Shelfie 20: November 7 & 10, 2016

A tumultuous November, I leant heavily on an old favorite–The Order of the Phoenix–from which certain lines rang all too true to life.

“Fools who wear their hearts proudly on their sleeves, who cannot control their emotions, who wallow in sad memories and allow themselves to be provoked this easily–weak people, in other words–they stand no chance against his powers!”

“He took his revenge the only way he had: redoubling his efforts for the D.A.”

This book in particular is very dear to me.

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Shelfie 19: November 4 & 6, 2016

Things are hard right now.  I can’t much go into detail, but I hope you’ll forgive me and enjoy these colorful pictures of my cat beside my shelves.  My Callie is very intent on Patricia C. Wrede’s The Raven Ring.

Book Reviews: January 2018 Picture Book Roundup: Love and Immigration and Fancy Nancy

What Do You Do with a Chance? by Kobi Yamada and illustrated by Mae Besom. Compendium, 2018.

I am a fan of this series. I am particularly a fan of Mae Besom’s artwork. The text continues to be inspiring but vague in its description, anthropomorphizing an idea—in this case a chance. The protagonist at first misses that chance, afraid to capture it, but then he catches another one later.

***

Stories of Immigration

Paddington by Michael Bond and illustrated by R. W. Alley. HarperCollins, 2014. First published 1998.  Intended audience: Ages 4-8.

This one was a little long for my audience, but they made it. It was very British—understandably British as its written by Brits—but there were words that my audience didn’t know. Overall, it’s a sweet story—but I hesitate on this one. On the one hand the language used to describe Paddington is worrying. He is from “Darkest Peru” and though polite, he does not understand some basic concepts of “civilized” British society (he climbs on tables to reach food and does not understand modern plumbing, leading to not only a giant mess in the bathroom but also to his near-drowning). The cabbie wants to charge extra for driving a bear and even more for a sticky bear. Paddington is depicted as needing to be taken care of by the British family because he’s incapable of taking care of himself—even though he’s traversed half the globe on his own with nothing but his wits and a jar of marmalade. I want to rate this story highly, because if I don’t think about it, it’s quite a wonderfully British, wonderfully fun adventure story of a bear who finds himself suddenly a part of a kind, suburban British family, but….

***

Mama’s Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and Separation by Edwidge Danticat and illustrated by Leslie Staub. Dial-Penguin Random, 2015. Intended audience: Ages 5-8.

This is an important story, particularly now, of a Haitian American family torn apart by an immigration detainment center. The jailors are cruel, and un-empathetic to young Saya’s tears, threatening not to allow her to visit if she can’t keep from crying when asked to leave. Her mother sends cassettes home with Saya’s father of stories of Haitian folklore or her own imagination for Saya to listen to at bedtime, but of course its not enough. Saya and her father write letters to plead her mother’s case, and Saya’s letter to the newspaper gains the media’s attention and the public’s support, ultimately reuniting her family. Saya’s story ends happily, where so many others do not, but Saya fights a battle that no child should have to fight. This one nearly made me cry in the store. Be warned though that it’s a long story. It’d have a hard time keeping the attention of my young story time audience.

****

Stories of Love

 

Love by Matt de la Peña and illustrated by Loren Long. G. P. Putnam’s Sons-Penguin Random, 2018. Intended audience: Ages 4-8.

So many beautiful people and families are depicted in this bright, colorful picture book! The text is lyrical, poetic, and deeply moving. There’s an image that was controversial around the time of its publication of a child hiding beneath a piano in a room with overturned furniture, a nearly finished glass of scotch, and two fighting adults, the woman crying because sometimes love is hard and sometimes love doesn’t last. This is an important book. This is an important book for children who are struggling because a family’s love has burnt out or for whom fear has come from a newscast. This is an important book of hope, of finding love in everyone and in everything. There is a message of sending you out into the world, which will make this an alternate graduation recommendation from me when all everyone wants is Oh! The Places You’ll Go!. This one also made me nearly cry in the store, and I know it touched the hearts of several coworkers too.

*****

Santa’s Husband by Daniel Kibblesmith and illustrated by A. P. Quach. HarperDesign-HarperCollins, 2017.

