Slow Start, Awesome Finish

If I Ever Get Out of Here by Eric Gansworth
New York, NY : Arthur A. Levine Books, 2013.
359 p. : ill. ; 22 cm. 

When friend and scholar (and author of the invaluable American Indians in Children's Literature [AICL] blog, Debbie Reese, told me at the end of the summer that I should read this YA novel by Eric Gansworth, I made a note to myself to do that.  Well, a lot has happened since the end of the summer and I have finally gotten around to reading If I Ever Get Out of Here, and I'm glad I did.  It's a great little treasure of a book about friendship, being poor, fitting in / not fitting in, bullying, racism, family ties, and the wonderful (and not so wonderful) moments of coming of age in junior high.

I have to confess that beginning the novel, I was a bit suspicious that this was going to be simply a rehash of Sherman Alexie's wonderful The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian.  There are some striking echoes of that book in the beginning - a dorky (smart, scrawny, funny, likable) Indian kid who is in a school program of nearly all white kids and has to deal with the prejudices at school and the resentments and hassles from friends and family on the reservation. Fortunately the similarities are only that and Gansworth's novel stands on its own charms and strengths. 

I also have to say that the novel started out a bit slow for me, but shortly after the midpoint of the book, I was hooked and had a hard time putting it down. The coming together of several plot lines and dramatic events really makes the last third of the novel a wonderful read.

I can't say enough good things to convey the quality of this book.  The heart of the novel is the friendship between two middle school boys - Lewis, a Tuscarora Indian, and George, son of an Air Force Dad whose family lives on a base and is always threatened with having to up and move.  The boys first bond over their love of music - especially the Beatles and Paul McCartney (and so the picture at the top of this post), but soon learn how hard it is to really be truthful and steady in friendship.  I love that Gansworth manages to weave together several (many!) important strands with passion, grace, humor, intelligence and - dare I say - love.  Seriously, we have a book of two boys in junior high becoming friends in the deepest sense, of the frictions between minority and majority culture, of the love of making and listening to popular music, of military life, of the complicated good and bad bonds of family life, of bullies and their accomplices, or life in the 70s...wow! Additionally the book includes a playlist of all the songs touched on in the book - and you can access this playlist on the author's website.

Sometimes I read a YA book and it has such promise and then falters with what feels like gimmicks meant to make it more appealing to a teen audience.  I really didn't experience that in this fine novel.  I will definitely recommend this to any student who has enjoyed Diary of a Part-time Indian (it's in our school's curriculum) and will be sure it gets on the radar of teachers looking for another author who can lay down a good story, shine a light on what it's like to grow up Indian in the US, and keep it real.   

Lovely Love Story

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
New York : St. Martin's Griffin, 2013.
328 p. ; 22 cm.

Eleanor is an outsider (who thinks she's fat) in a family with a volatile, creepy step-Dad, and Park is a quiet Korean-American who is neither popular nor unpopular. These two "somewhat-misfits" find each other on the first day of 11th grade on the bus - and after a slow start, fall in love.

Rowell has managed to create a really engaging and interesting love story - built on strong characters, dialog and conflict.  The story manages to be both mature, but incredibly sweet and almost naive.  I think the thing I loved best about this book is that instead of building on the myths of romantic love with all its surface appeal, she manages to convey how two young people can develop a real appreciation for each other's uniqueness, intelligence, and sweetness (while also falling for each other physically).

I especially appreciated Rowell's ability to convey some of the misgivings that a love partner can have (what will others think of me dating this outsider, this strange-dressing kid, this unpopular person?).

There is also a nice play-off in this book between the loving home of Park (who has a manly but kind Dad and an appearance-concerned, but sweet mom who is Korean) and Eleanor who lives in a poor family with several young kids, a kind but wimpy mother who ultimately sides with Eleanor's dangerous, alcoholic stepfather.

How Eleanor and Park fall in love and how they will handle the impossibilities of Eleanor's situation drive the story forward and provide an interesting and poignant end to the novel.

Rowell's book was a Printz honor book this year, and I can see why!

Velvet Gloves and Iron Fists

From the Wikipedia article on the 1848 revolutions

1848: Year of Revolution by Mike Rapport
New York : Basic Books, 2010, c2008.
xii, 461 p. : ill., map ; 24 cm.

You might remember that a while back I wanted to read Barbara Tuchman's Proud Tower, but realized that my background knowledge of 18th and 19th century Europe was sorely lacking - and so read a slim little volume about the Napoleonic Wars - and then was going to read 1848. Well, I've read it, and what an intense and complicated time 1848-1850 was!  Revolutions in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Venice, Rome, Buda and Pest, Naples, and Florence (among others) pitted liberals, reactionaries, nationalists, imperialists, Papists, monarchists, socialists, revolutionaries, the peasantry, and the nobility in violent conflicts to determine the future of regions, kingdoms, and  Europe as a whole.  By the time 1850 rolled around, the forces of authoritarianism, conservatism and reaction sadly had triumphed - but what an incredible time it was...

In spite of the extreme complexities involved (maps would have been an invaluable addition to this book), Rapport writes well and is able to convey many of the significant underlying themes, conflicts, causes and effects of the year 1848.  His book really is relevant, since much of what stoked the conflicts still exists - extreme wealth and extreme poverty, ethnic versus nationalist tensions, majority rule versus minority protections, and individual rights versus the common good.

I can't say I'd recommend this book to just any student, but if there were a student who loved history and was interested in European history, then this is definitely an excellent read!