Sunday, November 29, 2015

Thanksgiving Wish

Thanksgiving Wish

Picture book
"'You never stop missing someone, Mandi,' her father said one
night as he tucked her into bed. 'You sort of forget how much you miss
them until something--like Thanksgiving reminds you again...'"
I think most people who have lost a special someone will relate
to that quote from Michael J. Rosen's Thanksgiving Wish. I lost my
mother in January of 2006. The holiday season that year really caught
me off guard. Probably having three children to make special times
for was the one thing that kept me from totally losing my sanity.
Amanda and her extended family have always spent Thanksgiving at
her Bubbe's house. There was a litany of special dishes. During the
month of November Bubbe would cook one each day.
The year Bubbe dies Amanda's parents decide to host the family
gathering at their new house. At the last minute they decide to make
all the traditional dishes. In the middle of a cooking marathon with
aunts helping out heavy usage overloads the electric system, blowing
the fuses. No more cooking until the hardware store opens the next
day. They're stuck with "Raw turkey, hard potatoes, cold soup, soupy
pies."
Or are they? The miracle they need may be just across the alley.
John Thompson's realistic, detailed pictures really help to
bring to life a touching but not mushy story.
On a personal note, what I enjoyed the most about my Thanksgiving was
spending time with my children, their cousins, and Amber's fiancée.
They get along so beautifully! When they are together under one roof
that time is precious beyond measure.
A great shout out goes out to Amber, Katie, Adam, Caleb, Maggie, and
Brian.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Librarian on the Roof!

Librarian on the Roof!

Picture book
If you've got the stereotype of the timid, shushing librarian in
your head, feel free to ditch it once and for all. When it comes to
providing services for and protecting the rights of their patrons,
librarians are some of the most hard core women and men around. Take
my BFF, Barbara McDade. A lot of people were not pleased when she
provided safe camping space and wifi access for the Occupy movement a
few years back. When her library needed a new pricey copper roof she
plunged into the fund raising with a can do spirit that would have
impressed Bob the Builder.
Another gutsy librarian hero, Rosealeta Laurell, is the subject
of M. G. King's Librarian on the Roof. When she became the head
librarian of the Dr. Eugene Clark Library in Lockhart Texas it didn't
take her long to realize that the historic building was lacking in
resources for children. She decided there needed to be a comfortable
place in the library for children to access books and computers (which
many families could not afford).
There was only one problem. This would take a lot of money.
Letters to businesses and well off people didn't pan out. It would
have taken far too many bake sales to go that traditional route.
RoseAleta decided to go straight to the top, of the building
that is. For a week, despite some pretty inclement weather and city
official negativity, she camped out on the library roof, promising to
not come down until the money had been raised.
This is one truly inspiring story, very well worth reading and
reading aloud.
On a personal note, I'm going to need a lot of spunk and inginuity in
2016. There are four projects I really need to get started. As
school committee vice chair for Veazie, Maine I need to start a town
wide visioning team, change the town charter so the town council
doesn't have too much power over the school budget, and develop a
student (not lawsuit prevention) centered transgender policy. The
project closest to my <3, though, is starting an organization to
provide help for people who can't afford life saving surgery for their
beloved companion animals. Yikes!
A great big shout out goes out to those rock stars who are our
librarians and to my fellow library volunteers who help them take care
of business.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Orphans of the Night

Orphans of the Night

YA fiction
We humans have a penchant for scary tales. Think on the
perrenial popularity of Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday The 13th,
Goosebumps, and virtually anything penned by Stephen King. There's no
more perfect time than winter, when darkness falls almost right after
kids get out of school, to share stories of the supernatural,
especially when a storm knocks out the power and the blackness outside
is full of spooky sounds.
Orphans of the Night, edited by Joseph Sherman, shows us that
the perennially popular urban legends (think Bloody Mary) are not the
only show in town. This collection of short stories by talented
juvenile lit authors brings us the supernatural beings that are the
stuff of nightmares across time and around the world. If you read it
cover to cover (which I maybe shouldn't have done with my husband
planning to depart soon for some vacation days at camp) you'll learn
about such fine frightening fiends such as:
*the Njuggle, a demon from the Shetland Islands, that will kill by
taking the form of a handsome horse and riding into the water to drown
its rider;
*the Mongolian Sidhi-kur, a living corpse that can be quite a trickster;
*the Ixtabay, a vengeful female spirit that lures men to their death...
My favorite story concerns a Hawaiian Menehune, one of a race of
little people with supernatural construction powers. In A Few Good
Menehune one, with a lot of help from his friends, manages to
transform a too powerful white developer with plans to replace
precious natural habitat with condos.
"They found Mr. Kirk sitting stark naked in the surf, singing
'Tiny Bubbles' to the little fishies. From neck to ankles he had been
tattooed with a perfect pin-striped business suit, oxford shirt, and
power tie. He looked up to met Darlene's gaze with a vacant, cheerful
smile..."
If you have young adults in the house Orphans of the Night might
be a great investment for a night when the power goes out, maybe
rendering the ubiquitous electronics less than useful. It would seem
to be a great boredom buster.
On a personal note, after twenty-five years the oven part of our
electric stove stopped working. Eugene went out and bought a lovely
new one. He thinks it's not so great because it doesn't have fancy
features. I love it. It does all it needs to and has a digital clock
and an oven light. Plus I'm aware of the billions of people who can
only dream of having such a stove, electricity to run it, and ample
food to prepare with it.
A great big shout out goes out to all who collect traditional stories
to keep them alive.
Julia Emily Hathaway




