Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Or at least, that’s what it feels like. Doctors’ offices are slammed, pharmacies are behind, the county has issued a 30-day mask mandate (which some people are grumpy about), and while some of us are on the upswing, others seem to be teetering on the brink of getting sick (with something) again.

Blech.

On the other hand, I sent all of the kids to school today, even though my youngest may have a mild cough; she may also just be clearing her throat in response to the not-so-lovely inversion we’ve got going on, and I just couldn’t bear to keep a child who acts completely well (and may well BE completely well) home. With the house to myself, I managed exercise, laundry, dishes, laundry, a nap, laundry, the library and pharmacy, laundry–are you seeing a theme?–AND I finished a book over lunch. David Almond’s War Is Over caught my eye on a display once upon a time, and it went quickly once I actually started it (because really, 112 or so heavily illustrated pages). Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite the book I was looking for.

War Is Over is labelled historical fiction and takes place during 1918; John’s father is at war, John’s mother works in a factory (which manages to give off both a gothic and an assembly line vibe) making shrapnel shells, and John himself is bewildered by the propaganda telling him that he, too, is at war. The problem is that John, his parents, his classmates, his teacher, and all of the rest of the characters in the book aren’t characters at all; they’re personified ideas/attitudes/beliefs/philosophies. The book isn’t historical fiction, not really–it’s a fable. It feels almost like Almond wanted to create an Animal Farm around the idea of warfare and war propaganda, except that where Animal Farm is magnificently chilling in a spare, single-minded sort of way, War Is Over doesn’t–quite–work. It’s beautifully illustrated and the dream of peace and the best sort of brotherhood is solid, but the questionable accuracy of the occasional detail kept jarring me out of the book’s spell. If you set a book in 1918 and make it about the Great War, it loses the timeless quality of a fable and becomes–what? Magical realism uneasily crossed with historical fiction, perhaps? Only again, with 2-dimensional characters who reminded me of the mouse and the lion with the thorn in its paw–worthy, but having no life outside of how their behavior illustrates a truth. WWI was absolutely a pointless war, and it sowed the seeds for the international tragedy that was WWII, and yet the truth remains that it only takes one group to start a war, and some wars are actually worth fighting. Keeping our humanity and remembering that of our adversaries is essential for good to come out of them, I think, but reality is complex and Almond’s fable just doesn’t quite work for me. I think his mistake was giving it a (nominally) real setting, because it just isn’t true historical fiction; others, however, may feel differently. If you’re looking for a pacifist fable, this might be completely your jam; I’m going to move on to actual historical fiction.

Not that it’s not the 7th, but I’ve had the most miserable sore throat; it came with a heaping side of exhaustion and a congested sauce, and I haven’t had it in me to do much of anything beyond the necessities. (That being laundry, dishes, and feeding people, although I did pack away all of the nativities yesterday.) I finished Whitney Gardner’s Long Distance last night, however, and it will make my 12-year-old sick buddy’s day if I review it and hand it over. If my review is less than stellar, well–blame a still foggy brain.

Long Distance has all of Fake Blood‘s bizarre, fantastical appeal; Gardner marries realistic fiction with, umm, not realistic fiction absurdly well. Long Distance, however, seems to have less specific humor; where Fake Blood seemed to spend quality time having fun with elements of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, Long Distance has a more general summer-camp-tropes-meet-campy-sci-fi vibe to it. (Either that, or I’m not familiar with its more specific references, which is actually entirely possible.) Vega’s devastation at leaving her best friend behind in her move makes her instantly sympathetic, and while I took much longer to warm up to Gemma, I found Qwerty and Isaac quickly likable. This is a solid intermediate graphic novel, with fun twists and an unexpected but fabulous outcome; I’m expecting my 12-year-old to devour it, while I found it completely worth my time as well.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I might finally find the gumption to start packing away my Christmas tree ornaments…

That’s all that’s got me doing another post today, folks. (I was going to say this morning, but it’s 12:33, so I had to abandon that plan.) I’ve been putting off my review of Lynne Kelly’s Song for a Whale for weeks, and it’s not because it wasn’t good, because it was; the only reason it didn’t win the “what book(s) can I give my 12-year-old for Christmas” contest was because it was a little too sad for a little too long. Two of my girlie’s classmates were hit by a car on Halloween weekend; the boy who was in three of her classes died early that Monday morning, and the boy in band with her broke enough bones that he hasn’t yet returned to school (although she hears he’ll be coming back after Christmas break). She just can’t handle much sad right now, you know? and Iris’s plight in Song for a Whale tugs at your heartstrings.

