Book Review: Operation Redwood by S. Terrell French

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Operation Redwood

Twelve-year-old Julian Carter-Li has no idea that adventure will soon find him. All he knows is that his mother is on a grant-paid trip to China that should enhance her career as a photographer, while she’s gone he has to stay with his mean-spirited aunt and uncle since no one else is available to take care of him, and he may have to spend his entire summer shuttling from one undesirable camp after another.

He is resigned to his fate until he inadvertently reads an email intended for his uncle that launches a relationship with a girl named Robin who lives on a farm in California’s redwood country. Before he knows it, Julian is working against his uncle’s company to save a grove of old-growth redwood trees from the saw, and he’s taking extreme-for-him measures to get the attention of anyone who may have the power to save the trees. All while learning about farm life and personal responsibility.

Operation Redwood by S. Terrell French combines eco-adventure with common childhood fantasies: to live in a tree house far above the rest of the world and to make grown-ups pay attention to what a kid has to say. While there’s no doubt the story take a pro-environment stance, it’s not preachy in getting a message across. Instead we see Julian, Robin and their friends Danny and Ariel learn how they can make a difference to something they feel is very important. And though the ending may have a touch of the stuff of fairy tales, I found Operation Redwood a delightful and fun adventure to read. I recommend it for mother-daughter book clubs with girls nine to twelve.

Are You Reading a Hot Dog or Foie Gras?

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Last week my daughter Madeleine and I headed down to the University of Oregon for her orientation. I’m still not truly believing she’ll be leaving home this fall, but I’m sure I’m not the only mom in denial. In fact, the university caters to us parents about to send our kids into the world, even offering a talk called “Teaching Your Ducklings to Fly.” (It’s also a pretty cute play on words since the U of O mascot is a duck.)

I was very impressed with a seminar for parents only called The Art of Reading. While our children were signing up for fall classes, (parents aren’t even allowed in the room with them) a group of about 15 moms and dads gathered in the library to talk with an English professor about rediscovering how to read for meaning.

I was there with Karen and Janelle, two other moms in my mother-daughter book club, and we happily soaked up some new thoughts on reading. One thought in particular stood out from the day:

Choosing a book and choosing what to eat can be a lot alike. Sometimes you are hungry and you just want to eat a hot dog to fill you up. You don’t need anything fancy, because any food will do at the moment. Those tend to be what I think of as books that you can easily pick up and put down without losing the main thread of the story. They’re usually fun, maybe even a guilty pleasure. Some titles I have read recently in that category include Lipstick Apology by Jennifer Jabaley and Runaround by Helen Hemphill. (Reviews to come soon.)

Other times, you’re more in the mood for a four-course gourmet meal. I just finished a book like that called Stone’s Fall by Iain Pears. It was nearly six hundred pages and I savored every page until the very satisfying ending. I’m also finishing up reading Empire by Gore Vidal to Madeleine. History-nerds that we are, we have looked forward to reading it every day, but savored it as we went along. We can’t wait to start reading Vidal’s follow up story, Hollywood. Soon I expect to read The Book Thief to Catherine, another book to linger over and appreciate.

I like applying the food analogy to books, because it helps me enjoy whatever I’m reading for the hunger it satisfies at the moment.

Book Review: Torched by April Henry

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Torched

Ellie is used to her parents having groups of friends over to smoke marijuana and get stoned. She often feels more like the parent than the child, cooking dinner  for the people who drop in and cleaning up when they leave. Otherwise she spends her time trying to do well in school. But when the FBI raids her home and arrests her parents for growing marijuana in their basement, she can’t go back to living life as she knew it.

The FBI most wants to find out about the activities of the Mother Earth Defenders, (MED) a radical environmental group that her parents were meeting with. The FBI will let her parents go, but only if she agrees to infiltrate MED and pass along information about any violent actions the group plans to take. Against her wishes, Ellie agrees to help.

But as she gets more involved with the group, and she begins to fall for Coyote, one of its members, she begins to see why they are so passionate about their cause. Torn between wanting to help her parents, her growing love for Coyote and her concern for the environment, Ellie must walk a fine line and lie to everyone she cares about.  How can she see it through without losing everyone she cares about as well?

