Review of Beyond Magenta, by Susan Kuklin

Current Issues, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

beyond_magenta_largeBeyond Magenta

Transgender Teens Speak Out

written and photographed by Susan Kuklin

Candlewick Press, 2014. 182 pages.
Starred Review
Stonewall Honor Book, 2015.

I checked out this book after it won a Stonewall Honor. It looked interesting, but I had a lot of books to read, and I figured this one didn’t really apply to me, and wasn’t really anything I needed to know about, so I turned it back in. (Oh such arrogance!) Then this summer, my 27-year-old son told me they were changing gender, so now they are my daughter. When I got home, one of the first things I did was check out this book.

Whether you have such a personal connection or not, this book helps you see the world through other people’s eyes. I think one reason some have a problem with transgender people is a failure of empathy, and an inability to even imagine how someone could possibly want to be identified as anything other than the gender they were assigned at birth. This book goes a long way toward helping the reader understand.

The author tells the stories, with photos, of six individuals. She chose a diverse group of teens and young adults. She uses the highlighted individual’s actual words from in-depth interviews, interspersed with her own narration.

There’s a great deal of variety in the people featured, their gender expressions, their ethnicities, their backgrounds, and their ways of telling their stories. I like the way the book finishes up with a poet-performer.

Most of all, I wish I had read this book before I had such a personal reason. This is a book of people’s stories. Those stories are far outside my experience. As I try to understand their stories, I believe I grow as a person in empathy and compassion.

Yes, transgender people are in the news and popular culture more than ever before. I’m coming to realize that I may have been encountering many without even knowing it. I love that this book gives a group of transgender teens a voice. It helps others know that they are not alone, and helps cisgender folks understand that those who are different are people, too, people with hopes and dreams and interesting loves and lives.

And even if it weren’t for the timely topic, this book is an outstanding work of art in the way it presents these six lives.

I like what the first featured individual has to say:

When most trans men go through transition, they don’t want anything to do with femininity. They don’t want anything to do with being a woman. They just want to be completely accepted in the straight world. When I first started my transition, I wanted it to be complete, from one side to the other. But now I’m embracing my in-between-ness. I’m embracing this whole mix I have inside myself. And I’m happy. So forget the category. Just talk to me. Get to know me.

This book is a way to do that, to see the people under the outward appearance.

candlewick.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Swan, by Laurel Snyder

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

swan_largeSwan

The Life and Dance of Anna Pavlova

by Laurel Snyder
illustrated by Julie Morstad

Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 2015. 48 pages.
Starred Review

This is an evocative, poetic, and beautiful picture book biography of the great ballerina, Anna Pavlova.

The actual text is short on details and long on atmosphere, but it gets the story across. A well-written, still mellifluous Author’s Note at the back fills things in.

Anna started out the daughter of a laundress. Here’s how Laurel Snyder puts it in her note:

It was a hard life, and Russia under the czars was generally a world where the poor stayed poor. Anna’s life should have been dismal.

But one night Anna’s mother told her, “You are going to enter fairyland,” as the two climbed into their sleigh and sped off to the Mariinsky Theatre. There, Anna heard Tchaikovsky’s music for the first time. She watched the dancers step out onto the stage, and her life was changed forever. Anna knew what she wanted to do with her life.

The main picture book text begins with this incident of Anna and her mother going through the snow to the ballet. Julie Morstad’s illustrations are perfect for this book, capturing the beauty of Anna’s grace as a little girl in a plain dress all the way through her triumphant performances as The Dying Swan.

Here’s the poetic way Laurel Snyder tells about the start of Anna’s career:

Until one night she takes the stage . . .

Anna becomes
a glimmer, a grace.
Everyone feels it,
and the lamps shine brighter.
The room holds its breath.

It shouldn’t be that she should be
this good.
Her legs too thin,
her feet all wrong –
and ooh, those toes!
She is only a girl –
so small – so frail –
but
see her face, her flutter?

Anna was born for this.

I didn’t know before reading this book that Anna Pavlova worked to bring ballet to everyone, where before it had been primarily an art form enjoyed by the rich. But ballet changed Anna’s life, and she wanted to bring its power to others and traveled around the world doing that.

laurelsnyder.com
juliemorstad.com
chroniclekids.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Rook, by Sharon Cameron

Science Fiction, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

rook_largeRook

by Sharon Cameron

Scholastic Press, New York, 2015. 456 pages.
Starred Review

Like Across a Star Swept Sea, by Diana Peterfreund, Rook, by Sharon Cameron, is a science fiction retelling of Baroness Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel. However, unlike Across a Star Swept Sea, Rook is not a scene-by-scene translation of the original, but more of a tribute, a situational equivalent. This meant that I did not know what was going to happen! The suspense and adventure and clever plotting (both on the part of the author and the characters) was all wonderfully done.