This one is shelved at Barnes & Noble in the adult section under humor, but there’s nothing that makes it inappropriate for children—and frankly I didn’t it find it very humorous–deeply touching, yes, but not laugh out loud. Santa and his husband have a wonderfully loving marriage and cozy home in the North Pole—though each year the North Pole seems to grow just a little warmer. They help one another, Santa’s husband being especially supportive of Santa with his difficult job, and though they sometimes have disagreements, they always kiss and make-up. Santa is portrayed as an older black man who is living happily with his husband David (not named till the last page), an older white man, who helps Santa with his heavy workload, negotiating benefits packages with the elves, cooking, even going to shopping malls sometimes to impersonate Santa for the children. I’m sorry I found it only so late after Christmas. Next year will be another year.

*****

You! by Sandra Magsamen. Jabberwocky-Sourcebooks, 2015.

There’s no story to this one, and the text all seems pretty trite. The text rhymes. The illustrations are all very simple, solid-colored figures and shapes on solid-colored backgrounds with graphics of question marks, hearts, and stars. There’s loopy text on one page and an illustration on the facing, no clever layout. The text tells me I can be everything I want to be—including someone who lives in a tree. That’s my favorite bit, because it’s the most imaginative, though it’s very possible that that line is included to have made the rhyme (“I think this line’s mostly filler”).  I just don’t see the appeal of this book really.

*

Not So Small at All by Sandra Magsamen. Jabberwocky-Sourcebooks, 2017.

My favorite part of this book was the facts and photographs at the end of the book about bees and butterflies and ants and hummingbirds—though I was more interested in those facts than was my story time audience; I did try to read them, and I read them excitedly. From my review of You!, you might have realized that Magsamen is just not my jam. This one doesn’t have a story either, but it seems less trite for having a more unified theme to its platitudes and reminders: that being little does not prevent you from doing great things. If you’re looking for a book with the same moral, though, let me point you to Little Elliot, Big City.

**

Fancy Nancy

Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy by Jane O’Connor and illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser. HarperCollins, 2007.  Intended audience: Ages 4-8.

Nancy’s family is getting a dog—and Nancy hopes it’ll be a Papillion, a fancy little puppy like her neighbor’s dog. To convince her family that a fancy puppy like Mrs. DeVine’s is what they need, everyone agrees to let Nancy and her family puppy-sit for Jewel. Her friends bring their dogs for a doggie play date, but Jewel hides behind Nancy and is quickly exhausted. Jewel is scared by Jojo’s fun. Nancy realizes that maybe a Papillion like Jewel isn’t the right dog for her family, and she’s feeling quite down. The family stops by the shelter, where the woman introduces the family to Frenchy, a big dog of indeterminate breed that jumps right into Nancy’s arms and likes it when Jojo hugs her. Their dad says that Frenchy is a very unique breed—and Nancy realizes that unique is maybe even better than fancy.

****

Fancy Nancy: Stellar Stargazer by Jane O’Connor and illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser. HarperColllins, 2011.  Intended audience: Ages 4-8.

Nancy and Jojo are having a night out beneath the stars. “Can you wish on the sun?” “Hmmm… well, it is a star, so why not?”  Framed by having Nancy explain to Jojo, the book is peppered with lots of simply explained scientific “stellar facts,” like that the sun is a star but that the moon is not and how long it takes a spaceship to reach the moon using current technology. The two pretend to visit the moon. Nancy sports Leia’s buns and invents a new legend for a new constellation, a story about a princess who runs away to marry a man below her station. This is the most fun non-fiction book I think that I’ve stumbled upon since The Magic School Bus books of my youth. It actually reminded me a great deal of The Magic School Bus books but for a younger audience.

****

Fancy Nancy: Oodles of Kittens by Jane O’Connor and illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser. HarperCollins, 2018.  Intended audience: Ages 4-8.

This is a good story for families with new siblings or new pets. Nancy and Bree find a mother cat—a queen—with new kittens. Mrs. DeVine takes the family in, and Nancy and Bree keep a close eye on the young kittens. Bree and Nancy keep Sequin and Rhinestone after the other kittens have found homes. Frenchy is jealous and feeling ignored as Nancy pampers Sequin with lots of attention. Frenchy is an excellent stand-in for an older sibling where Sequin is the new child and Nancy is the new mother. After her parents point out to Nancy that Frenchy might be jealous, Nancy is sure to pay attention to Frenchy too, and she slowly introduces her dog to her cat, explaining too that Sequin is only a baby and not mature like Frenchy. The two become friends, and Frenchy even helps to find Sequin when Sequin goes missing. This one got a little bit long, comprising of several plots strung together: Nancy finding the kittens, Frenchy being jealous of the kitten, and the kitten being lost and found.  But overall, I enjoy the story.

***

These reviews are not endorsed by any of the authors or publishers or anyone else involved in the making of these books. They are independent, honest reviews by a reader.

