Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

And it’s not even a full month late–go me! The ‘it’, of course, is my 15-year-old’s birthday graphic novel, which I finished–and then ordered–yesterday. Cassandra Calin’s The New Girl is the big winner (despite my lingering feeling that Lia’s pose and expression on the cover is eerily reminiscent of a pin-up from the ’40s or ’50s). It is, apparently, a semi-autobiographical tale of immigration to Canada from Romania, and it portrays with both poignancy and humor the difficulties of change, of learning a new language, and of balancing homesickness with the need to step into the new life that is–no matter how you feel about it–yours. It also deals with the unpleasant reality of early periods, in a way that’s both relatable and important. Add to that some well-handled friend issues, and you have a book for teen girls that entertains–AND matters. (And that is coming to live at my house!)

In other news, I’m desperately glad it’s the weekend–AND that my oldest isn’t working for it. We could all use some sleep and R&R! I do need to come up with a meal plan for tonight AND do enough laundry that my jaunt to a midday bridal shower tomorrow won’t throw me badly off-schedule, but those are both doable…ESPECIALLY when there are NO 90s in the 7-day forecast. WAHOO!!!!!!

I started reading Barbara Carroll Roberts’ Nikki on the Line aloud to my now-15-year-old because she picked it from a handful of choices; after the first couple of reading sessions, however, she “wasn’t that into it” and opted to move on to something else. I finally finished it myself day before yesterday, and I have to say–it was definitely her loss. Barbara Carroll Roberts’ debut novel is good.

To be fair, my girlie (as far as I know) has zero interest in playing basketball; I’m not actually sure how much she knows about the sport. She’s possibly my girliest girl when it comes to her hobbies, and dance is definitively her athletic activity of choice. That said, I was never particularly into basketball, either–I played church ball when our youth group played because, well, that’s what you did; I didn’t hate the game, but I hated how bad we were compared to most of the groups we played. The only sport I’ve ever played for fun is volleyball. Of course, having played church basketball, I have a basic working knowledge that my daughter possibly lacks, but perhaps more importantly, I frequently enjoy sports in literature. I may find, for example, watching baseball to be (at best) unexciting, but a pivotal game in a well-written book can keep me on the edge of my seat. Perhaps it’s my competitive streak?*

Anyway. The point is that I was a bit surprised my girlie wasn’t into Nikki, because it’s well written and blends humor and pathos quite nicely. Yeah, it’s about basketball, but haven’t we all had something we were good at, only to find that we reached a point when the competition got harder and we suddenly didn’t seem as good as we’d always thought we were? Add to that something about our family that feels embarrassing, plus a hyper younger sibling and some shifting friend dynamics, and there’s something for just about everyone in Nikki. I’m old enough to have grown impatient during her (completely realistic) bout of self-pity, but it was a pleasure to cheer her on as she figured out how to deal with a set of new challenges. In MY opinion, there’s something in this book for everyone, and I highly recommend it.

Now, to find out if Roberts has written anything else…

*My apologies for how scattered this paragraph is–I’m too tired to change it!

Remember when my deep freeze decided to temporarily not freeze over the summer? I still have food sort of divided between before and after, with before things like popsicles being added to smoothies, and before things like meat being, well–used up. (Because it didn’t thaw all the way, so it’s not spoiled, and I’m just too cheap to toss it all.) Yesterday, since my hubby was home for it, we tried these Grilled Kansas City Pork Chops for dinner, doing 5 pork chops instead of six because a)my oldest was at work and b)it’s what we had anyway. The rub got a little intense with only 5, although that may have also been because paprika isn’t my favorite…who knows. (By-the-by, I used smoked paprika because I like it better than sweet.) Overall, though, if you discounted the occasional freezer-y tasting bits around the edges, they were pretty good–although only my 15-year-old said she wanted them again. (Of course, my 9-year-old’s food votes are not to be relied on.) I think it probably comes down to whether the recipe sounds good to you–if it does, you’ll probably enjoy it, whereas if it doesn’t sound like your thing, you probably won’t.

