Material World

Material World

Adult nonfiction
The date was November 22. Two days after I took the audience at
UMaine's Got Talent by storm with my poem Silver Foxes I got to ace
Millers Analogy Test. Then I walked downtown to volunteer at the
library. Only my friend Janette Landis was about to stop by the Front
Porch Books Christmas party and wondered if I'd join her.
Front Porch Books is in a cozy sun lit room over a garage.
Going there is more like visiting a friend than going to a store. And
once a year when they add fancy cookies and hot spiced cider. Yowza!
I wasn't planning to buy anything. I had very little cash on me. The
place is browser friendly. But there it was set on a little easel
with a ray of sun lighting up its cover, the book of my dreams,
Material World: A Global Family Portrait by Peter Menzel. I actually
had my credit card on me because I needed it as standardized test ID.
I gave in to temptation and violated my cardinal credit card rule:
use only for medical, dental, and vetinary emergencies.
Of course such a book had to be saved for just the right time.
Tonight, December 30, the house is cozy and warm. I've served supper
with no more chores to hand. Lights are sparkling on my lovely
Christmas tree. My Eugene gave me some of his prime chocolates filled
with caramel and nuts. We're talking divine providence here.
Material World lives most excellently up to its promise. It is
the fruit of an ambitious endeavor--an attempt through photographs and
revealing statistics to capture some of the people we share this earth
with and get us thinking about the gap of possessions and
opportunities between the rich and poor societies we live in.
"It is tempting to say that these photographs speak for
themselves. Yes, they do, but only if the reader looks care and
keenly at the wealth of detail presented on every page, noting the
different landscapes, the dwellings, the family sizes, the dress, and,
above all, the dramatic array of each family's material goods, large
or small, laid out in front of the house. Finally, there are the
faces of our fellow human beings, expressing pride, sadness,
weariness, curiosity, and all the other emotions that the camera can
capture..."
If you're anything like me, you'll find Material World
captivating. You get to meet "average" families in 30 countries as
they work, go to school, worship, play, and celebrate special events.
It's like a trip around the world unmarred by obnoxious tourists and
overpriced souvenir shops.
However, if you're anything like me you will also find it
disturbing. The family picture in Bosnia, for example, includes two
armed U.N. soldiers who are not kin. You see very young children
playing sniper because that's what they've grown up seeing. Families
in countries like Etheopia are desperately poor. In a very telling
two page spread titled toilets of the world some countries don't even
show out houses.
Menzel wrote the book out of a conviction that in an
increasingly interconnected world it's important for people to learn
about the lives of folks in other countries. He closes it with a
quote by Albert Einstein. "Peace cannot be kept by force. It can
only be achieved by understanding."
Truly those are words to live by.
On a personal note, I take a day between writing a review and posting
it. Somehow that makes spelling and grammar errors easier to see.
Well I have had the most delightful day possible. I spent it with my
daughter, Amber, and her fiancée, Brian. Amber and I crafted. She is
very talented. And we all ate together. That was the Christmas
present I asked for and the best they could give me. :)
A great big shout out goes out to you, my readers. Have a safe and
happy new year.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Everything I Need To Know About Love

Everything I Need To Know About Love

Picture book
Well the day after Christmas I received in the mail the third in
Diane Muldrow's nostalgic Everything I Need To Know series:
Everything I Need To Know About Love I Learned From a Little Golden
book.
You probably have fond memories of Little Golden Books from your
younger days. Some of us made them part of our kids' childhoods.
Affordable and accessible, for many kids they were the only books of
their very own their families could afford.
Everything I Need To Know About Love.... is another great stroll
down memory lane. Sweet thoughts are paired with illustrations from
our favorite little Golden books: The Color Kittens, Tawny Scrawny
Lion, The Jolly Barnyard, The Saggy Baggy Elephant, Nurse Nancy... A
1951 Eloise Wilkens drawing of a boy bringing a heart shaped box to a
house where a little girl watches through the window tells us "Love
makes you bold!" Garth Wiliams 1956 picture of two wide eyed rabbits
instructs us to, "Be ready to take a chance..." My personal favorite,
a family of four cleaning up from a meal reminds us that, "But mostly,
love blooms in life's day-to-day moments."
If you know a Little Golden Books affecianado this would be a
perfect Valentines Day gift.
On a personal note, I want to wish my readers a (safe and) Happy New
Years and a year full of blessings. I shall stay up til midnight
reading near my beautiful Christmas tree and eating candy with Joey
cat on my lap. I'm enjoying the last few days of tranquility til life
gets more hectic.
A great big shout out goes out to my readers who stuck with me this
year and the authors who provided wonderful books that I could
review. Let's see what 2015 brings.
Julia Emily Hathaway



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Timekeeper

Timekeeper

YA fiction
Quite awhile ago I became enchanted with a wonderful time travel
novel called Timeless. In the spirit of the Christmas season I reread
it, enjoying it every bit as much. Then I realized that I actually
had the sequel: Alexandra Monir's Timekeeper. YOWZA!
In Timeless, protagonist Michele, following her mother's
unexpected death, moves from California to New York City to live with
her estranged grandparents. She receives a mysterious gold key that
allows her to time travel and meet some rather fascinating woman
ancestors. She also meets and begins a serious relationship with her
soulmate, Philip. There's only one hitch. His time line is a century
before hers.
Timekeeper takes off where Timeless leaves off. There is a new
boy in Michele's twenty-first century school who she believes to be
the reincarnation of her Philip. Only he is clueless concerning their
back story. Throw in two more complications. Michele's own birth may
be the result of time travel. Also a vindictive woman from the long
ago past has entered her time with the intent of destroying her.
There is enough back story to enjoy the second but I would
strongly encourage anyone new to this series to get both books and
indulge--chocolate highly recommended.
On a personal note, I hope my readers who observe Christmas had a
wonderful day. I know I certainly did. Katie slept over Christmas
Eve so she was there to open gifts with Adam, Eugene, and me. In the
afternoon we went to a wonderful extended family gathering where we
talked and ate and indulged in two lively Hathaway Christmas
traditions: the Yankee swap and the indoor snowball fight using fuzzy
cloth snowballs. Cole really got into that. As a result some of the
snowballs acquired dog slobber. No one minded. Lots of pictures will
amuse us all well into the New Year.
A great big shout out to my sister-in-law, Cheryl Hathaway, the
organizer and hostess with the mostest of the holiday family get
together.
Julia Emily Hathaway




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Monique And The Mango Rains

Monique And The Mango Rains

Adult non fiction
Kris Holloway's Monique And The Mango Rains is an older book
published in 2007. My older daughter, Amber, gave it to me after she
used it as a college textbook.
I adore the book. As a Peace Corps volunteer Holloway spent two
years in a small village in Mali, assisting Monique, a midwife. With
very little education and under conditions we wouldn't let our animals
get treated under Monique delivered babies after giving their mothers
prenatal care, treated malaria, gave shots, taught basic health...was
the end all and be all when it came to health care for the many people
who could not afford a hospital in another town. Holloway and Monique
became close friends. The tone of the book reflects their mutual
caring and respect.
Holloway is candid. In Mali, as in many parts of the world, too
many women die in childbirth because of uncontrolled bleeding or
infections. Lack of clean water kills malnourished children by
diarrhea. Can you imagine a maternity clinic that can't be used
during the rainy season because of holes in the roof?
But there is a lot perpetually busy busy busy Americans,
bombarded with electronic trivia and starved for true connectedness
can learn from more traditional cultures. Contemplating her return to
the United States, Holloway muses, "...I loved living in an inviting
community, where you were always asked to share food and drink, where
you spent time greeting and joking rather than avoiding others because
of a busy schedule. Generations intermingled, there was always an
excuse for celebrating, and death was sad, but not feared."
On a personal note, I have good grad school news. I was invited to do
a select application which means no application fee and guaranteed
scholarship consideration. I have done that by email, sent for
undergrad transcript, contacted my references. I have nearly $500 in
the credit union towards expenses. If all goes well I'll be back in
school in September.
A great big shout out goes out to other moms who are deciding what to
do with their lives after raising their children. Don't stop
believing in yourselves.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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The Language Inside