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Go Set A Watchman

Go Set A Watchman

Adult fiction
To be perfectly honest, I did not set out to read Harper Lee's
Go Set A Watchman. This had nothing to do with the hype and
controversy surrounding the book. Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird has for
decades been my lifetime favorite novel. I was Scout last year for
Halloween. I didn't want to take even the slightest chance of its
appeal being diminished. So I did not pick it up until it was right
at eye level on a library new acquisitions shelf.
Again being honest, it took me awhile to warm up to it. I found
the rather slow pace, the decorous description of the South back in
the day to be a tad tedious.
"The possessor of the right to kiss her on the courthouse steps
was Henry Clinton, her lifelong friend, her brother's comrade, and if
he kept on kissing her like that, her husband. Love whom you will but
marry your own kind was a dictum amounting to instinct within her.
Henry Clinton was Jean Louise's own kind, and now she did not consider
the dictum particularly harsh."
Huh?
Jean Louise (Scout of To Kill A Mockingbird) has grown up,
acquired an education, and relocated to New York, returning to Maycomb
Junction for two weeks each year. The first chapters show her latest
home coming as fairly predictable although her flashbacks to her years
as Scout are fascibating and sometimes funny.
After the first hundred pages my patience was well rewarded.
Jean Louise finds a very disagreeable pamphlet, The Black Plague,
among her father's papers. It turns out that prim and proper Aunt
Alexandria finds a lot of truths in it. Her father, Atticus, brought
it home from a Citizen's Council meeting. In fact he's on the Board
of Directors. The Henry who would have to marry her if he kept on
with ardent kissing is one of its most enthusiastic members.
Jean Louise is horrified when she eavesdrops on a meeting,
seeing her father sitting at the same table as a slimy politician he
wouldn't have given the time of day to when she was a child and
hearing the speaker:
"...his main interest today was to uphold the Southern Way of Life and
no niggers and no Supreme Court was going to tell him or anybody else
what to do...a race as hammer-headed as...essential
inferiority...kinky wooly heads...still in trees...greasy smelly...
marry your daughters...mongrelize the race..."
Whatever happened to the lawyer who took grave risks to defend a
black man falsely accused of raping a white woman, the father who
brought her up with the idea that all deserved equality and none
merited special privilege? Did she really know the people who shaped
her childhood world? Would the place she grew up in ever feel like
home again?
"The one human being she had ever fully and wholeheartedly
trusted had failed her; the only man she had ever known to whom she
could point and say with expert knowledge, 'He is a gentleman,' had
betrayed her publicly, grossly, and shamelessly."
The rest of the book is intense with a surprise ending. While I
would highly recommend it, particularly for book clubs, I still say it
can't hold a candle to To Kill A Mockingbird.
On a personal note, the week before Thanksgiving I went to
multicultural Thanksgiving. (Counting gay Thanksgiving and Wade
Center Thanksgiving, the family one was my fourth). It was lovely and
thought provoking. John Bear Mitchell spoke about the day from a
Native American perspective. We had drumming and singing. Then we
feasted. My favorite part was the fruit bread and cherry cheesecake I
had for dessert. I sat with a group of very interesting students from
China. Afterward I was able to get to church in time for choir
practice.
A great big shout out goes out to my multicultural center friends who
put on such a fine event.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Poisoned Apples

Poisoned Apples

YA poetry
The first poem in a collection of fifty (Christine Heppermann's
Poisoned Apples), The Woods, faces a photograph of a grove of trees.
"The action's always there.
Where are the fairy tales about gym class
or the doctor's office or the back of the bus
where bad things also happen?...
No need for a bunch of trees.
You can lose your way anywhere."
In a volume slim enough to slip into just about any backpack or
messanger bag Heppermann shows us that in today's society the
expectations our society has for girls and the situations they find
themselves in provide dangers the Brothers Grimm never imagined back
in the day.
*A beautifying spa treatment is compared to the preparation of a
turkey for the dinner table with the implied concept of consumption by
another being;
*Mannequins make a 13-year-old girl feel like a failure;
*An anorexic girl pushes past the point of no return.
Many of the poems contain elements of the original stories,
sometimes in very surprising ways:
*Rapunzel decides she's going to sleep in rather than let down her
hair so a prince can climb it;
*The miller's daughter, instead of entering into the mission
impossible that has her making deals with Rumplestilskin, gets an
apartment, takes classes, waits tables, and won't tell the secret
ingredient in the gravy;
*Little Red much prefers her drinking and smoking Wolfie to the
woodsman whose posterior she will kick if he shows up...
My favorite imagines how period products would be marketed if
guys were the ones who menstruated:
"For pads with Wings, Kotex shows jet fighters.
For Heavy Flow, ninjas surf a tsunami.
For Scented, smiling blondes in bikinis
Enjoy sniffing a crotch..."
Poisoned Apples is a delightful must read for anyone questioning
the relevance of poetry or fairy tales.
On a personal note, I am proud to say I did not spend a cent on Black
Friday. I walked to Orono and back, finding two bags of bottles and
cans to cash in. I cooked a turkey with all the trimmings dinner. I
spent quality time with my precious companion Joey cat.
A great big shout out goes out to all the others who decided not to
battle the crowds in this orgy of spending that ironically happens
after we at least pay lip service to being grateful for all that we
have.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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This Book Is Gay

