Maizy Chen's Last Chance

Maizy Chen was a hard-to-believe 11-year-old protagonist. She was just a little too mature, a little too smart, a little too good at fixing all the problems, a little too kind to everyone who was feeling left out. It sort of felt like she single-handedly fixed all of her family's relationships, repaired her grandpa's closest friendship, kept the family's restaurant in business, discovered everything about her family's ancestry, brought all the Chinese Americans in America together AND she did this all on summer vacation in a place she's never been!

Don't get me wrong; Maizy was awesome! Just not very realistic. The book was entertaining and I loved her grandpa's family history stories. Now I want to go cook some Chinese food . . . or at least eat some.

The Last Mapmaker

I seriously love Christina Soontornvat. The THREE Newberys she has written in the last 3 years have all been absolute gems. In The Last Mapmaker, she created an entirely fresh fantasy world that had little glints of Thailand but was still so unique. I think one of my favorite elements of this story was how effortlessly she incorporated both genders in all professions and personalities. I caught myself on several occasions making assumptions about genders (like assuming the ship captain was male and then being a little surprised she was female) and then loving that she did it without making any deal out of it. 

Here's my quick synopsis:

Characters: Excellent, well-developed, like-able and unlike-able

Plot: Exciting with just the right amount of mystery

Antagonist: Totally believable

Resolution: Too rushed. Everything just happened so fast at the end and so much was hard to believe.

Dragons: Did not disappoint

The Ocean: Terrifying

Iveliz Explains it All

 This book was quick and easy and heavy and sad. Iveliz is messing up again? She hit someone else?! She's still mad at her mom? Why won't she talk to her therapist? Why won't she talk to her mom? I felt the same way while reading this book as I do when I'm close friends with someone with an untreated mental illness: exasperated, incredulous, tired. But honestly, usually I don't stay in those friendships for long because they are so exhausting (which is one reason I thought Amir was, like, the champion of all champions for sticking it out as Iveliz' friend). So, bravo to Andrea Beatriz Arango for what I thought was an excruciatingly accurate portrayal of a mental illness and how absolutely tiring it is for everyone in that person's life. The book was well done and important and a page-turner (surprisingly), but it was also difficult to read. Again, a lot like a person with mental illness is interesting and important, but can be so difficult.

Freewater

Often Newberys will remind me of other Newberys I've read. Plot lines and characters are comparable, settings and situations are similar (don't get me wrong; usually because they're good!). One reason I loved Freewater is because I felt like it was unique. Certainly the setting and idea were original because I literally had no idea before reading this book that people escaped slavery and lived in swamps in the American South! No. Idea. 

I thought Amina Luqman-Dawson was a good storyteller and her characters were interesting. Billy was my favorite. Sanzi drove me crazy. The contrast between kids who had grown up enslaved versus those who had grown up free in the swamp was well done. 

The last third of the book had me on pins and needles. I could not figure out how the kids' crazy plan would turn out any way that didn't end in them all becoming enslaved (again). And then Suleman enters out of nowhere and solves everything? I'm going to have to call that a Deus Ex Machina. But I still loved the book. 

Phebe Fairchild: Her Book

 Phebe Fairchild was the least interesting of my three BYU-library summer reads. I had to force myself to read it during my last few days of vacation and read the last 50 pages on my final drive before going to the airport.

It felt a little like an Anne of Green Gables wannabe, with a young female protagonist who feels like an orphan (her parents are at sea for the entire book) and shows up in a town that's not quite prepared for her pluck and an older rich great aunt who loves her for it (though in AOGG, it's Diana's great aunt).  But I honestly didn't think there was much to Phebe's personality. The only thing that really makes her stand out from her cousins and others is that she likes nice clothes and jewels and reading Mother Goose (which was apparently quite shocking in 1830 Puritan New England). 

Meh.

Queer Person

During the summer between fifth and sixth grade (1995?), my mom signed me up for a 6 week writing class at Fresno State. I won TWO writing contests in sixth grade and I definitely attribute those wins to the amazing improvement I made during my summer class. One of the best pieces I wrote that summer was a cutesy rhyming poem about a kid who eats goat cheese and subsequently turns into a goat. One of the lines (I probably don't remember this verbatim, but it's close) that I was particularly proud of:

Soon after dinner, I began to feel queer

and by 8'o'clock that night I had grown a small beard.

Our teacher sometimes had us share our work out loud with the class, and I definitely read that poem to my summer school class of older peers and they definitely all burst out laughing when I read that line. I thought that they thought that I was hilarious. And then someone (my mom? one of my older sisters?) broke the news to me about the "new" definition of the word "queer." I was bummed, for sure, because I realized that I was not actually hilarious, but ignorant. Honestly, I think I had learned the word "queer" (meaning "strange") from old Newberys! Authors in the 30s and 40s used queer as a synonym for strange ALL THE TIME. 

As a testament to this claim, I give you Queer Person. I've been searching for this one many years, knowing full well that it was not a 1930s children book about a gender-fluid or homosexual individual. Not until this month did I discover that it is about a deaf-mute Native American boy who is given the name Queer Person by the Pikuni tribe that adopts him when he wanders into their camp as a young boy. 

I liked Queer Person. I had a few problems with it, but it was a total page turner. I thought Granny was a fascinating and like-able character, Singing Moon was an incredible heroine, and Queer Person was fun to watch grow and develop. I feel like the non-Native American author did a good job portraying a foreign culture with respect (despite a few unfortunate outdated words) and moderate accuracy. 

Of note, I discovered the phrase "Newbery Completist" while reading reviews of Queer Person on goodreads. I've never heard it before, but that is totally what I am. I am a Newbery completist! Meaning: I am trying to read all Newbery medals and honors that ever were. How many Newbery completists are there? How many have actually made it? 13 to go . . .

Whistlers' Van

Long ago, I attended a university (BYU) with a never-ending supply of old, out-of-print Newberys. And by never-ending, I mean that I never exhausted their supply while I was a student. It was only after I left that I discovered that not all university libraries are so equipped (which discovery actually led to this blog). Many times I have wished to be close to this library again as I search in vain for my remaining 15 Newberys (none of which, it appears, are even in the state of Georgia). And then, just two weeks ago, I found myself near my old university library and it occurred to me that my husband's little brother had a library card! I immediately set up a library date with him and I now have in my possession THREE old Newberys from my list (the only ones I could remember!!).

Whistler's Van - 1937 Honor - was my first pick for my vacation.

Synopsis: The story follows Gwilym, a teenage Welsh boy, whose grandfather/guardian leaves one night without telling anyone and he suspects it is to follow a band of gypsies. So Gwilym leaves the next day with a band of "gipsies" or "Rommany" in search of adventure/his grandfather/wanderlust. 

Review: It wasn't as bad as some other old Newberys, but the speech used (lots of Welsh and Rommany words) and the style of writing (weird) both made it hard to follow. Half the time I was not actually sure what was happening or who was talking or what they were talking about. 

Discovery: I don't have an ounce of "Gipsy" blood. The idea of traveling around in a "caravan" and never setting up a permanent home was completely unappealing to me. I kept hoping the whole time that Gwilym would just go home already!