The Language Inside

YA fiction
Well my cleaning project of going through my books and putting
the ones I'm keeping in order in bookcases is going really well. I
now have one shelf all in order and (thankfully) about a gazillion
books to go. It has been a great sanity saver for a week with no kids
to home, Adam being away doing Wreaths Across America. It gives me a
perfect excuse to read near the lovely Christmas tree, one of my
favorite seasonal activities. And I'm finding some gems such as Holly
Thompson's The Language Inside. I am amazed that I didn't read it
last year when it came out since it's in free verse (poetry being my
first language) and is about cultural difference and adaptation which
I'm totally into.
Japan is home for Emma. It's where she has grown up, where she
has set down roots. So when her mother is diagnosed with breast
cancer and her family flies to Massachusetts to live with her
grandmother so her mother can be treated in Boston Emma is in for
quite the culture shock. She's starting the school year thousands of
miles from her close friends. The crowded former mill town with its
clumps and rows of houses is nothing like the peaceful countryside
she's used to. She desperately misses the ocean. Even her
grandmother's American food tastes hopelessly bland in contrast to the
cuisine she's accustomed to.
Emma also feels guilty to be in America when she's sure she's
needed much more in Japan. She was there in school when the country
was rocked by an earthquake. Some of her relatives had their homes
all but wiped out by the ensuing tsunami. One of her aunts is still
missing. She finds it enormously frustrating to be literally on the
other side of the world when she longs to be with her loved ones,
helping them put their lives back together.
All is not bad in America, however. She begins to volunteer at
a long term care place, helping a poet who has been crippled by a
stroke. She meets a very special friend whose mother lost much of her
family in Cambodia. She discovers a way to use her love of dance to
raise money to help her loved ones in Japan.
Then when she has to decide whether to return with her father in
January or stay with her mother and brother til the end of the school
year she feels split in two.
This is a very fine novel told in what I believe to be the
finest format for story telling.
On a personal note, the tree is up with lights and a few ornaments on
it. It looks really lovely. There is only bare space on the side I
see from my reading chair. I forgot where I put my favorite mostly
cross stitched ornaments. I've been doing an archaeology dig in the
bathroom attached to the master bedroom which doubles as storage space
and finding some. Then tonight I remembered the ornaments I stitched
last winter: a snowy owl, a rocking horse, a Teddy bear, a snowman,
and the word mom surrounded by flowers. All I have to do is put them
in their frames and finish the ornaments I'm working on now. I'll be
all set even if I don't find the rest til next year.
A great big shout out goes out to you, my readers. I hope this
holiday season is bringing you a maximum of joy and a minimum of
stress. :)
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Summer at Forsaken Lake

Summer at Forsaken Lake

Juvenile fiction
I'm a big fan of Michael D. Beil's Red Blazer Girls series. I
was thrilled to see a book of his with a decidedly different flavor.
Summer at Forsaken Lake is a poignant coming of age story with a male
protagonist discovering his family's past while staying for the first
time with his great uncle at the home where his father once spent
summer vacations.
Nicholas and his obnoxious younger twin sisters are sent from
their New York City home to a rural lake in Ohio to spend summer
vacation with their great uncle. Their mom is a workaholic and their
dad is in Africa serving on Doctors Without Borders. Even though his
friends predict that he'll have the most boring summer of his life,
Nicholas is looking forward to the trip. His father has told him the
old house and the lake are "full of secrets."
At least one secret is quick to reveal itself. A secret
compartment in Nicholas' tower room contains a spiral notebook and a
tin containing an old reel of movie film--evidence of a teen project
of his father, Will.
There's also a cryptic letter to Nicholas' then teenage father
from a girl to whom he gave her first kiss. What was the incident he
took the blame for, requiring him to leave early?
Why did he not finish the movie? Could this girl possibly be the
mother oh Charlie, the girl whose curveball Nicholas finds it
impossible to hit?
Summer at Forsaken Lake combines a page turner of a mystery with
a delightful look at young folks out sailing, bike riding, toasting
marshmellows over a campfire--enjoying the same stuff we did in the
good old days.
On a personal note, Eugene brought home a lovely Christmas tree from
his wood lot. It took a couple of days for it to lose its clumps of
ice and dry off. Now it is lovely with just the colored lights.
Tomorrow I will start adding ornaments. I do so love having a
Christmas tree in our home and putting treasured ornaments on it for
the most magical, mystical time of the year.
A great big shout out goes out to my Eugene for bringing home the tree.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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The Opposite Of Hallelujah

The Opposite Of Hallelujah

YA fiction
Imagine this. You're just about to start your junior year in
high school. For eight years it's been just you and your parents at
home. Now your father tells you that your sister is leaving the
convent where she has resided for eight years to come home. That is
the predicament faced by Caro, narrator of Anna Jarzab's The Opposite
Of Hallelujah.
Caro has had a hard time understanding and explaining Hannah's
decision to become a contemplative nun. When she was twelve she had
said Hannah was dead, sure her friends would never understand the
truth. "To them, nuns were old women who wore nude panty hose to hide
the varicose veins in their legs and seemed like they'd slap you with
a ruler as soon as look at you. Nuns were practically pre-historic,
and it didn't make any sense for my then twenty-three-year-old sister--
tall, thin, blond as Barbie--to be working on her fourth year at the
Sisters of Grace convent in Middleton, Indiana. But she was."
Four years later Caro still has trouble understanding and
explaining. She can't fake the happiness her parents expect her to
show. This sibling returning home is a stranger she hasn't seen in
years.
"...What it might be like to shop with her, watch TV with her, argue
with her, laugh with her. How bizarre to have a sister and still be
an only child. How was I supposed know how to live with someone with
whom the only thing I shared was DNA?" Having no way to explain's
Hannah's reappearance, she puts off telling her friends. Then when a
collision between her home and peer worlds seems inevitable she spins
another lie, even knowing it will come back to haunt her.
Something is seriously wrong with the newly reappeared Hannah.
She sleeps through days and paces at night. She seems immobilized at
the prospect of applying for readmission to college or getting a job.
She barely eats a thing and is wasting away. But her parents, fearful
of pushing her into leaving again, won't push her to get help.
Could the unresolved tragic secret that impelled Hannah to seek
a religious life tear her from her family again in an even sadder way?
This book would be a wonderful read for young people who have
unexpected changes in their life circumstances. It would also make a
good read for parents, teachers, and--you guessed it--guidance
counselors.
On a personal note, I can really relate to Caro. One summer when I
wasn't much older than her my mother took Harriet and me to spend a
summer in a lovely beach cabin at Fire Island. Once a week she went
by ferry to visit her elderly aunt. Then she surprised us by bringing
her home to our apartment. I think this aunt had Alzheimers. People
didn't talk about it then. With Mom in a highly stressful job and
Harriet struggling to complete her education, she became part of my
job description. Let me tell you, it is very difficult for a young
adult to be in charge of someone who can't remember who she is.
A great big shout out goes out to folks who have to deal with
unexpected life challenges and all who help them cope.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Wonder

Wonder

Juvenile fiction
"'If I looked like that,' said the Julian voice, kind of
laughing, 'I swear to God, I'd put a hood over my face every day.'
'I've thought about this a lot,' said the second mummy, sounding
serious, 'and I really think...if I looked like him, seriously, 'I
think that I'd kill myself."
I am once again in the middle of at attempt at cleaning and
organizing the old home space. So far, after organizing my storage
shed, I've cleared enough living room space to accomodate a tree and
scrubbed the floor of the kitchen and recycling corner. Now I'm
giving Orono librarians a break by reading through my own books to see
which to keep and which to donate to the next book sale. I'm even
finding some worthy of reviewing.
One of my most amazing finds was R. J. Palacio's Wonder, source
of the quote with which I started this review. It deals with candor
and sensitivity with a topic that all too often carries a didactic or
saccharine overtone--children who have very visible differences. I
think one reason that it succeeds so admirably is that a number of
people narrate the chapters, conveying the voices of the protagonist
and family members and friends.
Auggie (August) was born with genetic very obvious facial
differences. Even though his mother home schooled him, he has had
enough experience with the outside his family world to know that
people meeting him the first time often startle and say something
cruel or walk away in disgust. He does have friends. But when his
mother decides that it's time for him to attend regular school where
he'll be surrounded by starers it's more than a little scary.
This book covers that first year of official school from the
perspective of Auggie, big sister Olivia, and people in their social
worlds. Auggie has no idea what to expect and how to act. Olivia is
starting a new different school, loves her brother but doesn't want to
be defined by him. Jack and Julian react to being chosen as potential
friends for Auggie by the principal in drastically different ways.
This is an excellent book for kids who are somehow different and
their siblings and parents. I'd also put it on the reading list for
teachers, principals, and especially guidance counselors.
On a personal note, being the sib of a sister with brain damage, I
related very strongly to Olivia. I know what it's like being defined
in reference to a sibling. When I was in college it felt amazing to
be seen as myself, not someone's sister. I was popular and lively and
happy. One night when I was talking to my mother on the phone she
said she was thinking of Harriet going there. In retrospect I feel
that it would not have been a good fit for her. This was the rational
arguement I made. Inwardly I was afraid of losing the refuge where I
was a person in my own right. Only I felt immense guilt because I did
and do love Harriet. Olivia helped me realize that these mixed
feelings are normal.
A great big shout out goes out to kids and adults with differences and
their friends and family members.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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The Great Thanksgiving Escape

The Great Thanksgiving Escape

Picture book
A clan gathering for a holiday can feel very different to a
child than to his enthusiastic parents. That's the message of Mark
Fearing's The Great Thanksgiving Escape which was inspired by his own
childhood memories.
A very reluctant Gavin is taken to his grandma's for
Thanksgiving. He's parked in a room of diapered, drooling, bottle
drinking toddlers until his cousin Rhonda invites him to join her in
breaking out to the backyard swing set. A number of obstacles lie
between them and their destination: the guard dogs, the hall of
aunties, the grand wall of butts, the zombies...
This is a very funny book and great read aloud that may have
parents seeing holiday gatherings from a different perspective.
On a personal note, I kicked butt on Millers, scoring 90th percentile
decades after formal education. Should help me in my quest for grad
school.
A great big shout out goes out to the people who took Millers with
me. May all our dreams come true!
Julia Emily Hathaway