This Book Is Gay

YA nonfiction
The young adult years are the time many of us grapple with
questions about sexuality. Our bodies change drastically, not always
in ways that please us or match media standards. Our emotions can
make life seem like a roller coaster. It would be confusing enough if
our responsibilities were not growing, people weren't treating us
differently...
I remember being more annoyed by than attracted to the booger
brained boys I went to school with, particularly the Neanderthals who
felt that I'd suddenly put on a sign that said please touch. I had no
desire to fake an interest in stuff like football or act like I was
stupid. If they married me for stupidity I'd be stuck playing life
size Barbie doll for the rest of my life. So was I a lesbian? Even
as a library geek par excellence I could not find the answer to that.
James Dawson's This Book Is Gay, dedicated to "anyone who has
ever wondered," is a most excellent resource for today's young (and
not so young) people. In addition to his research and personal
observations, Dawson has drawn on the words of over three hundred LGBT
people. His tone is conversational, deeply personal, nonjudgemental.
His book is eminantly readable.
"...loads of young people--gay, straight, or bi; trans or cis--
have oodles of questions about what it's like to be LGBT. This book
has some of the answers. Whether you think you might be LGBT or you
think you're straight and have some questions or you're anywhere in
between, this book's for you."
Some of the topics dealt with are: what the different
categories and others (like A for asexual) mean; the way stereotypes
limit people; strategies for dealing with homophobic and transphobic
people and institutions; and ways to come out and meet compatible
people. The last chapter aims to help parents and caretakers
understand and accept LGBT youth.
This Book Is Gay needs to be placed in every middle and high
school library and the juvenile sections of public libraries.
Teachers, guidance counselors, and others who work with young people
would do well to put this book on their summer reading lists.
On a personal note, I had a really great Thanksgiving. The
festivities started for me the night before when my younger daughter
arrived from Portland to spend the night. We had a nice time to chat
before bed. We had the traditional family Thanksgiving dinner out in
Winterport. I so enjoyed the time I spent with my three kids, their
cousins, and Amber's fiancée.
A great big shout out goes out to my kids, my niece and nephew, and
all of their significant others. You never cease to amaze me.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Friday, November 27, 2015

We Rode The Orphan Trains

We Rode The Orphan Trains

Juvenile nonfiction
These days when an adoption can take quite a few months, involve
reams of paperwork, and cost as much as a brand new truck it may be
hard to imagine a time when one could go to a public building to view
a group of prospective sons and daughters and return home with a
child. In the not so long ago past that was state of the art. Andrea
Warren's We Rode the Orphan Trains explores a fascinating chapter in
United States history through the stories of some of the children and
one of the agents responsible for their safe delivery.
In 1850 New York City it's estimated that between ten and thirty
thousand children resided in crowded, underfunded orphanages or bedded
down on the cruel streets of the Big Apple. Decades before the
importance of municipal sanitation was known, epidemics of diseases
like typhoid and yellow fever orphaned many. Poverty and substance
addictions would leave others parentless or cause them to be
abandoned. The bloodshed of the Civil War would later leave many
youngsters fending for themselves.
In 1853 Charles Loring Brace, a minister, became aware of the
plight of these familyless children. "...Some children sold rags or
matches, trying to earn a few pennies to buy bread. Others became
thieves and pickpockets. They slept wherever they could, on sidewalk
steam grates, in makeshift shacks, or under bridges..."
Brace believed that homes were better for children than
institutions...and, of course, far better than the street. He had
heard about orphan relocation programs in Europe. Surely there were
small town and farm families in the west who could make room for one
more child. Train loads of youngsters were sent to towns and cities,
posters announcing their arrival in advance.
"The object of the coming of these children is to find homes in
your midst, especially among farmers, where they may enjoy a happy and
wholesome family life, where good care, good examples, and moral
training will fit them for a life of self-support and
usefullness...The conditions are that these children shall be properly
clothed, treated as members of the family, given proper school
advantages and remain in the family until they are eighteen years of
age...The Society (Children's Aid Society) retains the right to remove
a child at any time for just cause and agrees to remove any found
unsatisfactory after being notified."
Among the train riders profiled in this fascinating book you
will meet:
*Ruth who was taken to an orphanage when she was three by her widowed
mother who could only take her younger child to her job as a live-in
housekeeper. She was five when she rode the train. After a bad night
with an unsuitable family she was transferee to an understanding
father and a mother and two unmarried aunts who doted on her;
*Twins Nettie and Nellie who were removed from their home at the age
of five by the authorities following the death of a little sister.
They were six when they rode the train. Fortunately their agent knew
that they needed to stay together even though separate placements
would have been easier. A "temporary" home turned into a permanent
haven where there mother vehemently defended against prejudice against
orphans.
*and Howard who was removed from his home because of "scandalous
neglect" on the part of his mother. He and older brother, Fred, were
placed in families close enough to maintain the sibling bond. When he
needed a birth certificate for the navy he was startled to learn that
his birth parents were still alive.
The most fascinating and relevant aspect of history, in my
opinion, is not the memorizing of names and dates of battles and dead
white men, but the lived experience of "ordinary" people. This book
and others about the orphan trains make an excellent introduction to
this concept for children. Youngsters and concepts like home and
belonging are central to this narrative.
On a personal note, the book's theme that real family does not have to
be biological has become very personal to me. My mom had pressured me
to produce grandchildren to the point where at times I felt like
merely the vessel for this acheivement. I was not going to do that to
my kids. Well I found myself captivated by my friend Ed's
granddaughter, a very bright and energetic strawberry blonde toddler.
With my sterling ethics and abilities to bake and read aloud with
expression I figured I was prime great aunt material. I adopted Ed as
my brother. At our stage in life there was no need to involve DHHS.
Now I am happily planning what to give my new great niece for Christmas.
A great big shout out goes out to all who realize that real family is
not limited to blood or marriage kin.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Lois Lane: Fallout

