is it rescue…or capture? Young Manjiro was not sure what to tell the 4 other Japanese fishermen who had drifted to a rocky island after a storm in 1841, barely surviving.
But the captain of the American whaling ship is kind to them, and Manjiro begins to learn English and help aboard ship. The Japanese are horrified when whales are slaughtered only for their blubber, wasting enough meat to feed many villages. Alas, they will never see their home village again, since the Emperor has decreed that no Japanese that leaves their islands may ever return, just as no foreigners may ever enter that country.
Reaching Hawaii, Captain Whitfield gives the fishermen new clothes and money to help them settle there. He asks Manjiro if he would like to continue whaling and to go to America with him – as his son! Manjiro’s adventurous heart answers yes, and he becomes the first Japanese to visit the United States when their ship reaches New Bedford in 1843. Some folks accept John Mung (as his shipmates call Manjiro), but others do not.
When Captain Whitfield goes to sea again, he leaves John to look over the rest of the family. Working on the Whitfields’ farm, going to school, even riding a horse like a samurai – what other son of a village fisherman ever had such wealth and experiences?
After training as a navigator, John signs on with another whaling ship whose captain goes crazy when month after month passes with no signs of whales for capture. Will the crew of the Franklin survive? Can Manjiro ever return to Japan?
Based on a true story, this exciting book includes illustrations by Manjiro himself, plus glossaries of Japanese words, whaling terms, and sailors’ lingo. Travel the high seas during whaling’s glory days as you learn how a humble fisherboy grows up to have the heart of a true samurai. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)
Until it’s grown, you don’t known if that weedy stuff is crabgrass or horrible, clawing grassburrs.
Likewise, Jacob didn’t realize that the monsters that Grandpa warned him about were real until it was too late, as he looks up from the dying man to see the horrifying creature…and the monster sees Jacob.
Author Ransom Riggs started collecting old photos some years ago, drawn to the captions often written on them. For the most peculiar images, he began inventing their backstories and what the oddest captions might have been.
In this thriller, Riggs’ imagination has gone far beyond those idea seeds planted by the old photos, as he brings the “peculiar children” to life, as well as the monsters that pursue them…and Jacob.
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My Book Talk: Jacob stopped believing in Grandpa’s monster stories years ago, but what else could kill someone so thoroughly? Fatally attacked, Grandpa gasps that Jacob “must go to the island” where he will be safe, as he sees the blackened creature of his nightmares disappear into the Florida woods.
Now 16 year old Jacob has the nightmares, the monster alternating with the old photos of “peculiar children” who were his grandpa’s friends at the Welsh orphanage which rescued him from the Holocaust – an invisible boy, the floating girl…real or faked? Clues found at Grandpa’s house convince him that he must find that island and the orphanage, or go insane!
Thankfully, his psychiatrist agrees, so Jacob and his dad head for Wales, and the mystery grows deeper.
If the orphanage was bombed-out in 1940, how did Grandpa get there later?
Why can Jacob hear voices in the old building when no one else can?
Who is following them on the tiny island?
As the past and present tangle and unravel, Jacob finds the old photos to be new truths as the monsters pursue children for their peculiar talents. A chilling debut novel for very mature readers which ponders how the balance point between good and evil loops through human history… (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)
Surviving disaster is one thing. Living beyond the confines of your grief is another. Making memorials to mark the passing of loved ones should help ease the pain…
In this sequel to Green Angel, Ash begins to heal, as the memories of her former world cry out to be recaptured, the captives to be freed, the forbidden technologies whisked out of sight of the invaders. And so she writes down the memories, travels to hear the stories, uses the machines, regardless of the peril.
Are there parallels to our own history in the events of Green’s world?
Can we learn to see different stories as reasonable, to live together in peace?
May this hopeful tale lead us to hopeful times.