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But I Love Him

But I Love Him

YA fiction
Amanda Grace's But I Love Him is a very powerful novel about a
high school abusive relationship. It's also a quite unusual one, told
in backward chronology. You start with a year later and end up at the
moment Ann and Connor meet. Grace had a reason for this structure.
She wants readers to not second guess and blame the victim. "By
telling the story in reverse chronological order it removes the
reader's ability to judge the protagonist. They don't know the events
that led up to the abuse, so they can only look back and observe."
At the beginning of the book Ann is alone and hurting in a room
of shattered objects, trashed by Connor in a fit of rage, including a
very special gift it took her months to make for him. She's estranged
from her mother and best friend, very isolated. She wonders how
things could have gone so wrong in just a year.
Then slowly, step-by-step, the past unfolds. The story goes
back through Ann seeing Connor's father abuse his mother, through her
final loss of former best friend, Abby, through her leaving her mother
who wants her to abandon Connor, through a pregnancy false alarm...
The characters are convincing, their interactions believable. A
significant read for young people and professionals who work with them.
On a personal note, I am surprised by how many people have potentially
abusive relationships in their histories. I was engaged before my
first attempt at grad school. My family and friends thought my ex
fiancée was the bee's knees. He was always taking me places, buying
me gifts. I alone saw another side to him. He was jealous and had a
temper. There was never anything physical. But he was suspicious
when I spent time with friends or talked on the phone with family
members. I saw red flags. I told him if things stayed the same for
three months I would be out of his life. He started talking about
buying land on a very isolated lake. I told myself there are better
ways of making the 6:00 news than getting carried out in a body bag.
At the end of three months I chose school over him. This is why books
like But I Love Him are so important. They may save lives by helping
girls and women be able to see red flags like I did.
A great big shout out goes out to all who advocate for and help
victims of domestic violence.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Twenty-two Cents

Twenty-two Cents

Juvenile nonfiction
In 2006 Mohammad Yunus and the Organization he had founded,
Grameen Bank, won the Nobel Peace Prize. It's not hard to see why.
By creating a way for people, mostly women, who banks considered
untouchables, or as we say in America, bad credit risks, to get micro
loans to start or expand small businesses he had helped almost twelve
million get better lives for themselves and their families. Paula
Yoo's Twenty-two Cents: Muhummad Yunus and the Village Bank brings
this truly inspiring to life for our children.
Yunus grew up in a family where education and service were
highly valued. He was able to study economics abroad and become a
university professor in his newly liberated homeland of Bangladesh.
The desperate poverty he saw around him drew him out of that ivory
tower and into the streets. He met women who were kept impoverished
by usurious money lenders. But what if they could get the small
advances they needed at modest interest rates?
There are so many things going wrong in the world today it can
be easy for kids and adults to feel discouraged and wonder what one
person can do. Twenty-two Cents reminds us that one person with
determination and the ability to think outside the box can accomplish
quite a lot.
And, by the way, 97% of Grameen Bank's customers pay off their
loans. I don't know what you think, but they don't sound like poor
credit risks to me.
On a personal note, last Friday was Orono Arts Cafe. The date had
been changed from the second Friday to the first Friday. I didn't
have a clue. I was reading in sweats, a sweatshirt, and sock monkey
slippers when Terrie knocked on the door. She gives me rides.
Probably a more normal person would have said, oops, sorry. But I
grabbed a poetry notebook, threw on my coat, and went with her. I
shared Christmas poems which people really enjoyed. I knew they would
much rather see me in sweats and slippers than not at all. Oh, yeah,
Sunday someone gave me a sock monkey and baby sock monkey.
A great big shout out goes out to the Orono Arts Cafe gang. We are
family. Julia Emily Hathaway


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The Secret Cellar

The Secret Cellar

Juvenile fiction
Young mystery series fans will be delighted to learn that Sophie
and her chums have returned in Michael D. Bell's The Red Blazer
Girls: The Secret Cellar. As you can imagine by the allusion to
their attire, the girls attend a private school. When they aren't in
class, as The Red Blazer Girls Detective Agency, they solve rather
unusual mysteries.
This one starts innocently enough. With Christmas quickly
approaching the girls are making lists. Sophie buys her father a very
special fountain pen from a dead man's estate at an auction. She has
to go a little higher than she was planning to outbid the very grouchy
owner of a small bookstore. When she decides to clean the pen she
discovers a cryptic message inside that sets the girls off on an
intriguing treasure hunt involving a changed will, a kidnapped rat,
bottles of wine worth thousands of dollars, strange and challenging
clues, and the legend of a famous German World War II spy. They're on
a race against time. The book store owning villain wants to his hands
on the loot and will stop at nothing in his quest.
Mystery loving youngsters will enjoy this book and the other
four volumes in the series.
On a personal note, I certainly hope you had a good Thanksgiving. I
surely did. The clan got together at the in-laws and a good time was
had by all.
A great big shout out goes out to all members of the extended family.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Premeditated

Premeditated

YA fiction
The cover of Josin L. McQuin's Premeditated shows one blue eye
looking out through a pane of shattered glass. Beneath the title is
the sentence "cross her heart, you're going to die". The expectation
of suspense is created before you even open the book...
...which lives up to the promise of its cover quite nicely.
We're talking Alfred Hitchcock style carefully crafted character based
suspense. You see, protagonist Dinah's beloved cousin, Claire, who
should be starting high school, is in a coma, the result of a failed
suicide attempt. Dinah has the name of the boy who drove Claire to
this act of desperation. She's infiltrated his exclusive and
expensive prep school with vengeance on her mind, but not something as
simple as murder. She plans to make him sorry that he was ever born,
sorry enough to act on it.
"Do it right and their blood will be on their own hands. Just
another tragic teen suicide on the back of page three in the local
newspaper, with a memorial page in the school yearbook...Pretty words
and puffy, red-rimmed eyes from people who question why but don't look
hard enough to find out.
No matter how messy it gets, or how much blood's involved,
suicide's a clean kill."
Her target, the confident, charming, son of a very wealthy man,
is not about to go down easy. Dinah hasn't anticipated
complications. What if she falls for his spell? What of he isn't
guilty as charged?
You'll have to read the book to see what happens. This book
would make a great Christmas present for any suspense loving young
adults on your holiday gift list.
On a personal note, the Thursday before Thanksgiving I performed in
UMaine's Got Talent. Had to pass the audition to do it. It was in a
university auditorium that was way bigger and held way more people
that any of my previous venues. I went in, looked around, and said,
"YIKES!". I recited my poem, Silver Foxes, which I had committed to
memory. The minute I got out there in my silver sequin covered dress
that made moving spots of light swirling around me I owned that
stage. I got big applause. And people got the point of the poem. I
was in seventh heaven.
A great big shout goes out to the fraternity brothers who raised money
for a good cause, provided a night of live entertainment, and gave the
other performers and me a most excellent venue.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Positive

Positive

YA biography
Paige Rawl's Positive: A Memoir is a poignant coming of age
narrative. At times it is inspiring and uplifting. Some parts are
deeply disturbing. But it is a very worthwhile read with the
potential to move hearts and minds.
Rawls was born with the HIV virus. Her mother had acquired it
from her father and passed it on via pregnancy and childbirth. Her
father died when she was very young. She was only 2 1/2 when her
mother, visiting the doctor for what she thought was the flu,
discovered her HIV status. At first she only worried about leaving
her very young daughter motherless. But then she realized she might
have passed the virus on to her beloved child. Her suspicions were
confirmed right before Rawl's third birthday. There is a very
poignant description of her holding her toddler up to watch the school
buses and wondering of she would ever ride one.
Rawls did indeed live long enough. For many years she did not
know about her difference, the perception of which would tear her
world apart in middle school. Sure she took medicine daily and made
lots of hospital visits. But it was her routine, the world that she
knew. She was in fourth grade when she saw HIV+ on her dental chart.
In fifth grade she learned about HIV and AIDS in health class and
asked her mother if she was HIV positive.
In sixth grade Rawl was at a school lockdown, a school slumber
party with many fun activities. A friend told her about her mother
who had multiple sclerosis. A best friend confided worries about a
family member with psychological challenges who would be staying at
her home. To make her feel not so alone Rawl told her about her HIV
status, sure it was no different from the health problems that
complicated so many other people's lives.
In Rawl's peers' minds it wasn't. By the next morning the news
had spread through the whole gathering. People including that best
friend were ostracizing her, treating her as dangerous damaged goods.
The adults who were supposed to be there to protect her failed
spectacularly. A guidance counselor advised her to lie about having
HIV. A soccer coach even wanted to use her status to the team's
advantage. If members of other teams were afraid of touching her she
would be able to score lots of goals.
Yes, there is a lot of sadness in the book. But there is also
an abundance of courage, transcendence, and joy. It is one of the
volumes perfect for young people bored with most YA fare but not ready
to go all adult. It's also a must read for parents, teachers, school
admin, superintendents, and guidance counselors.
Finally I feel that school committee members would benefit
immensely from reading Positive. We make the policies that determine
how teachers and admin can deal with issues like bullying. To make an
analogy (which I am slightly less fond of since recently taking
Millers) policies are to teachers and admin as rules of the road are
to drivers. I very much want to be wrong, but I have the nagging
suspicion that sometimes we're guided (by lawyers) to make policies
with lawsuit prevention as a highest priority. I would also suggest
that these lawyers read the book if I had an iota of confidence that
they would.
On a personal note, I can tell you about taking Millers. I was
waiting at the bus stop to go to the University to take Millers
Analogy Test to get into grad school. Then I realized there is no
7:15 bus on Saturdays and the 8:15 would get me there too late. There
was not enough time to walk. What you have to realize is I don't run
because I get shin splints and I'm not into pain. But I decided to
run those five or so miles. It was like someone who actually knew
what she was doing had taken over my body. I was well along when I
friend saw me and gave me a ride the rest of the way! If
determination can make it happen I will so get in.
A great big shout out goes out to my fellow standardized test takers.
Julia Emily Hathaway



