Library & Literary Miscellany

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky (hardcover 2006, softcover 2007)

Suite Francaise requires slow and careful reading in order to appreciate its scope, its historical significance, and its range of human characters and emotions. Suite Française—comprising the first two parts of a planned five-part novel—succeeds as a piece of literature that probes the heights and depths of human nature.

Suite Francaise’s first part, ‘Storm in June,’ details the characters’ hasty departure from Paris in the summer of 1940. The second part, ‘Dolce,’ details life in a German occupied French village. In each of these parts, Nemirovsky weaves together multiple stories seamlessly so that readers recognize that while the experience of war does look different depending on one’s angle–whether it be victor or vanquished–war has long-lasting, deleterious effects on all who come within its inexorable reach.

Characters from Part 1 (such as the family Pericands, writer Gabriel Corte, gas-thief Charles Langelet, the bank employee Michauds) and from Part 2 (such as Lucile Angellier and her mother-in-law, their live-in German commander Bruno von Falk, and Benoît and Madeleine Sabarie) each have his or her moral fiber tested to the breaking point (and, in many cases, broken) by the war.

In both parts, Nemirovsky juxtaposes extraordinary scenic beauty and human cruelty. She shows the raw and ranging emotion experienced by all individuals touched by the war–fear and resignation, contempt and compassion, narcissism and selflessness, revenge and forgiveness, hate and love. Suite Francaise’s poignancy and tragedy is augmented by its author’s fate; in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz. Irene Nemirovsky died a month later at the age of thirty-nine leaving the world with only story fragments and plot outlines of the remaining three pieces of her masterpiece.

For more works by Nemirovsky, 2007 saw the publishing of Fire in the Blood a posthumously published work that also speaks to village life in France (albeit pre-war this time) as well as to the human condition.

As a side note, IMDB lists Suite Francaise as possibly being a future 2009 movie. There’s really no information available at the link, but I thought I’d point it out as something to be watching for anyway.

As a second side note, I am a big fan of Metacritic as a source of media reviews (and as a source for my own what do I read, view, listen to next). You will find that Suite Francaise tops the list of all-time highest book reviews scores with 95 out of 100. An incredible score for an incredible, significant work.

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The Body of Christopher Creed by Carol Plum-Ucci (hardcover 2000, softcover 2001)

Torey Adams: “When perfect lives come crashing down, some people say they come down with a vengeance. The more perfect the life, the more complete the destruction…I seem to remember the theory that we’re all dealt fifty-two cards by the end of our lives. If you get all aces in the beginning, you have a greater chance of getting your twos and threes in rapid succession later…For sixteen years I had a perfect life. I got my share of twos or three in the weeks following the corpse.”

Torey Adams is on the list–the list of guys with perfect lives according to Christopher Creed’s enigmatic suicide/disappearance letter. Torey narrates the novel as he recounts the events following Christopher Creed’s disappearance. Christopher’s disappearance, the disappearance of a kids that had previously only received attention when he was being picked on or beaten up, has gripped the attention of the entire town of Steepleton, New Jersey.

Torey is puzzled by Christopher’s perception that he’s one of the guys with a perfect life. Before Christopher’s disappearance, Torey accepted without question the division between the affluent “in” kids and the outsider “boons” (so named for their residence in the boondocks). After Christopher’s disappearance, Torey begins to question the labels that kids stick on other kids (in this book, the main labels under consideration are boon and slut). As Torey tries to understand life through Christopher’s eyes, he begins to see Steepleton’s (and his own) hypocrisy, injustice, arrogance, and heartlessness toward those on the outside of “cool”.

In his quest for understanding and self-pardon, Torey forms an unlikely friendship with Bo “boon” Richardson and Ali “slut” McDermott. Each for his or her own reasons, together they delve into Christopher’s disappearance. The trio are caught in their attempt to retrieve Christopher’s diary from his room, and their investigation ends up having repercussions for the entire town. Steepleton’s secrets, scandals, and mysteries of the past are brought out into the open

Basically, Plum-Ucci is plumbing the depths of teen angst and arrogance, superficial behavior, insidious social cliques, and personal responsibility. Christopher’s disappearance brings Steepleton to its knees and makes it clear that words and actions have consequences. She also includes ideas about withholding judgment of others. Christopher’s harshest critics and abusers would not have been so quick to do him harm if they had first stopped to take a long, hard look at themselves.

