Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I love that my tween still wants me to read aloud with her, you know? We snuggle up together and enjoy both the story and the time together, and I’m selfishly hoping that she just keeps on wanting it. We finished reading The Stars of Summer together over the weekend–with two sessions in one day because she was absolutely going to DIE if we didn’t find out what happened–and it was a ton of fun. Picking up where All Four Stars leaves off, The Stars of Summer sees Gladys trying to balance her secret career as a food critic with summer camp and getting to know another kid author. Both her swimming and her relationship with her parents improve drastically, but wait–she must also foil a nefarious plot against her AND her editor!

Tara Dairman’s Gladys books are just FUN, folks. We laugh, we wince, and we enjoy the time together; who could ask for anything more? I imagine my tween is super anxious to get the next one, but the rest of us are in various stages of sick at the moment, and so I’m not as excited to read aloud as I usually am. Yesterday I was crazy exhausted and my whole body hurt; my almost 10-year-old son lay down to take a nap today, and my husband’s voice has dropped at LEAST an octave below normal. Thank goodness for cold medicine and Kleenexes! Whether it’s Covid or a miserable summer cold I don’t know, but it stinks. Whichever it is, I hope your household escapes it.

Our first week of summer went pretty well, all things considered–and as long as you don’t ask my son. (He says summer is so BORING. As he said this the night I took him and his siblings to the pool for two and a half hours, where they met friends and had a blast, I was unsympathetic.) We managed four appointments–five if you count my temple appointment–went to the library, to a shaved ice stand, to the park, to Walmart, to the aforementioned pool, and to lunch with my mother-in-law (with whom we also played games!). Oh, and I went to Costco twice. We also accomplished more than one task that need accomplishing, so there’s that, too.

I ALSO finished Lisa Greenwald’s TBH, This Is So Awkward–finished it this morning–and unfortunately, it was one of the lowlights of the week. The concept of a novel in text–an epistolary novel for the 21st century, right?–was promising, especially for my tween, but the execution…well.

1. Too little characterization. If there had been more texts with other people, or more emails, notes, and diary entries, the main three girls might have felt less like caricatures. As it is, read Jennifer L. Holm’s Middle School Is Worse Than Meatloaf: A Year Told Through Stuff for what characterization CAN be in this sort of format.

2. Adult overreactions OR misplaced reactions with no acknowledgement of same. There was no actual bullying in this book, despite what topics it’s listed under on Amazon. There were two instances of (very brief) anonymous texting that crossed into mean, one thoughtless mistake that was unintentionally cruel, and a whole bunch of social weirdness that didn’t qualify as anything else. It’s not mean not to automatically invite the new girl in school into your tightknit group. It IS weird for the new girl in school to contact someone she hardly knows and ask to be invited to his birthday party, and it’s doubly weird for the new girl’s mom to contact the birthday boy’s mom (whom she hasn’t met) to guilt her into having her son invite said new girl to his birthday party.

I won’t go on, except to say that the best middle grade novels are a pleasure for me to read as an adult; this was just annoying. I don’t doubt that a decent portion of the intended audience will be entertained, but there isn’t enough substance here for me to pass this book on to my tween; it falls under the category of ‘if she finds it herself, fine, but I have better books to recommend to her.’ If I were you, I’d skip this one.

Lisa Fipps’ Starfish has been on my radar for a bit in a background sort of way, but when it ended up on our elementary school’s ‘Battle of the Books’ list and my son wanted to start working on said list, I went ahead and checked out a hard copy for him and the audio for me.

There really aren’t words.

On the one hand, you could say that Starfish is about a girl being bullied because of her weight. On another hand, you could say it’s the story of a girl who, with the help of her therapist, begins to recognize and reclaim her worth in the face of a crowd of naysayers, some of whom are in her own family. Perhaps what I want to say is that it’s a testament to the power words and people can have in another person’s life; it made me think harder about who I want to be–and how I want to be–to the people around me.

This is a heartbreakingly beautiful book, and ultimately, a triumphant one; it’s also a vital read in today’s world. Don’t miss it.

P.S. (a word from the tween) An amazingly beautiful and heartfelt book. DEFINITLY a must!!! 6/5 stars.

I stayed up WAY too late reading last night, folks, and I finished my book this morning instead of writing a book review when I was coherent enough to do it. Maybe tomorrow?