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Rebels In Dresses

Rebels In Dresses

Juvenile nonfiction
"Every girl is born with true grit."
You find these words on the back of the two Rebel in a Dress
books I snagged from the children's wing of the Orono Public Library:
Cowgirls and Adventurers, both written by Sylvia Branzei and
illustrated by Melisaa Sweet. Both volumes are eye catching,
deceptively slender, and packed with fascinating fact and legend.
Each tells the story of twelve amazing, unconventional women who made
their marks on history.
In Cowgirls, horses and frontier are a common denominator.
You've probably heard of Annie Oakley and Calamity Jane. Now you can
learn about women like:
*Mary Fields who, at 63, became the first African American woman
employed by the United States Postal Service. In eight years driving
a mail stagecoach she missed only one delivery. She packed a shotgun,
scaring off any would be bandits;
*Georgie Connell Sicking, accomplished "lady cowboy" who, in later
years, turned to--ready for this?--poetry. You should read her piece,
Be Yourself, on her childhood refusal to become a proper lady;
*Charley Parkhurst, stagecoach driver, who was only discovered to be a
woman after her death...
Adventurers brings to life women of daring who blazed trails on
Earth and in water and the heavens. You probably have heard of Amelia
Earhart and Nellie Bly. Now get ready to meet
*Bessie Coleman, sharecroppers' daughter, who knew she had potential
to be more than a maid. When she couldn't attend aviation school in
the United States she went all the way to France to make her dream
come true;
*Dr. Diana Hoff who rowed, that's right, rowed, across the Atlantic
Ocean solo. Can you imagine being alone in a tiny boat on a huge
ocean for 113 days?
*Margaret Bourke-White who dropped commercial photography to take on,
"...only those photographic assignments which I felt could be done in
a creative and constructive way." As America's first woman war
photographer, she ended up taking pictures of post war Nazi
concentration camps that confirmed the world's worst fears...
These volumes would make an excellent contribution to public,
school, and classroom libraries...and just in time for the holiday
season. :)
On a personal note, I love reading about the women who inspire me. If
I wasn't blind in one eye Adam wouldn't be the only aviator in the
family. And as a journalist I try hard to follow Nellie Bly's example.
Oh, yeah, it's the day before Thanksgiving with a big storm ready to
slam into Maine any time now. I wish all my readers a safe and happy
Thanksgiving with plenty to be thankful for.
A great big shout out goes out to today's rebels in dresses.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Kinda Like Brothers

Kinda Like Brothers

Juvenile Fiction
Think back to a time your life was in limbo. Maybe it was
something as usual as impending college graduation if you weren't sure
what kind of job you'd get or even moving up to that big intimidating
looking high school. Maybe it was more traumatic like divorce or
getting fired. But if you can think of a time when you couldn't be
sure things would work out okay in your life then you will be able to
relate to Jarrett, protagonist of Coe Booth's Kinda Like Brothers.
Jarret is stuck in summer school the summer after sixth grade.
He missed a lot of days during the year due to asthma
hospitalizations. Each time he returned a little further behind. A
lot of the work is difficult. If he doesn't pass an upcoming test
he'll repeat the year, separated from all his friends and the girl he
likes. In his mind that means he'll behind forever. He's overheard
his summer school teacher tell his principal he would benefit from
repeating.
Jarrett's mother takes in foster babies as a temporary placement
until a caseworker can make more permanent arrangements. As the story
starts, a toddler arrives with a most unpleasant surprise: her older
brother, Kevon with whom Jarrett must share his room and his life. He
is to bring Kevon to the recreation center he goes after school and
introduce him as a friend of the family so the other kids won't know
the new boy is a foster kid. Jarrett feels his space has been
invaded. One day when he thinks he sees Kevon making a move on the
girl he has a crush on...
There are other uncertainties in Jarrett's life. His mother and
her boyfriend argue what his mom should be doing with her life. His
best friend comes back from a visit to his father subdued and
changed. He sees a rec center counselor, a college student, stopped
and frisked by the police and realizes that, as an inner city black
preteen, it's a matter of when, not if, this will happen to him.
Kinda Like Brothers is a gutsy, believable narrative about a boy
coming of age under very difficult and challenging circumstances.
It's a very good read for students coming up on middle school,
especially those who face their own challenges.
On a personal note, I can very much relate to Jarrett. I sometimes
wonder what I can do with my life if I can't get into graduate school
with the teaching assistantship I'll need to afford it. It's not as
if there are that many decent jobs in central Penobscot County for
people, even intelligent, talented people, unable to get that all
important valid driver's license. I've been looking for quite
awhile. I so much don't want to be doomed to retail or fast food.
But what if nothing else works out? It's really hard to have a
disability big enough to mess up my life but not big enough to warrant
accomodations.
A great big shout out goes out to all the other folks in transition.
Hang in there and try your best. That's all we can do.


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She's Back!

She's Back!

Children's classic
It's a marriage made in literary heaven. Fans who cherish
childhood memories of Pippi Longstocking (first published in 1945)
will be delighted with a 2007 edition that combines Lindgren's
delightful child point of view with Lauren Child's lively collages.
Most kids, from time to time, are frustrated by all the rules in
their lives. If only they could do just what they want! Pippi does
exactly that whether she's setting the local school on its ear,
outsmarting local gendarmes intent on putting her in a children's home
or worfully inept burglars, or rescuing toddlers from a house fire.
Child's very unconventional art is the best possible accompaniment to
the adventures of home alone Puppi, her monkey and horse, and her
bedazzled and delighted neighbors, Tommy and Anika.
YOWZA!
On a personal note, once in college on Halloween I dressed up as Pippi
on Halloween. My advisor was furious because she was sure it would
make a very poor impression on a prospective big donor. Only he took
one look at me and expressed admiration for a college that would
encourage student imagination. The temptation to make a very Pippi
like face on my way to class was stronger than I could resist. ;)
A great big shout goes out to all adults who have not killed off their
inner Pippi.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Breaking Beautiful

Breaking Beautiful

YA fiction
"It wasn't always bad. Especially in the beginning. I remember
long walks on the beach, going off-roading in his truck down narrow
forest trails, the night Grandma died and he sat on the couch and held
me while he cried. Even now, all I can think about is what I could
have done differently. If I wasn't late all the time. If I wasn't
always messing up, or doing something to make him mad. If I had been
perfect like Mom and Hannah, maybe things would have stayed good
between me and Trip."
When we think of domestic violence, we tend to envision an
enraged guy taking out an estranged wife or girlfriend and maybe her/
their children. Jennifer Shaw Wolf's Breaking Beautiful is an
eloquent and timely reminder that cruelty and manipulation in
relationships can start quite a bit earlier.
As the story begins, Allie, Wolf's protagonist, has lost Trip,
her boyfriend. She had fallen out of his Chevy pickup right before it
went over a cliff. Now she stays in bed, unable to face the prospect
of going back to school without him. Her parents think she's
paralyzed with grief. They tell her she can't stop living because of
his death.
Not all was peachy in their relationship at the time of the
crash. Gradually hints of trouble in paradise pile up: injuries that
were followed up with expensive presents, his control over every
aspect of her life, and a deliberate isolating that has Allie
returning to a small town school where she will be the top entree on
the gossip menu desperately alone. Actually Allie herself may be in
peril. Not everyone was fooled by the facade of relationship
perfection Trip worked to hard to create. There was some evidence
that the accident was not all that accidental. Trip's best friends
have seen the abuse hidden from the rest of the town. They may feel
she should pay for what they believe to be her crime.
Trip's father, a very rich and influential businessman, a man
who is accustomed to getting his way, does not believe that his son's
death was an accident. He's pressured the police chief into bringing
in a detective to investigate. Of course he's going to insist on
talking to Allie, finding out exactly what she knows.
Breaking Beautiful is a very timely book that combines a real
cliff hanger of a suspense story with a realistic portrayal of the
roller coaster nature of a relationship in which a girl's significant
other is also her tormenter.
"At first I thought it was cool: I was the center of his world,
and he was the center of mine, and I was flattered by his jealousy.
But being the center of Trip's world was exhausting. I never knew
what kind of mood he would be in or what would set him off. Things
would be great for weeks and then I'd do something wrong and he's lose
it. I could never predict what it would be."
The story is fictional. In real life, however, too many
relationships are built around this walking on eggshells dynamic.
Breaking Beautiful is perfect for teens who find much of YA
literature to be babyish but aren't quite ready for an all adult
diet. It's also a must read for high school teachers and guidance
counselors and residential life college staff.
On a personal note, I am very impressed with the work student leaders
are doing at the University of Maine to raise awareness of
relationship violence and other related issues.
A great big shout out goes out to those bright and dedicated students
and their counterparts in other colleges and universities.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Anybody Shining

