Glory Be

Glory Be by Augusta Scattergood

It's been almost a month since I've posted, but I've been reading a lot of Patterson lately. I'm going to do a combined entry on those three books (if I blog on them at all) because they don't take much time to read/explore. I love them for quick, suspenseful reads though. Plus, Patterson is a huge proponent of childhood literacy, so I'm not knocking him.

Anywho, I read Glory Be after my old teaching friend, Lonnye Sue, suggested I buy it for the library. It's a great fit for my school, given its demographics. It's a touching take on the civil rights movement that's appropriate for elementary students. 

Glory is an eleven --almost twelve-- year old white girl growing up in Mississippi in 1964. Her father is a preacher and the black maid in her home has been the closest to a mother figure she has had since her mother's passing years ago. She also has an older sister, Jesslyn, who has been a friend to Glory until this summer. Jesslyn is too involved in pep squad and hair styles to play games with Glory now, which leaves Glory with her friend, Frankie, and the local swimming pool.

At least Glory planned on spending the summer at the pool with Frankie. However, some Freedom workers from up north have come to Mississippi to "stir up trouble." Glory befriends the daughter of one of the freedom workers, much to Frankie's disapproval. Frankie's family, like much of the town, embraces the fallacy of "separate but equal" in society. The town closes the pool under the pretense of repairing cracks rather than face the possibility of integrating its population.

Closing the pool is an abomination to Glory. After all, her twelfth birthday is on July 4th, and she's had swimming parties for as long as she can remember. Though her initial anger is directed towards the pool's closing, she redirects her attention towards the ignorance of the townspeople. Glory realizes that color isn't a reason to discriminate. She says it best when a snooty busybody huffs about opening the doors to everyone in the library (ha, though I may be partial to the quote):

Libraries are about books. Books have no color. And they don't care who reads them.

Glory Be would be a good classroom read, if you're looking for a class novel. It works great by yourself, too.

Target Age Range: upper elementary - middle school

The Marriage Plot

The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

I know, I know. It's been weeks since I've updated. Where I can usually fly through a book in no time, this one was a deeper (hence longer) read than many of the books I've read lately. Therefore, I'll make up for quantity of February blog posts with quality.

I typically don't like the idea of using an author's own words against him. But there's a section on pages 345 and 346 of this very novel that addresses my sentiments of The Marriage Plot.

The experience...was like reading certain difficult books. It was like plowing through late James, or the pages about agrarian reform in Anna Karenina, until you suddenly got to a good part again, which kept on getting better and better until you were so enthralled that you were almost grateful for the previous dull stretch because it increased your eventual pleasure.

I don't think Eugenides would really appreciate me saying that pieces of the book rivaled Tolstoy's discussion of land reform (at least I wouldn't). Parts of the book were slow, but then others were so engaging that, despite the heavy vocabulary, you kept going.
.
 You probably think that was a nice way of saying I hated the book. I didn't! I just want to make readers aware that it isn't a "beach read," if you know what I mean.

I hate Dickens for the way he describes characters. He is far too descriptive for my tastes. However, I adore descriptions of times and places, and Marriage Plot did not disappoint in this aspect. Readers find themselves in a number of places: Rhode Island, Oregon, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Paris, Monaco, Athens, Calcutta. Eugenides describes each location adequately, depending on its relationship to the story.
It's a fictitious novel based in the 1980s that did not discuss AIDS or snorting coke, but instead touched on literary and social styles of the decade. The protagonist, Madeleine, is a recent graduate of Brown university with a degree in English lit. Though she's a self-proclaimed "Victorianist," specializing in Austen, she finds her final semester attending postmodern theory classes. Here, Madeleine meets a variety of characters enchanted by the social, music, and literary reforms of the early 80s. The time also plays an important part in her own literary studies, as she claims the Victorian theme of a marriage plot no longer exists in contemporary literature.

