Library & Literary Miscellany

The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean (2007)

“The transporter room aboard the starship Enterprise is rubbish in comparison with a little child’s imagination.”

Sym’s fourteen now, but she feels the same way about imagination. After her father’s death, her imagination becomes an even more vigorous coping mechanism, and she brings to life in her mind her deceased Antarctic explorer hero, Captain Titus Oates (Wikipedia entry: Captain Lawrence “Titus” Oates).

When Sym tells her classmates that she’s happy imagining, they label her the mad girl–sad, frigid, and mad. Her response: “So that’s when I sealed myself inside. Laced up the tent, so to speak. Filled the locks with water so that they would freeze. That’s when Titus and I looked at each other and decided we could do without them, as long as we had each other”.

Sym’s got Titus for support but she’s also got her Uncle Victor and her mom. Her Uncle Victor is the one who got Sym hooked on all things Antarctic. When he surprises her with an Antarctic expedition (unbeknownst to her mother), she’s thrilled…at first.

From there, the plot darkens–survival is a constant battle and love and trust are concepts that were left behind in civilization. As Sym puts it, “I felt wiser now. Though sometimes a dose of enlightenment tastes a lot like swallowing bleach.” Sym receives many such doses of enlightenment from the moment she begins traveling with her Uncle, each dose hitting her viscerally and leaving her reeling and feeling utterly alone on the Ice Shelf. The fact that she continues to put one foot in front of the other as the mysteries of her life unravel and lay bear disturbing truths shows admirable strength of character.

The White Darkness stands out as a young adult novel that’s lyrically and inventively written and that crosses multiple genres–adventure, survival, thriller, mystery, psychological fiction, and coming of age. The setting has a prominent role as much of the novel’s action springboards off the physical circumstances. Sym’s internal journey and struggles parallel nicely with the external perils.

It’s a gripping story that includes some historical (mainly about former expeditions to the South Pole) and factual detail (did you know that penguins stink?) along the way. McCaughrean’s remarkable story was recently recognized as such when it won the 2008 Michael L. Printz Award.

Quote to ponder:

“It’s true: Everyone needs a reason to stay alive–someone who justifies your existence. Someone who loves you. Not beyond all reason. Just loves you. Even just shows an interest. Even someone who doesn’t exist, or isn’t yours. No, no! They don’t even have to love you! They just have to be there to love! Target for your arrows. Magnetic Pole to drag on your compass needle and stop it spinning and spinning and tell you where you’re heading and…someone to soak up all the yearning. That’s what I think. That’s what I deduce.”

For readers who enjoy survival stories a few other books to try include the following:

Nonfiction:

• The Coldest March: Scott’s Fatal Antarctic Expedition by Susan Solomon
• The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition by Caroline Alexander
• Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
• Left for Dead: A Young Man’s Search for Justice for the USS Indianapolis by Pete Nelson
• Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why by Laurence Gonzales; Fire Fighters: Stories of Survival from the Front Lines of Firefighting by Clint Willis
• In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick
• Survive: Stories of Castaways and Cannibals by Nate Hardcastle (includes fiction and non-fiction)

Fiction:

• Blizzard’s Wake by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
• Overboard by Elizabeth Fama
• Storm Catchers by Tim Bowler
• My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
• Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Alden Carter
• The Shark Callers by Eric Campbell
• A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer
• Wild Man Island by Will Hobbs (and other works by Hobbs)
• The Wreckers by Iain Lawrence (and other works by Lawrence)
• Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen
• Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden
• Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer
• Hatchet by Gary Paulsen (and other works by Paulsen)
• Holes by Louis Sachar
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy (post-apocalyptic adult fiction)

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Leepike Ridge by N.D. Wilson (2007)

“‘I don’t know where to start,’ Tom said.

‘According to some people, the beginning is a good place.’

Tom puffed his cheeks. The beginning? His day dying. Jeffrey Veatch chasing his mom. Refrigerator deliverymen. Packing foam.”

At eleven years old, Tom already has quite a few stories to tell. Leepike Ridge is just a piece of Tom’s story–Tom’s life after his father’s death. It’s his life with his mother in their home on top of a rock in which he misses his father terribly and loathes his mother’s new boyfriend Jeffrey Veatch. And it’s his struggle to survive and to find the light again when he is pulled underwater metaphorically by the weight of his burdens and also literally by the current.