Iris, you see, is deaf, and the ONLY deaf person in her school, which isolates her; her deaf grandfather passed away not so long ago, and her deaf grandmother has been too lost in her own grief to help Iris with hers. When she hears in her science class about a crossbreed whale who can’t communicate with any of the whales around him, it resonates so strongly with her that she becomes determined to find a way to help him know that he’s not alone. The quest that follows is a convoluted one, and while the end of it may be on the dramatic side, it more or less works in context. Iris’s isolation is hard to read for anyone, which is why I decided ‘not this year’ for my girlie, but as a parent, I found myself infuriated with Iris’s father AND mother. If your child is deaf, a)learn to communicate WELL with her, because it matters, and b)consider her social needs from her point of view. I wanted to smack them both.

Anyway. I’m fairly certain this is my last post of 2021, so I wish you a happy and safe new year; I’m off to exercise. See you in 2022!

I finished listening to Gail Carson Levine’s The Wish today, and I have to say–my 8th grade self would have adored it. I was never one of the popular kids, and the thought of wishing to be popular and then riding high on the results would definitely have appealed. (As an adult, I find myself wanting to assign a college essay comparing and contrasting The Wish with “The Mirror Has Two Faces”–and as a parent, I recognize that just because an 8th grader dreams of kissing a doting boyfriend for an hour doesn’t mean that it’s age-appropriate behavior or at all a good idea.) Ultimately, this feels pitch perfect for that 8th grade self–Wilma experiences popularity, gets her pick of boys, and doesn’t become a jerk because of it. (Points to her for recognizing which boy is worth getting, by the way.) The Wish is accessibly rather than beautifully written, and while the brevity of the timeline doesn’t allow us to get to know most of the characters too deeply, the themes explored are meaningful and completely relevant to the age and stage of life of both those characters and the intended audience. I’m passing this along to my 7th grader with high hopes that it will help shake her out of her reading rut!

While in Idaho this week, I finished reading Martha Freeman’s Effie Starr Zook Has One More Question to my 12-year-old, and to be honest, I was mostly disappointed. The premise was amazing, you know? A city girl staying with her aunt and uncle for the summer, bumping into and then confronting long-held family secrets…what’s not to love? Unfortunately, I found all of the characters to be solidly two-dimensional; instead of being a great story, it was a series of chapters of “she did this” and then “he did that” and then “they said this”, etc. It wasn’t a bad book, it just wasn’t good; it was, in a word, fine. Now, if your middle grade girl likes contemporary fiction and uncomplicated storytelling, the family secrets and the themes introduced by them make for a positive message; if you’re an adult who enjoys good middle grade, however, this isn’t terribly worth your time.*

*Also, adults are likely to wonder about Mr. Yoder’s troubling beliefs and what they would actually mean for his family, not to mention the inconsistencies of his wife’s actions in relation to those beliefs. Because seriously.

I finally finished the third ‘Dragonbreath’ book on Monday, folks, and Curse of the Were-wiener was a hoot. (I was afraid of where the humor might go, but I needn’t have worried–Ursula Vernon is hilarious and unexpected without going for the bathroom humor angle.) Having been bitten by a were-wiener in the school cafeteria, Wendell needs to find and slay the alpha-wurst to avoid becoming one of his minions. He and Danny enlist the help of Danny’s rogue potato salad–potato salad and hot dogs being mortal enemies, you understand–and storm the freezer. What’s not to love? If you have an elementary school boy, or a reluctant reader who likes humor, or a sneaking fondness for bizarre humor yourself, Vernon’s ‘Dragonbreath’ books are a must.

I’m off to exercise, folks. Look for more reviews coming soon!

Since it’s now December 30th, clearly my hopes of posting in odd moments were not realized. Here, then, is a quick recap of the rest of December…

1. So much putting off of Christmas cards. I didn’t even start addressing until Christmas week, and an entire category of my list is still waiting.

2. The switching of the bedrooms has been accomplished, with all three girls now downstairs, but the house is pretty much a wreck all over.

3. Much jam was made for neighbor gifts, but still more neighbors need treats. (See #1.)

4. Christmas Eve was kind of a hard day…

5. …that eventually got better but ended well after midnight.

6. Wonder of wonders, Santa and Mommy rocked Christmas this year. The kiddos were SO happy! (Daddy was a good sport about it perhaps not being the smaller Christmas we were thinking of, because a)he helped and b)he loves to see the kiddos happy.)

7. The kids and I did actually leave for Idaho the day after Christmas, after carefully following weather reports between Salt Lake and Boise, and we were infinitely blessed to nail our “between snowstorms” window. Much family was enjoyed by all.

8. My mother’s homemade doughnuts (made from my paternal grandmother’s recipe) were also enjoyed by all; words cannot express how amazing those are.