Deep, right?

Because it didn’t feel like it. My oldest made a normal teenage mistake and then reacted in a way that made it clear her mental health has taken a nosedive, which isn’t really surprising when you consider her personality and the level of responsibility–both physical and emotional–she carries at the new job she started on the first day of school.

Which new job is turning out to see her coming home between 9:45 and 10:15–on at least one school night a week.

Did I mention that this is the child who struggles to sleep but desperately needs a certain amount of it to function well?

Anyway. We’ve been trying to help and take care of her (as well as, of course, her siblings, because they’re ALL our job), and that plus a range of other commitments has made for a busier week than I’d originally anticipated. We adjust, right? It’s just that my midweek blog post was one of the things that got adjusted out, so to speak.

The kicker is that I still need to get to Costco and back before the kiddos get home from school (and Friday is still early day for two of them), and so today’s book review is going to be short (although I will try not to phone it in, so to speak). A short review for a short book, right? I read The Friendship Matchmaker aloud with my youngest, and she was surprisingly into it; I, on the other hand, wasn’t expecting something quite so–tongue-in-cheek? Satirical? Yes, the concept of a school ‘friendship matchmaker’–one with a manual and specific rules to follow for the matchees–isn’t exactly straight realistic fiction, but still. Lara’s commitment to taking herself seriously is completely enjoyable for adults as well as kids, and if the ending is surprisingly low on drama–improbably so–it makes for a more fun reading experience. (Honestly, it felt a little like a re-write of a pivotal scene from Harriet the Spy with positive, likable kids.) The showdown between two ways of being (as represented by Lara and new student Emily) is actually seriously insightful, and yet it’s couched in the sort of humor that completely obscures the fact that solid life skills are being presented and analyzed. If you have elementary school kids, they may well get a kick out of this–and if you’ve ever had to deal with your elementary schoolers’ friend dramas, you probably will, too.

This past weekend was a strange mixture of relaxation and frenetic activity; the three girls and I went to my niece’s bridal shower on Saturday morning, which was relaxing and involved a good deal of enjoyable visiting; on the other hand, I wrote out recipes as part of our gift, and THAT involved a somewhat frustrating trip to Michael’s and a busy evening the night before. Saturday afternoon was all about laundry and tidying and household chores, and we taught Sunday School on Sunday; we had dinner in Clearfield, however, and my 15-year-old made our dessert, so I only had to bring and cut up a watermelon before focusing on eating and playing games. And yesterday my son helped me make his (very belated) birthday breakfast, after which I did dishes and more chores and went to Walmart with my oldest, but then a friend came over and we watched a movie with her while I cross-stitched, which was nice. When she left, however, it was back to chores again! This morning is a more straightforward day of chores and more chores and more chores; at least, however, I’ve gotten off to a good start.

And SPEAKING of that good start, I finished reading Kevin Henkes’ Oh, Sal aloud with my 9-year-old the other day, and since I’ll be returning library books later, I figured I’d best get it ready to go back. I have mixed feelings about Kevin Henkes’ non-picture-book offerings–he’s such a genius with few words that it’s like the more he uses, the more uneven the effect becomes–but the Miller family books are written for early elementary school readers, and I’ve tended to like them better as a result. Sal features Billy Miller’s younger sister–Billy has two books of his own with Sal as a supporting character–dealing with eminently relatable post-Christmas difficulties. Haven’t we all struggled with a particular relative and misplaced a gift we loved? (Not necessarily at the same time, yes, but haven’t we?) Sal is understandably upset, although experienced parents will likely suspect a bit of an adrenaline crash as well. She’s ALSO dealing with a new baby in the family, which is another doozy. How it all works out made for fun reading with my youngest, and while my personal tastes run more towards the true middle grade novel, Sal is excellent fare for its target audience.