This struggle for survival begins in earnest when Tom decides to ride the packing foam down the local stream in the middle of the night (he can’t sleep after being informed that his mother is “considering” Jeffrey’s proposal). Tom awakens to being pulled underwater into a series of underground caverns from which there is seemingly no escape. This fact becomes all the more trenchant when Tom meets Reg, a man who has been stuck underground for three years with little light, with negligible diet variation (crawdads, crawdads, and more crawdads), and with no company save for the occasional visit from a partially lame canine named Argus. Reg tells Tom of his underground lair, “The hard part wasn’t finding this place; that was an accident. The hard part is staying alive, wanting to stay alive when you can’t get back out.”

Yet, together Tom and Reg (and Argus the dog) help each other to hope and to search for a way out. Reg tells Tom, “If you die trying, I’ll die alongside you. It would be a nice change of pace from firelight and pasty-looking crawdads.”

Above ground, Tom’s mother Elizabeth refuses to give up hope that Tom’s still alive. In searching for Tom, she discovers that her husband’s death may not have been accidental. Throw in a villainous group of men who pretend to search for Tom but are actually searching for treasure and who will stop at nothing to get their hands on it and a sinister dimension is added to an already gripping mystery-survival story. N.D. Wilson’s first novel for young children is a riveting adventure that cries out to have its pages turned to the very end in order to find out whether Tom will ever again see the light of day.

Fans of adventure-survival stories like those of Gary Paulsen, Will Hobbs, Harry Mazer, and Jean Craighead George (as well as fans of the more classic adventure authors such as Daniel Defoe, Robert Louis Stevenson, and H. Rider Haggard) will likely feel they’ve struck gold in reading Leepike Ridge.

Takeaway quote:

Reg: “After three years down here, I’ve not learned too much. But one thing I do know is that our bellies aren’t big enough for revenge. It turns sour and eats you up. We’ll get out, but we’ll get out for the sun, the moon, and mothers, not for small-souled enemies, though we’ll deal with them when we get there.”

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The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian (2007)

Double Bind (definition from Dictionary.com)

n. A psychological impasse created when contradictory demands are made of an individual, such as a child or an employee, so that no matter which directive is followed, the response will be construed as incorrect.

Laurel Estabrook is nineteen years old when her life is irrevocably altered by a brutal attack. She was riding her bicycle on the roads of Underhill, Vermont when the attack happened, and she has subsequently given up bicycle riding and she avoids any and all mention of Underhill. Not only does she give up bicycling, but she also withdraws from life in many other respects. She occupies herself with “safe” pursuits–her photography and her work at BEDS, a homeless shelter in Burlington. It is at BEDS that Laurel meets the fifty-six-year-old transient Bobbie Crocker.

Bobbie’s claims of past fame were regarded as those of a mentally ill man when he was alive. It is not until his death when he is discovered to possess a photograph collection that supports his claims. BEDS workers (Laurel, in particular) begin to wonder who Bobbie was and where he came from. The collection contains old photographs with famous people–musicians, sculptors, and more–as well as more recent photographs from Underhill. Mysteriously, a few of the photographs show a dirt road and a girl on a bike. Also in the collection are photos of a mansion–the home of Pamela Buchanan Marshfield, daughter of Tom and Daisy Buchanan of The Great Gatsby fame.

Bohjalian’s complex and enigmatic intertwining of the stories of Laurel, Bobbie, and Pamela renders the ending as a surprise but also as an ending that, in retrospect, makes complete sense. He augments the significance and mystery of his story by playing off the plot of The Great Gatsby such that as Laurel digs into Bobby’s past the secrets of the Buchanans become increasingly central.

If you like psychological thrillers where you have to dig and keep reading to uncover the real story, then Bohjalian’s The Double Bind will be a good pick. The book does skip among characters and perspectives and time frames, so it can be confusing. In the end, you may still not know what constitutes the real story, but through turning the pages of Laurel’s story you may have an increased insight into the dire straits of the homeless, the vulnerability of the mental ill, and the long lasting scars from past trauma.

