Book Review: Al Capone Shines My Shoes by Gennifer Choldenko

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It’s 1935 on Alcatraz Island. Al Capone is The Rock’s most famous prisoner among a number of notorious criminals. He’s also a constant fascination for the families of the guards, who live in houses on the island next door to the cellblock.

Moose Flanagan is the son of one of those guards. He’s adjusting to life without his autistic sister Natalie, who has just been accepted into the Esther P. Marinoff School, a place her parents believe will help her learn how to function better in society. Moose is sure Al Capone pulled strings to get Natalie in after Moose wrote a letter asking for his help. When Moose gets a note in his laundry, he knows Capone is asking for a favor back. But how can he fulfill the request without getting his dad fired and the whole family exiled off the island?

Al Capone Shines My Shoes by Gennifer Choldenko is a charming follow-up to her Newbery Honor winner, Al Capone Does My Shirts. You’ll fall right back into Moose’s story and life on Alcatraz, with its strict regulations for prisoners, guards and civilians alike. This time Moose is trying to navigate his conflicted feelings for Piper, the warden’s daughter, and keep all his friends happy. He also has to determine where to draw the line with the cons who perform maintenance jobs in the homes: can he trust these men who for the most part seem like regular people, or should he keep their past crimes in mind when he interacts with them? I highly recommend this book for mother-daughter book clubs with girls aged 9 to 12.

Book Review: According to Kit by Eugenie Doyle

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Kit can’t believe her mother would force her to stay home and be homeschooled just because a classmate at her high school pulled a knife on another student. She doesn’t want to stay home and spend even more time helping take care of the dairy farm she lives on with her mother, father and grandfather. And when homeschooling turns out to be not much schooling, since no one actually has time to spare to work with Kit on lessons, she ends up on her own a lot of the time.

But at least Kit can lose herself in her ballet lessons she takes at the local college…that is until her beloved teacher Ursula becomes sick and can no longer teach. Graduate students pick up the slack, but it’s not nearly as fulfilling for Kit as Ursula’s classes were. When Luis arrives with his wife and baby to take over the class, Kit is enthralled by his attention to her. Luis sees her potential and encourages her to audition for a prestigious art school in Montreal, Canada, a long drive and a world away from her Vermont farm.

Predictably, Kit’s mother says no, but Kit is full of newfound confidence and a desire to dance. Plus, she wants to live up to Luis’s expectations, and she can’t let no be the answer.

According to Kit by Eugenie Doyle highlights the complexities of the mother-daughter relationship. How much does a mother open up to reveal herself to her daughter? What dreams for her future does a daughter share with her mother? When the two have different visions for the daughter’s life, how can they reconcile their conflicting desires for what’s best?

According to Kit also juxtaposes two very different pursuits—farming and ballet—and manages to show the rewards and challenges of both. It shows Kit’s longing for a mother who will talk to her and share her emotions, not hold everything inside as she carries with her a long-ago personal tragedy. There’s lots to discuss here for mother and daughters. Despite one scene near the end of the book where Luis aggressively comes onto Kit sexually, a scene that seems out of place and under-addressed for its impact, I recommend it for mother-daughter book clubs with girls 14 and up.

Cindy Hudson Talks About Books for Two Generations of Readers

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Today you’ll find me guest posting on author Kristin O’Donnell Tubb’s blog. I wrote an essay for Kristin about the need for books that can be read and enjoyed by two generations of readers. When you choose to read books in your mother-daughter book club that appeal to two generations, it means your moms don’t have to resign themselves to reading something they’re not at all interested in, and your girls don’t have to feel pressured to read something their moms think would be good for them. Click on over to read the essay.