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Book info: Green Witch / by Alice Hoffman; illustrated by Matt Mahurin. Scholastic, 2010. [author’s website] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
My Book Talk: Green had watched as the City burned, consumed her family, turned the world to ash as the Horde tried to destroy all technology. Scarred, then healed, she now watches her garden grow tall and strong near the memorial stones for her father, her mother, and her sister.
The village folks come to Green’s farm and tell her their stories, so many stories that she must make new paper to write them all down (books are the first things that the Horde destroys). And they tell her of “the witches,” the wise ones who never come to the village, who have special powers after The Fire. But Green will only write down a story directly from its source, so she journeys to find each of the witches and learn their stories, her sister’s dog as her companion.
When the Finder of hidden technology asks her to help rescue his sister from the Horde’s prison, Green uses the stories of the witches to guide them. Might she find her lost love, as well?
This beautiful sequel to Green Angel shows hope shining through the ashes of war and destruction. (one of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)
What would you do if everyone, everything was taken from you? How could you cope, not yet 16, the ash falling, falling, falling… The end of Days? Prophecy coming to pass? Invasion?
This slim volume holds much sadness, many fears, and a fragment of hope as a young woman tries to go on living after unimaginable disaster.
Followed by Green Witch, tomorrow’s featured book.
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Book info: Green Angel / by Alice Hoffman; illustrated by Matt Mahurin. Scholastic, 2003. [author’s website] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
My Book Talk: Black ashes fill the sky, as the City across the river burns. Green thought it wasn’t fair that she had to stay in the garden while her little sister and parents took their produce to the market across the bridge. Soon she would be 16 and could move to the city if she wanted to. She was always shy around other people while her sister, Aurora, glowed with happiness. But fire rained down on the City, burned the bridge, and consumed her family.
Green doesn’t need her ember-burnt eyes to see how the ashes kill the birds, blanket the garden, and smother the plants. She tattoos herself with each memory of loss, hacks off her hair, and armors herself against the world in her father’s coat sewn over with thorns, renaming herself Ash.
Food becomes scarce, and looters try to take over the farm. Hearing more than seeing, Ash gets through one day, then the next, with her sister’s dog as companion.
Will the sun never shine again?
Why was the City attacked?
Will this world remain ashes and death forever, or will it be green again someday?
This short lyrical tale traces Ash’s despair and Green’s hope. Next in the series is Green Witch. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com)
This book scares me on so many levels, and there’s not a vampire or ghost or werewolf or war anywhere in it. How could Gemma’s parents cope with her disappearance? I just can’t imagine their terror and desperation.
May 25 is National Missing Children’s Day – it’s heartbreaking that this recognition even has to exist. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has resources so you can learn how to keep yourself and the children you know safe.
I’ve visited the Outback, so I know how far away from everything and everyone Gemma finds herself, out in the Red Center of Australia…
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My Book Talk: He watched Gemma for years – at the park, in her room – then he stole her, drugged her coffee, and took her away from her parents at the Bangkok airport. Now she’s in a desert, miles and miles from any town, continents away from her London high school, alone with him. Ty says that he’ll keep her there with him…forever.
What makes a man plan so intently, stockpiling food and supplies to last a decade, building a house in the depths of the Outback? How can get on the very same plane as Gemma or get a fake passport for her or smuggle her through airport security?
Will she be with Ty forever? How long will he leave her body to herself? Will she ever see her parents again? Under a sky filled with more stars than the cities can ever see, on the flatness of an empty land, Gemma’s questions fill her journal, going on and on like the red sands of the desert, as far as she can see… (one of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.
Plastic trees, pre-fab food, every social and business interaction online only – sounds a little tempting when you’re caught in traffic on the way to school or trapped in yet another blah-blah-blah lecture course.
But if every minute of school occurs online, the only people you see day in and day out are family members, the only birdsong you ever heard was historic digital audio, the only way you know your thoughts are your own is… well, you couldn’t be sure of that, could you?
