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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