Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee

Posted on September 1, 2017 by Katy K.

More action-oriented historical fiction from the author of Under a Painted Sky.

Outrun the Moon by Stacey LeeOutrun the Moon by Stacey Lee. Narrated by Emily Woo Zeller. Print from Putnam, 2016. Audio from Tantor Audio.

It’s San Francisco in 1906.  Our story starts on a literal high note as our heroine, Mercy Wong, climbs into a hot air balloon made by her best friend and hopefully intended Tom.  Though their parents probably approve of the match – despite Mercy’s “bossy cheeks” – both teens have broader ambitions than their parents.  Tom is finds aviation much more interesting than his father’s career in traditional medicine, while Mercy aims to become a successful businesswoman.  Her first step is being willing to do whatever it takes to get into the prestigious, all-white St. Clare’s boarding school.

It turns out that nothing but pretending to be a wealthy heiress straight from China (which she’s never seen) will do to get her into the school – and that’s just the beginning of her troubles.  Elodie du Laq, the owner’s daughter and Mercy’s roommate, know her secret and is determined to make life difficult for her.  But Mercy is beginning to make friends when the great earthquake hits and upsets everything.  It’s going to take someone like Mercy, used to making her own way despite obstacles, to keep the surviving girls of St. Clare’s alive in the chaos that follows. But will Mercy have any family left to go back to?

This is a winning combination of disaster survival and personal growth. Earthquake survival is an attention-getter on its own, but there is so much more.  Dealings with prejudice of race, class and education, the awareness of teens coming to terms with them deciding whether taking their own path is worth disappointing their parents, and the parents who in turn fail them are all bound together with Mercy’s optimistic outlook and determination to find a way, no matter what – and just a touch of romance.  Emily Woo Zeller’s narration highlights the drama of the story, while giving appropriately different voices to the wide variety of people portrayed.  This is a great choice both for fans of historical fiction and for kids middle school and up assigned to read it.

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The Gauntlet by Karuna Riazi

Posted on August 26, 2017 by Katy K.

Look!  I’m actually reading books off of my Want to Read list for this year!  This was one I found combing through Amazon’s middle grade pre-orders – a game-based fantasy starring a Muslim girl, from Simon & Schuster’s new Salaam Reads imprint.

The Gauntlet by Karuan RiaziThe Gauntlet by Karuna Riazi. Simon & Schuster Salaam Reads, 2017.
Farah is just turning 12, and her birthday is being rather spoiled both by her parents, who insisted she invite all the kids from her new class, even though she’s not friends with anyone.  She’d much rather retreat to her bedroom and spend some time with her best friends from her old school, red-haired Essie and African-American Alex.  They are also hiding from her 7-year-old brother Ahmed, whom Farah is expected to shield from ADHD-fueled temper tantrums by giving him his way in everything, including losing all games to him.  But just as the friends are setting up the intriguing new board game her beloved aunt has given her, Ahmed bursts in.  He hears the words they have to say to start the game, says them, and is in the game.  Now Farah and her friends, previously a little freaked out by a game that rattled and moved on its own, must venture into the game to save him.  Paheli is a world of glass cubes, gears, and sand, which rebuilds itself regularly at the whim of the Architect.  It’s filled with people who have previously played and failed to successfully complete the game – some of whom may try to help the kids, some to hinder them, and none of whom can be trusted.

The basic plot here has strong echoes of the classic Jumanji.  It’s been done before, although the South Asian feel of Paheli is a fresh twist and the adventure is still fun.  I definitely enjoyed getting to know Farah and her culture and daily challenges, and her friends seemed reasonably fleshed out characters as well.  The biggest problem I had was with Farah’s parents’ parenting strategies, which mostly seemed to boil down to making Farah appease Ahmed. (At the same time, I hope I manage things better for my own twelve-year-old dealing with a seven-year-old younger sibling.)  Ahmed was such an unpleasant character that I had to agree with Ms. Yingling – I couldn’t really see a reason that Farah would want to put her life at risk for him.  It’s hard to beat Terry Pratchett in The Wee Free Men, of course – Tiffany Aching’s attitude that Wentworth might be an annoying little brother, but he’s her annoying little brother and no one else is going to take him put things in a way that I did buy into.  Overall, though, this is a good book to give to kids looking for an exciting fantasy adventure, while at the same time providing a much-needed mirror or window (depending on the kid) to a modern Muslim-American family.  I’ll be looking for more both from Karuna Riazi and Salaam Reads.

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Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor

Posted on August 18, 2017 by Katy K.

The story begun in Binti continues with even more depth… Spoiler alert: if you haven’t yet read Binti, you’ll want to do so before reading this review.