Anybody Shining

Juvenile historical fiction
These days a 12-year-old girl wishing to contact a cousin she
has been prevented from meeting by family dynamics would do so simply
and quickly by using the Internet. Back in the 1920's, though, that
was so not an option. A lot of people, particularly in rural areas
lacked not only computers with Internet connections, which had not
been invented, but plain old land line phones.
Arie Mae, narrator of Frances O'Roark Dowell's Anybody Shining
is a very lonely 12-year-old girl. Her siblings have chums But there
is no one for her. In her words,
"This morning I told Mama how I might have to run away and marry
a bear if I don't find someone to call my own true friend. Those
mountains are near to spilling over with children, and none of them is
worth two cents. They are all too old or too young or just plain
disappointing."
Reading that first paragrph, you know anyone as spunky as Arie
Mae isn't about to give up. She does have some ideas. She has a city
dwelling cousin she has never met due to the estragement of her mother
and aunt. She is sure that mail correspondence will lead to visiting
and friendship. The book, in fact, is a series of letters she writes
very eloquently to this mysterious girl. Then there are some people
coming all the way from Baltimore for a month. Maybe they'll have kids.
Anybody Shining is a very luminescent novel to transport our
children back to a time before Facebook, Google, or even
television...a time when many beautiful and useful items were crafted
by artisans rather than mass produced...a time when parents and
children would eagerly anticipate a barn dance with local fiddlers.
On a personal note, a number of community gardeners still appreciate
fiddle music and square dancing, your hopefully favorite book reviewer
included.
A great big shout out goes out to all who help keep the old customs
and arts alive.
Julia Emily Hathaway




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The Body In The Woods

The Body In The Woods

YA mystery
Young adult suspense lovers are in for a real treat. April
Henry's The Body In The Woods, through a combination of character
development and a masterfully crafted plot, draws the reader in
quickly and doesn't let go til the very surprising ending.
Alexis, Nick, and Ruby are a very unlikely trio involved in a
Search And Rescue team. Alexis has a psychologically challenged
mother who is very unpredictable when she's off her meds. SAR has the
potential to help her escape her situation via college. Nick
desperately wants to be brave like his dad who died in military action
in Iraq. Ruby is painfully aware that she does not fit in with her
peers. Maybe in SAR she will finally find friends who share her
unusual interests.
They are put together on an evening search for an adult male.
Instead they find the dead body of a teen age girl. She's been slain
by a serial killer who puts one of them on his to kill list.
Although the SAR team in the book is fictional, it is based on a
real life counterpart: Multnomah County Sheriff's Office Search and
rescue. This youth led group engages in rescue searches and hunts for
crime scene evidence. (Principals, superintendents, teachers--can you
imagine the real life, motivated STEM experience involved?) When she
was looking for an idea for a real life mystery series, Henry learned
about this group and found the inspiration she was seeking. YOWZA!
On a personal note, tonight's the night! As Jules LaMagnifique I
compete in UMaine's Got Talent, reciting my poem, Silver Foxes. My
first time performing from memory (instead of reading) in front of
such a large audience. Wish me luck.
A great big shout out to all volunteers who spend time, often under
quite adverse conditions, finding lost folks.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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The Last Best Days Of Summer

The Last Best Days Of Summer

Juvenile fiction
I've met people who are losing parents or even spouses to the
long slow fading out of Alzheimers. There may be no harder way to be
parted from a loved one. Now try to imagine being a middle school
child and, on a solo visit to a beloved grandmother, experiencing
frightening changes in her abilities, changes that put both of you in
danger. This situation is covered quite lovingly and poignantly in
Valerie Hobbs' The Last Best Days Of Summer.
For Lucy her artist grandmother's cabin in the woods where she
spends a week each August is a treasured haven. It's not only a
chance to spend one on one time with someone she adores, but an escape
from the pressures of the rest of her year life. The summer she is
twelve it is a much needed escape. Her mother seems way
overprotective, something that is especially frustrating for middle
schoolers. Her best friend, Megan has sent her off with twelve top
tips for popularity to memorize. Lucy is not sure that is the end all
and be all of middle school life. Finally there is Eddie, a boy with
Down syndrome she is sometimes paid to spend time with. He considers
her a friend. She isn't sure what place he occuppies in her life.
This summer feels different. Her grandmother seems not quite
herself. At first it's little things. But when they are stranded on
an island in the middle of a storm with only a cave for overnight
shelter they must both confront the older woman's decline and the
imminent sale of her beloved cabin.
This book would be a godsend for young people in a similar
situation. For other kids it might be a way to gain compassion for
scary looking older people they encounter in their neighborhoods and
communities.
On a personal note, Saturday night was the gardeners dinner for Orono
Community Garden volunteers. There was wonderful soup, rolls, and
desserts (all home made), lively conversation, and perfect background
music. A good time was had by all. I won the most social gardener
award again. Also for the first time I won the longest standing
volunteer award.
A great big shout out goes out to my fellow gardeners for creating
memories as well as awesome veggies and to John and Shelley Jemmison
for recruiting us and making us a team to be reckoned with.
Julia Emily Hathaway



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Fraidyzoo

Fraidyzoo

Picture book
For me it was the basement at night. I bet when you were little
you had a place that you did NOT want to go. Maybe as a parent you
remember trying to persuade a terrified child that nothing terrifying
lurked in a certain place. That's the predicament of Little T's
family. They want very much to go to the zoo. She's afraid.
Rather than downplaying her fears, her parents and very bouncy
sister try to discover just what animal creeps Little T out. They use
household odds and ends to create a variety of animal costumes--a
whole alphabet of costumes to be exact. Kids can have fun guessing
what the various varmints are.
There's a visual treat for younger kids too. The family has a
very handsome tuxedo cat...very much like my own dear Joey. That cat
appears in the pictures, hiding in some pretty clever places.
And if one is ever hard pressed to come up with a costume on
short notice...
On a personal note, the place I am terrified of is what I call retail
hell. I don't even like to shop at first hand stores, especially of
the big box variety. The thought of being doomed to work in that
environment paralyzes me with fear. No kidding.
A great big shout out goes out to the people who will decide if I get
accepted to graduate school with a teaching assistantship. Hopefully
they will decide in the affirmative. Then I won't have to worry as
much about retail hell.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Lindbergh

Lindbergh

Picture book
Not all tykes want their picture books populated by cute puppies
and talking unicorns and done up in shades of pastel. If you have a
youngster with slightly bolder tastes, Torben Kuhlman's Lindbergh:
The Tale of a Flying Mouse is a must read aloud.
Kuhlman's pint sized hero, Lindbergh, is a mouse who loved
reading human written books so much he would seclude himself for long
periods of time doing just that. One day, returning from a reading
retreat, he discovers that the other mice have vanished. A new
invention, the mouse trap, has caused them to depart. Maybe they've
gone to the fabled country across the ocean--America.
Joining them will be a lot easier said than done. Vigilent cats
guard transatlantic ships. Flight seems the only possibility. But
can a rodent build a flying machine that will get by the amber eyed
owls and manage to cross the mighty Atlantic?
Read the book and see.
On a personal note, Friday the seventh was First Friday free coffee
and bagels at the University of Maine commuter lounge. Free food and
a congenial crowd! Who can ask for more?
A great big shout out goes out to our local Tim Hortons for their
generosity.
Julia Emlly Hathaway



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What's Your Favorite Animal?

What's Your Favorite Animal?

Picture book
Wouldn't it be great if fourteen well known and loved children's
book illustrators drew and wrote about their favorite critters? Admit
it. Even if that concept had never before crossed your mind you're
agreeing with me. You're in luck. That's exactly what you get in
What's Your Favorite Animal? by Eric Carle and friends. In its very
colorful pages you see that:
*Eric Carle shares my favorite. But why in the world would a cat drop
a green bean into a shoe?
*Nick Bruel runs into interference from his seemingly autonomous Bad
Kitty when he professes a fondness for the octopus;
*Steven Kellogg has been enamoured of cows from childhood days when he
believed his morning bedhead stemmed from their nocturnal visits...
This book is a great way for parents and children to look at the
work of illustrators, possibly stumbling on a favorite or two. The
book's royalties go to The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. I
don't know about you, but if I can ever afford to I want to go there.
On a personal note, Friday the 7th was Orono Arts Cafe. I practiced
my Silver Foxes which I will perform at UMaine's Got Talent. I was in
the zone! YOWZA!
A great big shout out goes out to my Orono Arts Cafe family.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Mary Coin