Kristin is the author of Autumn Winifred Oliver Does Things Different, one of the good books for moms and daughters that came out in 2009. Click here to read the review I posted of it earlier. Over the years my daughters and I have had so much enjoyment out of reading books together for our book clubs and on our own. Here are some of our favorites:

7 and 8 year olds

Charlotte’s Web—E. B. White

Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing—Judy Blume

The Year of Miss Agnes—Kirkpatrick Hill

9 and 10 year olds

Because of Winn-Dixie—Kate DiCamillo

Matilda—Roald Dahl

The Hermit Thrush Sings—Susan Butler

11 through 13 year olds

Al Capone Does My Shirts—Gennifer Choldenko

A Year Down Yonder—Richard Peck

Framed—Frank Cottrell Boyce

14+ year olds

A Northern Light—Jennifer Donnelly

The Book Thief—Markus Zusak

Stargirl—Jerry Spinelli

Mother-Daughter Book Club Meeting and Book Review: The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff

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Last night Catherine and I went to our mother-daughter book club meeting. We often don’t meet in December, when everyone is pulled in so many different directions, but this year we all wanted to share a little bit of holiday cheer. Show-Ling put us all in a festive mood with an amazing feast of shrimp, spinach pie, meatballs, and lots of yummy sides. Karen brought cookies so we had something sweet to share. A fire in the fireplace made us all feel nice and toasty, especially since it was so cold outside. It was a perfect atmosphere to talk about the Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff.

Word is Hoff wrote this little gem of a book while he was working in Portland’s Japanese Garden in the early 1980s. It’s an interesting introduction to Taoism illustrated through the actions of Winnie the Pooh and his friends. Most of us knew nothing about Taoism or its principles, but the Tao of Pooh gives simple explanations that are easy to grasp. It also gives a brief description of the differences Hoff sees between Confusionism, Buddhism and Taoism. Since most of us in the group haven’t had much exposure to Eastern religions, it was interesting to read his point of view.

Hoff uses excerpts from A. A. Milne’s Pooh stories to talk about Tao Te Ching and its creator, Lao Tse. As Hoff assigned each Pooh character a defining characteristic—Owl is wise, Rabbit is clever, Eeyore complains and Piglet frets while Pooh just is—each of us was asked to say which character we are most like and if we would like to change that. We all wanted to be more like Pooh. A little more accepting, a little less stressed, a little more able to sit back, eat some honey and enjoy life. All in all, it was an interesting disucssion.

Next up, we’re headed in a totally different direction. In early February we’ll be talking about The Moonstone, by Wilkie Collins. It’s been called “the first and greatest English detective novel,” and it should be an interesting change from our norm. Alannah likes mysteries, and this was her choice, so we’re all excited to dive into it.

Kristin Bair O’Keeffe, Author of Thirsty, Talks About Reading with Her Daughter

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Kristin Bair O’Keeffee, whose debut novel Thirsty was recently released, has written a wonderful essay about reading to her young daughter. Thirsty is a gritty story about tenacious women and their struggle to find what makes life bearable in the face of domestic abuse, hardship, and death in a Pennsylvania mill town during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The story transports you to its time and place so well you can almost feel the grit from the steel mill as it settles on your own skin. More information about Kristin and Thirsty follows her essay.

Mother/Daughter Reading…Before the Book Club

“In the great green ______,” I read and pause, waiting for Tully, my 22-month-old daughter, to fill in the word.

“Room,” she says.

“There is a ______,” I say.

“Telephone,” she fills in.

And then without waiting for me to read the next sentence, she blurts out, “Red balloon.”

Of course, Tully’s 22-month-old pronunciations aren’t always spot-on. Room sometimes sounds a little like whoom; balloon comes out ba-oon. But every day her tongue finds the right place against her teeth or the roof of her mouth a little more often and words become clearer.

When we get to the “three little bears sitting on chairs,” Tully picks up my index finger and taps it lightly to each of the three bears, in the same way I’ve tapped her finger to the bears for the past year or so since we started reading Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon “One, two, three,” she says.

We continue on like this, filling in words and pointing out favorite objects (the mouse, the bunny, the cow jumping over the moon, and lately, the fireplace). As Tully acquires more vocabulary (at a crazily rapid pace), our nighttime readings grow longer and become more like conversations.

“What’s this?” I ask.

Tully looks at where my finger is pointing. “Hand,” she says.

“Close,” I say. “It’s a mitten.” And then I explain about mittens and hands and winter and cold weather.