This book reminds me quite a bit of Gail Giles’ What Happened to Cass McBride? in the whole “be careful what you say and do for it impacts those around you and may come back to haunt you” sort of way. The Body of Christopher Creed is by no means light reading, and it is recommended by its publishers (and by Publisher’s Weekly) for young adults 12+ (Note: I appended this sentence on December 01 as Renay from the-book-ninja.org pointed out my wording was poor, thanks Renay).

While the book may engender some challenges (discussion and/or action related to suicide, sex, and violence are all included in the book), the overall message is an important one for young people (and all people) to understand–treat others with the respect they deserve as fellow human beings.

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Anne Boles Levy (Book Buds blogger) presented on book reviewing at the Kidlitosphere conference in October. She has recently published a synopsis of this presentation in Foreward Magazine’s Shelf Space entitled Basic Reviewing for the Advanced Blogger (the article is not only a synopsis of her presentation but also a re-write of an earlier post of hers on Book Buds about her presentation).

Basically, she argues in support of writing reviews that contribute to what former Los Angeles Times book review editor Steve Wasserman called “a cultural conversation of critical importance.” She writes:

I took it to mean that no book exists in a vacuum. It’s part of a genre or it breaks from it; it’s typical of the author’s work or it’s a departure; it’s of the moment or reminiscent of another era. It has its hyper-specific niche or is part of a movement. There’s always a larger something or other to say about it, and a reviewer’s job is to pin that something, as nebulous and slippery as a jellyfish, to the wall

She advises reviewers regarding Capsule Reviews, Daily Reviews, and the Long Form. Her article is worth reading for it includes sagacious reviewing advice such as the necessary reminders of what to do (have a theme and something to say) and what not to do (avoid excessive plot rehash and vacuous “I liked/disliked it” statements without placing them in any sort of context) in a review. Plus, it’s always enjoyable to read a well-written argument.

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Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin (2006)

“Above all, mine is a love story. And like most love stories, this one involves chance, gravity, a dash of head trauma.”

Remember the last four years of your life? Naomi doesn’t. The summer before her junior year of high school, Naomi lost a coin toss, was designated to go back to get the yearbook camera, and fell with the camera down the school stairs. Upon waking, the last four years of her life are gone from her memory. Gone are her memories of her parents’ divorce, her half-sister Chloe, her best friend Will, and her boyfriend Ace. Most significantly, gone is her sense of identity.

On the one hand, talk about your major bummer. On the other hand, this absence of memory and identity gives Naomi the chance start fresh and build her identity anew. Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac is the story of a girl who sets about redefining herself in the face of complete and utter blank regarding her identity.

To begin creating herself anew, Naomi sets about discovering clues to who she formerly was. Her main source of information regarding her former self is her best friend Will (who somewhat abstrusely has nicknamed her Chief). Her father also tries to help her by making a list. Along the way, she discovers useful information such as she has a boyfriend, owns birth control pills, keeps a food diary, and co-edits the yearbook. Post-head trauma Naomi is not sure she knows who this girl is. Even when her memory returns, Naomi’s relationships and Naomi herself remain changed.

Three guys–who sometimes confuse and sometimes illuminate aspects of her identity–loom large in Naomi’s life. She can’t really remember what she saw in Ace, although he does play a mean game of tennis and provides her with an “in” to the popular crowd. She just met James after the accident, so she is free to build this relationship anew; she feels a strong attraction to James and to his mercurial moods. And then there’s Will—Will, her best friend, fellow yearbook editor, maker of mix takes, and the one who just may be best positioned to help her discover the Naomi she wants to become.

I was, I am, and I will are the three parts of Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac. Zevin’s story is about the process of becoming. Throughout Naomi’s self-discover process, the novel does include teen drinking, smoking, references to attempted suicide (wrist-cutting technique) and past sex. None of these issues are the main focus however, as Zevin is using them as tools to explore her themes of memory, love, and identity. She writes about the bond to the past, the depth of friendship, and the resilience of the human spirit.

Even though our own lives are not likely to offer the same opportunity as Naomi’s life did to fully erase and start over re-creating our identities and relationships, Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac serves as a necessary reminder (how ironic) that each new day offers a fresh beginning with opportunities to make new choices.

Need another book?

