Looking for Me (MG)

Looking for Me. Betsy R. Rosenthal. 2012. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 176 pages.

Edith of No Special Place

I'm just plain Edith.
I'm number four, 
and should anyone care,
I'm eleven years old,
with curly black hair.

Squeezed / between / two / brothers,
Daniel and Ray,
lost in a crowd,
will I ever be more
than just plain Edith,
who's number four?

In my overcrowded family
I'm just another face.
I'm just plain Edith
of no special place.

I tend to assume that verse novels will be easy reads. And if by easy you just mean quick, then such is the case with Looking For Me. But there is emotional depth in this one. And the subject matter makes this one anything but easy--on the emotions. You might just be brought to tears. Of course, not every reader is so easily touched. But. Still it's best to be prepared.

Looking for Me is set in the 1930s during the Depression. It stars a very, very large Jewish family. Twelve children. Yes, twelve children. Edith has two older sisters and an older brother, but it is Edith who is the "little mother" to her younger siblings. She does take her family for granted, and at times, it is easy for Edith to be full of complaints. Which I suppose is only human. What Edith is missing is her own identity. Though others may think of her in certain ways, she's having a hard time deciding for herself just who she is, who she is beyond one of many daughters, beyond one of many sisters. Who is she apart from her role in the family? Does she have a voice? Does she have a choice?

I liked this one. I did. I'm not sure it is for every reader. I know that some people just don't like verse novels and can't understand why the stories are just not written in ordinary prose. And other readers do like verse novels. But even if you love verse novels, you might not like historical fiction. So. As I said, this one may not be for everyone, but I liked it well enough. It was definitely a difficult read--and it did bring me very, very close to tears.

Read Looking for Me

• If you like historical verse novels
• If you are looking for Jewish children's books
• If you are looking for books set during the Depression
• If you are looking for family books
• If you don't mind really, really sad books

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

The Wild Book

The Wild Book. Margarita Engle. 2012. Harcourt. 144 pages.

I really do love Margarita Engle's verse novels set in Cuba. They almost always impress me. I love her poetry. I love the emotion behind the poems. The way she tells a story. The Wild Book is no exception. Set in Cuba in the early twentieth century, the heroine is based on Engle's grandmother. (I believe the novel is set around 1912?)

Josefa, or "Fefa", is our eleven year old, word-blind heroine. Her inability to read isn't from lack of focus or desire. More than anything, Fefa wants to be able to read and write. She's dyslexic at a time when no one really understood what that meant. Her mother gives her a present, a blank book, and tells her to practice, to take things slow, slow, slow. To keep trying. To not give up. And that is just what our heroine does. She writes--as slowly and carefully as she can--about her life. And it's an interesting time to be sure....since Cuba has won its independence from Spain and is being occupied by the United States...a time with many dangers and risks.

Guessing

I memorize all the little
guess-me riddles
in my schoolbook:


A bird has a little white
treasure chest
that everyone knows
how to open
but no one can close.
An egg!


Why does an unlucky shrimp
swim backwards?
To return to a time 
before he lost his luck!


I dream up new riddles
and write them all down
in my wild book.


My slow handwriting
with its careful swirls
and loops
has almost grown 
beautiful.


Am I patient?
What has changed?


When I write riddles,
the pen in my hand
feels mysterious.


I feel as powerful
as a girl in a fairy tale,
a brave girl who climbs
dangerous towers
and sips water
from magic wells.


Is this how it feels
to be smart? (46-47)

Read The Wild Book

• If you're a fan of Margarita Engle
• If you're a fan of verse novels
• If you're looking for historical fiction set in Cuba
• If you're looking for books with dyslexic characters

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Hurricane Dancers (YA)

Hurricane Dancers: The First Caribbean Pirate Shipwreck. Margarita Engle. 2011. Henry Holt. 160 pages.

Historical setting: Spanish ships reached the western Caribbean Sea in 1492, searching for Asia and spices. Instead, the explorers found peaceful islanders, and enslaved them. By 1510, the Bahamas, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica had been conquered. Only Cuba, the largest Caribbean isle, was still free. It was a time of hurricanes on an island of hope.

If you're a fan of Margarita Engle, then you're going to want to read one of her latest verse novels, Hurricane Dancers: The First Caribbean Pirate Shipwreck. I have read and enjoyed so very many of her verse novels in the past that when I hear of a new one, I get a little thrill. Her work is something that I just look forward to. I have found her historical verse novels set in Cuba to be so good, so fascinating, so amazing. Hurricane Dancers did not disappoint. Though I'm not sure it is my favorite, favorite. (I don't think I could name a favorite, by the way.)

So Hurricane Dancers has five narrators: Quebrado (our main hero), Bernandino de Talavera (one of our villains), Alonso de Ojeda (another of our villains), Narido and Caucubu (a young couple madly in love with one another, but their parents don't approve).

Quebrado

I listen
to the song
of creaking planks,
the roll and sway
of clouds in sky,
wild music
and thunder,
the groans
of wood,
a mourning moan
as this old ship
remembers
her true self,
her tree self,
rooted 
and growing,
alive,
on shore.

Read Hurricane Dancers

If you're a fan of Margarita Engle
If you're looking for a good book set in Cuba in the sixteenth century
If you're a fan of verse novels
If you're a fan of historical fiction
If you're looking for a good multicultural book
If you're looking to read a Pura Belpre Honor Book
If you're looking for a good coming-of-age story

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

May B. (MG/YA)

May B. Caroline Rose. 2012. Random House. 240 pages.

I won't go.
"It's for the best," Ma says,
yanking to braid my hair,
trying to make something of what's left.
Ma and Pa wanted me to leave
and live with strangers.
I won't go.