Shelfie 18: October 14 & 18, 2016: Young Love

 

I was really excited to keep reading this series after I fell in love with The Raven Boys without even realizing or thinking that I had done.  I thought I didn’t love it–until I couldn’t stop thinking about it.  And this book–the second–became my favorite of the series.

I was excited too to find this apt description, this description that I didn’t know that I needed in my life till I’d read it, but which I now think about often:

“His mind was a box he tipped out at the end of his shifts.”

P.S. — Here is my review of The Dream Thieves.

People of Color in the Books I Read in 2017: Part 2: Novels

I read 68 books that included people of color this year, which sounds impressive compared to last year’s 44, but that is only 27% of the total books that I read this year. However, of those 68, 34 had a person of color as a protagonist—a full HALF, 14% more than last year! But again, those 34 are only 14% of all of the books that I read this year.

Did those numbers go up from last year? Yes, yes they did, but not by enough, never by enough. The percentage of books that I read with any mention of people of color increased by only 1%, but the percentage of books with people of color as protagonists rose by a full 9%.

For fun, within the age grouped sections, I’ve arranged the series by their most highly rated book, and the series themselves with their highest rated at the top of the list and lowest rated at the bottom, so for example, the highest rate book in the Harry Potter series is more highly rated than the highest rated book in Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Deathly Hallows is more highly ranked than Half-Blood Prince, and so on.

 

Middle Grade-Young Readers (Ages 8-12)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Book 7 by J. K. Rowling. Scholastic, 2007.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Book 6 by J. K. Rowling. Scholastic, 2006.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Book 5 by J. K. Rowling. Scholastic, 2003.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by John Tiffany, Jack Thorne, and J. K. Rowling. Arthur A. Levine-Scholastic, 2016.

Despite some prevalent but far from universal fan theories and some casting decisions made by those heading the new West End play, the Harry Potter series is pretty white. There’s Dean Thomas, a boy of African descent from Harry and co.’s year, who gets a larger role in The Deathly Hallows, and Blaise Zabini, also of African descent, a Slytherin of indeterminate gender even, no more than the last name in the Sorting queue until Half-Blood Prince, where he emerges a member of the Slug Club. There’s Cho Chang, a girl of Chinese descent, whom Harry briefly dates during his fifth year. There’s Kingsley Shacklebolt, an Auror and Order member who later becomes Minister of Magic. There’s Lee Jordan, a classmate of African descent in Fred and George’s year, who reemerges as a radio host in The Deathly Hallows. There are the Patil twins, Parvati and Padma, who are of Indian descent. In The Cursed Child in an alternate universe created by meddling in the past, Ron marries Padma and has a half-Indian son, Panju, though neither Padma nor Panju are ever on stage, and Ron is pretty miserable as her husband. As far as speaking parts go… that’s pretty much it.

 

Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 5: The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan. Hyperion-Disney, 2011. First published 2009.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. Hyperion-Disney, 2005.

Percy Jackson is also pretty white. Charon is described as having darker skin. He’s a god, the ferryman of souls to Hades’ realm, and an employee of Hades’. I feel like another of the gods was described as darker skinned, but I cannot remember whom. I know Thanatos, Death, is, but he doesn’t appear till the next series. Charles Beckendorf, head of the Hephaestus cabin, who dies a hero, is African American, at least in fan art that is now the official art, but I’m not even sure it says for certain in the series that he is African American. But Riordan learned.

 

The Trials of Apollo, Book 1: The Hidden Oracle by Rick Riordan. Hyperion-Disney, 2016.

The Trials of Apollo, Book 2: The Dark Prophecy by Rick Riordan. Hyperion-Disney, 2017.

The supporting cast of The Trials of Apollo is pretty wonderfully diverse, though Riordan handles it much better in the second than the first book. But now there is a Brazilian demigod at Camp Half-Blood who speaks very little English. One of Apollo’s children is African American. In the second, there’s Jamie, a graduate student and wielder of magic if he isn’t a demigod (which he might well be), descended from the Yoruba people of West Africa, to whom Apollo is pretty strongly attracted. There’s the Latino American Leo Valdez in all his marvelous impishness.

 

Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, Book 3: The Ship of the Dead by Rick Riordan. Hyperion-Disney, 2017.

Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, Book 2: The Hammer of Thor by Rick Riordan. Hyperion-Disney, 2016.

Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, Book 1: The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan. Hyperion-Disney, 2015.