Mary Coin

Adult fiction
If you've done any studying up on the period in American history
known as the Great Depression, you've come across a famous, iconic
image--an image that in many minds sums up the desperation of the
times for the most neglected and impoverished of America's citizens.
It's a migrant farm worker, book ended by skinny children, sickly baby
in her lap, seeming to gaze off into a precarious future rather than
at the photographer. Marissa Silver saw that picture and did
something truly creative with it. She wove it into a novel told
across seven decades in three voices.
Of course one of the voices is that of the woman. She's
stranded by her broken car, waiting to see if the man travelling with
her family can get the radiator mended. The nearby field holds no
prospect of work due to an early frost that killed off the peas. Her
children are painfully hungry, down to one meal a day. The baby in
her lap is burning up with fever.
Not surprisingly another of the voices is that of the fictitious
photographer. Vera is a woman who feels plain and defective, having
survived polio as a child, only to be left with a pronounced limp and
facing the ignorance and cruelty of schoolmates. The government
contract to photograph migrant workers has been a godsend, a chance to
maybe earn enough money so she and her husband can afford a place big
enough for them and their two sons.
The third voice, that of Walker, a middle age man, starts out as
a mystery. He's a professor of cultural history, happiest when he's
in the field studying the seemingly mundane papers and objects of
other poeple's lives. He is divorced, parenting teens at a distance.
"This is all that I am: a marginally respected academic, a failed
husband, a deserter of children." In the wake of the death of his
father, he must clean out the family home, make sense of the past.
Any of the three main characters would make for a fascinating
narrative. But the braiding together of their lives makes for a story
that is far more than the sum of its pieces.
On a personal note, I learned last week that I passed my UMaine's Got
Talent audition and made the line up. So November 20 I get to recite
my poem Silver Foxes to a larger audience than I'm used to. YOWZA!
A great big shout out goes out to the fraternity guys who are making
this all possible.
Julia Emily Hathaway



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The Shining

The Shining
When I first made the acquaintance of Stephen King's classic The
Shining I had more in common, seemingly, with the living dead than the
living living. With a dear precious baby who had day and night mixed
up and two older girls who required tending to when the sun was up--
not to mention the cooking, dishes, and laundry that needed to be
accomplished on a regular basis and the papers I typed to bring in a
little money--sleep came in tiny fragments, never enough to refresh me
or even remove the sleepy dust from my eyes. Amber was a bright eyed,
curious first grader. The Shining was going to be shown in three
installments on television. She wanted to watch. I videotaped it and
viewed it with her. She was fine, not scared in the least. But her
teacher read me the riot act. How could I let an innocent child watch
such a terrifying movie? I felt a groggy, vague realization that not
all first graders are created equal. Or something like that.
To be fair, Amber did also enjoy The Brave Little Toaster,
American Girls, and Babysitters Club books, Goosebumps, and Scooby
Doo--offerings that teacher would have considered much more age
appropriate. But after that introduction, long after I could claim
sleep deprivation as an excuse for not just saying no, we watched,
read, and discussed the works of that distinctly Maine born master of
horror. The Shining remained one of our favorites.
Fast forward to 2014. Picture winter coming in as a lion, fangs
bared, in the first snow of the year. Wind whipping the snow
relentlessly, making the house creak eerily, seeping in through every
nook and cranny as the electricity goes out, making the furnace
useless. Then darkness falling.
Amber, now a grad student, called to see if I was okay. She
mentioned she was reading The Shining. It was the perfect time, I
realized, to ponder the drama of a family trapped by snow in a haunted
hotel, sharing space with decidedly malevolent entities. So I located
my copy and the leftover Halloween candy and started reading by
flashlight. It was the perfect ambiance for reading the book.
Although Stephen King is considered a horror story writer, I see
him more as a keen observer of the human psyche. His horror comes not
from flashy special effects and over the top gore, but from the
messiness and inconsistency of the human soul and the gap between who
one is inside and what one shows on the surface. A prime example in
The Shining comes when 5-year-old Danny is having either close
encounters of malevolent spirits kinds. His mom, Wendy, says they
have to get him out of the snow bound hotel, away from the danger.
His father, Jack, acquiesces. But in the dark he weighs dangers posed
by "closet boogeyman and jumping shadows" with the dangers of running
from his hotel caretaker job with no replacement. "...A man with his
sterling record of alcoholism, student-beating, and ghost-chasing
would undoubtedly be able to write his own ticket. Anything you
like. Custodial engineer--swamping out Greyhound buses. The
automotive industry--washing cars in a rubber suit..."
The legendary hotel the Overlook draws its horrific power from
human drama. Even in the off season it is inhabited by the dead but
not departed, caught eternally in often brutal enactments. Their
auras charge it with a lethal energy that can be unleashed by those
who have the mixed blessing of the shining--like little Danny.
No wonder, nearly 40 years after its first release, as legions
of genre mates have faded into obscurity, The Shining continues to
fascinate and scare us.
On a personal note, that storm really clobbered Maine. At one point
there were well over 100,000 homes lacking power. A friend of mine
didn't get electricity for 3 days.
A great big shout out goes out to Mr. Stephen King. Long may he write!
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Everything I Need To Know About Christmas

Everything I Need To Know About Christmas

Picture Book
I grew up with plenty of Little Golden Books in my personal
library. My kids did too. I think there's a very good chance you
enjoyed at least a few of these ubiquitous gold bound, cardboard
backed books. No matter what you think of the brand, they did a lot
of good, providing reading and read aloud experiences for the children
of parents who could not afford the pricier book store offerings or
find the time for library visits.
Diane Muldrow's Everything I Need to Know About Christmas I
Learned From A Little Golden Book is a real trip down Memory Lane.
It's almost more for parents than kids. Illustrations from Little
Golden Books are coupled with a narrative of seasonal hassles and joys
ranging from amusing to touching. A tousled haired baby faces a horde
of visiting relatives, probably intent on pinching little round
cheeks. Naughty Bunny demonstrates seasonal misbehavior. Santa holds
out a list of good boys and girls. A gleeful infant waves dimpled
hands at a decorated tree with a little pink rocking horse. My all
time favorite LGB character, the Poky Little Puppy makes a list for
Santa...
Then at the end when traditions have been lovingly examined
there is a touching reminder of the reason for the celebration.
Everything I Need To Know About Christmas is a very good sanity
saver for the days when everyone seems to be running around in a rat
race of conspicuous consumption, when, in the words of Pastor Steve,
it might be hard to find Bethlehem in all the bedlam. I'm keeping my
copy on my kitchen table for all of Advent.
On a personal note, we had a weather perfect Halloween. The day
before at Orono Public Library we were able to hold the children's
party outside. Hundreds of kids were out on the back lawn painting
pumpkins, making caramel apples, eating popcorn and drinking cider,
playing games, collecting candy, voting for their favorite
scarecrows... It was impossible to tell who was having more fun: the
little kids flitting from booth to booth or the college kids staffing
the booths. Halloween itself was that rare in Maine trick or treat
where kids didn't have to wear coats or worse over costumes. The day
after the rains came. Sunday the first snow of the season was well
underway, knocking out electricity in Old Town and Orono.
A great big shout out goes out to all who made the party a grand
success, the people including my husband called out on a Sunday to
plow or restore power, and the supervisor who let my Adam get off work
early and come home safely.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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The Mockingbird Next Door

The Mockingbird Next Door

Adult biography
"Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I
first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass
grew on the sidewalks; the courthouse sagged in the square..." I don't
have to tell you where I got that quote. If you're enough of a
bibliophile to be reading a book review blog, you recognized it as
readily as you can pick your childhood home out of a picture. For
many of us it's a spiritual home to return to again and again and
always see with new eyes.
If you were to ask American readers, an increasingly small
subset of our nation's population, which amazing book disappointed
them the most when the author failed to write a second novel I have no
doubt whatsoever Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird would top the
list. If you're like me, you've wondered more than once why someone
with the talent to encode her writing into our hearts and minds, to
make a faraway time and place come vividly alive would not follow
through. Wonder no more. Marja Mills' The Mockingbird Next Door:
Life With Harper Lee holds the answers and much much more.
In 2001 Chicago selected To Kill A Mockingbird for a city wide
read. Mills, a Chicago Tribune reporter, was assigned to go to Lee's
home town and try to interview her. The very private author was not
considered to be a friend of the press. Not at all sure that she
would succeed where so many others failed, Mills knocked on the door
of the home Lee shared with her older sister, Alice. She was in for a
big surprise, a truly rare encounter without which The Mockingbird
Next Door would have seen the light of day.
For some reason the Lee sisters discerned Mills to be more
trustworthy than other would be interviewers. Alice let her into
their home. Nelle (Harper's first name) visited her at her hotel.
This was only the first in a long series of conversations that
blossomed into intimate friendship. Mills actually ended up renting
the house next door to the Lee household for a year and a half,
becoming part of the daily life of the sisters and their social
circle, meeting the people and visiting the places and reading the
books that they believed would give her a feel for a younger Nelle and
the world she grew up in.
Mills' open and gracious tone brings the reader into this world
in a most intimate and delightful way. You meet the ten-year-old who
was worried that her sister's wedding would eclipse all the rest of a
Depression era Christmas and then thrilled to receive a bicycle, the
young woman heading off to New York to make her mark on the world, the
wildly successful author, stunned by the intrusiveness of the American
public and wondering if she should have submitted the manuscript to be
published... You also get to walk the streets of that tired old town
where now SUVs dwarf the sagging courthouse.
With the holidays coming up, I do believe The Mockingbird Next
Door would be a most excellent gift for anyone who treasures To Kill A
Mockingbird.
On a personal note, one thing Harper Lee said struck a real chord with
me. She was glad To Kill A Mockingbird came out when it did. If it
was published now it would have been classified YA and never have
reached an adult audience. If I remember correctly back then YA was
not labeled as such. It's only relatively recently that it has
emerged as a level seperated from both adult and juvenile literature.
Bear with me now. This will be a valid comparison. When movie
ratings became the law of the land a lot of producers put gratuitous
sex, violence, and bad words in their flicks to avoid what they called
the curse of a P or PG rating which would presumably diminish their
appeal to an older audience. I've noticed a number of gentle,
nuanced, insightful novels go on the YA shelves while a lot of what
goes in the adult wing is too graphic for my tastes. Could YA
publishers be the ones taking some of the best stories around? Could
some writers feel a need to pimp their offerings with sex and violence
to market their offerings to grown ups? Just something to ponder.
A great big shout out goes out to all who made The Mockingbird Next
Door possible.
Julia Emily Hathaway