Mavis Elizabeth Betterly is "May B." the heroine of Caroline Rose's historical verse novel. The novel is set in pioneer times in Kansas. Our young heroine, our oh-so-lovable heroine, is being forced by her parents to leave home. She's being hired out to a newlywed couple. A settler has married an Eastern woman who knows absolutely nothing about keeping house. NOTHING. May B. will sleep in a corner of the cabin and try to be as invisible as possible all the while doing all the work in and out of the house. Cooking, cleaning, and doing all the "womanly" tasks of the nineteenth century. The woman, the wife, is not friendly with May B. at all. The truth of the matter is that she is MISERABLE and regretting the decision to marry every minute of every hour of every day. She HATES her life, and she is so full of hating and bitterness that she can't be grateful to May B., she can't appreciate how much work this young girl does.

If all went according to plan, her father would pick May B. up around Christmas time. Just a handful of months--August to December--to live with strangers and do her share for her family. But all does NOT go according to plan. For something happens that changes everything. And May B. will have to depend on herself, learn to trust herself, in ways she couldn't have predicted in the summer.

I definitely LOVED this one. While not every reader will find pioneer stories equally appealing, this one is just oh-so-good! For historical fiction fans, this one may just be a must read!!! I found the heroine to be so lovable. I felt for her almost from the very start. Her narrative voice was very strong. Some of these poems were just amazing!

My favorites:

I play a game inside my head,
counting plum trees that dot a creek bed,
rabbits that scatter at the sound of wagon wheels,
clouds that skirt the sky.
For hours, that is all,
and grass,
always grass,
in different shades and textures
like the braids in a rag rug.

Miss Sanders told us that lines never end,
and numbers go on forever.
Here,
in short-grass country,
I understand infinity. (18)

and

So many things
I know about myself
I've learned from others.
Without someone else to listen,
to judge,
to tell me what to do,
and to choose
who I am,
do I get to decide for myself? (158)

Read May B.

• If you love pioneer stories
• If you love historical fiction
• If you love coming-of-age stories
• If you like survivor stories
• If you like verse novels
• If you like stories about heroines with reading problems (dyslexia)

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Under the Mesquite (YA)

 Under the Mesquite. Guadalupe Garcia McCall. 2011. Lee & Low. 225 pages.

I am standing just inside
the doorway, watching Mami talk
to the television screen.
As the latest episode
of her favorite telenovela unfolds,
the soap opera drawing her in,
the skins from the potatoes
she is peeling
drop into her apron
like old maple leaves...

Lupita is the heroine of Guadalupe Garcia McCall's verse novel Under the Mesquite. It's an emotional coming of age story. Lupita struggles with the ordinary things of growing up, it's true, but she does it all the while watching her mother die of cancer. She does it while trying to be both mother and father to her younger sisters and brothers. She becomes an adult all too soon as she tries to cope with the devastating news--the diagnosis, the treatment, and the cure that just didn't last long enough. Where does she find the strength to face the day? How does she hold it all together? How does she keep things together enough with her family? Well, it's a mystery to her too. But taking those drama classes sure does seem to be helping. And her coach wonders why she can cry on demand...

If you're looking for an emotional 'cancer' book that is more than just a cancer book, then Under the Mesquite may be just what you're looking for.

Read Under the Mesquite

• If you're looking for a good multicultural read
• If you're looking for an emotional book with very human characters
• If you're looking for a good verse novel

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Inside Out & Back Again (MG)

Inside Out & Back Again. Thanhha Lai. 2011. HarperCollins. 262 pages.

1975: Year of the Cat
Today is Tet,
the first day
of the lunar calendar.


Every Tet
we eat sugary lotus seeds
and glutinous rice cakes.
We wear all new clothes,
even underneath.


Mother warns 
how we act today
foretells the whole year.


Everyone must smile
no matter how we feel.


No one can sweep,
for why sweep away hope?
No one can splash water,
for why splash away joy?

Inside Out & Back Again is a verse novel with wow-factor. If you like compelling novels with great narrators, then it's definitely a must-read. The heroine of the novel is a young girl named Ha. Her family faces a difficult choice, but they make the only choice they feel they can make at the time, they choose to leave war-torn Saigon. They could apply to go anywhere, they could try to find a sponsor in a number of countries, but they choose America. The family ends up in Alabama. For better or worse as Ha herself can tell you. For this sensitive, well-spoken young girl is made to feel ridiculous, stupid, and worthless. She's bullied by many of her classmates. There are days Ha feels that even a war-torn country would be a better place to live than Alabama. But the novel isn't without hope. For Ha's life isn't hopeless, good things can and do happen to her and her family.

I definitely recommend this one!!! I loved it SO MUCH MORE than Dead End in Norvelt. (Have you read both books, which one did you like better?!) I thought the poems were so well-written. Here's one called "Two More Papayas"

Two More Papayas


I see them first.
Two green thumbs
that will grow into
orange-yellow delights
smelling of summer.


Middle sweet
between a mango and a pear.


Soft as a yam
gliding down
after three easy,
thrilling chews. (21)

And one called "First Rule." It is one of many, many, many poems about Ha's experiences learning English/English grammar.

First Rule


Brother Quang says
add an s to nouns
to mean more than one
even if there's 
already an s
sitting there.


Glass
Glasses


All day
I practice
squeezing hisses
through my teeth.


Whoever invented 
English
must have loved
snakes. (118)

Read Inside Out & Back Again

• If you are interested in Vietnam
• If you are interested in historical novels
• If you are interested in verse novels
• If you are looking for heroines with heart
• If you are looking to read this year's Newbery honor book
• If you are looking for books about grieving and healing
• If you are looking for family books
• If you are looking for books with school settings and bullying

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews