catching up: books etc
Jul. 6th, 2013 10:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psocopteraForgotten from the previous list, Wonder, R. J. Palacio, which I should have co-reviewed with Fairest as both deal with questions of appearance and ugliness and it was interesting to read both at the same time. Of the two, I would recommend Wonder; I enjoyed the distinctive voices/perspectives of the multiple narrators, and I found it thought-provoking in a critical way, which, uh, I guess isn't exactly a glowing recommendation, but sometimes it is interesting to be engaged with the questionable aspects of a text?
Wonder is about a previously-homeschooled ten-year-old with severe craniofacial deformities, attending school for the first time as a fifth grader. As you might expect everyone learns a heartwarming lesson about bullying (it's bad) and acceptance (it's good). I found it most interesting as it pertained to disability issues. First of all, the question of whether Auggie should be read as a disabled person - someone says point-blank more than once that he's "not special needs" or "doesn't have special needs", in a rather othering way, I mean, that very much seemed to be trying to say "he's normal unlike those OTHER kids". But, in fact, my memory of the book is that he does not have an IEP and doesn't need assistance in the classroom, so, I guess he's technically in fact not special needs, except that he does get hearing aids partway through the book, and the teachers seem to be aware/accomodating of this, and I would think partial deafness would "count" as a special need, so, this was interesting to debate with myself. And then there's the end of the book, wherein Auggie is given an award at the year-end awards for being so gosh-darn inspirational, which, on the one hand, *if* he were a disabled adult, would be a rather nauseatingly patronizing scene, yay for our little mascot. But then on the other hand, he's *not* an adult, he's a fifth-grader, and he is pleased and delighted to receive a standing ovation, something he had dreamed of since his sister did at her high school play, and he says "to me I'm just me, an ordinary kid, but hey, if they want to give me a medal for being me, I'll take it, I did just get through the fifth grade and that's not easy even if you're not me" (lightly paraphrased). So... again, interesting. On the one hand the book is pushing a "disability as inspirational" message which is not a great take-home message applied more broadly, on the other hand it makes a decent case that for this particular kid winning the affection of his teachers and peers is a victory, and it's more important to read him as the particular character that he is than as a symbol of disability.
And then, relevant to the previous list, Thumped, the sequel to Bumped. Not really recommended, sadly. There isn't enough new material here to justify a second book, the whole thing could easily have been one volume, and a fair bit of it is given over to showing a positive and heartwarming successful adoption triad, which, okay, I can totally see the necessity of doing, after the skewering in the previous book, I'm sure the author didn't want to actually come across as prejudiced and hostile to first parents or families formed through adoption, but it's all rather pleasant and generic and forgettable, as opposed to the wicked biting satirical bits in the first one. Also minus points for major mishandling of the shipping - completely dropping the ambiguity in the pairing that *was* in doubt, and introducing a really forced and unnecessary love-triangle tension to the pairing that was nicely settled. Pthbbb.
Wonder is about a previously-homeschooled ten-year-old with severe craniofacial deformities, attending school for the first time as a fifth grader. As you might expect everyone learns a heartwarming lesson about bullying (it's bad) and acceptance (it's good). I found it most interesting as it pertained to disability issues. First of all, the question of whether Auggie should be read as a disabled person - someone says point-blank more than once that he's "not special needs" or "doesn't have special needs", in a rather othering way, I mean, that very much seemed to be trying to say "he's normal unlike those OTHER kids". But, in fact, my memory of the book is that he does not have an IEP and doesn't need assistance in the classroom, so, I guess he's technically in fact not special needs, except that he does get hearing aids partway through the book, and the teachers seem to be aware/accomodating of this, and I would think partial deafness would "count" as a special need, so, this was interesting to debate with myself. And then there's the end of the book, wherein Auggie is given an award at the year-end awards for being so gosh-darn inspirational, which, on the one hand, *if* he were a disabled adult, would be a rather nauseatingly patronizing scene, yay for our little mascot. But then on the other hand, he's *not* an adult, he's a fifth-grader, and he is pleased and delighted to receive a standing ovation, something he had dreamed of since his sister did at her high school play, and he says "to me I'm just me, an ordinary kid, but hey, if they want to give me a medal for being me, I'll take it, I did just get through the fifth grade and that's not easy even if you're not me" (lightly paraphrased). So... again, interesting. On the one hand the book is pushing a "disability as inspirational" message which is not a great take-home message applied more broadly, on the other hand it makes a decent case that for this particular kid winning the affection of his teachers and peers is a victory, and it's more important to read him as the particular character that he is than as a symbol of disability.
And then, relevant to the previous list, Thumped, the sequel to Bumped. Not really recommended, sadly. There isn't enough new material here to justify a second book, the whole thing could easily have been one volume, and a fair bit of it is given over to showing a positive and heartwarming successful adoption triad, which, okay, I can totally see the necessity of doing, after the skewering in the previous book, I'm sure the author didn't want to actually come across as prejudiced and hostile to first parents or families formed through adoption, but it's all rather pleasant and generic and forgettable, as opposed to the wicked biting satirical bits in the first one. Also minus points for major mishandling of the shipping - completely dropping the ambiguity in the pairing that *was* in doubt, and introducing a really forced and unnecessary love-triangle tension to the pairing that was nicely settled. Pthbbb.