Lois Lane: Fallout

YA fiction
I think if I had a dollar for every young person for whom, at
least temporarily, gaming is much more fascinating than books I'd be
able to achieve family financial security and do a lot of good in the
world. Reading assignments can become the occassions for all out
warfare. Lois Lane: Fallout can come to the rescue. The plot
evolves vividly and excitingly in both real and virtual worlds.
Lois is the older daughter in a constantly on the move military
family. Her father, General Sam Lane, has said they will finally be
able to stay put, develop roots. He wants her to fit in and not make
waves. It seems that she's found trouble in a number of the schools
she's spent time in.
Even though Lois sets out with the best of intentions, it soon
becomes clear that it won't be easy or maybe possible. She sees her
principal refuse to help a student who is being bullied. A group is
waging covert warfare on her.
"...I swear to you, they're...doing something to me. To my
mind. Cognitive assault. Psychological coercion..."
They is a group that moves as one, finishes one another's
sentences, acts more like a single organism than a collection of
individuals. They are able to get to their victim in both real life
and a game, Worlds War Three.
These young people, the Warheads, spend only their mornings in
school. Afternoons find them involved in an independent study called
Project Hydra. It takes place off campus in a corporate building. Who
is behind this. To what end are they using high school students?
As the action moves between real and virtual worlds, the plot is
fast paced and suspenseful. I think even young people who aren't much
into reading would find the book hard to put down.
On a personal note tis the night before Thanksgiving and I am eagerly
awaiting the arrival of my younger daughter, Katie.
A great big shout out goes out to all my readers. May tomorrow find
you in a good place with lots to be thankful for!
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Tuesday, November 24, 2015

The Education of Ivy Blake

The Education of Ivy Blake

Juvenile fiction
Readers who enjoyed Ellen Airgood's Prairie Evers will be
thrilled with its very worthy sequel, The Education of Ivy Blake.
Ivy is free spirit Prairie's best friend. She's been living
with the Evers family, feeling a real sense of security and belonging
for the first time in her life. Suddenly, in the middle of the night,
her mother, Tracy, is back to claim her.
"The gist of it was, she was leaving George. Leaving George,
leaving Poughkeepsie, leaving her job at the night desk of the hotel,
quitting her life across the river cold turkey. She'd thrown her
wedding ring and house keys smack at George's heart, which he didn't
have anyway, and pulled away."
She wants a new start in a new town with Ivy.
Ivy works hard to convince herself that her new life is going to
be ok. She takes every positive sign as an omen of normalcy. Tracy,
however, hasn't acquired the stability required for single parenting a
preteen. She dismisses Ivy's interests, reminding her that people
like them "don't get happy endings." She drinks too much. She
behaves very erratically, making scenes in public. Sometimes the
police get called in.
Ivy very much misses the Evers family. But she refuses to tell
them the truth of her situation...no matter how bad things get.
On a personal note, I had my most recent op ed published in the Bangor
Daily News. It was a very personal piece about suicide prevention. I
wrote it to further spread the message of the UMaine Out of the
Darkness walk. It's my best yet. I plan to enter it next fall for
Maine Press Awards.
A great big shout out goes out to people working to prevent suicide
and to help the kids in unstable family situations who, like Ivy, are
in danger of missing out on the chance to grow up nurtured and
protected.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Sunday, November 22, 2015

Terrible Typhoid Mary

Terrible Typhoid Mary

Juvenile Biography
Imagine that you feel perfectly healthy. Out of the blue you
are approached by health officials who believe that you are spreading
deadly illness wherever you go. They demand urine, feces, and blood
specimens. Perhaps they will isolate you, maybe do God only knows
what to your body in the name of public health and medical science.
That's the real life nightmare a cook named Mary Mallon was swept into
back in 1907.
Mallon's nemesis, George Soper, was a sanitary engineer. At the
turn of that century cities were putting them on municipal payrolls to
imrove urban living conditions and cut down on epidemics. In addition
to food waste and trash there were ashes from furnaces and stoves and
equine byproducts. (Did you know a horse can produce 20-30 pounds of
poop and 4 gallons of pee a day? Remind me to stick with cats.)
Contaminated drinking water was a prime route for the proliferation of
some pretty nasty diseases.
"...Working with city governments and city health departments,
sanitary engineers designed apartment houses with better ventilation
and flush toilets. They designed massive sewer systems to dispose of
human waste. They planned public waterworks to supply safe, clean
drinking water. These improvements helped reduce the incidence of
typhoid disease by sixty-seven percent."
Soper was contacted by a well to do woman who rented a house out
to vacationing families. One of them had incurred, between members
and their servants, six cases of typhoid fever that summer. People
were talking. She wanted the house's tainted reputation to be cleared
before the next rental season.
Soper began to suspect that the culprit might be a cook hired
before the onset of the illnesses. He had read about healthy
carriers, people who remained capable of transmitting contagious
diseases after recovering from them. Mallon might be one of these
individuals. Although this concept had won the 1905 Nobel Prize it
had not at that point been proven in the United States.
"If he was right, this discovery would make his career. He
would become famous in medical and scientific circles...His name
would go down in medical history...
Mary was not going to make this easy for him.
Terrible Typhoid Mary is a fascinating narrative in its right.
It also shines a light on an ethical dilemma that shows up whenever a
dread disease is seen as threatening a population. Which should win
out: individual rights or collective safety. In Maine very recently
Governor Paul LePage tried to quarantine a nurse who had cared for
Ebola patients in Africa.
On a personal note, my fall semester writing class was really
excellent. Each of us could do two presentations and get feedback on
them. I presented some poems and an op ed piece.
A great big shout out goes out to Engineers Without Borders, a group
that works on projects like clean water access and sanitary disposal
of human waste in third world countries. Those people are rock stars!
Julia Emily Hathaway