Last night I finished reading Debbie Fong’s Next Stop, and while there were definitely feels, I’m going to keep looking for my daughter’s birthday graphic novel. I should specify, though–it’s not because it wasn’t good, because it absolutely was (although the art is not my favorite). I think the ratio of sad to happy might make it less appealing to her long term, however, and the slight touch of fantasy isn’t going to help. (My youngest is much more open to fantasy–my 15-year-old is VERY firmly in the “Give Me Realistic Fiction!” camp.)

I do need to say, though, that if I thought it were going to suit her personality, I wouldn’t mind owning this one at all. It’s heavy–Pia’s family is in crisis, and it isn’t until the end of the novel that they start to actually move through it–but in an unusual twist, the setting provides the needed contrasting lightness for much of the book. The circumstantial sense of family among the members of the Sunset Tours group comes through, and Sam’s personality provides a nice counterpoint to Pia’s. Ultimately, Next Stop is a sort of mash-up of Sharon Creech’s Walk Two Moons, Dusti Bowling’s Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus, and Raina Telgemeier’s Sisters–except that’s just a descriptor, because it is eminently its own book. If your family has been through a tragedy and you want a graphic novel that reminds you you’re not alone, this is it.

It’s also a meaningful read for the rest of us.

That sounds less ambivalent than mixed feelings, right? It’s not just me?

Anyway. I do have an assortment of feelings about Really Truly, the third of Heather Vogel Frederick’s ‘Pumpkin Falls Mysteries’. In it Truly is looking forward to the perfect summer–and then, of course, nothing goes as planned. Instead of birdwatching, summer swim team, time with Calhoun (they’re both interested in each other, she’s pretty sure), and time at the bookstore, she’s suddenly headed to Mermaid Academy, where she’s stuck in a clamshell bra and a professional mermaid tail weighing at least 30 pounds (the amateur tail ordered for her did not come in the size ordered). Luckily, Truly’s a good enough swimmer to pull it off, and learning her most famous ancestor just may have been a pirate makes for an interesting week; unluckily, that week ends with a splashy fiasco that leaves her grounded. Is this going to prevent the Pumpkin Falls Private Eyes from solving two mysteries?

Here’s the thing. While Truly is sometimes whiny in a way that annoys my 45-year-old self, she’s 13, so that’s only realistic, and her readers are likely going to relate. And while the pirate part of the plot is farfetched–eh. Why not? What really bothered me was Truly’s dad’s reaction to the end-of-Mermaid-Academy fiasco and her subsequent grounding, as well as her reaction to it. My children span roughly the age group that the Lovejoys do, and the whole situation was an unacceptable parenting fail. Yeah, yeah, her dad’s only been out of the military for a year or two, and Truly’s older two siblings are both boys, but Truly’s mom should have stepped in–FORCEFULLY. Instead, we have an unjust punishment which sets us up to sympathize with Truly for sneaking around, even though that’s also completely problematic. And if it was mostly a plot device to make the story work–come on. Surely there was another way…

Okay, sort-of-rant over. I’m not sure how my girls will feel about it, but I’m thinking they’ll still enjoy it. After all, I more or less still enjoyed it–I’m just glad it’s over. I’m also, however, looking forward to the next one.

In other news, this is the week of all the appointments, but the most important one–my hubby’s post-surgery follow-up–was yesterday. Basically, the tumor removed from his kidney was cancerous, but it was completely removed and the margins and lymph nodes were clean, so no signs of spreading. He’s going to need blood tests every six months for the next couple of years, and an MRI in February, but he was blessedly philosophical about that. Good news, even if the whole thing still seems just a tad surreal. Today my oldest has the dermatologist and tomorrow my son has therapy–and then, happily, we all have a three-day weekend!

My 15-year-old and I finished reading Julie Sternberg’s Summer of Stolen Secrets together last week, and I have to say–I was excited about it, sure, but I wasn’t expecting to love it as much as I did. It’s a bit different from Sternberg’s other books–my two younger girls and I have read two different trilogies by her–but not at all in a bad way; it isn’t illustrated, and it’s much longer, but it resonates with even more depth. It begins with Cat seizing the chance to visit her aunt, uncle, and cousin in Baton Rouge after the two best friends she’s supposed to be at summer camp with turn on her. Her cousin is a rebel with horrible taste in boys–at least, in one particular boy–but the force of even Lexie’s personality pales slightly in comparison to the Jewish grandmother Cat has never known.