Torched by April Henry will keep you turning pages as you follow Ellie from fire-bombing a Hummer dealership, to tree sitting and more. Her conflicted Conscience brings up great things to talk about in a mother-daughter book club. Among other things it encourages the reader to ask: How far would you go to support a cause you thought was vitally important? What would you do if you could help someone you loved, even if it was dangerous? While you may expect to have a happily-ever-after ending, Henry keeps you guessing at the outcome right to the last page.

This book is especially interesting for me since it takes place in my hometown of Portland, Oregon. It was fun to read about references to places I know. I even read a story about a group of environmental activitist who were tree sitting to save a plot of old-growth forest in my local newspaper this morning. The story could have come right from the pages of Torched.

I’ve also met Henry a few times and was happy to finally get one of her books on my list to review. Since reading Torched, I headed to the library to pick up a copy of another of her books for young adults, Shock Point. It’s now part of my summer reading stack and I can’t wait to start reading it. The review on Shock Point will be out later this summer.

Book Review: The Color of Earth by Kim Dong Hwa

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Color of Earth

The Color of Earth is the first in a trilogy of graphic novels about a young girl named Ehwa and her widowed mother who owns a tavern in a small Korean village. The story takes place in a time before that country was geographically split by war.

Author Kim Dong Hwa creates beautiful images that work with the narrative to tell this story of two generations of women. While the story may seem simple as it follows Ehwa from young girl to young adult, it is filled with rich symbolism that you will want to savor as you read. Flowers symbolize many things in the story, and the characters are often associating flowers with someone they love. Also, you get the sense that young Ehwa is beginning to bloom just as the flowers do.

As Ehwa grows, she is confused by the changes in her body, and the information she gets from friends about those changes only confuses her more. Mother and daughter don’t talk about the changes before they occur, but Ehwa does turn to her mother to answer the questions she has. The narrative provides an interesting way to bring up topics like boys having wet dreams and girls starting their periods. The words are simple, but combined with the images they are powerful. While this book is targeted to a young adult audience and these concepts won’t be new to most readers, it can be a jumping off point for further discussion.

I recommend The Color of Earth for mother-daughter book clubs with girls who are 13 or older. In addition to talking about maturing bodies, other points to discuss include first love, Buddhist monks, and life in a small village.

Book Review: The Fetch by Laura Whitcomb

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The Fetch

The Fetch by Laura Whitcomb

Calder left his human life when he was only nineteen, and in the 300+ years since then he has been a Fetch, a being sent to guide humans to the afterworld when they die. Calder enjoys helping people find the peacefulness that comes when their souls move on, and he’s never been tempted to alter the decision of a soul teetering between life and death. That changes in the early 1900s when he ends up fascinated by the caregiver at the bedside of a boy. He wills the boy to live for her sake.

Years later, he ends up at the same bedside, and he decides he must meet the woman who cares for the boy. Calder enters the body of a dying man, trading places with him in the process, and he sets in motion a series of events that threaten to overwhelm the land of the living and unbalance the land of the dead.

On earth, Calder becomes involved with the lives of Rasputin and the Russian royal family shortly before and after they are taken hostage during the revolution. He realizes he must set the earthly world and the spiritual one back to rights, but first he must discover how.

In The Fetch, Laura Whitcomb has created an inventive tale that is part supernatural mystery and romance, and part historical fiction. With Calder we travel from the unrest in Russia, to the first Hollywood movie studios, to New York and London. Larger than life historical figures Rasputin, Anastasia and Alexis join Calder on his quest while also searching for their own peaceful afterlife. Can they succeed? The Fetch leaves you guessing right up to the end.

Mother-Daughter Book Club Reading List

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Last week Madeleine and I went to the last official meeting of our mother-daughter book club. I think we’re all in denial because it was just like a regular ol’ meeting. No fanfare or anything out of the ordinary. We just can’t quite admit yet that our little girls are all grown up and will soon head off on their own.