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This Way Home

This Way Home

YA fiction
"...He wouldn't have admitted it, but the freshly painted houses
and well-tended lawns made him feel inexplicably happy. He loved the
big inviting porches with wicker furniture, and toys scattered
everywhere...And the trees, some of which were a hundred years old,
anchored by strong, invisible roots. It was like his neighborhood had
wrapped itself around its families, promising a lifetime of good
things, like backyard barbecues and graduation parties."
Elijah Thomas, protagonist of Wes Moore and Shawn Goodman's This
Way Home, is looking toward his own graduation and beyond. His
basketball skills make a scholarship to a top ten university highly
probable. He still wishes his father who vanished before he was even
old enough to form a memory of him would show up and take pride in
him. But his two job working mom goes all out to prepare him for a
better future. His two best friends, Dylan and Michael, have been
with him since they were really little.
Not all, though, is good in the hood. Walking home from a
street basketball game, Elijah comes upon a crime scene. A boy his
age, a straight A student and jazz band musician, has been shot. There
are rumors of gang involvement.
The last day of school Michael shows Elijah and Dylan the pairs
of $400 sneakers a sponsor has provided for their neighborhood
basketball team. The only information he'll give about the donor is
he has mad money and keeps a low profile. When the team uniforms
arrive they have ominous logos on them.
"...But then there was that patch and what it stood for--Blood Street
Nation. It was so small and discreet, which, he supposed, was the
genius of it. A tiny, little crimson icon that said so much, namely
that he and his friends were about to play ball for a gang..."
Elijah has his misgivings. They've stayed out of gangs all
their lives. But there is no adult with whom he can talk out his
dilemma with. "...Maybe the shoes and jerseys were gifts, with no
strings attached. And maybe if he said it enough times, he'd actually
believe it."
This Way Home is a tightly suspenseful story with a protagonist
it would be nearly impossible not to root for. It's an excellent read
for high school boys who are turned off by books they consider
irrelevant.
On a personal note, I'm now splitting my Sundays between singing alto
in two church choirs. Singing the anthems makes me feel like I'm more
fully connected to the source of all joy and beauty. Last Sunday we
had a hand bell choir accompanying us. It was so beautiful.
A great big shout out goes out to both my choirs and church families.
Julia Emily Hathaway



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Wednesday, November 18, 2015

One Blue Tarp

One Blue Tarp

Play
After pondering a subject as heavy as the use of children as
soldiers I felt like I needed a break from serious. I'd heard a lot
about a play, One Blue Tarp, that had premiered down the road in
Bangor at the Penobscot Theater Company. I'd picked up the book at
Orono Public Library. It seemed like the perfect breather.
David Stillman is a plaid shirt and plain jeans (wouldn't be
caught dead in Hollisters) kind of guy. He has just bought a new blue
tarp to cover the pile of odds and ends he has stashed in his yard.
He's guarding that tarp with his life. A new town ordinance has
banned blue tarps in people's yards.
His nemesis, Gale Pritchard, a wealthy widow "from away" has
settled down in his small town. She believes that if the people can
be persuaded to see the error of their ways and gussy up their living
spaces Clara can become a tourist destination like Camden and
Belfast. Eventually it can be the site of "points of light" such as a
winter carnival and a literary festival. The elimination of eyesores
has been the first step in her campaign.
Despite being a wicked funny comedy, One Blue Tarp also calls
attention to a very controversial topic in today's Maine: who knows
what is best for the state's future. It's epitomized in the ongoing
conflict between proponants and opponants of a North Woods park that
would preserve forest land for future generations but limit or
eliminate traditional uses. Those who would gentrify the state to
bring in more people and money are up against long term residents who
feel threatened by the loss of what they consider their traditional
way of life. Whose state is it anyway?
Gale admits toward the end that it's about more than a very
prosaic and commonplace object. When, in a town meeting, David tells
her people just want to have choices rather than mandates, she exclaims,
"Choice! Look at the choices you people make. Look at what you eat.
Look at where you live. Look at what you watch on tv. Look at the
video games you let your children play. Trash! All of it trash and
you just want to cover it up with your stupid tarps!"
As funny as it is to read, it would be great to see in the flesh
or to put on. With a small cast and sparse setting it wouldn't be all
that hard to direct. If anyone in the environs of Veazie takes me up
on this good advice, I'm in the right demographics for David's wife
and Gale. Just saying.
On a personal note, I just went and got my flu shot, the pricier one
that supposedly protects me from four strains. Not that I really need
it. But with my popularity with both toddler and vintage sets and the
fact that I volunteer at the Orono Public Library, I could otherwise
become Influenza Jules. We want the only thing contagious about me to
be my personality. Of course I bought rum raisin ice cream to prevent
adverse side effects, a strategy that obviously worked.
A great big shout out goes out to the many people like my beloved
husband who, though nowhere near David on the curmudgeon scale, feel
angered by changes that threaten more traditional life styles.
Julia Emily Hathaway