Binti: Home by Nnedi OkoraforBinti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor. Tor, 2017.
Binti has achieved the dream she set out to accomplish in the first book: becoming a full-time student at Oomza Uni, its own space station.  She still feels closest to Okwu, the friend that, against all probability, she made among the Meduse who slaughtered the rest of the human students on her trip there.  And yet – she finds herself frequently flooded with waves of overwhelming anger.  Eventually, she decides that the best way to deal with this is to go home and take the traditional desert pilgrimage of her people.

But going home is never what you expect.  Her family is still upset with her for leaving in the first place, and assumes she’s there to stay, needing just some good scolding.  Okwu comes along as an ambassador, but is unable to resist provoking the Khoush people who also live in her country, the Meduse’s historic enemies.  Coming back home reveals secrets about her heritage that she never even suspected – but there is nothing to break down her ability to be a master harmonizer like contempt from an older sister.

Binti: Home is filled with unexpected discoveries and the difficult bonds of family and friendship, going even deeper than the already amazing Binti while never letting the plot bog down.  It’s still short and fast to read, so if you’re looking for a good entry point for the amazing Okorafor, now is the time to start!

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The Hate U Give

Posted on August 17, 2017 by Katy K.

This is the first book to be published directly because of the #WeNeedDiverseBooks movement, so of course I had to read it.  My only advice would be to please, don’t do as I do, and listen to this audiobook at the same time as reading American Street in print.  So much tragedy befalling young Black men at the same time that I had trouble taking my daughter to the neighborhood park without worrying for the safety of the young men playing basketball and skateboarding there.

The Hate U Give by Angie ThomasThe Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. Read by Bahni Turpin. HarperCollins and Blackstone Audio, 2017.

15-year-old Starr has grudgingly agreed to go to a party with her brother’s half-sister Kenya.  She doesn’t often go out both because she’s somewhat introverted and because she feels out of place in her own neighborhood of Garden Heights since she goes to a private school in the suburbs.  At the party, she’s just catching up with her old friend Khalil when gunshots break out.  They flee, taking Khalil’s car.  But they are pulled over by police, ostensibly on a traffic check, but it feels more likely because black teens out at night are assumed to be up to no good.  And Khalil has not been taught the rules about dealing with police that Starr had drilled into her since she was little.  He moves. He talks without being asked a question first.  And just like that, he is shot.

The rest of the story follows Starr in the aftermath of this event, the second time she’s seen a close friend get shot. Should she testify?  What will happen if she tells her friends at school that she was there, especially when the news is saying that the police shot a suspected drug dealer.  Starr’s carefully cultivated dual identities resonated especially deeply with Pam at Unconventional Librarian, who explains code switching, the different ways Starr talks and acts to fit in at home vs. the mostly white school.

I especially appreciated that the story portrays both worlds in full color.  In Garden Heights, there are the gangs and poverty that are stereotypical of inner city neighborhoods.  But there are also neighbors working together to take care of their children, avid gardeners, and a fierce sense of community.  Starr’s parents are beautifully portrayed, both supportive and firm with their limits.  The private school gives Starr the freedom to enjoy basketball.  There, only a handful of people have any idea of the issues that Starr faces in daily life, some being more willing to listen than others.  The police also have a familiar face, as Starr’s uncle is a police detective.  Bahni Turpin does an amazing job of bringing all these characters to life with a wide range of voices.

This is indeed a very powerful book.  I cried a lot while reading it, and yet even though it’s too close to reality have a rainbow-happy ending, it still ends with Starr in a place of growth and strength. This is one that needs to be read by everyone, stat.

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Always and Forever, Lara Jean

Posted on August 15, 2017 by Katy K.

It’s always disorienting coming back to blogging from vacation, but here I am, with another simultaneously light and weighty book by Jenny Han, the closing book in the series that started with To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.

Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny HanAlways and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han. Simon and Schuster, 2017.
It’s Lara Jean’s senior year of high school.  That means both enjoying the lasts of everything while at the same time planning for the future.  Lara Jean’s plans involve going to school locally, to the university she’s grown up loving and where her boyfriend Peter has a scholarship.  But all of that hinges on her being accepted in the first place.  The rest of life isn’t holding still, either, as her father and their neighbor Ms. Rothschild, now Trina, decide to finally get engaged.  While it’s happy news for Lara Jean, her older sister Margot, still at university in Scotland, is unpleasantly surprised by it.  As always when stressed, Lara Jean finds relief in baking, now with a side of wedding planning.

Overall, this is a great comfort read kind of book.  But that doesn’t mean that everything goes Lara Jean’s way.  In fact, Lara Jean’s careful plans are upset quite a bit, and she worries here in a Hamilton reference that she might be the joy-killing and Peggy to her other sisters’ more outgoing and appealing Angelica and Eliza.  The conclusions are ultimately heartwarming, with the sense of humor that you’d expect as the conclusion to this series.  It’s a series I’ll happily recommend to people, both on its own merits and as a contrast to the many tragic and heart-breaking realistic contemporary YA books with diverse leads, because all these stories deserve to be heard.