The reason Cat has never known her is a mark against her, of course; Safta more or less disowned Cat’s father for marrying a non-Jew, and Cat is partial to her mom. As she gets to know her grandmother better, however, she learns that (of course) nothing is ever as simple as you think it is. (Except, perhaps, for the awfulness of Lexie’s boyfriend.) By the end of her visit, her whole family is affected by what Cat learns about her grandmother.

In an unusual choice, the entire book is written as a sort of letter from Cat to Safta, and while that isn’t my favorite format, it does work surprisingly well. Cat is also funny, in a way that had my daughter and me laughing out loud more than once. Lexie is outrageous but loveable, and Cat’s friend Max is a treasure whenever he pops up. Read this one when you need a book with deftly blended humor and poignancy–and I dare you not to laugh at the fake band names Max and Cat come up with.*

*Yeah, I ended an entire blog post with a preposition. I’m over it.

Technically, it’s PAST that time again, really–my second girlie turned 15 a week ago tomorrow, and I still haven’t committed to a graphic novel for her birthday. (At this point, I won’t stop trying them out when I find one; I’ll just keep reading until I find one for her for Christmas as well. And for her younger sister, and then that younger sister’s birthday is in February…yikes.) I did finish Stephanie Rodriguez’s Doodles from the Boogie Down on Wednesday, however, and while I don’t think I liked it QUITE enough to have it live in my house forever (or at least, until its owner moves out), it was fun and interesting and a cultural slice of life that should expand my girls’ horizons a little bit.

Doodles is actually fiction based on the author’s own experiences growing up in the Bronx (‘Boogie Down’, among other meanings, appears to be slang for the Bronx). Steph and her two best friends are applying to high schools–they do school a little differently in New York City–and while her friends are looking at Catholic high schools, Steph wants desperately to focus on art. The catch is that the arts high school she’s looking at is a public school, and her mother’s own experiences of public school as a new immigrant soured her on the whole idea. How is she going to convince her mother to change her mind? I’ll give you a hint–her initial plans are not exactly great ones. There is growth and learning and increased understanding ahead for everyone, however, and the ending is satisfying. Kids who can’t relate to New York’s educational peculiarities will find plenty to grab onto in the mother/daughter/grandmother relationships, as well as in the inevitable shifting of school friendships as kids transition into a new phase of life. Rodriguez’s debut is a solid read for middle to early high school, but I imagine my 9- and 17-year-olds will enjoy it as well. Give it a looksee–especially if you’re looking for books about first generation Americans with immigrant parents. In the meantime, I’ll keep reading more graphic novels…

Swindle, by Gordon Korman, out of the (at least) four completed books waiting for me to review them. Mostly because it feels like an easy review, and I’m feeling lazy in the writing department. (Not so much in the laundry and computer task departments, thank goodness.) The Amazon summary calls it “Ocean’s 11…with 11-year-olds,” and really, that’s decently accurate; a planning type of kid gets cheated by a local swindler and concocts the most epic plan of his life to rectify the wrong. His family’s financial struggles provide extra motivation, and there’s a memorable dog for all the animal lovers out there. It isn’t one of Korman’s newer titles (it was originally published in 2008), which may be why there’s more action and less emotional depth, but it’s the kind of story that ought to appeal to a broad range of kids. After all, who doesn’t love it when the underdog triumphs over the corrupt? I’m hoping my son will get a kick out of it.

In the meantime, my hubby is getting around better and better, although he’s frequently tired. (I’m attributing that to the healing his body’s doing.) He’s been working from home more, which is good for him–he was getting bored–and it’s especially nice for the kids to have him around more often during the first week or two of school. I hope any kiddos you all care about are settling in well; in the meantime, guesses on when I’ll actually be caught up with book reviews? Because I have no earthly idea…