Now we get to Riordan’s best—or my favorite so far. Here is Blitzen, a dwarf with dark skin. Here is Samirah al-Abbas, a hijabi and Arab American. She lives with her Iraqi American grandparents. She is engaged to Amir Fadlan, whose father Abdel runs Fadlan’s Falafel, a restaurant that has always been kind to Magnus Chase, finding him extra food when he was living on the streets of Boston. Here is Alex Fierro, a Mexican American, whose family immigrated from Tlatilco. He/she becomes Magnus’ love interest. Here is Thomas Jefferson Jr., a Union soldier from the Civil War, the son of a runaway slave and the Norse god Tyr, who while living dealt with the prejudice against African Americans. All of these are primary characters.

 

The Kane Chronicles, Book 1: The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan. Hyperion-Disney, 2011. First published 2010.

In this series of Riordan’s, the two narrators and primary heroes are biracial, half-white, half-African American. Carter is dark skinned. Sadie is paler. They go to live with their Uncle Amos, who is African American. Most of the action for this story takes place in Egypt, where they interact with the magicians of the First Nome beneath Cairo. Carter’s love interest, Zia, is born along the Nile.

 

Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Promise: Part 1 by Gene Luen Yang. Dark Horse, 2012.

Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Search, Parts 1-3 by Gene Luen Yang. Dark Horse, 2013.

Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Rift, Parts 1-3 by Gene Luen Yang. Dark Horse, 2014.

Avatar: The Last Airbender: Smoke and Shadows, Parts 1-3 by Gene Luen Yang. Dark Horse, 2015.

Avatar: The Last Airbender: North and South, Parts 1-3 by Gene Luen Yang. Dark Horse, 2016.

I actually read these all in their individual parts. This is set in an alternate world, but the influences are mostly Asian, and most of the characters appear more Asian than Caucasian. The Water Tribes of the North and South Poles are darker skinned than members of other nations.

 

Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly. Greenwillow-HarperCollins, 2017.

This standalone of realistic, contemporary fiction–and hey! this year’s Newbery winner!–features a protagonist who is Filipino American and a pair of Japanese American sisters. Virgil’s Filipino American heritage is particularly explored. His grandmother is fairly newly immigrated.

 

Teen (Ages 13-19) 

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. Balzer + Bray-HarperCollins, 2017.

This story was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and police brutality against the African American community. Starr and her family are African American. Most of the characters are African American, but Starr attends a predominately white private school, and her boyfriend is white.

 

The Raven Cycle, Book 3: Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater. Scholastic, 2015. First published 2014.

The Raven Cycle, Book 4: The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater. Scholastic, 2016. 

Some of Blue’s family seems to be African American, though Stiefvater is never very explicit about it. I suspect Calla may be. I suspect Jimi, Orla, and their immediate family may be. According to Stiefvater, Blue herself and Blue’s mother Maura are not. Henry Cheng becomes a much more prominent character in The Raven King, even becoming the third wheel to Blue and Gansey’s tricycle, joining them on the road trip that I most want to be on. He’s Korean American.

 

All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater. Scholastic, 2017.

Almost this entire cast, the entire Soria family is Mexican American.

 

Adult (Ages 20+)

Ender’s Game Alive by Orson Scott Card Exec. Skyboat-Brilliance with Audible, 2013. Ender’s Game first published 1985.

Shadow of the Hegemon by Orson Scott Card. Audio Renaissance-Tor-Holtzbrinck, Sound Library-BBC Audiobooks America, 2006. Shadow of the Hegemon first published 2000.

The International Fleet picks the best from every nation. Most of the primary characters are white. Bonzo Madrid, with whom Ender fights, is Spanish. Alai becomes one of Ender’s closer friends and part of the jeesh. He is North African. Shen, one of Ender’s first friends, is Japanese. Commander Chamrajnagar, later Polemark, is Indian. In Shadow of the Hegemon, Bean and Petra with Achilles travel the world pretty expansively. Bean befriends Suriyawong, and joins then later commands the Thai army. Virlomi, an Indian Battle School graduate, helps Petra escape by escaping Achilles to get word to Bean and Suriyawong. Achilles brokers a brief peace between Pakistan and India, meeting with representatives of both nations. Bean lives for a brief time in Brazil and then later moves the headquarters of the Hegemon there.

 

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. HarperAudio-HarperCollins, 2013. First published 2005.

Fat Charlie and Spider are descended from Anansi the Spider of West African mythology. Fat Charlie’s mother and their neighbors in Florida are all Afro-Caribbean.  Rosie Noah and her mother are both Englishwomen of Afro-Caribbean descent, Rosie’s father having been instrumental in the introduction of Caribbean fusion food to England.