The plot contains a love triangle; Mitchell is in love with Madeleine, although that love in unrequited, as she loves Leonard. A religious studies major, Mitchell is on an intercontinental spiritual journey after graduating from Brown. The point of view shifts throughout the book from Madeleine's to Leonard's to Mitchell's, wherever one may be at any particular point during the year-long time span. Although Mitchell was not my favorite character, his periods abroad were typically my favorite setting descriptions, particularly while he was volunteering for Mother Teresa and the Kalighat in India. 

If you have never read Eugenides's 2002 Pulitzer winner, Middlesex, I highly recommend it (more so than this one, to be honest). One of the most intriguing parts of the book was the author's ability to develop a character from childhood to adulthood while allowing the reader to always know what she (later he) was thinking. Cal was born a hermaphrodite, an internal struggle that most of the human population will never understand. However, Eugenides's writing enabled readers to feel empathy towards the character. 

I'm not digressing, I'm alluding to another story to show a similarity.

In Middlesex, readers followed the internal struggle of someone born with a different physical trait; in The Marriage Plot, the trait is mental. Leonard, Madeleine's boyfriend, has manic-depressive disorder. The author vividly describes Leonard's ups and downs during the year he is with Madeleine, including time he is hospitalized. It shows the trouble he has with everyday tasks, like going to work, versus the highs he has, including wearing a cape and gambling at the Monte Carlo casino. Madeleine's conflicting emotions and feelings towards Leonard are also depicted; she loves him, but does she want to deal with the stress of his disease?

The abrupt ending did bother me somewhat. After text that strolled along for 400 pages, to say the final six were rushed would be an understatement. Maybe that was the point though---the traditional marriage plot doesn't exist in contemporary literature?

Despite taking a while to read, I enjoyed Eugenides's third novel, and would recommend it to other avid readers. However, if you have to choose one of his books, it's this reader/blogger/librarian's opinion that Middlesex is better worth your time. 

Target age range: Adult

I'm still alive!

I'm not neglecting the blog, but it's taking me a while to get through my current read. I promise I'll update soon.

The Baby-Sitters Club (20 years later)

The Baby-Sitters Club (graphic novels) adapted by Raina Telgemeier

When I was growing up, I adored The Baby-Sitters Club series. I spent birthday money on the books, I checked them out from the library, I borrowed them from whoever I could. I even paid the $5 advertised in the back of the book to be a fan club member. I still have a box full of paperbacks in my office here at home. Let me say it again, "I adored the BSC."

I've spent the past five years watching middle schoolers read about drugs, sex, alcoholism, abuse, and other topics that are (in my opinion) inappropriate for preteens. What happened to reading that could be fun and relevant without having an explicit sex scene on page 86? (In case you can't tell, I bought a book specifically for my classroom and THANK GOD I read it prior to putting it in my class.) I want kids to understand that reading can be entertaining without being lewd or crass.

Imagine my delight when I placed an order back in October and saw that the first four BSC novels are now available in a graphic novel form. They tell the same stories, albeit abridged, but use a medium that pique the interests of today's kids. However, a group of fourth graders came in the library today and checked out the actual novels since they had read the newer versions. 

I know that these books aren't ever going to end up in the "Classics" section of a bookstore, but they're clean fun for kids. According to Wikipedia, 17 million copies were sold between 1986 and 2000, which goes to show that kids in the 80s, 90s, and the 00s (and now the 10s?) like them.
Keep reading, kids. 

Target Age Range: upper elementary, early middle school (and ladies in their 20s reliving their childhoods)

Substitute Creacher...or as I would call it: Mrs. Rühl's Life in Verse

Substitute Creacher by Chris Gall

I received a shipment of new books at work this week, and was making AR tests for a few when I came across this read. It's cute in a familiar way--bad kid turns into a monster to right his wrongs. Mr. Creacher subs for a class of unruly students, and he warns them of terrible outcomes to students he previously taught.