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Monday, November 16, 2015

Child Soldier

Child Soldier

Match up a horrific true story with a colorful juvenile graphic
novel format and you get something that makes Stephen King look like
an amateur in his genre. Child Soldiers: When Boys and Girls Are Used
in War by Jessica Dee Humphreys and Michel Chikwanine shows us what
happens all too often in today's world when the very young are
stripped of the protections they deserve and used in ways that leave
adults scarred.
Chikwanine was only five when an after school pick up soccer
game was interrupted by the arrival of a rebel militia. The rebels
threw the boys into trucks. When they arrived at their destination
they were cut and a cocaine and gunpowder mixture was rubbed into the
wounds. Chikwanine was blindfolded and made to shoot a gun. When the
blindfold was removed he saw his best friend dead at his feet. And
that was just the beginning.
Let me remind you that when he was living this nightmare he was
at an age where children in more affluent societies are carefully
nurtured, protected, provided for, just starting in the education and
guidance to prepare them for a future of promise.
Sadly he was not alone. About 250,000 children serve in rebel
groups and government armed forces. Within these militias they serve
as fighters (often having riskier roles than adults), cooks and
cleaners, messengers, spies, and sex workers.
I am going out on a limb to recommend this book. Some people
would say the subject matter is not appropriate. I agree that not all
children are ready for this reality. However, for youngsters who can
deal with it there are ways listed at the end to help fight the evil
of using children in war. As Chikwanine's father said to him, "If you
ever think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a
room with a mosquito."
On a personal note, after some amazingly warm days, the weather has
become New England seasonal. Wondering when we'll get our first
snow. White Christmas anyone?
A great big shout out goes out to all who rescue and rehabilitate
child soldiers and work to make it illegal to abuse youngsters this way.
Julia Emily Hathaway



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I Survived

I Survived

Juvenile nonfiction
Many young (and, admit it, not so young--I'm one of gazillions
adults mesmerized by the Titanic's I'll-fated maiden voyage)--readers
are fascinated by stories of epic historic disasters. Who knows why?
Eye catching volumes that bring these events to life fly off library
shelves, building history knowledge as well as reading skills and
interest.
Lauren Tarshis' I Survived: Five Epic Disasters introduces
young readers to the Children's Blizzard (1888), the Titanic Disaster
(1912), the Great Boston Molasses Flood (1919), the Japanese Tsunsmi
(2011), and the Henryville Tornado (2012). Each chapter starts with a
description of the disaster centered around a child or children who
survived it. This is followed by richly illustrated historical
information. A listing of sources can help students find more
information on any particular disaster that kindles their interest.
Needless to say, some of the older disasters had to be
researched through primary sources. However, the Henryville Tornado
was brought to Tarshis' attention by three young survivors: Shelby,
Dana, and Lyric. They sent her an email: "We have so many stories to
tell you about that crazy day when the tornado destroyed our school
and our town. We want you to write our story, and we want to help
you." Four days later she travelled out to meet with them.
Students in the targeted age group, grades three to six, chapter
book affecianados who have graduated picture books but are not quite
ready for the YA section are often quite fond of series. Readers who
enjoy I Survived: Five Epic Disasters will be motivated to track down
Tarshis' other ten other I Survived books, each focussing on a single
historical event.
On a personal note, November Orono Arts Cafe was anything but a
disaster. We had a packed venue, an amazing line up which included
middle school stringed instrument music and teaser scenes from a high
school musical. $240 was raised from admissions and refreshments. It
was very special for me because, in addition to reading my poetry and
dancing and playing tambourine for Redman, I sang a solo for the first
time. We were in the place where Eugene and I had our wedding
reception twenty-six years ago. I sang In My Life by the Beatles and
dedicated my performance to my husband. My friend Jack accompanied me
on guitar. Singing felt as natural as breathing. I owned that stage
and felt fully alive and shining every second I was up there. People
loved my voice. Life is good.
A great big shout out goes out to my Orono Arts Cafe family--
performers, audience members, and folks like Terrie who keep the whole
thing going. You are all rock stars.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Very In Pieces

Very In Pieces

YA fiction
"...What if, for just one day, I didn't want to be me? What if
I decided to be like Ramona and only focus on math the way she focuses
on art? Or like Dru, and come to school with a new look and a new
name and just expect everyone to play along?..."
Very (short for Veronica), protagonist of Megan Frazee
Blackmore's Very in Pieces, is seemingly the most stable, grounded
member of her family. Her grandmother is a poet who is renowned for
flamboyant behavior and sexual liaisons as well as for her writing.
Her mother is a painter who will not let anyone else into her studio.
Little sister, Ramona, seems to inhabit some other world. Very, in
contrast is the honors student mathematician with the steady
boyfriend, the one everyone else counts on how to hold down the fort,
a role she is coming to sometimes resent.
She has a lot to cope with. Her grandmother is dying of
cancer. Ramona is getting in trouble in school. Their mother, who is
spending more and more time lying around drinking, sees this as a sign
of her younger daughter's artistic independence, rather than a need
for help. Their father is missing much of the time, perhaps thinking
of ducking out of his marriage.
One day Very finds about fifty bottle caps glued to her house.
As the days go by more bits of detritus are added to what is obviously
a large scale artwork. The artist remains anonymous. A boy with a
not so good reputation is intriguing Very. She has no clue why. Very
in Pieces is a very insightful portrayal of a young woman struggling
to make sense of a world that seems to be falling apart all around her.
On a personal note, Gay Thanksgiving was amazing. It was held at
UMaine in the Union. It's a tradition caused by the sad fact that not
all LGBT students are warmly welcomed at their families' Thanksgiving
tables. This year it was bigger than ever in a joyous community
celebration. The food was delish. The room rang with conversation
and laughter. At one point a student from Saudi Arabia was telling me
I should get up and dance. I did. Within a few minutes I was
surrounded by dancing people. Yowza!
A great big shout out goes out to our LGBT community and to the folks
who organized this fine event!
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Enchanted Air