Now, neither of the tribute books keeps the identity of the Scarlet Pimpernel equivalent secret. In this book “The Red Rook” has been rescuing people from the Upper City of what once was Paris from prison in the Sunken City. She leaves behind a rook feather dipped in blood. She snatches people from execution by the Razor, as the Scarlet Pimpernel rescued victims from the guillotine, using disguises and cleverness.

But the Red Rook is a disguise that Sophia Bellamy of the Commonwealth begins to have difficulty maintaining. For the sake of money, she has become engaged to a Parisian who is cousin to the Ministre of Security, LeBlanc. LeBlanc comes to her engagement party and seems to be hot on her trail.

When her brother is arrested in her place and taken to the Sunken City for execution, Sophia must plan one last caper. And she needs to know: Can she trust her new fiancé? Or will he betray them all to save his own family’s fortunes?

This book is wonderfully written, with sizzling romantic tension, plots within plots, and plenty of narrow escapes. A fitting tribute to a great classic.

sharoncameronbooks.com
thisisteen.com
scholastic.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of The Hollow Boy, by Jonathan Stroud

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

hollow_boy_largeThe Hollow Boy

Lockwood & Co., Book Three

by Jonathan Stroud

Disney-Hyperion, Los Angeles, 2015. 385 pages.
Starred Review

It’s here! Book Three of the Lockwood & Co. series! I only had to wait a week after finishing listening to the audiobooks of the first two books. (You can be sure I preordered my own copy. These are so good to reread, I’m not settling for a library copy any more.)

The good news: This is not a trilogy! (I was hoping not.) The bad news: Like the other two, the book ends with a fairly major plot point that will make everything change – and we have to wait to find out how that plays out. Aaugh!

Jonathan Stroud doesn’t write the same book over and over again. We’ve still got Lucy, Lockwood, and George battling ghosts with iron chains, magnesium flares, salt bombs, and silver-tipped rapiers. But now their agency, having met with success, is more popular than ever before. They’re having to split up to take on all the cases.

So Lockwood and George hire an assistant while Lucy is on vacation. A young female assistant named Holly Munro who is annoyingly perfect. She whips the agency into shape and manages their caseload, but Lucy isn’t entirely happy with the changes she brings.

Meanwhile, Lucy’s ability to listen to ghosts is growing. What if she attempts to hear what they have to say rather than immediately trying to destroy them? But that can have some dangerous results.

Meanwhile, there’s a huge outbreak happening in London with all the big agencies on the case. In the last book, I was a little annoyed by the childish rivalry between Lockwood & Co. and a certain team from the Fittes agency. (Even though they actually are children. Schoolyard bullying didn’t seem appropriate.) But I liked very much that in this book, the two teams need to work together – and manage to do so. Interpersonal relationships got much more complex.

I shouldn’t say too much, because if you’ve read the first two books, you’ll be eager to read this one. And yes, yes, yes, it’s as good as the previous two. You will want to read this series in order. While I’m sure you could enjoy this book as a stand alone, it really is part of a continuing story. As a whole, it’s one of the best series for children out there. If you missed it before, you still have time to catch up before the next installment!

Here’s how the book begins:

I think it was only at the very end of the Lavender Lodge job, when we were fighting for our lives in that unholy guesthouse, that I glimpsed Lockwood & Co. working together perfectly for the first time. It was just the briefest flash, but every detail remains etched into my memory: those moments of sweet precision when we truly acted as a team.

Yes, every detail. Anthony Lockwood, coat aflame, arms flapping madly as he staggered backward toward the open window. George Cubbins, dangling from the ladder one-handed, like an oversized windblown pear. And me – Lucy Carlyle – bruised, bloody, and covered in cobwebs, sprinting, jumping, rolling desperately to avoid the ghostly coils . . .

Sure, I know none of that sounds so great. And to be fair, we could have done without George’s squeaking. But this was the thing about Lockwood & Co.: we made the most of unpromising situations and turned them to our advantage.

Want to know how? I’ll show you.

