Book review - Displaced

Title: Displaced

Author: Dean Hughes

Genre: realistic fiction:

Similar books: The Red Pencil by Andrea Davis Pinkney

                      Everlasting Nora by Marie MIranda Cruz

Rating:

 

a little bit heartbreaking

Summary (provided by publisher): Thirteen-year-old Hadi Toma and his family are displaced. At least that’s what the Lebanese government calls them and the thousands of other Syrian refugees that have flooded into Beirut. But as Hadi tries to earn money to feed his family by selling gum on the street corner, he learns that many people who travel the city don’t think they’re displaced—they think that they don’t belong in this country either. Each day he hears insults, but each day he convinces himself they don’t matter, approaching the cars again and again. He hardly dares to dream anymore that this might change.
But then Hadi meets Malek, who has been instructed to work on the same corner. Malek, who talks about going to school and becoming an engineer. But Malek is new to the streets, and Kamal, the man who oversees many of the local street vendors, tells Malek he must work the corner…alone. And people who don’t follow Kamal’s orders don’t last long.
Now Hadi is forced to make a choice between engaging in illegal activities or letting his family starve. Can the boys find a way out of their impossible situation, or will the dream of something greater than their harsh realities remain stubbornly out of reach?

My opinion: It isn't often that we get a refugee story that doesn't end with the main character in a new home in the west, opportunity wide open in front of them. Hughes presents us instead with a family trapped by poverty, in a country already stretched thin for resources. This is a scenario where they were once helped by NGOs but that funding has dried up. The best Hadi can hope for is a slight improvement in circumstances, a situation where he may be able to go to school, where his family may have enough to eat without begging. The greatest value to a book like this one is putting a human face to a crisis.

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Listen with Me

Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam

This is more than just a story of guilt or innocence. It raises that question of course - Has Amal done a thing worthy of imprisonment? He was in a fight, but was it criminal? The central question of the plot is bigger than a single teenager's guilt, though. It's a question about the entire system. About presumptions based on race. About the school system and the boxes it puts kids into. About cultural failures and violence. We expect kids to be tough but punish them when they fight. And then treat them as if they're dangerous forever after. We expect only a single time of behavior from them from early childhood and punish them for things they don't understand. Zaboi and Salaam suggest that the school system prepares boys for prison, even small infractions taking power from them It's noteworthy that the end of the book does not have Amal in a clear place. He doesn't have answers about his future,He's just thinking, educating himself, an looking for options to make better choices going forward. With such big societal questions being raised, this is an excellent book for discussion. 

 Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley

Non-fiction book review - Kids Fight Plastic

Kids Fight Plastic by Martin Dorey

 It's no secret that single use plastic is bad. We hear all the time how damaging it is to the environment. What isn't always clear is why. That's one of the advantages of this book. It lays out in a clear and concise way the short and long term damage done by plastic. We also get clear steps that individuals can take to help. Some of these things can be difficult to achieve, but Dorey breaks it all down into small and achievable steps.It also doesn't ask the individual to fix the plastic problem. It just asks us to weigh our decisions and help to ease the plastic burden.

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Book review - Beauty Mark

Title: Beauty Mark

Author: Carole Boston Weatherford

Genre: verse novel

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                      Anastasia by Magadlena Lankosz

Rating:

 

far more compelling than I expected

Summary (provided by publisher): From the day she was born into a troubled home to her reigning days as a Hollywood icon, Marilyn Monroe (née Norma Jeane Mortenson) lived a life that was often defined by others. Here, in a luminous poetic narrative, acclaimed author Carole Boston Weatherford tells Marilyn’s story in a way that restores her voice to its rightful place: center stage. Revisiting Marilyn’s often traumatic early life—foster homes, loneliness, sexual abuse, teen marriage—through a hard-won, meteoric rise to stardom that brought with it exploitation, pill dependency, and depression, the lyrical narrative continues through Marilyn’s famous performance at JFK’s birthday party, three months before her death. In a story at once riveting, moving, and unflinching, Carole Boston Weatherford tells a tale of extraordinary pain and moments of unexpected grace, gumption, and perseverance, as well as the inexorable power of pursuing one’s dreams. A beautifully designed volume.

My opinion: I've never really found Marilyn Monroe to be an especially interesting figure. At least, not before I read this book. I had no idea how fascinating I was going to find her story. Poverty, mental illness, abuse, desperation for recognition and affection, and eventually fame. That fame is actually a very small part of this narrative. The larger focus is on obstacles and people wanting her to conform to societal expectations. Expectations that matched nothing that she saw growing up, that must have felt no more realistic than the ideals of fame to young Norma. While the story is told in Marilyn's voice, it is surprisingly dispassionate, relaying events without speculating much about her deeper feelings towards them. A bit of a niche read but well worth a look.

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Book review - Millionaires for the Month

Title: Millionaires for the Month

Author: Stacy McAnulty

Genre: realistic fiction

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                      The Dollar Kids by Jennifer Richard Jacobson

Rating:

 

 a tough one to pull off

Summary (provided by publisher): Felix Rannells and Benji Porter were never supposed to be field-trip partners. Felix is a rule follower. Benji is a rule bender. They're not friends. And they don't have anything to talk about. Until . . .
They find a wallet. A wallet that belongs to tech billionaire Laura Friendly. They're totally going to return it-but not before Benji "borrows" twenty dollars to buy hot dogs. Because twenty dollars is like a penny to a billionaire, right?
But a penny has value. A penny doubled every day for thirty days is $5,368,709.12! So that's exactly how much money Laura Friendly challenges Felix and Benji to spend. They have thirty days. They can't tell anyone. And there are LOTS of other rules. But if they succeed, they each get ten million dollars to spend however they want.
Challenge accepted! They rent cool cars, go to Disney World, buy pizza for the whole school-and that's just the beginning! But money can't buy everything or fix every problem. And spending it isn't always as easy and fun as they thought it would be. . .

My opinion: The concept here is one many kids dream of: suddenly finding yourself able to spend indiscriminately, to buy or do anything that pops into your head. By putting limits (limits that will be familiar if you've ever seen Brewster's Millions) on how they can spend the money the plot is more interesting, especially as each of the boys ring different approaches to the endeavor. Benji is looking for fulfillment and recognition. Felix is extremely driven to win and help his mother but torn by his natural inclination to follow the rules. As expected, their relationships are tested. They have initial popularity at large but earn a lot of disapproval. And their more meaningful relationships are tested by the money and secrets. The ending is a bit rough. The final confrontation is awkward, not entirely satisfying, and leaves me with reservations. Entertaining and might serve as a good prompt for a writing project for young readers.

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Listen with me

Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam

With the state of the world right now, this book about a young Black man in prison and the biases in the justice system seems especially timely. And I'm especially interested to hear the verse novel approach to this narrative. I don't expect that this will be an especially relaxing or comfortable listen but certainly an eye-opening one.

Non-fiction book review - CRISPR

CRISPR by Yolanda Ridge

This is one of the most comprehensive explorations of gene editing that I personally have encountered. Complex but not excessively bogged down with technical jargon. A lay person can understand the content with a minimal amount of effort. We get first an explanation of DNA and genetic engineering, then the story of CRISPR and how scientist intend to use it. That's what we expect, of course, but Ridge doesn't stop there. There's a full exploration of the complications both scientific and moral. We look at how things might go wrong, how we might create new problems, and how gene editing might be misused. And it doesn't tell us what to think so much as it gives us questions to consider. A solid entry in the world of scientific texts.

More information: CRISPR releases September 8. 

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