It’s the first week of summer, folks! Today my lovely mother-in-law came down to take my tween to the orthodontist while I took my son to a different appointment, and she stayed to play games and take us to lunch! At the Pizza Pie Cafe, no less, which meant I didn’t bother making dinner–I didn’t know how many people would even want to eat. We had apples and whole wheat bread and then went to get shaved ice from my middles’ former fourth grade teacher’s stand; there was a park behind the stands and food trucks, so the kids played afterward and I chilled on a bench for a while. Now people are taking turns in the shower and getting off to bed, which means I get to sit down and review Lisa Graff’s The Great Treehouse War, which we listened to on Memorial Day while driving home from Idaho.

I have to say, it made pretty great road trip material.

The basic premise is fairly simple–Winnie’s (divorced) parents’ obsessive competition with each other makes Winnie’s life so unbearable that she finally takes to her treehouse and refuses to come down until they talk with her together. Her friends–each with his or her own parental demands, none nearly as reasonable as Winnie’s–come up to join her, and voila! An epic standoff. My tween and I were captivated by the story, and the other three kids paid a good amount of attention to it as well. As a reader, I was completely entertained, even if it wasn’t exactly realistic; as a parent, I quite enjoyed the ego boost that came from comparing Winnie’s parents to myself. (They made me look amazing.) I honestly had issues with the ending–the parents weren’t properly repentant–but given the whole concept of the book, it worked. (If everything is over the top, complaining about nuances of realism isn’t really productive, right?) Upper elementary and middle schoolers–and their parents!–should enjoy this one.

Of a sort, that is. You may have guessed that the kiddos and I were out of town over most of Memorial Day weekend–I got to attend the temple with much of my side of the family, since my brother’s oldest son went through for the first time, and then we got to listen to my sister’s youngest daughter speak in church before starting at-home missionary training. (By the way, she’s currently got Covid, so keep her in your prayers, please.) In between, I went through some boxes and papers in my parents’ computer/sewing/junk room and unpacked/recycled/organized. I confess, there was an initial ulterior motive–I wanted to be able to set up an air mattress in there–but my mother had become overwhelmed with the level of stuff piling up, especially since my father’s last fall resulted in a T12 compression fracture and a need for more of her time. I didn’t finish the job–not by any stretch of the imagination–but I did manage to at least make a difference. We drove home on Monday and I spent the rest of the week catching up on housework and laundry and unearthing and then using my craft desk. I’ve decided that right now, offering some of my time each week for family history work will be more successful if I work on our own family history, and to that end I’ve been putting family and school pictures in scrapbooks, putting extras aside in a labelled envelope, and throwing away the garbage produced by the effort. My family loves looking at the pictures, my pile of clutter decreases, and we have a record of our growth. What’s not to love?

Anyway. I also managed to read Hope Larson’s Salt Magic this week, and when I failed to make a review happen yesterday, I decided I’d better not wait ANOTHER day before doing so and passing it on. (I have that graphic-novel-loving-12-year-old, you’ll recall.) I haven’t read anything else by Larson, but Salt Magic seems different than what I’ve seen of her work. You could call it historical magical fiction, I suppose–the story begins with Vonceil’s brother returning from WWI to marry a local girl and settle down, and Vonceil is NOT PLEASED. She and her brother had a special bond, but now he’s occupied with Amelia and focused on his future. When a glamorous–and mysterious–woman comes to town to see him, however, Vonceil discovers that Elber’s choices have brought magical disaster down on their farm and family; luckily, she has the courage and determination to rescue them all, learning to reevaluate her own priorities in the process. It’s not an unqualified happily-ever-after, but it strikes a deeper chord because of that.

On the other hand, I struggled with the thinness of the world-building. There’s not enough about history to make Salt Magic‘s historical fiction aspect truly meaningful, and yet the magical process and progression felt arbitrary to me. I doubt my 12-year-old will be overly bothered–she’s a bigger fan of realistic fiction and is going to care more about what happens with the characters’ relationships–but fantasy fans may not be so impressed. All in all, Larson’s fans may be the best audience for this one; as for me, I’ll try her ‘Eagle Rock’ trilogy and see if I enjoy it more. If you’ve read it, let me know what YOU think!