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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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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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The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart (2007)

“Are You a Gifted Child looking for Special Opportunities?” reads the newspaper advertisement.

Reynard “Reynie” Muldoon, George “Sticky” Washington, Kate Wetherall (The Great Kate Weather Machine), Constance Contraire, and many other children answer “yes” to this ad and go to the specified location.

Once there they all embark on a series of bizarre tests from which only the four clever orphans–Reynie, Sticky, Kate, and Constance–emerge successful. These four solve the exams using their own particular skills and talents. Reynie puzzles out the answers, Sticky uses his eidetic memory, Kate employs her physical and problem-solving prowess, and Constance, out of plain old stubbornness, just won’t give up.

So begins the “only you can save mankind” story of the four children in The Mysterious Benedict Society. Mr. Benedict, the genius behind the newspaper ad and the bizarre tests, sends these four heroic youngsters to L.I.V.E. (Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened). At L.I.V.E., they are on their own (except for Morse code messages back and forth with Mr. Benedict) where they must navigate the school’s abstruse rules and cruel punishments in order to hoodwink their opponents and uncover the truth behind the diabolical plan.

As the plan is brought to light, it becomes clear that foiling this take-over-the-world via mind control and memory sweeping plan will require that they employ their unique gifts to work as a team–the Mysterious Benedict Society. Mr. Benedict tells the children, “You are a team now. Whether you always agree is inconsequential, but you must take care of one another, must rely upon one another in all things. I don’t exaggerate when I say that every one of you is essential to the success of the team, and indeed, to the fate of us all. You must remember that.” He also reminds these orphans, “…family is often born of blood, but it doesn’t depend on blood…best friends, whether or not they are related to you, can be your family.”

Many elements combine to make this book succeed as children’s literature—flawed heroes, difficult choices, fears, abandonment, absent parents, control, competence, secret signals, codes, mistaken identity, humor, friendship, and its multi-genre appeal (combining aspects of the adventure, science fiction, mystery, espionage, survival, suspense, gothic, humor, and school story, and happily ever after genres into a coherent whole).

Stewart includes many prevalent children’s literature themes. A group of loyal friends, absent parents, and a school setting (think J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, Jenny Nimmo’s Charlie Bone series, and, to some extent, Kirsten Miller’s Kiki Strike series), puzzles and wordplay (think Blue Balliett’s Chasing Vermeer and Wright 3 and Peter Abrahams’ Echo Falls Mysteries), and unusual humor (think Lemony Snickett’s Series of Unfortunate Events, Louis Sachar’s Wayside School series, Deny Cazet’s Minnie and Moo series, and Roald Dahl’s oeuvre). Members of the Mysterious Benedict Society learn to value family and friends, teamwork, and facing one’s fears. The work even has a bit of 1984/Fahrenheit 451-like discourse regarding freedom, conformity, individuality, and government/corporate control of the masses.

While the ending may strike some as being a bit too expedient and neat, since everyone gets a separate happy ending, the happy ending is arguably deserved after the full book of struggle and real danger (being fond of happy endings myself, I overlooked the unlikelihood of some of the occurrences).

Ultimately, as a first novel for Trenton Lee Stewart, The Mysterious Benedict Society will find many fans across ages and genres. Individuals learn that everyone has talents and choices and can make a difference in whatever society they are a part of—whether that be the Mysterious Benedict Society or otherwise.

My favorite passage from the book (context: one of the bad gals explaining the “logic” of the rules at L.I.V.E.):

“It sounds like there are no rules here at all,” Sticky said.

“That’s true, George,” said Jillson. “Virtually none, in fact. You can wear whatever you want, just so long as you have on trousers, shoes, and a shirt. You can bathe as often as you like or not at all, provided you’re clearn every day in class. You can eat wheatever and whenever you want, so long as it’s during meal hours in the cafeteria. You’re allowed to keep the lights on in your rooms as late as you wish until ten o’clock each night. And you can go wherever you want around the Institute, so long as you keep to the paths and the yellow tiled corridors.”

“Actually,” Reynie observed, “those all sound like rules.”

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