psocoptera

Towers Falling

2018-10-25T20:15:57Z

Towers Falling, Jewell Parker Rhodes, MCBA book. I thought this was going to be the historical-fiction treatment for 9/11 but it's actually about a contemporary (2016) 5th grader who's never heard of 9/11 learning about it, thus being a teaching vehicle for *your* 5th grader who's never heard of it to learn about it. I didn't like this at all; I thought it was forced and heavy-handed and didactic, and the writing was choppy. But god knows I don't want to talk to my kids about 9/11 but it's important cultural context for so much shit in the US since then, so respect to Rhodes for stepping up to do something about that. I can only assume it'll become a staple in schools the way Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes was for people my age. I think it'll work, for that purpose: it hits all the points and POVs it needs to and doesn't gloss over things kids might hear about elsewhere. I was reading along like "how far is Rhodes going to go with this" and the answer was all the way to the jumpers, which I don't know that I would have had the resolve to include, if I had been trying to tackle this.

comments

It Ain't So Awful, Falafel

2018-10-19T00:38:55Z

It Ain't So Awful, Falafel, Firoozeh Dumas. Middlegrade semiautobiography about an Iranian girl living in Southern California in the late 1970s, while the Iranian revolution and hostage crisis happen and complicate her life. I liked the emotional range in this, from pretty funny to really serious, and found it a fast-paced, compelling read. And I think the perspective on what it's like to be an immigrant in the US from a country not at peace with the US is really relevant and valuable for US-born kids to think about. MCBA book, not sure where I would rank it, hrm.

Personally, this was a trip for me in certain overlaps with my own childhood - I'm about ten years younger than the characters here and from a different city, but I almost went to the Girl Scout camp on Catalina that they go to (I think in the end I opted for a different one - the worst fact-checking error I noticed in this book is that SoCal Girl Scouts don't learn to identify poison ivy, they learn to identify poison oak), I was in a Girl Scout troop with two Iranian sisters whose family story I later became retroactively curious about, and, unfortunately, I remember the casual anti-Iranian racism that was still floating around the playground ten years later (maybe not as bad as during the hostage crisis, but probably heightened by Iran-Contra?). Some ugly alternate words to the "Sylvanian families" jingle about "Iranian families" spring to mind. (My recollection of the state of racism in my particular demographic niche in the late 80s was that anti-black racism was understood to be Wrong and Not Okay but that "jokes" against certain foreign nationalities were fairly common (Iranian, Chinese and Japanese, off the top of my head). I would like to think that this has gotten better but I shudder to think what charming rhymes and jingles are passed around by little white children here in the Latin@ ethnic cleansing era.) Anyways, bravo to all the authors trying to do the hard work of writing all the perspectives whose stories weren't being listened to in the eras they're set in.

Content note for animal harm.

comments

What Elephants Know

2018-10-12T01:39:20Z

What Elephants Know, Eric Dinerstein. A boy in late-20th-century Nepal (which I feel *ancient* saying, but "pre-satellite", which this felt like, in terms of connectivity/remoteness, really is a different historical period than post-satellite. Anyways, sometime during the reign of King Birendra, probably 70s or 80s) is raised by the head of the king's elephant stable and has various experiences with his fellow elephant handlers, a white teacher/naturalist, and others. A fast, enjoyable read, and the (white) author apparently did biology fieldwork in Nepal for a number of years in the 70s and 80s and so may have some idea of what he's talking about. Content note for animal harm. I thought Junie had read this one but it turns out she hasn't (she became reluctant when it opened with a tiger hunt, although no tigers end up harmed, and also was put off by the male main character), so I'm actually ahead of her now. Not to claim that as an accomplishment - I am an adult veteran of many college-level literature classes and she's a nine-year-old - but just to note where we are. Anyways, I've hit five, so I'm going to start ranking them:

A Night Divided
Curious World of Calpurnia Tate
Wolf Hollow
What Elephants Know
Raymie Nightingale

Although I may re-rank as we go. None of them have been *bad*; I guess I would rank them all above No Award, if that was a thing here, which it is not.

comments

A Night Divided

2018-10-11T04:17:02Z

A Night Divided, Jennifer A. Nielsen, middlegrade historical fiction about a family tunnelling from East to West Berlin under the Berlin Wall in the mid-1960s. Good stuff - the very physical, concrete action of the tunnelling paired with abstract thinking about freedom, some good tense thriller-y stuff with the Stasi (but handled in an age-appropriate way), and for Junie it's an entire era of history she's probably never heard of before. Junie tells me it's been very popular with her friends at school. I am now up to four MCBA books - I realized I had already read one - I guess one more and I get to have an opinion, is the theory? (I mean, not a voting opinion, but just an informed opinion.)

comments

Wolf Hollow

2018-10-04T23:33:49Z

Junie is like three books ahead of me on MCBA reading, probably because I'm reading more other things. But I've now finished a second one! Wolf Hollow, Lauren Wolk, historical drama, 2017 Newbery Honor (lost to Girl Who Drank the Moon). A girl in rural WWII-era Pennsylvania, a bully, and a shellshocked homeless WWI veteran. I liked it - I thought it had some really powerful moments, and it made me cry - but it also seemed like A Lot for late-elementary readers. Although when I tried to see how Junie felt about that she pointed out that she's read all the Harry Potter books, and I guess maybe the realistic fiction/fantasy fiction distinction seems more dramatic to me than to her. Anyways, major content warnings for animal harm, child harm, and child death (and as always let me know if you'd like more detail).

comments

Raymie Nightingale

2018-09-04T13:06:16Z

Junie gets to vote in the MA Children's Book Award this year and I'm trying to read along with her reading. Raymie Nightingale, Kate DiCamillo, a double Newbery winner, neither of which I have read. (Yet. Eventually I will finish that project too.) Three quirky girls contemplate the mysteries of life in 1975 Florida. Definitely the lit fic side of middlegrade, I wouldn't want to predict whether it would resonate or fall flat for any particular kid, but Junie liked it.

comments