I liked the story, particularly the art work, but what made me write about it today is a poem about one of Mr. Creacher's former students, Sara. Now if you've worked or lived with me in the past ( . . . or present), it might be correct to say that I'm a cluttered person. As a teacher, I used to have issues with keeping my desk neat. Said issues may or may not have been severe enough that students would warn me about keeping it clean. "Mrs. Rühl, you're desk is getting too messy again. You're going to get in trouble again!" Fortunately, as a librarian, I have multiple desks and tables in the library and in my office, so there isn't a mountain of clutter piled high. 

Anyway, this part of the book spoke to me in volumes. And I chuckled outwardly after reading it.

Have you heard about Sara?
She crammed all her stuff
inside of her desk--
but enough was enough!

Her desk was so full
that it started to shake.
It rattled and lurched
like a minor earthquake.

Kids ran for their lives
ant the teachers threw fits,
and then Sara's desk
blew itself into bits.

It's a fun book for Halloween, or if you have students who are driving you crazy. Of course, you can also use it if you have a student who needs to learn some organizational skills.

 Target age range: elementary grades

One for the Money

One for the Money by Janet Evanovich

I may have been one of the last women in the continental United States who had never read a Stephanie Plum book, but now I'm off that list. Thanks to Rhonda, my dear librarian friend, for her Facebook comment about reading the newest book, Explosive Eighteen, since that was what finally got me to flip open the cover of one. So keep in mind that I'm well aware that this review is circa 1994, but I was ten at the time and had no business reading this book then anyway. 

Fun and breezy, One for the Money was definitely what I would consider a "beach read," but there's nothing wrong with that--even in January. Plum is newly unemployed, has just had her car repossessed, and needs food in her fridge. She finds herself in a position to apply for an office clerk job, but jumps at the chance to make fast cash by bringing in those who have skipped bail. Her first "client" happens to be her ex, Joe Morelli, a cop in trouble for supposedly shooting an unarmed man.

Plum quickly finds herself in a number of scrapes, but these are minor since a lunatic boxer has his heart set on torturing her. Pride and the drive to prove herself keeps her from running to the cops, and her life dangerously spins out of control. 

Follow Stephanie as she tries to convince Joe to turn himself in while avoiding the wrath of a crazed fighter. I realize that statement makes this sound like a thriller, but don't let it fool you. The characters' dialogue is spicy and full of humor, which lightens the plot. Like I said, it's a fun read. I've already borrowed the next one from the library.

Target age range: adults

The Son of Neptune

The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan

I've been a fan of Percy Jackson since he first appeared in The Lightning Thief. Greek mythology was my favorite subject to cover while teaching reading to seventh graders--and it was undoubtedly their favorite subject to learn. Needless to say, I was pretty disappointed when Percy's series ended, but Riordan brought him back in his new series, Heroes of Olympus. Like the first set of books, this deals with Greek gods and goddesses, but intertwines Roman gods into the plot. The first book in the series, The Lost Hero finds readers wondering where Percy has disappeared to, but introduces new, equally impressive characters.

However, these characters aren't in the second book (they'll be in future novels). Percy's back in Son of Neptune, although memory loss keeps him from knowing who he is, or rather, who his father is and why that's important. He makes his way into a Roman camp of demigods that's similar to Camp Half-Blood, although he's welcomed halfheartedly. Percy befriends Hazel and Frank, and the three are soon on a quest to Alaska to rescue Thanatos, Pluto's/Hades's right hand man, so the dead can stay dead. Imagine thwarting monsters to have them come back to life right in front of you. That's one of the challenges the demigods face in this book.

Kudos to Riordan for once again creating a book that hooks younger readers, particularly males. Pop culture references appear throughout the book (at one point, Thanatos whips out an iPad to check a list, and Frank prays there's not "an app for reaping souls"), making the novel relevant to readers. I love that Riordan's books open doors for children to research other topics or check out similar reads. This one is no different in that aspect; I'm sure many have compared the differences in Roman and Greek gods after starting the series. 

Lovely read. Good thing three more are coming in this set. And, hey, the final in his Egyptian gods series, Kane Chronicles, is due out in May.

Target age range: 10 and up