A prediction? A cautionary tale? Welcome to a future where DigitalSchool shapes young human minds while all other living things become obsolete…
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Recommendation: School is completely online in 2060, so Maddie rarely sees anyone in person, except her mom and dad. Why does this Justin guy want to meet her at a face-to-face Tutor session? She could just see him online 24/7, like her other friends all over the world. Anyway, her dad grounded her till age 18 after she went into his DigitalSchool master computer two years ago.
Her parents say that Justin is dangerous, that his parents were terrorists, that he’s only trying to see 17-year-old Maddie because of her dad’s DigitalSchool business. But Justin actually speaks to her like a thinking human being, showing her the real Portland with pastries instead of nutri-bars and live musicians instead of soundfiles online.
It seems that not everyone is happy with DigitalSchool. Justin wants her to sneak more information from her dad’s computer so they can crash that system and give kids the chance to get outside, away from computer-simulated beach views and back to the real sand and sea, away from thousands of online friends they’ve never seen and back to interacting with real friends.
During a dangerous DS student “rescue” with Justin, Maddie has to decide whether she’ll abide by her dad’s authoritarian rules or risk losing her place in 2060’s society.
Can she trust Justin?
Could she really live where trees aren’t plastic and sunsets aren’t on a computer screen?
Is there something malicious in DigitalSchool, something bad enough for Maddie to risk life in prison?
A glimpse of a potential future where keeping the peace may be more dangerous to humanity than allowing conflicting ideas… (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher through NetGalley.com.
Romance, baseball, zombies… a typical high school day, right? This is such a great comic! Its subtitles – “My Date is a Dead Weight, or He Only Loves Me For my Brains” – hint at the tone of the whole book – really funny, a little creepy, a touch slapstick.
The writer and artist together have crafted a very plausible way for the “mutated Cordyceps fungus” to infect people and, uh, dissolve their brains. And it doesn’t take long for the “zombie fungus” to do its work… Hey, the CDC just released Emergency Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse on 5/16/11 – life imitates art?!
Tsang’s writing is humorous and serious in all the right places, while Gorrissen’s drawings make every character distinctive and real – both cartoonish and lifelike at the same time (except thoroughly dead, in the zombies’ cases).
Dicey is a hoot, playing baseball on the varsity team and giving the guys back what they dish out, while Jack is super-brainy, getting totally flustered when Dicey agrees to a date = you can just see him blush, even though the whole book is in black and white.
I was excited to see that I Love Him to Pieces was nominated for YALSA‘s 2012 “Great Graphic Novels for Teens” list. So nice that they confirmed my enthusiasm!
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My Book Talk: Who knew that being “egg parents” together for a school project would lead to making a stand against the undead on a senior skip day?
The “zombie fungus” should never have reached Florida. But suddenly varsity baseball star Dicey and her super-scientific boyfriend Jack are in the middle of it, as zombies begin to take over their city.
Are Jack’s researcher parents safe in Mexico, at the meteorite crash site where the fungus was first discovered? Are Dicey’s dad and little brother safe across the bay? What about their fantasy-gaming friends and the baseball team at St. Petersburg High School? Just one bite from a zombie, and it’s all over…
Somehow, the stunningly detailed art in black and white makes the zombies scarier than a blood-and-guts palette would – fantastic! First in the graphic novel series “My Boyfriend is a Monster,” each book featuring a different writer/artist pairup and a different variety of monstrous boyfriend. (one of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover art courtesy of the publisher through NetGalley.com.
It’s Eliza Doolittle Day, honoring the streetwise flower seller transformed into a society lady by Professor Higgins (Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw).
So here’s a classic transformation tale with a twist. Cinderella: Ninja Warrior (first of the Canadian author’s Twisted Tales series) spices things up a bit and lets readers select alternate paths through the middle of the story! Yes, it’s “Cinderella” meets “Choose Your Own Adventure” meets “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” – well, not really Ninja Turtles, but lots of magic, wizardry, ninja skills, and that really evil stepmother.