Tully—with her steel-trap toddler brain fired up, even as she relaxes against me—listens intently. “Mitten,” she repeats, emphasizing the t sound. “Mitten, mitten, mitten.” And I know that she will remember this word forever. In fact, the next day she will insist that her beloved friends Baby, McGillicutty, and Dora all need mittens. “Cold,” she will tell me as she feels their hands.

I love these long, drawn-out minutes of our day with Tully snug in her pajamas, curled on my lap. The curtains are pulled. Tully has had her bath and bottle. Her teeth are brushed, and she’s given her dad a goodnight kiss. The only thing left is our nightly reading ritual. Sometimes she chooses Margaret Wise Brown’s Runaway Bunny. Sometimes Mem Fox’s Time for Bed. But more often than not, Goodnight Moon.

As we read, I think about all the fabulous books Tully and I have to look forward to: Fox in Sox, The Snowy Day, Amelia Bedelia, Ramona the Brave, Little House on the Prairie, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, and loads of newly published books that I don’t even know about yet.

“Goodnight comb,” I say. “Goodnight _____.”

“Brush,” Tully says, and she uses a pretend brush to brush her hair.

I also think about the day when we’ll be ready to start a book club with other moms and daughters, and as I do, more titles flood my head:

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

The Secret Garden

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Coraline

Someday. But right now….

“Goodnight noises everywhere,” I say.

“The end,” Tully whispers, sleepy and still in my arms.

“The end,” I repeat and I close the book.

Kristin Bair O’Keeffe is the author of Thirsty and an American who lives in Shanghai, China. She is also a happy mom, a voracious reader, an engaging teacher who believes in “telling the best story you can…believing in your writing…and working your arse off,” a fierce advocate for the end of domestic violence, and a writer who spends as much time as possible in writerhead. To find out more, visit www.thirstythenovel.com or Kristin’s blog at www.kristinbairokeeffeblog.com.

 

 

 

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Cindy Hudson Discusses the Partnership Between Authors and Book Clubs

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Author Kirby Larson recently featured an essay I wrote for her on her blog about authors and book clubs connecting. Kirby is one of the first authors I heard of who met with a mother-daughter book club near her home some years back. Read what I have to say on Kirby’s blog about this winning combination.

Cindy Hudson Talks About How Book Clubs Change Lives

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It’s not an exaggeration to say that being in a mother-daughter book club can change your life. Today, I’m talking about that in a guest post on author Kristin Bair O’Keeffe’s blog. Kristin’s debut novel, Thirsty, was released around the same time as my guidebook, Book by Book: The Complete Guide to Creating Mother-Daughter Book Clubs. We work on the e-zine, Writers on the Rise together, and we’re cheering each other on through this process of first book publication. On Wednesday, I’ll be featuring an essay from Kristin about mother/daughter reading time. Be sure to check back then to see what she’s got to say.

Interview with Tammar Stein, Author of Light Years and High Dive

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When my book club with my daughter Madeleine read Light Years by Tammar Stein, the timing was great. The girls had been in high school for a year and were looking ahead to college. This story of a young woman who leaves her native Israel to attend college in the U.S. introduced them to the possibilities of what their lives would be like when they left home to go away to a university. The main character, Maya, is fleeing memories of her boyfriend killed by a suicide bomber and the guilt she feels that she may have been the one to push the bomber to his action. As the story takes place in Maya’s present and her past, we all learned a lot about life in Israel as well as on a college campus. We had a great discussion about cultural differences between our countries, the concept of spending two years in service to your country after high school, and finding a way to continue on with your life in the aftermath of personal tragedy.

I have not read Tammar’s other book High Dive, yet. But reading the publisher’s description made me add it to our possible choices for Catherine’s book club. Either way, I can’t wait to read it myself.

“Arden has a plane ticket to Sardinia to say goodbye to her family’s beloved vacation home after her father’s sudden death and her mother’s deployment to Iraq as an army nurse. Lonely for her father and petrified for her mother’s safety, Arden dreads her trip to the house in Sardinia—the only place that has truly felt like home to her. So when she meets a group of fun, carefree, and careless friends on their summer break, she decides to put off her trip and join them to sample the sights and culinary delights of Europe. Soon they are climbing the Eiffel Tower, taking in the French countryside on a train chugging toward the Alps, and gazing at Michelangelo’s David in Florence, all the while eating gelato and sipping cappuccino. Arden tries to forget about the danger her mom faces every day, to pretend she’s just like the rest of the girls, flirting with cute European guys and worried only about where to party next.
But the house in Sardinia beckons and she has to make a choice. Is Arden ready to jump off the high dive?”