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American Street

Posted on July 24, 2017 by Katy K.

American Street by Ibi ZoboiAmerican Street by Ibi Zoboi. Balzer + Bray, 2017.
Teenaged Fabiola was born in the US and raised in Haiti with her mother.  They’ve been working for years to move in with Fabiola’s aunt, Matant Jo, and her three daughters, at their house on the corner of streets propitiously named American and Joy in Detroit.  But when they arrive at New York on the way to Detroit, only Fabiola is allowed to continue.  Her mother is detained and sent to New Jersey.

Fabiola is completely at a loss, and things don’t improve when she arrives in Detroit.  Her aunt barely gets out of bed, no one cooks, and Fabiola is scolded for speaking Creole.  She’s even told to let go of her traditional religion, as old superstitions best left in the old country.

She does her best to make her own way, starting by cooking meals for the familt.  She finds signs of the Hatian lwa everywhere, most especially in the old homeless man everyone calls Bad Leg, who sits singing at the crossroads like Papa Legba.  She builds on the phone-based friendship she’s had with her three cousins, known locally as the Three B’s: college-aged Chantal, the Brains, and fraternal twins Pri, Brawn, and Donna, Beauty.  They convince her to go to school with them, make friends, and let their mother deal with trying to rescue Fabiola’s mother.  American school is very different from school in Haiti, but Fabiola is used to working hard.  She even meets a sweet boy, Kasim, improbably the best friend of Donna’s abusive boyfriend Dray.

But early on, she’s approached by a woman in a brown coat who offers her a deal: find out who supplied the bad drugs that killed a white girl in the nearby rich neighborhood, and she’ll free Fabiola’s mother. And Fabiola has to choose between her mother and the new life she’s been building.

This was a powerful and tragic book.  I especially loved the strength of Fabiola’s faith to carry her through, even when the results were ambiguous, as prayer so often is. I did a project about the Haitian religion in library school, so I loved seeing and recognizing the loa.  The difficulties of immigration and of abusive relationships are well portrayed here.  I had a hard time with the attitude given here that the people in this neighborhood all had to choose between crime and destitution.  I’m not in any position to pass judgment on the idea, but the Detroit shown here is a grim place indeed.  Even though I wished for a happier ending, I’d say American Street deserves the praise it’s been getting.

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The Lion Hunters Series

Posted on July 21, 2017 by Katy K.

Code Name Verity is still on my list of books that I should read, but have been too chicken.  Instead, I’ve been reading Elizabeth Wein’s other books, including Black Dove, White Raven and all of her Arthurian books, which I believe I first heard about from Maureen at By Singing Light.  Two notes: first, although these books all happen in sequence, the first three are considered part of her Arthurian sequence, while the last two are officially the Mark of Solomon series.  They all feel mostly like one series to me, with the first one quite a bit earlier than the other four. Second, I read the series over the course of two years without taking notes on it, and the plot builds and ratchets up over the course of the books, so these will be brief impressions of the books.  I’ve included both original and the new covers, as I’m torn between joy at the rare fantasy books with a young man of color on the front, and the elegant simplicity and series feel of the new ones.

(While writing this review, too, I came across this article from the Guardian about the tableware imported from Spain and Turkey that was recently found in Tintagel Castle – proof that the wide-ranging political relationships of Arthurian Britain found in this series were really possible.  ) Continue reading →

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TTT: Top 10 Books from the First Half of 2017

Posted on July 12, 2017 by Katy K.

Only one of the three statements above is actually true – can you guess which one?  Top 10 Tuesday hosted by the very busy ladies at the Broke and the Bookish might officially be on hiatus, but I’m still taking a chance to look back at the first half of the year.

Top Ten Tuesday

Middle Grade (and Younger)

 

Teen

  • American Street by Ibi Zoboi
  • The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
  • March. Book Three by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell
  • The Sunbird, the Lion Hunter and the Empty Kingdom by Elizabeth Wein
  • When the Moon was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore

 

Adult

  • Binti and Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor
  • Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee

It looks like I  need to get back to writing up my reviews!  But first – what are your favorites so far?

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Clayton Byrd Goes Underground

Posted on July 10, 2017 by Katy K.

I loved Rita Williams-Garcia’s Gaither Sister trilogy, so of course I wanted to try her latest book, too.