 

A Place at the Table by Susan Rebecca White. Touchstone-Simon & Schuster, 2013.

Alice Stone and her family are all African American. Amelia is revealed later to be biracial. Bobby Banks’ grandmother lives in a predominantly African American neighborhood, but Bobby struggles to make friends with the African American children who live there.

 

Do you know or think that I misrepresented or misinterpreted any of these?  Please comment below.  Let me know.

People of Color in the Books I Read in 2017: Part 1: Picture Books

I read 68 books that included people of color this year, which sounds impressive compared to last year’s 44, but that is only 27% of the total books that I read this year. However, of those 68, 34 had a person of color as a protagonist—a full HALF, 14% more than last year! But again, those 34 are only 14% of all of the books that I read this year.

Did those numbers go up from last year? Yes, yes they did, but not by enough, never by enough. The percentage of books that I read with any mention of people of color increased by only 1%, but the percentage of books with people of color as protagonists rose by a full 9%.

This year’s books are listed roughly in descending order of their average rating on Goodreads.

Picture Books, Picture Storybooks, and Board Books (Ages 0-8)

Books with a POC as a protagonist

Marvelous Cornelius: Hurricane Katrina and the Spirit of New Orleans by Phil Bildner illustrated by John Parra. Chronicle, 2015. An African American man, a trash collector, based on a real man from New Orleans, is depicted as heroic for his unbreakable spirit and his infectious enthusiasm.

Hello Lamb by Jane Cabrera. Little Bee-Simon & Schuster, 2017. Protagonist may be a stretch, but only one human baby is represented, and she is represented with darker skin. She shares the stage with animals.

The Dragon Prince: A Chinese Beauty and the Beast Tale by Laurence Yep and illustrated by Kam Mak. HarperCollins, 1997. Every character in this tale is Chinese.

Green Pants by Kenneth Kraegel. Candlewick, 2017. The whole cast of this sweet tale about independence and making decisions and compromise are of African descent.

Round by Joyce Sidman and illustrated by Taeeun Yoo. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017. The characters appear to be of Asian descent.

Goodnight Lab: A Scientific Parody by Chris Ferrie. Jabberwocky-Sourcebooks, 2017. A young, female scientist of African descent closes up her lab while harried to publish by a grumpy, old, white man.

Cinnamon by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Divya Srinivasan. HarperCollins, 2017. The illustrations draw heavily on Indian tradition and the story seems to be set in India.

Rulers of the Playground by Joseph Kuefler. Balzer + Bray-HarperCollins, 2017. An African American girl, Lennox, competes with a white boy, Jonah, for dominion over a playground populated by a diverse collection of children. Augustine, a white girl with red hair, emerges as their rival after the dust of their dispute has settled.

If You Ever Want to Bring a Circus to the Library, Don’t! by Elise Parsley. Little, Brown-Hachette, 2017. Magnolia appears Asian, probably Chinese. The story time crowd at the library is diverse, but the librarian is male and white.

A New Friend for Sparkle by Amy Young. Farrar, Straus and Giroux-Macmillan, 2017. Lucy, a young, African American girl learns to share her new friend, a white boy, Cole, with her pet unicorn.

A Night Out with Mama by Quvenzhané Wallis and illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton. Simon & Schuster, 2017. This is a story written by and about Wallis. She and her family are all African American.

A diverse cast with no protagonist

Blue Sky White Stars by Sarvinder Naberhaus and illustrated by Kadir Nelson. When humans are depicted, the crowd is wonderfully diverse, people of many different backgrounds represented, including women in hijabs, African Americans, a Native American woman, Asian Americans, and Latinx Americans, but this is a celebration of America more than anything else, America is the protagonist.  Kadir Nelson is an amazing realist painter.

Baby’s Big World: Music by Rob Delgaudio and illustrated by Hilli Kushnir. BoriBoricha, 2017.  In this exploration of music for toddlers, the cast is diverse, and an African American girl is featured on the cover.

Do Not Take Your Dragon to Dinner by Julie Gassman and illustrated by Andy Elkerton. Picture Window-Capstone, 2017. Diverse children, including a young hijabi, lament and then school their dragon friends in table manners, though ultimately the story resolves mostly around a white family. 

Skin Again by bell hooks and illustrated by Chris aschka. Jump at the Sun-Hyperion-Disney, 2004.  This picture book celebrates self-love and love for others and encourages looking beyond outward appearance.