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Super Sniffers

Super Sniffers

Picture book
Lily sniffs my arm diligently, delicately. When she catches a
whiff of Joey cat, her ears perk up and she almost grins. If I'm not
feeling great she leans against me in a sympathetic cuddle. I've
thought more than once that if she could talk she'd be able to tell
her person mom, my chum Pat, where I'd been and what I'd eaten based
purely on olfactory clues. Dorothy Hinshaw Patent, author of Super
Sniffers: Dog Detectives On The Job, would agree with that. In this
fascinating volume that will delight dog lovers young and old, she
sheds light on canine's amazing ability to discover and differentiate
odors and the many ways humans have enlisted these canny critters to
do tasks we'd be too slow at or less capable of accomplishing.
Take locating avalanch survivers. Humans can only probe surface
snow and take days to find a corpse. A dog can smell out a person
trapped under over 10 feet of snow in minutes. If you were that
person, which would you want?
And there are the amazing dogs that can:
*provide loyal companionship for military people as well as discover
explosive dangers that would endanger them in far away war zones;
*sniff out illicit drugs for police officers;
*find endangered species and invasive plants;
*help people monitor chronical medical conditions;
*and so much more.
The pictures alone are worth the price of the book. What a wonderful
way to help the younger generation learn to value non human animals as
intelligent and sentient beings rather than possessions. Actually
that's a lesson a lot of adults need to learn too! Remember the
celebrity fueled pocketbook dog fad?
On a personal note, I am nervous. Tomorrow I audition for UMaine Has
Talent. It's a show to raise money to fight testicular cancer. I
plan to recite my poem Silver Foxes and pick an outfit and try to stop
asking why I let myself get talked into that.
A great big shout out goes out to amazing dogs and the people who love
them.
Julia Emily Hathaway



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Handle With Care

Handle With Care

Picture book
When we think of butterfly migration we tend to imagine these
tiny, delicate, but amazingly resilient creatures winging it across
major distances, unerringly reaching places they've never been.
Tonight I learned about another mode of insect travel when I read
Lorree Griffin Burns' Handle With Care: An Unusual Butterfly Journey.
Burns was inspired when she learned that the live butterflies in
a museum in Massachusetts had come all the way from an unusual farm in
Costa Rico. She and photographer Ellen Harasmowicz went on a journey
of discovery Handle With Care was the result of their quest.
I bet the special kids in your life would enjoy joining them. I
know I did.
On a personal note, last week I was the official Veazie School
Committee delegate to the state wide Maine School Management
Conference up to Augusta. I learned a lot, networked, and won a cool
door prize.
A great big shout goes out to all the folks who traveled to the
conference to work together.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Do Not Pass Go

Do Not Pass Go

Juvenile fiction
Alaskan writer, mother of six and grandmother of eight
Kirkpatrick Hill had a family member in jail at one point. Visiting
this person, an experience that most people would want only to put
behind them, was the impetus for her to write a book. Do Not Pass Go
looks at a man's incarceration through the eyes of his not-old-enough-
to-drive son.
Deet is a super organized young man who gets frustrated by the
way his folks waste money and fail to plan or follow through with
stuff like cleaning the furnace or shoveling snow off the roof.
Sometimes he feels like he's the only adult in the family. He
discovers that things can get worse, a lot worse, when his step
father, taking uppers to have energy to work two jobs, is busted for
drugs and incarcerated.
Things start to go to Hades in the proverbial handbasket. Even
with Deet's mother working the family finances are a mess. His step
dad was working two jobs to compensate for over spending. Not to
mention Deet's two very young half sisters he and his mom must protect
and care for.
Deet had always thought only bad guys went to jail. When he
first visits his step father he is surprised by the ordinariness of
the inmates. "...Where were the perverts, the steely-eyed hoodlums,
the disgusting underbelly of society? They were prisoners, in jail,
but they looked like anyone else you might see in the streets..."
That's just the beginning of the thought transformation dilineated in
Do Not Pass Go.
It's a poignant novel of a boy and a man coming of age under
much less than ideal circumstances.
On a personal note, when I was quite young I acquired a baby sitting
client who told me her husband was ill in the hospital. I believed
that until his trial hit the newspapers. He was in prison for
homicide. People told me I should quit lest he have someone on the
outside kill me. Actually he was glad that I was helping to give his
son and daughter the happy experiences they deserved.
A great big shout out goes out to all who reach out to help children
with the person or people they love the most incarcerated.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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The Extra

The Extra

YA historical fiction
When you think of movie production, images of splendor and
ritziness probably pop into your head. When you imagine the
circumstances of imprisoned Gypsies during the time of Adolph Hitler,
you probably imagine anything but. If you're anything like me, you
probably never imagined those two worlds ever colliding.
Guess again.
Filmmaker, dancer, actress Leni Riefenstahl was a favorite of
Adolph Hitler, getting Third Reich backing for her artistic
endeavors. She wanted to direct and star in a movie, Tiefland, that
would bring to the big screen a Spanish folk opera. She planned to
produce it in Spain but was stymied by the Spanish Civil War and the
start of World War II. Germany did not boast a Spanish population,
but the Gypsies who were being rounded up and murdered along with Jews
and other enemies of the Reich had a strong resemblance to Spaniards.
This very little known historical episode inspired master
storyteller Kathryn Lasky to pen The Extra. "...It is a Holocaust
story, but one that has for the most part slipped between the cracks
of history. It is the story of two people, one real and one
fictionalized; Leni Riefenstahl, a real person who rose to prominence
during the early 1930s as Hitler's favorite filmmaker, and Lilian
Frewald, a fictional Gypsy girl who became Riefenstahl's film double
in the making of the film Tiefland."
As the story begins, Lilo (Lilian's nickname) is a 15-year-old
student in
Vienna. The Nazi Nuremberg laws are altering life for Jews there and
worse is rumored to be in store for them. But she still lives in a
comfortable home with her master clockmaker father who plays violin in
an exclusive restaurant and her lacemaker mother.
That is until officers of the dreaded SS imprison them in a
holding camp for Gypsies. They're crammed into a primative and filthy
facility with hundreds of others. Rumors of their destination
multiply. Lilo is told of a surgery being done to Gypsy girls and
women.
"Lilo felt all the blood suddenly drain from her face. It was
as if the future had been erased, any hope for a future obliterated.
Being in this barbed-wire cage was nothing compared with the utter
darkness of the black wall of sterility, of a childless world, of a
family that simply ended forever and ever. The Friwalds would be
extinct."
Imagine facing that at fifteen.
One night, separated from her father with no idea where he might
be or if he is even alive, Lilo and her mother arrive at a camp.
Standing in formation under watchtowers where guards train guns on
them, they and the others glimpse a shocking and surreal sight: a
glamorous movie star making her way toward them.
"...It was not supposed to be this way, Lilo thought. Leni
Riefenstahl belonged on the billboard, hovering in the moonlight of
the clock-tower square, or on the movie screen in the Palace Theater,
but not here--not here with them, dirty Gypsies, women still bleeding
from terrible operations."
Riefenstahl is casting extras for her new movie. Lilo is chosen
and gets her fragile mother included. She is under no delusions of
safety. Now she must search for a way to use this opportunity to help
them not become part of Hitler's final solution.
When it comes to YA novelists, Kathryn Lasky is in a small
special league. In my book reviewing years so far I've read the work
of many good to great authors. Some very frustratingly show real
potential and then vanish. Some produce a steady supply of
commendable work. Lasky keeps improving with publication. Her plots
and characters become richer and more nuanced. Her ability to show
rather than tell grows beautifully, as you can see in the piece quoted
above where Lilo encounters Riefenstahl.
Can even Kathryn Lasky top The Extra? I'm certainly eager to
find out.
On a personal note, last Saturday my church held the fund raising
supper and silent auction I designed to help girls in Tanzania get
education. It was a rousing success. Everyone had a wonderful time.
We are sending Jane Goodall Institute over $300. People are already
talking about next year.
A great big shout out goes out to all who help people recognize and
treasure our common humanity. It is when we objectify those who are
different from us that demogogues like Hitler have a chance to prevail.
Julia Emily Hathaway



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Jessie Elliot Is A Big Chicken