LockwoodandCo.com
DisneyBooks.com

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Source: This review is based on my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Troll and the Oliver, by Adam Stower

Delightfully Silly, Fantasy, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

troll_and_the_oliver_largeTroll and the Oliver

by Adam Stower

Templar Books (Candlewick Press), 2015. 40 pages.
Starred Review

Here’s some high drama for the preschool set. We start out being introduced to Troll and “an Oliver.” Troll keeps trying to catch the Oliver, wanting to eat it for lunch. But the Oliver keeps getting away. We see many of these scenarios, as the Oliver dodges, hides, and sneaks away, cleverly eluding capture. As he escapes he sings little songs and always wears a happy smile. Despite the giant fuzzy blue troll, the reader isn’t really frightened for Oliver.

Then one day, the reader thinks Troll has given up. Oliver looks and looks for Troll and steps stealthily just in case.

And shall I give a spoiler? I don’t feel like I can explain how absolutely brilliant this book is without explaining what happens.

But perhaps I can get away with saying there’s a half-page turn in this book – which is the most dramatic page turn I have ever seen in a children’s book. Read well, I can easily imagine children jumping out of their skin.

When I say half-page: A double page spread has vertically half a page in the middle of it. Before you turn the half-page, you’ve got Oliver in the kitchen, just having realized the Troll has given up.

My name’s Oliver,
Look at me!
I’m as clever
As can be!
I’m the best
And I’m the winner.
I’ll never ever
Be that smelly
Troll’s dinner!

Turning the half-page “opens” the cabinet – to devastating effect.

Let’s just say that it’s a good thing it turns out Olivers taste awful. And the pictures of Troll tasting him all have Oliver’s legs hanging out of Troll’s mouth. So still not too frightening.

And then, in a brilliant stroke, Troll smells what the Oliver was baking in the kitchen. All along, something was wafting from the oven, but our attention wasn’t called to it. Turns out – Trolls love CAKE!

And the book finishes off with a happy scene of Oliver having a Cake Picnic with a whole big party of trolls. The back endpapers have a recipe for Troll Cupcakes.

I especially like the Author’s Note at the end:

I would strongly advise the reader to ALWAYS have some cake handy, just in case a troll should happen by. He might be hungry. . . .

One of the things I love about this book is that Oliver is consistently smiling. Despite the dramatic reversal in the middle, the reader is never too worried for Oliver, because he’s not worried. Yep, there’s a big fuzzy blue troll trying to eat a little kid, but it’s not really a frightening book. And you come away with the message: Always have some cake handy.

What could be better?

I’m going to try this book at Storytime. . . And see if I can make the kids jump.

candlewick.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/troll_and_the_oliver.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of The Whispering Skull audiobook, by Jonathan Stroud

Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

whispering_skull_audio_largeThe Whispering Skull

by Jonathan Stroud
read by Katie Lyons

Listening Library, 2014. 11 ½ hours on 9 compact discs.
Starred Review

I’m thoroughly enjoying rereading the Lockwood & Co. series by listening before the third book in the series comes out this month. I was disappointed that a different narrator was used for the second book, but she’s still got a British accent, and it’s still an enthralling and absorbing story that makes the commuting miles fly by.

In the second book, there’s more tension between the members of the agency Lockwood & Co. The skull in the title is our friend in the jar – and it starts talking to Lucy, but continues to say things that build mistrust and get the agency into trouble.

There’s more horror in this book – this time the ghost of a man eaten by rats, as well as people who die by looking into a cursed mirror. Lockwood & Co. are looking for this mirror, which was stolen from a coffin that was dug up in their presence and also contained the bones of a particularly threatening Visitor.

Again, this would make great family listening – but only if the kids are old enough for a very scary story. If they’ll be badly freaked out by the thought of rats eating a human body – this audiobook is not for them.

However, for older kids and adults, this is more brilliant excitement from Jonathan Stroud. We’ve got a mystery again – what happened to the mirror? But there’s also competition with another agency, secrets between Lucy and Lockwood and George, and more interesting tidbits about this world where dangerous Visitors walk among us, but only kids can see them.

I had so much fun reviewing this series in preparation for Book Three, I have a feeling it’s going to become a yearly tradition. (This is a case where I am definitely hoping we’re not talking about a trilogy.) I’m just not getting tired of these brilliant books.

jonathanstroud.com
lockwoodandco.com
listeninglibrary.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/whispering_skull_audio.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library audiobook from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of I See a Pattern Here, by Bruce Goldstone

Children's Nonfiction Review, Mathematical, Starred Review 0

i_see_a_pattern_here_largeI See a Pattern Here

by Bruce Goldstone

Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2015. 32 pages.
Starred Review

I love Bruce Goldstone’s books about math concepts. They are bright and colorful and draw kids in – and explain the math concepts in simple language, with helpful, dramatic visuals.