The girls graduate soon, and then they’re all off to college. As a sign of just how much has changed since we all started out together when the girls were 9, we finished by reading an assortment of David Sedaris books. That’s a far cry from the sweet books we read back then.

We talked about a few of our favorites over the years. Many people said their favorite book of all was the one we started with: The Hermit Thrush Sings by Susan Butler. There was the time we went together as a group to hear Richard Peck talk about his books and writing and read from his yet to be published The Teacher’s Funeral. We read The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank and went to see a theater production adapted from it. And of course, our weekends away have been great fun every time we’ve been able to schedule them.

We’re still trying to figure out how to keep our group together in some way. The moms are talking about signing up for a  series of author lectures. And we plan to have a reunion every year when the girls come home from college. We’re not all on Facebook yet, but that may be an option at some point.

Here’s the list of books we’ve read during our eight years together. Our favorites are followed by stars:

2001

  • The Hermit Thrush Sings—Susan Butler*
  • Dealing with Dragons—Patricia Wrede*
  • Ginger Pye—Eleanor Estes
  • Julie of the Wolves—Jean Craighead George*
  • Our Only May Amelia—Jennifer Holm*
  • Ella Enchanted—Gail Carson Levine*
  • Nancy Drew Mysteries—Carolyn Keene
  • Bat 6—Virginia Euwer Wollf*
  • Stargirl—Jerry Spinelli*

2002

  • The Heart of a Chief—Joseph Bruchac*
  • Jacob Have I Loved—Katherine Paterson
  • Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl—Anne Frank*
  • Boy—Roald Dahl*
  • Boston Jane—Jennifer Holm*
  • Walk Across the Sea—Susan Fletcher*
  • The Secret Garden—Frances Hodgson Burnett*
  • Joey Pigza Loses Control—Jack Gantos
  • Coraline—Neil Gaiman

2003

  • Everything on a Waffle—Polly Horvath*
  • Goddesses:  Heaven Sent—Clea Hantman
  • Tangerine—Edward Bloor*
  • A Year Down Yonder—Richard Peck*
  • Going Solo—Roald Dahl*
  • Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging—Louise Rennison*
  • Fair Weather—Richard Peck*
  • A Step from Heaven—An Na
  • Mates, Dates and Inflatable Bras—Cathy Hopkins*
  • The Second Summer of the Sisterhood—Ann Brashares*

2004

  • Biting the Moon—Martha Grimes
  • A Matter of Profit—Hilari Bell*
  • The Adrian Mole Diaries—Sara Thompson
  • The First Part Last—Angela Johnson
  • The Princess Diaries—Meg Cabot*
  • Hoot—Carl Hiassen*
  • Holding Up the Earth—Dianne Gray
  • Missing Persons:  The Rose Queen—M.E. Rabb
  • The Pearl—John Steinbeck

2005

  • Hope Was Here—Joan Bauer*
  • West With the Night—Beryl Markham
  • Speak—Laurie Halse Anderson*
  • Search of the Moon King’s Daughter—Linda Holeman
  • Keeping the Moon—Sarah Dessen
  • The Secret Life of Bees—Sue Monk Kidd*
  • Ready or Not—Meg Cabot

2006

  • Light Years—Tammar Stein*
  • A Certain Slant of Light—Laura Whitcomb*
  • The Kite Runner—Khaled Hosseini
  • The Life of Pi—Yann Martel
  • In the Time of the Butterflies—Julia Alvarez
  • Girls for Breakfast—Jimmy Woo

2007

  • Millions—Frank Cottrell Boyce*
  • Driver’s Ed—Caroline Cooney
  • The Crucible—Arthur Miller
  • The Higher Power of Lucky—Susan Patron
  • The Pilot’s Wife—Anita Shreve
  • Uglies—Scott Westerfeld*
  • Voices from the Street—Jessica Morrell
  • Twilight—Stephenie Meyer*