When Dads Don’t Grow Up by Marjorie Blain Parker and illustrated by R. W. Alley. Dial-Penguin Random, 2012. Dads from a four families are celebrated.  One family appears African American.  Another may be Chinese.  And maybe Latinx?

It Takes a Village by Hillary Rodham Clinton and illustrated by Marla Frazee. Paula Wiseman-Simon & Schuster, 2017. A community comes together to create a playground.  White, African American, and Asian American community members seem to be represented.

How Do Dinosaurs Choose Their Pets? by Jane Yolen and illustrated by Mark Teague. Blue Sky-Scholastic, 2016. Different families struggle to correctly school the dinosaurs in their family in choosing and caring for a pet.  One dino mom seems to be African American… but hers is the dinosaur absconding with a tiger from the zoo.  The mothers at the end with the well-behaved dinos are both white, and I’m not best pleased about that.

Why Am I Me? by Paige Britt and illustrated by Selina Alko and Sean Qualls. Scholastic, 2017. An African American boy begins the book by wondering why he is himself and not someone else, the refrain quickly echoed by a white girl. The city is wonderfully diversely populated by people of many backgrounds, including hijabis, African Americans in more than one shade of brown, Asian Americans, several biracial couples–there even seems to be the silhouette of a woman in a burka and her son in a long tunic, but no one really emerges as a protagonist, per se.

Begin Smart: What Does Baby Say by Sterling Publishing, 2016.  This is a first words primer featuring different babies in the illustrations.

Animal or nonhuman protagonist with a secondary character who is a POC with a speaking role

School’s First Day of School by Adam Rex and illustrated by Christian Robinson. Roaring Brook-Macmillan, 2016. The school is the protagonist, but his first and best friend is an African American man, a janitor in the school.  The school children are diverse: African Americans (in the kindergarten class, Chloe and Max), Asian Americans (Bella), Latinx Americans (one of the Aidens), perhaps even the teach is a Latina?  The school is named after Frederick Douglass.

Curious George: Dinosaur Tracks by CGTV based on characters by H. A. Rey. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011. Curious George’s African American friend, Bill, a teenage or elementary school boy, is both the cause of the mystery and the one to answer George’s questions.

A white protagonist with a secondary character who is POC with a speaking role

Beauty and the Beast adapted by Cynthia Rylant and illustrated by Meg Park. Hyperion-Disney, 2017. The beast when he becomes a prince is darker-skinned than is Beauty, of African or Spanish origin?

Animal or nonhuman protagonist with diverse background characters

The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf and illustrated by Robert Lawson. Puffin-Penguin Random, 1977. First published 1936. Ferdinand the bull is the protagonist, but every human character is Spanish. This is perhaps not the best portrayal of Spanish culture; while bull-fighting is in fact a part of Spanish culture, it is a violent sport, and there is no discussion of the human characters regretting the violence, only fearing the supposed violence of the bulls.

The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat. Little, Brown-Hachette, 2014. The secondary character is a young, white girl, but the other children playing with other imaginary characters and the cityfolk are diverse.

The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin by Joe Troiano and illustrated by Susan Banta. Barnes & Noble, 2009. First published 2001. This may a story about appreciating one’s differences, but the story is about pumpkins, the farmer is white, but his patrons are diverse.

Trains Don’t Sleep by Andria Warmflash Rosenbaum and illustrated by Deirdre Gill. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017. This is a story about trains, really without any protagonist even, more about factual trains, the types of trains and their functions, but the travelers and those the trains pass are diverse, mostly African American or white.

White protagonists with diverse background characters

Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty and illustrated by David Roberts. Abrams, 2013. 

Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beaty and illustrated by David Roberts. Abrams, 2007.

Miss Nelson is Missing! by Harry Allard and illustrated by James Marshall. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2003. First published 1977.

Sarabella’s Thinking Cap by Judy Schachner. Dial-Penguin Random, 2017. 

How to Get Your Teacher Ready by Jean Reagan and illustrated by Lee Wildish. Alfred A. Knopf-Penguin Random, 2017.

It’s interesting—and sad—to note that in all these diversely populated classrooms, not one of the teachers is a person of color.

Fancy Nancy by Jane O’Connor and illustrated by Robin Preiss Glasser. HarperCollins, 2005. Nancy’s family visits a restaurant where an African American family are also eating.

Are We There Yet? by Dan Santat. Little, Brown-Hachette, 2016. One of the pirates at least is darker skinned than the others and than the protagonists.

Dad and the Dinosaur by Gennifer Choldenko and illustrated by Dan Santat. G. P. Putnam & Son’s-Penguin Random, 2017. One of the soccer players is darker skinned than the protagonists or other children.