Enchanted Air

Juvenile biography
Most people who remember the Cuban missile crisis recall a time
of uncertainty and fear: terrifying television and radio news
broadcasts, snatches of furtive adult conversation, duck under the
school desk bomb drills, preparations for a worst case scenario...
For many households then there was a good guy (America) vs. bad guy
(those ungodly Communists) narrative behind the whole story. For
Margarita Engel, then a child, things were a lot more complicated and
confusing. In Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings she shares her
story in eloquent free verse.
Engle's parents came from widely different cultures. Her father
was the American child of Ukranian refugees. Her mother was the
beautiful Cuban woman he fell in love with on a visit to her island.
Engle's early childhood involved travel between the United
States and Cuba where her mother's family lived. School years were
spent in the States where she felt like a "misfit bookworm". Some
summers were spent on an enchanted island with vividly colored
songbirds, wild horses, coral beaches with flying fish, and dancing
flowers...a treasured space where she felt fully alive...
...until bad things started to happen. A revolution in Cuba was
followed the nationalization of many formerly American owned
businesses and the I'll-fated Bay of Pigs Invasion. Diplomatic
relationships between the United States and Cuba were shattered.
Travel became restricted. The Cuban Missile Crisis ushered in the
spectre of nuclear warfare
"Supermarket shelves are empty.
Food and water are hoarded.
Gas masks are stored in bomb shelters-
Expensive underground shelters
That only rich people can afford."
and left one young woman wondering if the two countries she found her
being split between would ever be able to get along.
Engle's candid and poignant coming of age story is sadly very
relevant in today's world where war seems constant, the number of
refugees fleeing violence and peril overwhelming.
On a personal note, last month I had the chance to visit my younger
daughter, Katie, in her new home in Portland. We explored a beach
with a lighthouse and old fort and went bargain shopping. She took me
out for lunch. Her boyfriend came over for supper. It was a truly
enchanted day and the best possible use of my birthday money.
A great big shout out goes out to Katie and Jacob.
Julia Emily Hathaway



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Monday, November 9, 2015

The Peace Seekers

The Peace Seekers

Adult biography
Imagine that your faith is so central to your life that you feel
called to ministry. Imagine also that there is something equally
central to your being that must be hidden because whenever it comes to
light the institution you love sees you as loathsomely sinful. Then
you will see the crisis Susan Gilmore coped with for decades and wrote
eloquently about in The Peace Seekers.
Gilmore grew up in a fundamentalist evangelical Baptist church.
Her family's life centered around the church. Kid's Club, like Girl
Scouts only with a religious focus, made Wednesday her favorite day of
the week. Summer camp was a spiritual high for her. By high school
she had decided on a Bible College and a career in the ministry.
However, from an early age, Gilmore had experienced puzzling
differences. While other children enjoyed marrying off their Barbie
dolls, her Ken doll gathered dust, a plastic non entity. The first
television star she had a crush on was a woman. Chasing boys was done
more to fit in with her peers than from any real desire to catch
them. Ironically, a field hockey coach warning her to watch how she
behaved; she wouldn't want people to think she was gay sealed her
inward realization that she was indeed gay.
The evangelical church of Gilmore's youth was very homophobic.
The Peace Seekers very poignantly describes her often very painful
path toward finding a church where the two sides of her personal
identity could be reconciled and accepted.
Sadly, as gay rights become more and more accepted in secular
society, a lot of more fundamentalist churches continue to be more
hard core homophobic. The Peace Seekers, therefore, is lighly
relevant and a truly thought (and emotion) provoking read.
On a personal note, Saturday Orono Public Library was a whirlwind of
activity. In our children's wing bargain lovers perused the
selections available in a friends of the library book sale. In the
adult wing a variety of crafters had set up shop. The community room
was the scene of free art lessons for all interested. (I actually
tried my hand at water color.) A scrumptious selection of foods and
beverages was available to sustain us all in these endeavors.
A great big shout out goes out to all who contributed to this
community festivity, especially Deanna who heads up friends of the
Orono Public Library.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Sunday, November 8, 2015