2008

  • What’s Eating Gilbert Grape—Peter Hedges*
  • Water for Elephants—Sara Gruen*
  • Looking for Alaska—John Green
  • This Boy’s Life—Tobias Wolf
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest—Ken Kesey*
  • The Glass Castle—Jeannette Walls

2009

  • Jane Austen novels*
  • Revolutionary Road—Richard Yates
  • The Bonesetter’s Daughter—Amy Tan*
  • Various titles—David Sedaris*

Book Review: Women Making America by Heidi Hemming and Julie Hemming Savage

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WomenMakingAmerica

I’ve been reading a book called Women Making America by Heidi Hemming and Julie Hemming Savage and I think many of you would find it both interesting and useful. First, it’s a great resource for finding information and ideas when your daughter is assigned an essay to write about a woman she admires or about an historical figure The book is organized so well you can open to any page and find some historical tidbit that you may want to follow up on.

Second, it’s the perfect guide to have when your daughter starts to realize that not many women are featured in her school history book. This may happen early in her school years, but it will certainly happen by the time she is in middle school or high school. Even better, don’t wait until your daughter questions it on her own; buy a copy and keep it out on your family room coffee table. Pique her interest by opening to any page and reading one of the boxed facts like this one from the New Ways of Living 1865—1890 section: “Employers justified paying women less by hiring them only for unskilled positions. This was impossible in the case of cigar makers from Bohemia. Women were the experts. A war in Europe led thousands to immigrate to America in the 1870s. Arriving with their own tools, these skilled workers quickly earned enough money for their husbands and children to join them.”

Women Making America is organized by era. There are nine chapters, and each covers several decades in American history. Each chapter also highlights different topics, such as health, paid work, at home, education, beauty, amusements and the arts. Sidebars on every page offer little bits of information in pull-out boxes.

There are several historical illustrations and photos on each page, and most of them are fascinating pieces of history that make you want to find out more. Women Making America is a resource you will want to have around for years to come. I highly recommend it for homes with daughters of any age.

Book Review: Violet Raines Almost Got Struck by Lightning; Interview with Author Danette Haworth

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I feel fortunate to have been introduced to Violet Raines Almost Got Struck by Lightning by Danette Haworth. This delightful book is great for mother-daughter book clubs, and it makes a good summer book for readers on their own.

Danette is graciously stopping by Mother Daughter Book Club as part of her blog tour with WOW! (Women on Writing) to answer a few questions. My review of Violet Raines follows the interview. I can’t wait to read more from this exciting debut author.

Danette Haworth

I believe this is your first book of fiction, what kind of writing have you done before?

DH: The first time I ever got paid for writing was during my tenure as a technical writer.  Technical writing is any sort of writing that involves instructions or documentation. That might sound a bit dry, but I worked for an agency that employed scientists and military engineers, and I found their work very creative!

How did you come to write this story?

DH: I originally sat down to write an adult book, but Violet pushed her way in and took things over! Then I wrote the story in alternating chapters, with Lottie having a view on what was going on. After completing the rough draft, I put the manuscript down for a couple of weeks and when I picked it back up, I knew the whole story belonged to Violet. I stripped Lottie’s chapters out and rewrote everything from Violet’s perspective.

I love both Violet and Lottie, and I’m glad I wrote those chapters for Lottie. She has a quiet wisdom that comes from being the oldest of four girls and acting as her mom’s stand-in when her mother is working at the farmer’s co-op. She’s the perfect best friend for Violet, who has no brothers and sisters and spends a lot of time stirring up her own activities because her mom’s at work. Violet loves to fold herself into Lottie’s family—even helping out with chores—and they love her too.

Violet is worried about losing her best friend to a new girl in town and conflicted by her feelings for Eddie, who may be growing into something more than her long-time buddy. How do you see Violet changing throughout the book?

DH: I see Violet changing in that her perspective of friendship broadens a little (just a little!) by the end of the book. She realizes that although friendships change over the course of time, the closeness never has to change. And those feelings for Eddie, whew! They’re just a whisper right now; that’s about as much as Violet can handle. But Eddie is a gracious boy and their friendship is precious to both of them.