This one is about patterns. He explains them using simple language and has a little box giving the mathematical vocabulary where it’s appropriate. As in his other books, he starts simply and builds.

The book covers repeating patterns, then translations (“slides”), rotations (“turns”), reflections (“flips”), symmetry (“equal sides”), scaling (“changing sizes”), and tessellations (“tile patterns”). The many, many varied pictures make the concepts so clear.

For example, he uses photos of quilt blocks, tiles in the Alhambra, kaleidoscope images, lace patterns, tire treads, animals, architecture, beads, stamped patterns, and a 2000-year-old Peruvian cloak.

This is a beautiful book that will get kids noticing the patterns around them and give them a new vocabulary for talking about those patterns.

brucegoldstone.com
mackids.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Life Loves You, by Louise Hay & Robert Holden

Nonfiction Review, Personal Growth, Starred Review 0

life_loves_you_largeLife Loves You

7 Spiritual Practices to Heal Your Life

by Louise Hay and Robert Holden

Hay House, Carlsbad, California, 2015. 236 pages.
Starred Review

Although this book lists Louise Hay as the first author, the book is written by Robert Holden, and in each chapter he talks about the discussions he had with Louise Hay. But the voice of the book is his, and the book is self-referential, talking about what Louise Hay said he should write about.

With that format, the book feels a little lightweight, but that’s rather deceptive. The spiritual practices in this book are surprisingly healing. And the format does make it easy to read. I found it uplifting to read a bit each morning, and pause when I got to each of the practices, which they want you to do for seven days to solidify them.

Here are the practices:

1. Letting life love you. This includes affirmations in the mirror. It feels a little cheesy, but I have to say that it is life-affirming.

2. Affirming your life. In this section, you put up 10 dots around your home to remind you that life loves you. I used post-it hearts, which seem completely appropriate.

3. Following your joy. Here you create an affirmation board of everything you say yes to.

You create your affirmation board by listening within. You are listening for your Sacred Yesses. These Sacred Yesses belong to you. They’re not your parents’ yesses or your partner’s, your children’s, or anybody else’s. They’re not about what you should do with your life; they are about following your joy. They affirm what you love, what you believe in, and what you cherish and value. They are about you living your truth.

4. Forgiving the past. Here they present a meditation using “The Forgiveness Scale” that helps you gradually let go and forgive.

5. Being grateful now. This practice is about noticing what you’re grateful for.

Gratitude brings you back to now. Practicing gratitude helps you to be more present in your life. The more present you are, the less you feel like something is missing. Recently somebody posted this message on my Facebook page: “You may think the grass is greener on the other side, but if you take the time to water your own grass it will be just as green.” Practicing gratitude helps you to water your own grass. Gratitude helps you to make the most of everything as it happens. Gratitude teaches you that happiness is always now.

I so believe in this practice! These authors aren’t the first who’ve pointed out that gratitude is rooted in the present.

6. Learning to receive. This practice is a step up from gratitude. It’s noticing and being open to the ways life is loving you.

Receiving is a great big Yes. “The universe says yes to you,” says Louise. “It wants you to experience your highest good. When you ask for your highest good, the Universe doesn’t say, ‘I’ll think about it’; it says yes. The universe is always saying yes to your highest good.” And you have to say yes, too. The key to receiving is willingness, or readiness. When you declare, “I am ready to receive my highest good in this situation,” it shifts your perception and your circumstances.

7. Healing the future. Here the practice involves blessing the world. This involves a meditation that starts with blessing yourself, moves to blessing your loved ones, your neighborhood, your enemies, and finally the world.

Maybe some of these practices sound corny. But I am impressed by how positive they all are, and, yes, how healing.

Yes, this book is very New Age-y. But as a Christian, I have to agree with everything behind this teaching. I believe that God, behind Life itself, loves me. I believe in following my joy, in being grateful, in forgiving my past. And yes, I want to be ready to receive God’s blessings and also ready to turn around and bless the world. This is a wonderfully positive way to live.

robertholden.org
LouiseHay.com
HealYourLife.com
hayhouse.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on my own copy.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

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Review of Wolfskin, by Juliet Marillier

Fantasy, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

wolfskin_largeWolfskin

by Juliet Marillier

Tor, New York, 2002. 493 pages.
Starred Review

I was in the mood to read an outstanding book and wanted something that would really absorb me, so I reflected that there are still some books by Juliet Marillier which I haven’t read. I chose Wolfskin because it was a first-in-a-series title that was on our shelves at my library branch.