For further exploring the rediscovery of relationships and reinvention of self: I Was a Teenage Popsicle by Bev Katz Rosenbaum

For further exploration of the formation of identity and teen trauma: Someday this Pain will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron

For further exploration of love and loss by Gabrielle Zevin herself: Elsewhere.

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Skullduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy (hardcover 2007)

When Stephanie Edgerley’s rich, eccentric Uncle Gordan dies and leaves her his estate, Stephanie learns that his horror fiction may have been based on experience. As Stephanie finds herself pursued by evil forces intent on recovering a mysterious key, she does what most of us would do—she finds help.

Only Stephanie’s help comes in the form of the skeleton of a dead wizard-detective, otherwise known as Skullduggery Pleasant (the skull being borrowed once he lost his own, of course). When Stephanie discovers that Skullduggery is pursuing her Uncle’s murderer and that her Uncle was killed because the murderer desires to appropriate this magical key, she insists for coming along for the ride. The ride, however, proves to be anything but smooth.

Skullduggery, Stephanie, and crew have to defeat the evil Serpine (aka murderer of beloved Uncle and overall bad guy) before Serpine gets to the book of names. The original characters (mainly Skulduggery and Stephanie but also the secondary characters) and the witty dialogue between them strengthen the basic good-triumphs-over-evil plot.

Despite Skulduggery Pleasant’s comedic flair, gruesome deaths/torture/fight scenes are embedded in the story making the book more suitable for older readers (although some label the book for Ages 9-12 and some younger readers may be ready for it).

When you come to the last page and the world has been saved and you breathe a sigh of relief, take heart (and be thankful you still have one, unlike Skullduggery). Rumors have circulated that Skullduggery and Stephanie will partner up for a sequel, and, in lieu of that, there’s always the Skullduggery Pleasant website where you can wile away a few hours.

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Ajaxflakes has a handy list of 100+ Web 2.0 online generators. Not only are many of these generators easy to use (and free!) but also they can be very useful in creating images for your own website or blog.

I recommend taking a look at the whole list so that you can pick the tools that will be most useful to you, but to give you an idea of the list’s possibilities, here are just a few images that I quickly generated:

Web 2.0 badges: choose you own badge shape (round, spiky, and more, oh my) and colors and add some text

My Cool Button: 4 steps (setup size, setup color, setup icon, and setup font) to your own 2.0 button

Adam Kalsey’s Button Maker: decide what words and colors you want on each side of your square button and it’s easily done (mine says contact me as you will see)

So many tools, so little time. Fortunately, these tools are meant to save you time by obviating the need to create such images from scratch! Feel free to leave comments with any and all tools that you’ve found useful in designing/enhancing your own website.

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The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (hardcover 2006, softcover 2007)

Mythology, storytelling, books in general—these topics are paramount in the lives of the characters of The Thirteenth Tale. “All children mythologize their birth” begins the prologue of Vida Winter’s collection of tales Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation, a collection from which the thirteenth tale is inexplicably missing.

When young reclusive, literature lover and biographer Margaret Lea meets older, master storyteller Vida Winter, the secrets of the thirteenth tale that have lived buried in the past for so long are inexorably brought to bear on the present. Both women have secrets and both women are longing for a chance to share those secrets. Their outlet comes in the eccentric relationship that develops between them; in this relationship, they find empathy and understanding as they share their secrets with each other and, in so doing, set the truth free.

Margaret agrees to become Vida’s biographer, if and only if, Vida tell her the truth. Vida, a consummate storyteller has given myriad versions of her life to many other news seekers. However, this time Vida agrees that she will relate only truth. As Vida begins telling her story, the past and the present begin to coalesce. This story-within-a-story gothic tale lays bear truths of familial bonds, of destructive relationships, of loves and of losses that, in the end, cannot stamp out the strength of the human spirit.

The Thirteenth Tale delves deep into the past as it draws upon gothic constructs to revive the past—beginning with the strangeness encompassing the Angelfield family—from the sadistic and masochistic proclivities of siblings Charlie and Isabelle passing forward onto Isabelle’s equally unstable twins Adeline and Emmeline. To add to the gothic ambience, Setterfield throws in ghosts, orphans, mental illness, lunatic asylums, destroyed gardens, a downtrodden estate, a wily governess, a wise but aging housekeeper and gardener, and a fatal fire with cataclysmic consequences.

