Book Review: Kimchi and Calamari by Rose Kent

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Kimchi and Calamari imageJoseph Calderaro is an “eighth-grade optimist” whose “bag of barbecue chips is always half full.” That is until he has a lousy 14th birthday and his teacher assigns a 1,500-word paper called Tracing Your Past: A Heritage Essay. The only trouble is, Joseph is adopted. Fourteen years ago he was left on the steps of a police station in Korea. His adopted parents are Italians living in New Jersey, and while he knows he’s a Calderaro, he feels he can’t claim the Italian heritage as his own.

Kimchi and Calamari by Rose Kent follows Joseph as he questions his own identity and struggles to come up with answers about his heritage. Is he a real Korean? Is he Italian? Does it make a difference to him?

I found myself liking Joseph right off the bat. And I loved the assignment he got to write about his heritage. I’ve done a lot of work tracing my own family’s ancestors, so I know that feeling of wanting to identify with the people who came before you. Joseph’s desire to know more about where he came from is extra complicated because of his adoption. But I admired the way he treats this issue as just one of many things he’s thinking about in life. He is 14 after all, and so he’s trying to decide who to ask to the year-end dance. He’s also making new friends and trying to figure out how to bring up difficult subjects with his parents.

Through it all Joseph mostly maintains his optimism, even while he gets into and out of trouble. I found myself cheering for him and thinking how refreshing it is to get to know a character who is upbeat most of the time.

Kimchi and Calamari has many things for mother-daughter book clubs to like and talk about. Issues include communicating with your parents, what makes you part of a family, adoption, your family heritage, dating and more. And don’t be surprised if you get hungry while reading it. The Italian food and Asian dishes described should offer plenty of ideas for what you can serve at a book club meeting. I highly recommend it for mother-daughter book clubs with girls aged 9 to 12.

Book Review: The Plague by Joanne Dahme

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The Plague imageIn the 1300s England, fifteen-year-old Nell has served as an attendant to Princess Joan since Nell’s parents died of the plague two years before. She also protects her nine-year-old brother, George, who is simple but also wise in unexpected ways. Nell bears an uncanny resemblance to Princess Joan. When the princess dies of a new plague outbreak while on a journey to meet her future husband, her brother, the Black Prince, hatches a plot to pass Nell off as the princess and marry her to a Spanish prince.

Nell has no choice but to go along while she plots an escape. She finds unexpected allies in her quest to flee the Black Prince and make her way back to what she believes is safety in Bordeaux.

The Plague by Joanne Dahme captures the dark mood and superstitions of Europeans during this time when the plague carried off so much of the population. The sickness had no favorites, and it infected young, old, rich, poor, healthy and weak just the same. People believed it was caused by bad air, and no one paid much attention to the rats that swarmed among them. Nell’s is a tense story against this backdrop of whole nations under stress. Mother-daughter book clubs can talk about the historical time period as well as Nell’s reaction to the predicament she finds herself in. I recommend The Plague for groups with girls aged 12 to 16.

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Book Review: This is Me from Now On by Barbara Dee

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Evie’s new neighbor Francesca is a free spirit who wears wild clothes, always seems to be upbeat, and has her own ideas about the importance of homework. First thrown together by Evie’s mom and Francesca’s aunt, the two of them soon bond over a school project and a little matchmaking. But Evie’s long time friends feel she’s abandoned them; they don’t trust Francesca and they want Evie back just like she was.

This is Me from Now On by Barbara Dee is a snapshot of Evie’s life at the start of seventh grade. She’s no longer happy with the status quo, and in fact, one of her teacher’s says it appears she needs to break out of the rut she was in the year before.

But Evie finds that making changes can be confusing. How much of her own free spirit can she tap into without going further than she’s comfortable with? How can she let her best friends know she wants to be on more equal footing with them without seeming as though she’s rejecting them outright? How can she get the attention of a boy she likes and go out with him when her parents don’t think she’s ready to date?

This is Me from Now On takes on a confusing pre-teen time of life and turns into a witty, charming story focused on the possibilities of reinventing yourself. Evie learns how to keep what she’s always liked about herself while learning to take a few more chances and open up to new experiences. In the process she learns a lot about herself and a lot about her friends. Check out Dee’s discussion questions on her website for ideas about what to talk about when you read this book. I highly recommend it for mother-daughter book clubs with girls aged 9 to 13.

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Book Review: Restoring Harmony by Joelle Anthony

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Sixteen-year-old Molly is on the adventure of her life. Sneaking into the U. S. from her family’s farm in Canada, she’s on a mission to find out if her grandparents are still alive and living near Portland, Oregon. Travel is severely restricted in a time when most of the world’s oil has run out, and governments tightly control what’s left. Communication is sporadic, and Molly must adjust to changing and unanticipated circumstances before she makes her way to her grandparents’ doorstep.

She finds them alive, but they are eking out an existence with little food and no prospects for the future. Molly must convince them to leave the city and return to Canada with her, even though the journey is sure to be difficult and uncertain, with no way to determine how long it will take. She must also figure out a way to escape the local organized crime mob, which is intent on keeping her around after she overhears them threaten to kill a neighbor. With the help of her new friend, Spill, she just might find a way for all of them to go home.

Restoring Harmony by Joelle Anthony will transport you into life in the 2040s. Anthony paints a vivid picture of this world without ready gasoline. With no strong government to support infrastructure, organized crime controls most routine transactions. Food is hard to come by. Travel and communication is sparse. Health care is limited.

Molly is a great heroine for her time. Raised on a farm, she has learned self-sufficiency, and she’s not afraid to work. Spared of the realities of a tough city life, she still believes in the goodness of people. She plays the fiddle to restore her own inner harmony and to soothe others as well.