At first, I admit, I was a little dismayed. There’s some foreshadowing that goes on which didn’t sound good. Our hero, Eyvind, a Viking, wants nothing more than to be a Wolfskin, a berserker soldier who hears Thor’s voice. When he is young, he hears a tale about two men with a blood oath of brotherhood. Later, because of that blood oath, one of the men ends up killing his beloved, who is in the family of the enemies of the blood brother. The story is held up as an example of wonderful loyalty. And soon after, Eyvind is asked to swear a blood oath to a nobleman’s brother who is staying with them, Somerled. The reader knows this can’t end well.

Well, it slowed me down. It turns out Somerled isn’t a tremendously likable character. And Eyvind is not as clever as Somerled, and gets taken advantage of.

But I knew I could expect deeper things from Juliet Marillier, and I was definitely not disappointed. Many years later, Eyvind travels across the sea to the Orkney Islands under the command of Somerled’s brother. Events that happen there require Eyvind to trust his own instincts and stand for the truth.

Here’s a section from the beginning of the book, where Eyvind’s older brother Eirik comes home for a visit.

Eirik was his hero. Eirik was a Wolfskin. That was the most glorious calling in the whole world, for surely nothing could surpass the moment when you heard Thor’s call to battle ringing in your ears, pulsing in your blood, filling every corner of your being with a red rage that shut out any thought of fear. To charge forward in pure courage, inspired by the god himself – that bold vision tugged at Eyvind’s thoughts by day and filled his dreams by night. What matter if a Wolfskin’s life were short? Such a warrior, once fallen, would be carried straight to Thor’s right hand. One day he himself would pass the test, and become one of that band to which Eirik and Hakon belonged, as had many of Eyvind’s kin in times past. The men of Hammarsby had a noble tradition in the Warfather’s service. So Eyvind practiced with the bow and with the axe. He ran and climbed, he skated and swam. He shoveled snow and hunted and grew strong, awaiting that day. Eirik’s tales kept his dreams alive. Later, perhaps his brother would tell of the autumn Viking, the riches plundered, the battles won.

Once they get to the Orkneys, the story of Nessa is told alongside Eyvind’s. Nessa is the king’s daughter, training to be the priestess of her people. But then Somerled’s brother dies, and Somerled insists that the folk of the Orkneys are responsible, and there is trouble between their peoples.

This book includes the detailed creation of a world as it may have been, with adventure and bravery, romance and passion, right and wrong, justice and treachery, loyalty and betrayal, and a touch of magic.

Juliet Marillier has done it again. (Or I should say, “did” it again. I just preordered her next book to be published in America!)

julietmarillier.com
tor.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Stories of my Life, by Katherine Paterson

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

stories_of_my_life_largeStories of my Life

by Katherine Paterson

Dial Books for Young Readers, 2014. 299 pages.
Starred Review

Here’s a wonderful book from a beloved writer. Katherine Paterson, former National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, has lived an amazing life. She was born in China to missionary parents, was evacuated multiple times because of war, went on to be a missionary herself to Japan, became an adoptive mother, and achieved great success as a writer. There are fascinating stories here, in the hands of someone who knows how to tell a story.

The stories are from her family and friends as well as her own life. They are remarkable and entertaining. I found one a day was a good pace for reading them, like having coffee with a friend and hearing a memorable, warm and human story.

At the front of the book, she answers some common questions like, “Where do you get your ideas?” I like this paragraph from her answer:

Some of my writer friends have so many ideas, they’ll never live long enough to turn them all into books. I look at them with a certain envy, for when I finish a book I say, “Well, that was a great career while it lasted,” because I am sure I’ll never have an idea worthy of another book. But by now I’ve written a lot of books, so I must have gotten those ideas from somewhere, and that somewhere is most often from my own life. Another lesson I’ve learned along the way is that there are no truly original ideas. There are no truly original plots. As the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes said three thousand or so years ago: “There is no new thing under the sun.” Except you. Except me. Every individual is new and unique, so we may be stuck with the same old plots, but because a new person is telling the story, bringing his or her singular life to bear on the story, it is fresh and new. So the only excuse I have for daring to write is that no one else in the world would be able to tell the stories that only I can tell. And an aside to those of you wishing to write — that is your excuse as well. The raw material for our unique stories is our unique lives and perspective on life.

This is a beautiful book from someone who’s living a beautiful life.

The book is written with simple enough language that kids can read it, but it will definitely make good reading for adults, too. In fact, I could see reading this book aloud as a family. They aren’t dramatic cliff-hanger stories, but they’re cozy, warm, and interesting stories, and a delight to read.

terabithia.com
penguin.com/teen

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/stories_of_my_life.html

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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

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