You want some escapist, have-a-fun-time reading with a feisty heroine and a few surprises? Then this is your book! And you can share it with younger readers, too – lots of action, coy romance, and bad guys getting what they deserve, whichever path you choose! I can’t wait to read #2, Sleeping Beauty: Vampire Slayer!
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My Book Talk: Cinderella discovers that ninja training enhances the concentration and strength needed to improve her magical abilities in this “choose-your-path” version of the classic tale. Her evil stepmother is a strong wizard, nearly as strong as Cinderella’s late father and mother were, but only uses her powers in evil ways. If Cinderella can just improve her martial arts and magical abilities enough, she might escape past the ravenous wolves of night or break the daylight locking curse that her stepmother placed on every door and window of her father’s house…
Lucky that her cat pushed that ninja skills book off the enchanted shelf in her father’s old study, lucky that Max kept pawing open the book so she would try the skills, lucky that her stepmother never came into the dank cellar where Cinderella practiced – but can she learn these difficult skills without a real teacher?
When the King sends invitations to a fabulous ball so that Prince Tiberius may select a bride, Cinderella must decide whether to risk her stepmother’s wrath by attending or to stay home from the ball, perhaps forever – the first of the reader’s three options to choose the path of the story.
A curious royal messenger, martial arts contests, trials by magic, mistaken identities, mystical transformations – your choices make every reading of this classic fairy tale into a new story. Enjoy a great new twist on an old favorite as you select Cinderella’s path, cheering for our heroine and booing at her wicked stepmother. (one of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) (Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher through NetGalley)
Welcoming guest blogger Maggie who highlights a ‘forgotten gem’ of YA fiction – in this case, classic science fiction that may turn out to be closer to reality than we’d like to believe.
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Maggie’s Recommendation: An oldie but a goodie, Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game (published in various story forms since 1977) takes place in a post-Cold War dystopia in which parents are discouraged from having more than two children. Disgracefully, Ender is a Third, but, although he should be the spare – the expendable one – he is selected by the powers that be to be trained on a space station orbiting Earth. He is put through rigorous, even abusive, combat training which alienates him from the other recruits on board the station. His final “training exercise” requires him to command a fleet of space ships launched in an offensive against an alien home world – such a realistic videogame.
Card did not first intend to write a young adult novel, but his themes reach out to a much wider audience than he ever intended to address. In his acceptance speech for the Margaret A. Edwards Award, he admits, “Ender’s Game was written with no concessions to young readers. My protagonists were children, but the book was definitely not aimed at kids” (Card, “Margaret” 15). Nevertheless, he writes, “Young readers… are… deeply inside Ender’s character. They still live in a world largely (or, with younger readers, entirely) shaped by the adults around them. Ender’s attitude is revelatory to them” (Card, “Margaret” 17).
Although some see Ender’s Game as dated by its post-Cold War binaries of East and West – and subsequently Human and Alien – this novel, like many by Card, has a long lasting appeal to readers of all ages.
Works Mentioned
Card, Orson Scott. Ender’s Game. New York: Tor, 1991.
—. “Margaret A. Edwards Award Acceptance Speech.” Young Adult Library Services (Fall 2008): 14-18.
Guest Blogger Bio: L. Maggie Fanning, M.A. English professor, creative writer, and professional editor. Respond to my reflections at http://thehappybibliophile.blogspot.com or at fanning.editor@gmail.com.
Tomorrow is South Africa Youth Day, celebrating the 1976 youth protest in Soweto. Khosi’s mother and father were among the many who fought for freedom from apartheid, the South African government’s brutal racial discrimination policy.
A true story becomes 
Until it’s grown, you don’t known if that weedy stuff is 
It’s Eliza Doolittle Day, honoring the streetwise flower seller transformed into a society lady by Professor Higgins (