 

Do you know or think that I misrepresented or misinterpreted any of these?  Please comment below.  Let me know.

Book Review: Camaraderie Evades All the Crooked Saints

I’ve begun rereading Blue Lily, Lily Blue, and I think I’m finally ready to talk about Maggie Stiefvater’s latest, All the Crooked Saints, which I finished back in early December.

If you’ve been with me a while, you’ll know that I fell and fell hard for The Raven Cycle, that I adored The Scorpio Races. I can’t say the same for All the Crooked Saints—the only other of Stiefvater’s novels that I’ve read, and as a later novel, one that I thought would build on the best elements of the other books that I’d read.

This was a different novel for Stiefvater. This was one of those deeply personal novels that she needed to write. (She has written a lovely, insightful piece on her Tumblr about this novel).

Stiefvater’s unique command and beautiful use of language was still on full display here as was her grasp of magical realism, that sense that, yes, this is real, but there is fantasy too, and the two don’t make either one any less true. This is the first of her novels that I’ve read (that she’s written?) with a predominantly non-white (in this case Mexican-American) cast. This is the first that I’ve read (that she’s written?) that can qualify as historical fiction, set in 1962 Colorado with talk of German POWs who work the farms during the previous generation’s childhood, and the music and pop icons of the day. There was lots that I thought that I would love—and I did love—but it lacked one crucial thing:

What I think kept me on the outskirts of All the Crooked Saints was the characters themselves. I fell for the “blinding, deafening, maddening, quickening” friendship of the boys and Blue, and like Blue “now that she’d had this kind, she didn’t want the other.” The protagonist of All the Crooked Saints, Beatriz, claims to be a girl without feelings. She has a difficult time relating to anyone and is forbidden to even talk to the people in her community who are not family. That kind of easy, “all-encompassing” friendship cannot exist for Beatriz (BLLB 103).

Beatriz is a lonesome in the way the Stiefvater defines lonesome herself in Blue Lily, Lily Blue: “a state of being apart. Of being other,” a philosopher, a genius thinker, a rationalist, scientist (28). In her case, this lonesomeness seems mostly self-imposed, a prison built of her belief in others’ cruel words about her having no feelings. I enjoyed her insights, but I missed others. She learns. The whole book is about achieving the miracle of overcoming one’s own worst faults, and Beatriz learns that she does have a heart and that faults can only be overcome in an accepting relationship, with love. But she learns slowly, and it’s not till near the end of the book that she has learnt this truth.

Beatriz’s otherness and lonesomeness were sort of the point, but it also kept me from feeling close to this novel and the characters in it—even Beatriz herself.

As an exploration of overcoming, of exploring and confronting the deepest, ugliest parts of ourselves, this book is important, this book means a lot to me. But I just didn’t enjoy it in the way that I wanted to enjoy it. I’m so glad that there are others who did. A second reading later may alter my perception of it some.

I did enjoy the languages. I enjoyed the scant scenes of the camaraderie—especially between the petitioners stuck with one miracle but not the second.

***1/2

Steifvater, Maggie. All the Crooked Saints. New York: Scholastic, 2017.

This review is not endorsed by Maggie Stiefvater or Scholastic, Inc.  It is an independent, honest review by a reader.

 

Book Review: A Christmastime Rebellion in the Enderverse

This is my third book in the Enderverse. I found the rereleased hardcover at Barnes & Noble and got so excited. It was nearing Christmas when I did, and I am a sucker for Christmas fanfictions, so a canon Christmas novella in a world that I’m just falling in love with was near irresistible. So I ran to the library.

This happens mid-Ender’s Game/Ender’s Shadow, when Ender is newly transferred to Rat Army, but the majority of the novel does not revolve around Ender.

Zeck Morgan is rescued from his ultra-religious father, a Puritan minister who whips Zeck to make him more pure. Zeck has a perfect memory, which his mother believes is from God, though she warns Zeck to hide that memory from his father, whom she thinks will believe it from the devil. The IF sees that memory as a useful asset in a soldier—and it seems implied that the soldier who comes for him believes that he is rescuing Zeck from his abusive household, though Zeck resents being drafted.

In Battle School, Zeck maintains his father’s preached pacifism and won’t fire his weapon, though he enters the Battle Room and does the school work for Battle School. He is disliked by the students.

A homesick Battle School student, Flip Rietvald, sets his shoes out on Sinterklaas Eve, and Dink Meeker, noticing the childlike gesture, gives him Sinterklaas gifts, a silly poem and a pancake shaped into a F.