What are some of the biggest issues you see for girls dealing with real-life situations such as these?

DH: For every girl who’s excited about boys and bras, there’s another girl hunching her shoulders to hide the changes in herself. Adolescence can be a weird, mixed-up time, especially for girls, whose changes can be viewed by anybody. Very well do I remember the days of boys snapping my bra strap or of asking a friend to walk behind me and check—just in case!

Having to worry about these gender-defining issues when you still play hopscotch is mind boggling! It’s a tremendous load for young girls to carry. That’s why it’s so important for girls to have a strong support system: good relationship with Mom, at least one true best friend, and a group of girls with whom she feels good with. Reports have come out over the years telling us that, generally speaking, self-esteem in girls plummets with the onset of puberty. Sports are highly recommended and you’ll see many, many articles stating girls involved in sports experience higher self esteem and lower incidence of drug use and sexual activity. I think this is because sports make us more aware of our bodies and how strong we are, what we’re capable of—that we are powerful. Also, sports give us one more group of people to identify ourselves with, and that would probably be true of any club a girl might be in, art club, tennis, band, etc.

Between the lightning storms, alligators, spiders and other bugs, nature is almost as much of a character in Violet Raines as the kids in the story. What role do you see her play in the book?

DH: Nature is a good friend to Violet. She sees the woods as a busy place; she notices things like dragonflies and lovebugs. To her, these things are not nuisances, they’re a population sector. Lightning is more than part of a rainstorm—it’s a spectacular light show that she watches and scores, ten being the very best kind of strike. Nature is, for Violet, a kind presence, even after the big lightning strike. Part of this might be Violet’s close relationship to God; she feels loved by God, so she naturally feels loved in his creation.

Despite all the scary things they encounter outdoors, Violet and her friends have a lot of fun exploring their neighborhood. What advantages do you see for kids who spend time discovering the world around them first hand?

DH: As a former kid who’d disappear for hours in the woods, I can tell you the biggest advantage in this kind of exploration is the independence. With no one telling you how to interpret what you encounter, your imagination is free. Boundless! You create your own games, make your own rules, and negotiate with your peers rather than going through a parental mediator. It makes you altogether stronger.

You’ve lived in many different places, what do you like most about living in Florida?

DH: I love that I can look outside anytime of year and be greeted with sunshine.

Can you tell us a bit about what you’re working on now, and will we see more of Violet?

DH: I’m in revision with The Hotel of Blueberry Goodness (Walker 2010), in which a girl who lives in a hotel meets an eclectic group of friends, including a teenage runaway. My third book, Me and Jack (Walker 2011), is set in the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania and features a boy, the dog he adopts, and the unfriendly residents of the town to which they move.

Is there anything else you would like to say to readers of Mother Daughter Book Club?

DH: I hope you enjoy Violet Raines!

VIOLET-RAINES

Review

Violet’s hometown of Mitchell Hammock, Florida, is a dangerous place full of alligators, coral snakes and lightening striking all over. But it’s also a place of adventure where net bridges swing over creeks, hollowed-out trees turn into secret hiding places, and kids feel safe exploring it all with friends.

Beneath the adventure lies a predictable routine for Violet. She goes to church on Sundays, helps her best-friend and next-door neighbor Lottie with a weekly fish fry afterwards, and explores the woods around her home with her other friend Eddie. She’s an only child who is on her own often while her mama works at the local bakery, but she’s never lonely.

When Melissa moves to town from the Northern city of Detroit, Violet’s predictable summer before junior high is suddenly anything but. Melissa likes make up and soap operas, and she writes to movie stars. Lottie takes to her immediately, and Violet fears Melissa is trying to steal her best friend. She’s also worried about changes in her body, talk of bras and her own feelings for Eddie.

While Violet works through her conflicted feelings, she finds a way to open up her world without giving up who she truly is. Mother-daughter book clubs will find Violet’s fresh voice a delightful opening to talk about issues of friendship and growing up. I highly recommend Violet Raines Almost Got Struck by Lightning by Danette Haworth for groups with girls aged nine to twelve.

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