We inherited Victoria Forester’s The Girl Who Could Fly when my husband’s Uncle Dieter died. He was a lovely man and a voracious reader in his second language–which I find incredibly impressive–but he rarely read youth fiction; I’m not sure how or why he ended up with Forester’s book, but I would probably not have gotten around to it if he hadn’t had it on one of his many bookshelves. As it is, Stephenie Meyer’s cover blurb is surprisingly apt; she called it “the oddest/sweetest mix of Little House on the Prairie and X-Men.”*

Indeed.

Piper McCloud is from a close-knit farming community which prefers to do things the way they’ve always been done; this becomes problematic for her parents when she starts to float before her first birthday. Despite their valiant efforts to keep her grounded, Piper teaches herself to fly, which ultimately lands her in a top-secret school for those with special abilities. What happens there, of course, will change her world forever, because that’s how this sort of story works; how it happens, however, is utterly compelling. (Not so much my thing, I grant you, but compelling.) The Girl Who Could Fly should satisfy a goodly number of young readers, so check it out; for myself, I keep wondering what Dieter thought of it.

*Yes, I’m aware that I just used two semi-colons in a row. I tend toward semi-colons and I’ve decided not to fight the urge or make the effort to change things up today, because I put in my garden this morning and I’m poopered. Prepare for ALL the semi-colons…

We actually slept up at my in-laws’ on Saturday night, because one nephew’s graduation party was Saturday evening and another recently-returned-missionary nephew spoke in church on Sunday; the nice thing was that we were home by 5:30 or so on Sunday evening, so all the kiddos could get to bed early. (Three of them slept over with cousins on Saturday night, too, so they ALL needed it.) Today I managed laundry and Costco and dishes and jam, mostly because I bought Melona bars at Costco and while fitting them in the freezer decided that I couldn’t take the presence of that last gallon Ziploc of grapes in the freezer for one more day. One batch was all grape; one had to be supplemented with some frozen strawberries and grated Granny Smith apple to make up the amount. We’ll see which one the family likes better!

I first came across The Hero Next Door when I was checking our library system to see if R.J. Palacio had any books we hadn’t yet read. Short stories are rarely my thing, but a short story anthology about everyday heroes–many of them kids–is balm to the soul in today’s world, and given that I recognized at least 5 of the contributing authors (two of which are Newbery winners), I took the plunge.

And? It was completely worth it. Give this to your kids, students, nieces, nephews, grandkids, godkids, whomever, because I cried, I laughed out loud, and reading it made my heart happy. Now I want to go look at what else has been published in partnership with We Need Diverse Books, because what better way to showcase unity through diversity than to show kids of all ages, backgrounds, and cultures needing and being heroes?

In other news, last night’s band concert was a fun one, and today? Not only did I get to go to the temple, but I saw my aunt and uncle while I was there. Win-win! Now, let’s all cross our fingers for the kiddos’ piano recital tomorrow…

Mostly she survived because I handed over the most recent BSC graphic novel today, but I’ll take what I can get, right? In any case. We’re deep in the throes of May–a junior high awards ceremony tonight, a 4th grade field trip to go on tomorrow and a junior high band concert tomorrow night, a piano recital Friday (not to mention a temple appointment on Thursday), and a garden to plant on Saturday before a graduation party. Then my recently-returned missionary nephew speaking in church, and next week starts the appointment craze. Life!

In the meantime, I liked last night’s Chicken Coconut Korma enough to want to make it again–I like the creamier Thai sort of curry, as long as it’s mild–but it didn’t go over particularly well with the kiddos. (OR my hubby.) Sadness! And because it’s 9:14, you get a quick review of Alan Brennert’s Moloka’i, which I started once in RI when my oldest was a toddler and then immersed myself in last week once I realized that it was immediately available on audio and the cessation of dance for the summer meant I could actually attend the Zoom book group discussion about it. (Trying to manage doing so while ferrying my 12-year-old to dance rarely worked.) I learned interesting things about the history of leprosy in Hawaii, was moved by Rachel’s experiences as well as by those of her loved ones, and found listening to it to be an entirely positive experience. (Saying I enjoyed the book feels weird, somehow.) Ultimately, it’s a story of a girl sent away from her family as a 6-year-old because of her disease and the fullness of the life that she makes for herself, disease and all. I’m taking some time before listening to the sequel–an 18 hour audiobook makes for a lot of time spent within a leper colony, even if I did get a bunch of painting and laundry done–but I’d say this is thoroughly worth your time.*

*Possibly look for it in your library, though…its availability to purchase seems to be hit or miss, depending on the format you’re looking for!