Tammar graciously answered my questions by email from her home in Florida. Here’s my interview with her:

Tammar Stein photo

Tammar Stein

Can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you decided to become a writer?

TS: Basically, I love to read. I will read anything, anytime, anywhere. When I was in high school and trying to decide what I wanted to be when I grew up, I figured that I couldn’t be a reader and be paid for it. Being a novelist seemed like the next best thing.

I know you’ve lived in several countries and different states as well. Do you have one place you long to go back to and live there again?

TS: When I lived in Europe, after a couple of years I was very homesick. I missed the US and a lot of the cultural difference that I found cute when I arrived, I suddenly found very irritating. That’s when I knew it was time to come home. But now that I’ve been back in the States for seven years, I’m ready for a new international adventure.

What do you like about living in Florida, and do you think you’ll be on the move again anytime soon?

TS: I love Florida, especially now in November. The high is 82 today! From late October through late April is just amazing here. The orange trees are heavy with fruit and in February their blossoms fill the air the most amazing scent.

In Light Years, Maya leaves her native Israel after her boyfriend is killed by a suicide bomber to attend college in the U.S. How easy or difficult was it for you to write about two very different cultures?

TS: It was fun! People from different cultures will notice things that long time residents just take for granted. It’s very illuminated to talk with a foreigner, their different point of view and reference points can make you question the status quo. As a novelist, bringing in a stranger can help showcase things that otherwise would be awkward to bring up.

What do you see are some of the biggest cultural differences between life in the two countries?

TS: Well in some ways they’re very similar—progressive and Western. Israelis are more likely to speak their mind, there’s less polite lip-service. There’s a very strong culture of hospitality there, as well. If you’re ever invited to an Israeli’s home, you can count on a huge spread—more food that you can possibly eat and a lot of fussing over you.

In Israel, two years of service to the state after high school is mandatory. Do you think that idea would ever work here in the U.S.? What do you see as the biggest advantages and disadvantages of mandatory service?

TS: We all cherish the things we worked hardest for. Being forced to take care of your country, to give up your time and energy and really dedicate yourself to making your country a better, safer place will make people love their country more in the end. I also think that putting off college for 2 years is a good thing. A lot of people just aren’t ready for serious study and a break from high school is just the thing they need for perspective and maturity. The military teaches you discipline and leadership, both are needed qualities for success.

That said, I like the European model for mandatory service better. You can choose between going into the military or civil service: teaching in schools, working in hospitals, or national parks. The military really isn’t for everyone, this would give everyone a chance to go where they can really shine.

Maya is a strong, independent character in many ways. Do you see a lot of yourself in her?

TS: I don’t know. I think there’s something of me in every character—they came from my brain after all. Maybe the best way to think of it is that Maya is who I could have been if I had made different choices in my life. But so is Arden (from High Dive) and the two of them are very different.

What kind of research did you conduct for Light Years?

TS: I interviewed IDF members, particularly women. I visited Israel several times. And I read what I could get my hands on regarding Israeli/Palestinian relations, suicide bombers, and grief counseling.

Your second book, High Dive, also features a main character who doesn’t want to face tragic events in her life. What do you hope to convey to readers about moving beyond tragedy to create a life after an event?

TS: It’s a hard thing to do. That’s what I find so fascinating about it. Julia Glass once said that all great novels deal with the same thing: the heart in conflict with itself. I completely agree with that. How do you get over something traumatic? How do you forgive yourself? How do you trust in the future? Maya and Arden both stumble, making their way through those minefields. I think everyone has to find their own way, but friendship and love always help.

Is there anything else you’d like to say to MotherDaughter Book Club.com readers?

TS: Read! There’s nothing as wonderful as a good book, except a good book you can discuss with your loved ones.

Visit Tammar Stein’s website for more information about her and her books.

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