Margaret’s meticulous research and relentless observation imbues a sense of reality and forthcoming answers into the mysterious plot. Setterfield’s novel has a touch of Jane Eyre-like creepiness and insanity smattered with a sprinkling of Rebecca-like mystery.

Words, both true and untrue, are shown to have powerful and lasting effects on life. Setterfield’s masterfully layered novel requires careful attention in order to understand the truths about human nature and the continuing relevance of the past to the present that she buries within The Thirteenth Tale.

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A Drowned Maiden’s Hair: a Melodrama by Laura Amy Schlitz

In general, it’s a part of being human to go to great lengths to be loved and accepted. How far would you go? For Maud Flynn, the question of how much to compromise herself in order to be loved becomes extremely pertinent after she is adopted by the Hawthorne sisters.
It’s 1909, and high-spirited Maud has lived at the overcrowded, prison-like Barbary Asylum for Female Orphans for many years. It’s little wonder that she jumps at the opportunity to be adopted. She is sure her adoption will mean freedom from the persecution and isolation imposed on her by the superintendent of the Barbary Asylum. Unexpectedly, Maud enters a new and different sort of prison–a sort of spiritual and mental entrapment–from which she will have to use all of her character and willpower to escape without forgetting who she is.

Even as Maud trades in her daily gruel for toast and bacon, her grubby asylum uniform for multiple beautiful dresses, and the smelly outhouse for the wonders of indoor plumbing, she begins to suspect that there is more to her new life than its surface perfection. After all, it is a bit suspicious that her new caretakers don’t want anyone to know of her existence and, thus, make her remain upstairs for many hours each day (on the positive side, she does get a large portion of reading done, including reading Little Lord Fauntleroy multiple times).

Maud’s caretakers, the three Hawthorne sisters (aka spinsters), have chosen a somewhat unconventional (and somewhat unethical and illegal) means of sustaining themselves in the manner to which they’ve become accustomed. They are false spiritualists who hold séances to trick the relatives of the dead out of money. Maud is faced with the realization that they did not adopt her out of the goodness of their hearts; instead, they adopted her because they needed her to take part in the séances.

Out of Hyacinth, Victoria, and Judith Hawthorne, Maud particularly longs for the love of Hyacinth. Hyacinth, capable only of self-love, uses Maud’s hunger for love and drags Maud further into the treachery and trickery of the seances.

To enter into Schlitz’s tale is to enter into a story of secrets and séances, of humans passed on and humans left behind, of self-love and selfless love. Multiple séances are held throughout the story, a necessity given the plot, but worth mentioning as a source of potential objection to the tale. Really, though, the paranormal elements provide the foundation for the novel’s probing questions that each of us must come to terms with–life, death, life after death, life after loss.

Given Hyacinth’s hold over Maud, it seems impossible that a happy ending will prevail for anyone in this Gothic paranormal tale. Yet, even as Maud begins to play out her role in the séances, she becomes increasingly unsettled about the repercussions of her actions on others, particularly as she begins developing relationships outside the Hawthorne sisters. In particular, Maud’s relationship with the deaf servant Muffet is poignant and plausibe. Maud desperately needs Muffet’s steadfast love–a love without performance conditions–in order to break free of Hyacinth’s conditional love. Hyacinth tries to convince Maud that they are doing relatives a service through their false spiritualism and seances, but Maud comes to see the false hopes that it sets up for the living relatives and the devastating effects the trickery has on those relatives.

Hyacinth soon learns that she picked the wrong orphan to pick on. Maud’s fighting spirit is present from the beginning (as the novel opens, Maud has been incarcerated in the outhouse (again), and she is singing the Battle Hymn of the Republic). Despite Maud’s being cowed into submission for a time by the fear of Hyacinth’s withdrawal of approval, her resilient spirit and sense of right and wrong come to the fore in the novel’s climax.

Schlitz’ fast-paced novel has depth, raising questions without providing answers about personal responsibility, morality, and eternity. A Drowned Maiden’s Hair: A Melodrama, Schlitz’ first novel, won the Cybil Award for Middle Grade Fiction in 2006.

Read alike: How it Happened on Peach Hill by Marthe Jocelyn

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Jacketflap is a community where children’s literature writers, illustrators, librarians, agents, editors, publicists, and publishers can gather and discuss myriad aspects/resources related to children’s literature. Jacketflap has some great offerings such as the searchable database and the members’ bookshelves (read more about Jacketflap’s resources on the About Us page).