Religious observation is banned in Battle School and Zeck’s father has preached that Santa Claus is a manifestation of Satan, so Zeck complains to Commander Graff about the Dutch boys’ observation of the holiday. The punishment that Flip and Dink receive spurs Dink to begin an underground celebration—not in the name of Christmas, but in the name of Santa Claus (in all his forms), whom he argues is not a religious figure but a cultural icon, his day celebrated even by the atheists of countries where he exists, and nationality impossible to ban. Children begin to give one another gifts with a sock attached so that the gift is known to be in Santa’s name.

The battle brews. Zeck stirs up trouble by convincing one Pakistani soldier that prayer is a national observation as much as is the celebration of Santa because Pakistan was formed as a Muslim nation, and so Muslim identity is national identity. When this results in several Muslims being led away in handcuffs for religious observation, the Santa Claus celebration stops; the fight becomes too serious, the consequences too dire; it ceases to be fun, and the celebration ceases to be in the spirit of Santa Claus, “compassion and generosity […] the irresistible urge to make people happy […] the humility to realize that you aren’t any better than the rest of us in the eyes of God” (78).

Because this series is Ender’s story more than any of the others’, it is Ender who gets to give the last Santa Claus gift of the book and demonstrate the team-building prowess that makes him such an astounding leader. He corners Zeck and convinces him of the error of his father’s protestations, battling Zeck Bible verse for verse and sharing secrets about his home-life and his abusive brother.

This story mostly provides an interesting platform to discuss national observations versus religious observations, particularly around the Christmas holiday but around all religions—though only Christianity and Islam are discussed—the intersection and dissonance of nationality and religion, religious tolerance, and the fake religious proclamations of those whose words are not reflected in their actions.

It ends on a happy note, which I almost require of my Christmas fanfiction but has even more substance than I’m used to expecting from a good Christmas ficlet—for which I was not ungrateful. I like more of a Christmas meal than Christmas fluff.

Ultimately, this was a good diversion while I prepped and then survived the Christmas holiday.  It was good food for thought.  It was not the cleanest and tightest of Card’s writings, but it was interesting to spend more time with Dink and more time with some of the previously nameless Battle School students.

***

Card, Orson Scott. A War of Gifts. New York: Tor-Tom Doherty-Macmillan, 2007.

This review is not endorsed by Orson Scott Card, Tor, or Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.  It is an independent, honest review by a reader.

My 2017 in Books

I really enjoy the infographics that Goodreads provides at the end of (and I found out this year at any point in) the year.  And since this is Goodreads‘ second year of providing such graphics, we can compare my stat’s to last year’s!

There are at least two 10-page books that I read this year, Salina Yoon‘s A Pirate’s Life came up another time that I visited this site. Is 10 the required number of pages for a book?  Last year’s shortest book, Perfect Pets, was the same length.

I read more–just more–this year.  The longest book that I read is 273 pages longer than last year’s, The House of Hades.  I read 69 more books.  I read 6,819 more pages.  Those books were on average 5 pages longer.

I read a lot of picture books both years.

Other observations?  More people should read A Letter to Daddy.  I gave it a solid 4 stars.  How have more people read the 7th Harry Potter book than have read books 5 or 6?  Have that many people really decided that they can skip to the end, or is it merely that more people have marked it as read on Goodreads?  P.S.–DON’T skip to the last book.  The last book isn’t even the best book, contrary to what the average ratings suggest.

My average rating remained steady over these past two years.

This year, I read 13 books by Gene Yuen Lang, all of them Avatar: The Last Airbender graphic novels, which are written in sets of three slim paperbacks for each storyline.  I read 9 picture books from Mo Willems.  I read 8 novels from Rick Riordan.  I read 5 of Maggie Stiefvater‘s novels.  I read 4 books from J. K. Rowling (if we include The Cursed Child), and 4 picture books from Ryan T. Higgins.  I read 3 Dr. Seuss books, and 3 picture books each from Dan Santat, Marcus Pfister, Norman Bridwell, and Sherri Duskey Rinker.  I listened to 2 audiobooks from Orson Scott Card.  I read 2 books too of Neil Gaiman‘s; one was a picture book, but another was an audio book of one of his adult novels.  I read two picture books each from 19 different authors.  I started listing them, but the list became too expansive, and it didn’t account anyway for illustrators, which I know would make the list longer.  When I want to create a theme for a story time, I often choose multiple books by a single author or a single illustrator.

If you’re interested in seeing all of the books that I read this year, check out the Goodreads infographics page for yourself.