9. After snow all day on Wednesday and more careful weather tracking, we left Idaho by 4:15 this morning and were again blessed beyond measure on our drive home. There was a slick bit and patches of fog, but we again hit the ‘between storms’ window.

10. My fabulous mother-in-law has my children now, and while my house is absolutely still a wreck, it is at least blissfully empty (and with a running dishwasher!). My hubby is working and feeling sniffly, so our anniversary celebrations will be small, but a peaceful house is never to be underestimated.

11. That’s the bulk of December, folks–the Lord sure has been good to us.

I tend to have trouble posting on Saturdays, because everyone’s home OR needs shuttling and there’s always laundry and cleanup yelling for my attention. Today, however, while my 2nd or 3rd load of laundry is in and my littles are finishing lunch in silence (because arguing), I am determined to review at least ONE of the two books sitting and waiting for my attention. (It’ll give me a break from harassing my 12-year-old to DO her chores and do a decent job, rather than just veg as soon as she thinks no one’s paying attention.)

Once upon a time many moons ago, I LOVED Kara LaReau’s first installment in the “Unintentional Adventures of the Bland Sisters.” (That would be The Jolly Regina.) I started reading its sequel–The Uncanny Express–by myself forever ago, but I wasn’t far enough in and got distracted by other things; recently, I decided to fix that by using it as my next read-aloud with my 12-year-old. We managed to finish it night before last, and now it’s another book I can remove from my currently-reading list. Wahoo!

As far as the book itself, I’m of two minds about it. Part of me got a huge kick out of its parody of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express; my enjoyment was only dimmed by my daughter’s inability to appreciate it. (She’s not a passionate mystery lover, and why else would a 12-year-old have read Christie’s book?) The other part of me missed some of the general punny humor of the first one, because it felt like the author’s energy was mostly focused on the Agatha Christie angle. I’ve been awfully tired lately, however, and so I may be feeling more critical than it deserves. Either way, Jaundice and Kale are still entertaining, and if you’re an Agatha Christie fan, you really shouldn’t miss this one!

I told you–December is going to be a “you never know when I’m blogging” sort of month, and so today you get a second book review. Why?

1. Because I’m a bit behind.
2. Because it’s supposed to snow all day and so I’m staying home and doing House Things.

I guess I should clarify that–I’m not working ON my house, I’m just doing things IN my house that need doing. Like laundry (I just put the second load in!), dishes (my dishwasher’s running and I washed my old (no removable inner pot) crockpot AND my rice cooker inner pot by hand), book reviews (my second today–go me!), prepping fruit leather base (next on my agenda), and wrapping for Christmas (I’ll be doing that while my fruit cooks down). And SO, in the interest of moving on down my list…

I decided to listen to Word of Mouse primarily because I was considering it as a Christmas gift for my son; by the time I finished it, however, I’d run into a snag. Apparently his teacher brought 5 or so of her favorite books to school–wrapped, perhaps?–and read teasers from them aloud before having interested students pick numbers to see who was closest and won the book in question. My son told me he was second closest but the first closest guesser had already gotten a book, so he won a book in school about a mouse.

That wasn’t by Beverly Cleary.

And that’s all he could remember about it. LITERALLY.

So. He said he’d bring it home and show me, but we’ve been crazy here and I don’t know if it’s even made it home yet. Good thing I realized he’d probably like the “Flashback Four” series as well, because I can’t order Word of Mouse for him unless and until he brings home the other book and I verify that it’s something else. Good times!

In the meantime, Word of Mouse was, to pick a cliche, good clean fun. Isaiah the blue mouse escapes from the “Horrible Place” with his family, but the rest of them are all caught again, leaving him free but alone and trying to figure out how to fend for himself. Luckily, he ends up joining another mouse ‘family’ and finding there’s far more inside and outside of himself than he ever dreamed possible. At almost 300 frequently illustrated pages, it’s a nice longer book for more reluctant readers, transitioning readers, and readers looking for adventures that always end safely. (Also animal fans.) Maybe if the book from his teacher is something different, he can get it for his birthday?

We have a winner, folks–my graphic-novel-obsessed 12-year-old is officially getting Katie the Catsitter for Christmas. Not only is it a perfectly age-appropriate story about friendships, trying to work for something you want (but not always succeeding), and some middle grade changes, but there are animals galore; the author is even PICTURED WITH HER PET BUNNIES in the back! (If you know my girlie, you know how perfect this is.) Katie is a completely likable heroine, and I LOVE the cats; the superhero angle is a bit different from my daughter’s usual fare, but I think she’s going to enjoy it. If you’re looking for female heroines, want a graphic novel appropriate for a 12-year-old to read approximately 500 times, or just love cats, this is most definitely the book for you.