Mothers, Tell Your Daughters

Mothers, Tell Your Daughters

Adult short stories
Some writers have the ability to introduce us to people we might
avoid or overlook in daily life, people who take us way out of our
comfort zones or maybe question some of the assumptions it can be easy
to presume everyone makes. Stephen King and Carolyn Chute are Mainers
who are masters of this genre. I recently discovered Bonnie Jo
Campbell to be a literary kindred spirit.
Campbell's Mothers, Tell Your Daughters is a collection of short
stories that introduces the reader to some intriguing (although, in
many cases, deeply troubling) women who cope their best with the
challenges life throws them. You'll meet:
*a mother who suspects every adult male who her young daughter knows
of impure desires because of the people in trusted positions who took
advantage of her when she was young;
*a candy seller in a travelling circus debating over whether to have
yet another abortion or to try to settle down with the colleague who
made her pregnant;
*a woman who believes that her far-from-faithful ex fiancée has become
reincarnated in the form of the stray dog she adopted;
*an adjunct professor who learns that she is unexpectedly pregnant at
the same time that her youngest daughter is...
Although there is much that is stark and dark in these stories,
there are also life affirming and downright funny elements. Reading
Mothers, Tell Your Daughters is like riding a literary roller coaster,
the kind that will have you getting right back in line for another
ride after you take a moment to catch your breath. If you take a real
fancy to this genre, check out Carolyn Chute's novels.
On a personal note, this week I had fun participating in a UMaine
blood drive. Tuesday I donated. Wednesday I volunteered. I did a
shift working canteen. What I had to do was give donors food and
drink and talk to them to make sure they didn't faint. Piece of cake.
Great big shout outs go out to all who participated in the blood drive
and to my friend, Elaine Bard, who is directing The Evil Dead this
weekend and her cast and crew. Should be quite the theatrical
production!
Julia Emily Hathaway


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Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Don't Go

Don't Go

Adult Fiction
If there has ever been a modern literary paralell to the
Biblical book of Job, it would have to be Lisa Scottoline's Don't Go.
Mike, Scottoline's protagonist and Everysoldier, struggles to retain
his humanity in the face of seemingly everything he holds dear being
stripped from him.
First he loses his beloved wife. Chloe literally bleeds to
death from a kitchen accident. Evidence related to her death reveals
alcohol and adultery. She was pregnant when she died. "...Everything
he loved and believed in was gone. He could barely deal with losing
Chloe, and now he had lost the knowledge that she loved him and was
true to him..."
Not surprisingly the losses pile up in Afghanistan. He sees two
fellow surgeons, close friends, blown to bits by an IED. "...visions
of hell. Body parts. A bloody helmet. Oakley sunglasses. Bone
fragments. A lid from a Copenhagen can. Soggy chunks of yellow fat.
Skull shards. Brain matter, with its chemical odor..."
And there's still a lot more loss ahead.
Don't Go is a must read for fans of good suspense novels. It
should be also required reading for all who would send young men and
women into unprovoked wars or stint on their post service care.
"The war had changed him, not just by taking his arm and his
livlihood. He was a different man now. He abused opiates. He saw
exlosions where they didn't exist. He felt pain in an arm that wasn't
there..."
Is this really what we want for our sons and daughters?
On a personal note, my husband's brother-in-law is on yet another tour
of duty. He will be very much missed this holiday season.
A great big shout out goes out to our miliatary people staged overseas
and their loved ones who will have empty seats at holiday tables.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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The Tenth Circle

The Tenth Circle

Adult fiction
I was in the third grade. My book report was due soon. I'd
left my book in my desk at school. I read the closest volume at hand,
one of my mother's and was able to turn it in on time, only to get it
back with a big red zero. The teacher claimed there was no such book
as Dante's Divine Comedy. I will probably always treasure fond
memories of this classic which helped me see that I had passed at
least one of my teachers in literary experience. I was delighted
no end when I discovered that in The Tenth Circle the very talented
Jodi Picoult combined Dante's literary masterpiece with a ripped out
of the headlines scenario.
Daniel Stone is the stay-at-home-father husband of Laura, a
college professor and top Dante scholar, and a comic book artist.
Even as he's climbing to the top of his profession, the rest of his
life seems to be falling apart. He has reason to believe that Laura
is having an affair. The daughter, Trixie, he has always been close
to is becoming an almost stranger. Then one day he learns one of the
worst things a parent can: his daughter was raped by the boy she loved.
Trixie can't stop loving her boyfriend, Jason, even after he
ditches her. Her best friend, Zephyr, thinks exclusive relationships
are passé; hooking up is the way to go. Still she comes up with a
very risky plan for Trixie to make Jason jealous and ready to return
to her. Everything that can go wrong does.
Laura has indeed been having an affair. "...Now, though, when
Laura realized what she had done, she wanted to blame a tumor,
temporary insanity, anything but her own selfishness. Now all she
wanted was damage control: to break it off, to slip back into the
seam of her family before they had a chance to realize how long she'd
been missing."
Two things make The Tenth Circle stand head and shoulders over
other offerings in its genre. One is that it is told from a goodly
range of perspectives including those of the accused young man and
investigating officer. The segueing through them helps build both
suspense and authenticity. The other is the inclusion of Daniel's
comic book: a modern take to Dante's Divine Comedy with eerie
paralells to his family's ongoing drama.
On a personal note, Halloween could not have been more perfect weather
wise: mild without any precipitation. I celebrated big time. The
day before I attended a pizza party and the Veazie Community School
Halloween Hullabaloo with its really cool haunted house. The day
itself I helped with the Orono Public Library's Halloween Hullabaloo
and went trick or treating with a friend and her daughters while
Eugene handed out goodies at home.
A great big shout out goes out to all who worked on the Halloween
Hullabaloos. Also to my husband who, like every year, got much more
candy that we could possibly give out. :)
Julia Emily Hathaway


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