Topics to discuss include the book’s portrayal of this future world and book club members’ own perceptions of what the future may bring. You can also talk about family relationships, adapting to uncertain circumstances, being self-sufficient, contributing to a community, discovering a new friendship, and finding a possible love interest. Anthony has a great book trailer as well as recordings of some of the music highlighted in the book on her website, http://joelleanthony.com/. I highly recommend Restoring Harmony for mother-daughter book clubs with girls aged 13 and up.

Note to readers in Portland, Oregon. Anthony is appearing at two area bookstores in the next two days. Thursday, May 20 she’ll be at Annie Bloom’s Books, 7834 Southwest Capitol Highway, beginning at 7:30 p.m. On Saturday, May 22, she’ll be reading and signing books beginning at 1 p.m. at the Border’s store in Gresham, 687 NW 12th Street.

Book Review: Hailey Twitch is Not a Snitch by Lauren Barnholdt and Suzanne Beaky

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Seven-year-old Hailey Twitch likes everything sparkly and flouncy and colorful. She is thrilled to get an assignment to cook an ethnic food for diversity week at school. She wants to work with her friend Antonio, whose family is from Mexico. But then she’s paired with rule-following Addie Jokobeck, who is determined to make French fries. How boring.

Hailey is sulking in her room when a real-live sprite flies out of her play castle. Maybelle has been trapped inside for 200 years. Now she’s being allowed out for a chance to regain her magic, if only she can find out how to have fun.

Hailey Twitch is Not a Snitch, written by Lauren Barnholdt and illustrated by Suzanne Beaky, is a new series for young readers. Hailey has a good heart, but she has a lot to learn about following rules and making new friends. She worries about another girl in class taking her old friends away, and she’s pretty good at knowing when she needs time alone to be crabby.

Young readers aged 6 to 8 will see Hailey work through similar issues that they do: playground disputes, getting in trouble when you didn’t know you were doing something wrong, and keeping old friends while making new ones. Maybelle and her attempts to have fun add an interesting twist. The story ends with a preview of the next title in the series, Hailey Twitch Saves the Play.

Book Review: The Keening by A. LaFaye

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When Lyza’s Mater dies of the flu in the pandemic of 1918, Lyza must figure out a way to keep her relatives from sending her Pater away to a place for people deemed crazy. He’s always been different, but Lyza knows he’s not crazy. To prove it, she’ll have to travel far and enlist the help of people she’s never met. In the process she’ll discover her own strength and her talents and find out how to forge ahead in her own life.

The Keening by A. LaFaye is a haunting story in more ways than one. First there’s the spirit that Lyza feels in her home the day a funeral passes by outside. Then there are all the sicknesses and deaths that visit the people in her Maine village. And there are also the carvings her Pater creates, the anguished souls he sees and must set free.

Finally, there’s the feeling of loss and longing throughout the story—Lyza’s longing for her mother, and her desire to have a worthwhile talent. Her friend Jake’s need to escape their small village for the big city of Portland. Her Pater’s wish to help the troubled souls that appear to him.

Author LaFaye creates a setting that’s appropriately dark, with scenes of foggy islands, woods with watching faces and lonely cabins. It matches the somber mood of the times, when even in a small village many people could be quickly lost to the flu. The haunting images LaFaye creates are apt to linger with you for a long time. I recommend The Keening for mother-daughter book clubs with girls aged 12 and up.

Books Help You Talk To Your Teen About Important Life Issues

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I remember when my first mother-daughter book club read a book that dealt with teen sex. The moms were pretty freaked out, thinking our 13-year-old daughters were too young to read about kids just a few years older than them having sex. But we soon realized our daughters really wanted to know what their moms thought about it. They would have never brought it up on their own, but when we talked about what the characters in a book did, it was somehow safe to discuss.

Once we got past that initial stumbling block, it really opened the door for our club to read about many things the girls had questions about. I like to think they were better prepared when they encountered some of the issues we discussed in their own lives. Today I’ve posted a guest blog about how reading books helps us connect with our daughters on many important issues of life. You can find it at Helping Moms Connect.

Book Review: City of Spies by Susan Kim and Laurance Klavan

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During the early days the U.S. was involved in Word War II, Americans became obsessed with the thought that spies were among them, secreting away information that would aid the enemy and defeat the Allies. In New York, people were suspicious of Germans in general, and many thought it was their patriotic duty to keep an eye on German citizens.

This is the setting for City of Spies, a new graphic novel by Susan Kim and Laurance Klavan, with artwork by Pascal Dizin. Evelyn has arrived to spend the summer with her Aunt Lia in New York while her father spends time with his new wife. An only child, Evelyn has known a series of stepmothers since her own mother died years before. To help pass the time, she draws action adventures for the superhero she creates, Zirconium Man, and she is his sidekick, Scooter.

Aunt Lia’s artistic lifestyle doesn’t accommodate Evelyn very well, but she doesn’t mind as much after she meets the building superintendent’s son, Tony. Together, they decide to have an adventure and catch a spy. They soon discover that just because someone has a German background, it doesn’t mean he’s stealing secrets and working with the enemy. When they stumble on a real plot, they decide to follow it through and foil the bad guys themselves.

City of Spies does a great job of exploring the imagined and real dangers of the early 1940s while focusing on issues such as friendship, family relationships, and loneliness for both children and adults. It also brings to life two fantasies common among children: being a superhero and catching a spy. As in all good graphic novels, much of the plot and action are carried through by the artwork, and Dizin’s drawings are the perfect accompaniment to Kim and Klavan’s words. A mother-daughter book club with girls aged 13 and up would be able to discuss the historic era and how graphic novels in general differ from reading a regular novel.

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