Clayton Byrd Goes Underground by Rita Williams-GarciaClayton Byrd Goes Underground by Rita Williams-Garcia. Narrated by Adam Lazarre-White. Amistad, 2017.
Young Clayton loves hanging out with grandfather, Cool Papa, staying out late to play blues with his band while his mother works late shifts as a nurse in this story that appears to be set in the 1980s.  Clayton plays the “blues harp” or harmonica along with the band, and dreams of being good enough for a solo.  They have to keep this secret from Clayton’s mother, though, who blames the blues for Cool Papa having been absent most of her own childhood.  When Cool Papa dies unexpectedly, Clayton’s mother sets out to remove everything of Cool Papa’s from their lives, from his records to Clayton’s own blues harp.  Clayton runs away find Cool Papa’s Blues Men, but instead gets caught up playing the blues harp for a slightly older gang that does aggressive hip-hop dancing in subway cars.

I love reading about music, whether or not it’s a style I’m familiar with.  The descriptions of Clayton’s music and the fusion of blues and the new to him hip-hop are vivid and heartfelt.  Cool Papa lives up to his name as the coolest grandpa ever, very involved in Clayton’s life.  He reads to him every night and encourages him in his music without responding to Clayton’s pushing of limits.  I’m verging into parenting speak here, because the parenting on the part of Clayton’s mother is textbook awful.  She is very focused on Clayton’s obedience, for example, only calling him “angel” or anything else kind when he isn’t acting like himself, and frequently scolding him for disobeying or not listening while never taking the time to find out the causes of his “bad” behavior. This was just really painful for me to read as a mother. I hoped the book would get easier to read once Clayton ran away, but the behavior stays so dangerous that I was never able to relax enough to really enjoy the music, as it were.  It was helped by Adam Lazarre-White’s resonant voice, which was very good at conveying both Clayton and his grandfather.  Kid readers, though, may not have the same problems that I did, and the not-too-distant historical fiction with a boy hero is definitely something we need.

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The Merlin Conspiracy

Posted on July 5, 2017 by Katy K.

My son and I have been reading Diana Wynne Jones together, both on audio and me reading aloud to him.  This is the second book in the duology that begins with Deep Secret, which so far only I have read.

The Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne JonesThe Merlin Conspiracy by Diana Wynne Jones. Collins (UK) and Greenwillow Books (US), 2003.
Nick, a secondary character from Deep Secret, lives in our London, wishing he could find a way to travel to the other worlds he knows are out there. He is at a convention with his dad, who hopes to meet one of his favorite authors.  (Diversity note: Nick’s dad is adoptive, and Nick himself, while from another world and raised in England, looks South Asian.) One step later and Nick finds himself in another world, boarding a strange flying machine as part of the magical security team for that very different England’s prince.  It takes him a while to realize that he’s really there, long enough to create some serious trouble, like running afoul of the powerful priests of a third world and  befriending a world-wandering elephant name Mini.

Meanwhile, Roddy (short for Arianrhod) lives in the alternate England called Blest, where the magic is kept both strong and controlled by a complex bureaucracy.  Roddy’s parents are both wizards in the King’s Court, so that Roddy travels by bus around the kingdom with her parents, the King, the Merlin, and the rest of the Court.  Trouble arises as her best friend Grundo’s mother Sybil, never well-meaning, begins a plot to take over the kingdom and subvert its magic with the help of a new Merlin.  The problem is that none of the adults who might be able to help will believe that anything is going on.  The only exception is her grandfather from Wales, who’s too caught up in the magic of the land himself to do anything but direct Roddy towards acquiring the extensive magical knowledge of a wise woman from centuries earlier.

It takes a while for Nick and Roddy to meet, and even longer for them to figure out what needs to be done to save the worlds.  The path there is filled with vivid worlds and people, with brief visits turning out to be highly significant later down the road.  The group of people accompanying Nick and Roddy gets both more numerous and increasingly rowdy as the story progresses and complete disaster looms ever larger, but only they are able to see and communicate with the deep spirits of the land who are being threatened.

This seems classic Diana Wynne Jones – so very much going on, with characters and places both familiar and improbably vividly imagined.  Alas, her familiar note of fat shaming is included as well – the evil Sybil is described as having fat ankles, and ridiculed for showing them off by going barefoot. We don’t have much time to read together anymore, so it took us five months to get through the 500-page book, but we enjoyed it all the way and kept trying to find more time to read.  We’d started with the second book because I’d already read the first, but the stories are separate enough that this worked just fine.

While I wish there were more than two books in this particular series, for anyone wanting to try Diana Wynne Jones but intimidated by her massive library in general and Chrestomanci in particular (as I was for many years), Deep Secret and The Merlin Conspiracy are a good starting place.  Of course no one can duplicate Diana Wynne Jones’s imagination, but books like Frances Hardinge’s A Face Like Glass and Nnedi Okorafor’s Akata Witch have similarly complex world-building with appeal for kids and adults alike.

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