Jessie Elliot Is A Big Chicken

Juvenile fiction
Do you remember the summer before starting high school with at
least a little recollection of apprehension? If so, you were
definitely not alone. Have you experienced this transition with your
own kids as I have? If one of your kids is headed towards this big
event, I would strongly suggest Elise Gravel's Jessie Elliot Is A
Chicken. It's a wonderful blend of narration and illustration.
Designed to look like it's created on the pages of a composition book,
it's very believable as a fourteen-year-old's journal.
Self-described nerd extraordinaire Jessie Elliot is about to
start her last summer as a child. In the fall she'll be attending
Hochelaga High where the students, "...look like bored wannabees.
They hang around with sultry faces, call each other names, paint their
eyes like raccoons, and smoke cigarettes, imagining I guess that they
look like rockstars. Maybe there's some kind of chemical reaction in
human brains that's triggered when we turn thirteen that makes us
instantly stupid."
Of course this won't happen to Jessie. No one who still has a
My Little Ponies collection, reads too much, and enjoys playing
Scrabble is in danger of being SUPERCOOL. And she'll have best friend
Julie to hang out with. Or will she? Following a misunderstanding at
Julie's cottage, the girls aren't speaking to each other. Worse yet,
Julie is hanging out with Jessie's nemesis, mean girl Isabelle Lemoine.
So what is Jessie to do? Get her nose pierced, start smoking,
and dress sexy or face high school alone?
Shakespeare it's not, but Jessie Elliot Is A Big Chicken is a
great comfort read for kids on the verge of high and even some of us
who made that transition quite awhile ago.
On a personal note, my family moved from the fishing and shoe factory
based coastal city I grew up in a week or so before I started high
school. It was so my sister, who had incurred brain damage as a
result of spinal meningitis, could try another school. So I entered
high school not only not knowing a soul, but feeling guilty for having
mixed emotions, having told about a gazillion times to think about
Harriet's suffering. I remember one moment as clearly as if it were
yesterday. It was a lovely fall evening. Mom, Harriet, and I were
walking to our new apartment. We passed an outdoor party--all boys
and girls about my age. I thought, if we'd stayed in Beverly I'd be
in there, not on the outside. Then I looked at Harriet and felt like
the most evil sister in the history of the universe.
A great big shout out goes out to the young women and men navigating
the transitions to high school and college.
Julia Emily Hathaway



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Hidden Like Anne Frank

Hidden Like Anne Frank

YA nonfiction
In a haunting black and white photograph a wide eyed little girl
with carefully styled ringlets stands with her arm around her smiling
mother. In a real life plot more horrific than the writings of Mr.
Stephen King himself, the little girl and legions of her peers had to
be sent away from parents to live with strangers in a desperate fight
for survival. Adolph Hitler was on his quest for world dominion. It
was not a safe time to be Jewish.
Little Rita was one of the children who survived. She went on
to have a son, Marcel Prins. She shared her experiences candidly with
him. Fortunately for us, they piqued his curiosity.
"But what did going into hiding actually involve? Where did you
go? How did you know who to trust? How did you find money to pay for
your hiding place? What did you do when you were frightened?...
He asked these questions of the elderly men and women who were
the frightened and confused children in the 1940's. Their stories and
very poignant photographs are the text of Hidden Like Anne Frank: 14
True Stories of Survival. These children, some as young as three,
basically had everything children take for granted--home, school,
family, food, safety--wrenched from them. They had to make life or
death decisions most adults don't have to. Even after the war some
returned to the news that their family members had been murdered.
Living parents were sometimes too traumatized to be the loving people
they had been before the war. Donald De Marcus observed,
"Father was able to deal with the pain better than Mother, who
was never as affectionate as she was before the war. She was troubled
by nightmares for years. She used to dream about the concentration
camp where her only sister was murdered along with her husband and
children. She was destroyed the mother I had known."
As a mother, I found this book both enlightening and very
difficult to read. I would recommend it even more to adults than to
the teens who are its target demographic. Those who don't learn from
history are doomed to repeat it. America does not do a very good job
learning from history. This summer there was a great hue and cry
about young illegal immigrants smuggled into this country in desperate
attempts to save their lives. Governor Paul LePage, for example, had
a major league hissy fit when he learned that eight had infiltrated
Maine. A lot of people demand that these innocent children be sent
home. I would strongly urge them to read Hidden Like Anne Frank and
really take it to heart. How would they feel if it was their children
in peril, if they knew the only way to keep them safe was to send them
away, possibly to never see them again? Hidden Like Anne Frank is a
very powerful book in its ability to evoke a sense of how humanly
alike we are and how we must do somthing when others are in peril.
On a personal note, one of the things I am enjoying the most about the
fundraising dinner/silent auction my church is doing for girls'
education in Tanzania is the dialogue it is creating and the great
enthusiasm people are showing for this worthy cause. With any kind of
luck it will be an annual event.
A great big shout out goes out to all who are working to protect the
refugee children.
Julia Emily Hathaway



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Saving Lucas Biggs

Saving Lucas Biggs

Juvenile fiction
Margaret O'Malley, one of the narrator/protagonists of Marisa de
los Santos and David Teague's Saving Lucas Biggs, has an intriguing
genetic trait. Members of her family can time travel. However, each
generation is strongly admonished not to. In fact they must take a
solemn pledge:
"There is one Now: the spot where I stand,
And one way the road goes: onward, onward."
Time strongly resists revisionists attempts. In fact a time traveler
begins to weaken the moment she lands in another time and could end up
dying in both.
So why would Margaret even consider taking these risks?
Love, pure and simple. Her father is a whistleblower in a fuel
company owned and run town. He's been framed for arson and murder.
The judge has sentenced him to death.
Margaret would do anything to save her dad--even going back on
her sacred vow to travel to a time when the sentencing judge was an
idealistic boy rather than a cynical old man and prevent the incident
that hardened his heart.
Youngsters who choose to go with her will find it a fascinating
journey.
On a personal note, my benefit dinner/silent auction to raise money
for girls' education in Tanzania is only two days away. Two major
complications have arisen. I've been elected official Veazie School
Committee delegate to the annual Maine School Management Conference.
I'll be in Augusta the two days I can least afford to, getting back
hours before the event. Also I have a pesky urinary tract infection
which has me constantly needing to pee. Suffice it to say it's been a
week since I've slept even two hours in one block. I may be a few
fries short of a happy meal. Will the event succeed? This story may
be as fascinating as the books I review.
A great big shout out goes out to the fine folks who are putting time,
effort, and energy into this cause which is so dear to my heart.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Don't Tell

Don't Tell

YA fiction
A lot of the books for older teen girls that don't involve
glittery vampires or other elements of the supernatural are painfully
superficial and materialistic. She lands a fabulous internship, meets
the perfect boy, only he hasn't gotten the memo that they're meant to
be together. Puhleeze. Nothing has changed in decades other than she
being a cheerleader and he being football team captain.
Lava Mueller's Don't Tell is a striking exception. Told in four
voices, set in 1979, it follows four girls, best friends seemingly
forever, as they navigate the end of their anything but ordinairy
senior year of high school. There's:
*Mary who starts the book off by ingesting toxic substances and hoping
she won't be found too soon. Only what looks like a suicide attempt
may be a much more complex plan;
*Zana, daughter of famous psychiatrists who thinks her parents are as
crazy as their patients. She knows they have a major league secret
housed at the local psychiatric hospital and resents their refusal to
acknowledge the truth;
*Berrie, who has her own secrets. She pretends the family dog has
just wandered off rather than tell her parents she ran over and buried
it. Her choices of boys for intimate relations could get her in deep
trouble;
*and innocent Lili, track athlete and school play lead, who must carry
Mary's secret even believing that her best friend's plans are not in
her best interests.
The story is set in a small town in Maine. But it could be anywhere
young women come of age.
On a personal note, I played detective while reading it. For some
reason I was sure it was set it Orono. I kept finding these clues--
steam plant, College Avenue, University--than confirmed my intuition.
Still don't know, but it was fun.
A great big shout out goes out to our daughters as they navigate their
complex and compelling worlds.
Julia Emily Hathaway



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Volunteer Vacations

Volunteer Vacations

Adult travel
I've never been all that interested in the kinds of vacations
most people seem to covet. A trip to the "magic kingdom" would having
me thinking on all the workers ironically pulling down decidedly
family unfriendly wages and benefits. Put me on a luxury cruise and
I'd be wondering exactly what ills we were inflicting on the
environment. And tours seem a huge waste of money, going to tourist
spots with a gang of other tourists.
It's not that I dislike travel. I very much want to see other
cultures and get to know the people without leaving a humungous carbon
footprint. That's why I was OVERJOYED to see the Eleventh Edition of
Bill McMillon et al's Volunteer Vacations. For people like me who
would be thrilled to do good while learning and exploring this volume
is a treasure trove. One hundred fifty agencies are profiled in its
pages. There are locations all over the world that need people with
passions for agriculture, community and economic development,
education and children, health, women's issues... Some require
specialized training; some require little more than a caring heart and
willing hands. You can skim through the book as I did or use the
index to customize your search. The pages give enough information to
help you decide which adventure is best for you; contacts are listed
to help you pursue it in more depth.
So if you're seeking an extraordinary travel adventure and the
chance to pursue your passions...good luck and bon voyage!
On a personal note, I want to eventually do some of the vacations in
the book. I want to start out on an organic farming one. Someday
when I can afford it. Actually when I'm in grad school maybe I can
chaperone alternate spring breaks.
A great big shout out goes out to people who spend their vacations
helping others and folks and organizations that make this possible.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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