More recently, Jacketflap has developed a couple of neat tools for kidlitosphere bloggers and blog readers (I first became familiar with these resources through the post at Book Bud (thanks much)). Since these are cool tools with high utility, I want to briefly highlight the blog portal and the Cybils widget…

About the Jacketflap megablog portal:

The Jacketflap megablog portal collocates the most recent posts from all the kidlitosphere blogs that are currently indexed by the Jacketflap Blog Reader (over 580 as of this posting). It’s a helpful resource for keeping up with keeping up (not to mention the entertainment factor). Jacketflap provides the following navigation tips:

Click the dates in the calendar on the left to view blog posts from a particular date. Scroll down through the list of Recent Posts in the left column and click on a post title that sounds interesting. Click a tag in the right column to view posts about that topic. You can view all posts from a specific blog by clicking the Blog name in the right column, or you can click a “More Posts from this Blog” link in any individual post.

About the customizable Cybils widget:

The Cybils Widget displays a different Cybils 2007 nominee every time it loads on your website. There are links where your site visitors can visit the Cybils website and to buy the nominated book on Amazon or a local bookstore (via Booksense).

I included the widget in this post, but I’ve also placed it on my blog’s right sidebar (at least for the time being).

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Moxy Maxwell Does not Love Stuart Little by Peggy Gifford photographs by Valorie Fisher

In which a brief review is made regarding the book’s merit as children’s literature and in which the book is not compared to Stuart Little.

For the entire summer, Stuart Little (a mere 144 page mouse of a book) has been the albatross around Moxy Maxwell’s neck. Stuart Little was assigned as Moxy’s summer reading. Moxy’s teacher, Mr. Flamingo, plans to quiz the incoming fourth graders over the book’s content on the first day of school (which, incidentally, is tomorrow…nothing like waiting until the last minute).

Fortunately, Moxy does love to read. Unfortunately, Moxy does not love to be told what to read. While her twin brother Mark finished Stuart Little immediately at summer’s glorious beginning, Moxy has left her own reading for summer’s uncelebrated end (although there does happen to be an impending celebration Moxy is hoping to attend…).

Really, though, Moxy has tried. Her copy has gone with her everywhere. It even looks read (being a little worse for the wear due to contact with pool water and lemonade), but the book remains indubitably unread as the final day to complete the assignment begins.

In Moxy’s purview, she’s not not reading it, it’s just that the book is a perfect fit for those in-between moments (of which her mother points out, Moxy has very few). Moxy is a busy nine-year-old with commitments–she keeps quite busy perfecting her part of the eight flower petal synchronized swimming team, training dogs, and cleaning her room—not to mention finding time for constructing brilliant pay-for-college and establish a career path peach growing plans on the side.

The last straw for her mother is the accidental drowning of her prizewinning Dahlias; the last straw for Moxy is facing her mother’s “consequences”–it’s bye-bye to the “Goodbye to Summer Splash” party for Moxy. Instead of a party and cake, it’s Stuart Little and graham crackers for Moxy on the eve of the new school year. At long last (and in the nick of time), Moxy grits her teeth and opens Stuart Little, and she is pleasantly surprised with what she finds inside (much like readers who pick up Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little will be).

Moxy Maxwell Does Not love Stuart Little takes readers right along through the whole of D-Day and through Moxy’s feelings about mandated reading (something which many young readers will easily relate to). Moxy’s story is a quick read—the chapters are short (some being less than one page long) and numerous photographs with captions are interspersed to break up the text. The photographs are ostensibly the result of Mark’s documentation of Moxy’s struggle with Stuart Little, and they support the story’s action.

The concise text and the generous photographs make this a perfect pick for reluctant or struggling readers. Perhaps Moxy would even enjoy reading her book, that is, at least, if you did not force her to do so. While Moxy Maxwell may not start out loving Stuart Little (and in the end she finds out she does), Peggy Gifford and Valorie Fisher have nonetheless written a paean to reading, children’s literature, and perhaps even to the continued joys of reading classics like Stuart Little (although perhaps not so much to required reading). Plus, Moxy’s great energy and big plans may encourage readers to believe in themselves and their own dreams.

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