How Does Sleep Come?

How Does Sleep Come?

Picture book
"Sleep that knits up the ravvell's sleave of care, the death of
each day's life, sore labour's bath, balm of hurt minds, great
nature's second course, chief nourisher in life's feast."
Mr. William Shakespeare sure knew what he was talking about.
Sleep is a beautiful experience.
Between Jeannie C. Blackmore's text and Elizabeth Sayles'
illustrations, How Does Sleep Come? is one of the sweetest, most
delicate, dearest bedtime read alouds ever.
As his mother tenderly tucks him into bed Jacob asks her this
question. She builds poetic word pictures.
"Sleep comes peacefully.
Like a cat that curls up cozily
in front of a warm fire
and kneads its paws as it purrs."
He snuggles into his blankets, yawns, shuts his eyes, and drifts off
to dreamland.
I think the best feature of this book, though, is the potential
effect on a parent for whom getting a child down is just one on a
labyrinthian lists of tasks. Hopefully it can make the mom or dad
slow down and treasure those precious moments...
...before they're gone forever.
On a personal note, as someone who finds heat and humidity unconducive
to slumber (married to someone with very different temperature
perception) I have been greatly enjoying this week's delightfully
breezy evenings and sound, dream filled, refreshing sleeps.
A great big shout out goes out to all who are wise enough to value
good sleeps.
jules hathaway


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The Boy & The Bindi

The Boy & The Bindi

Picture book
A little boy becomes fascinated with his mother's bindi which
she wears on her forehead. One day he asks her what's so special
about it. When she explains he asks her for one. It makes him feel
calm and peaceful.
It's hard for him to explain to his school friends what is so
special about one small dot. But it makes him feel that, just as it
brings beauty to him, it can help him bring beauty to the world.
The Boy & The Bindi is a good way to open up a discussion of
this cultural tradition for children and teachers who are not familiar
with it.
On a personal note, the Bangor pride parade was awesome. We had a
scare when there was an early downpour. But it cleared up just in
time. It was a very festive event with lots of participants and
spectators. After that there was the festival. People strolled,
checked out tables, chatted with friends, and enjoyed the music. It
was very much of a celebration. The only clouds were a few
conservative religious types with signs that said stuff like
abomination. But we didn't let them rain on our parade.
A great big shout out goes out to participants with the exception of
those trying to shame people.
jules hathaway


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Nope!

Nope!

Picture book
We allude to our kids as leaving the nest when they move out to
college or another mode of independent living. Drew Sheneman's Nope!
is about a baby bird who has hit the stage for this venture...
...and is scared out of its wits. The view down seems quite
terrifying, especially when the ground is populated by creatures like
a lip licking cat and snarling dogs. It looks like the mission is
aborted...
...but Mama Bird has a trick or two up her sleeve.
On a personal note, Amber and Brian made Fathers Day special for the
family. They had us all over for a yummy traditional dad's day
burgers and fries supper with strawberry shortcake for dessert. Katie
and Jacob came all the way from Portland. It was so precious to have
the family together with plenty of sharing of memories!!!
A great big shout goes out to my husband, our wonderful children and
their very special significant others.
jules hathaway


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Tea With Lady Sapphire

Tea With Lady Sapphire

Picture book
When Carl R. Sams and Jean Stoick's Tea with Lady Sapphire
arrived at Orono Public Library, our children's librarian and I let
out a collective groan. It's such a lovely winter book. But back
then the last dingy snow banks were singing the doxology. We knew by
the time it hit the top of my review stack dandelions would be
springing up.
But wait seven months to review it? Not hardly.
Tea with Lady Sapphire provides a delightful alternative to
those dreadful Disney princesses. The guests of honor at this
festivity are feathered friends. They're the kind children in the
northern states and Canada can see out their windows, from woodpecker
and cardinal to seed seeking turkeys.
Rather than a frilly dress, the tea party requires bundling up.
Directions are given for putting up a special snowman capable of
providing nourishment for a wide range of birds and a few sneaky
squirrels. When the guests start to show up human (and feline)
celebrants can observe them through the window while drinking tea and
eating snickerdoodles. They recipe is included. It's really good.
So enjoy your summer. And wait til the flakes start to fall to
enjoy this lovely seasonal volume.
On a personal note, yesterday I had a truly magical summer solstice.
My son stopped by. I finished the most beautiful (and challenging)
counted cross stitch piece (one with a stained glass quality) that
I've ever done. It is a real treasure to put up in my studio. I
finished organizing my poetry into three book length manuscripts. Now
I have to start contacting publishers. I started a free toy "yard
sale" for the neighborhood kids. I had grilled mozerella and fresh
spinach sandwiches for supper and a dark beer before bed.
A great big shout out goes out to all the other people who made the
solstice something special.
jules hathaway



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Helping Kids Work Things Out

Helping Kids Work Things Out

Picture books
One of the more delicate and often painful developmental tasks
of early childhood is learning how to cope with fights with friends.
Feelings are very intense. Coping strategies are relatively
unformed. And the perspective time brings hasn't had a chance to
develop. Two recent picture books can be very helpful.
Ever play telephone where a line of kids take turns whispering
something into the next person's ear? Chances are the message will
significantly mutate during the retellings. That's the plight of the
feisty protagonist of Liz Rosenberg's What James Said. She's heard by
quite a complex chain that her very best friend--make that her former
best friend--thinks that she thinks she's perfect. Well she's going
to ignore him. But that makes for a very long day.
Jane Yolan's How Do Dinosaurs Stay Friends capitalizes on sense
of humor and fascination with prehistoric beasts. Readers are
presented with the dilemma: "How does a dinosaur keep his best friend
when a terrible fight just might signal the end?" In the first pages
the dinos are seen reacting very badly, much to the consternation of
the human children and teacher observing them. The latter ones show
much better solutions, leading up to, "Good hugs and more
keep a friend, dinosaur."
Both these fine books would make useful additions to school and
public libraries and the private collections of parents like me who
had the audacity to give birth to more than one child.
On a personal note, right after the Village Green dedication and Rick
Charette concert we had Artsapalooza. In venues all over downtown
(restaurants, library, churches, outdoor spaces) we had four sets of
acts. I had Harvest Moon (they make the most delicious soups and
sandwiches) from 7:40. I sang my adaptation of the grinch song:
you're a mean one, Mr. Trump and read a bunch of my poetry. I had a
perfect audience, mostly college and high school students. They were
so enthusiastic, reacting to the elements in my pieces and being easy
to engage in conversation between. I was in seventh heaven. After
they gave me super positive feedback. Even the kitchen staff was
impressed. Like my friend Rick, I know how to captivate an audience.
A great big shout out goes out to all who made Artsapalooza a night to
remember, especially the planners whose diligent behind the scenes
work made the event look effortless.
jules hathaway


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Teen Incarceration

Teen Incarceration

YA/adult nonfiction
"Like many youthful offenders, Quantel Lotts grew up fast,
exposed at a young age to drugs, violence, and poverty. When he was
eleven years old, he saw one of his uncles shot to death in a drug
dispute. Drug addiction ran rampant in his family. His mother was a
crack addict who went missing for days in his hometown of Saint Louis,
Missouri. With drugs came violence, and Quantel's family members beat
him regularly. Quantel says, 'I was taught that most problems can be
solved with violence.'"
Not surprisingly, Quantel became enmeshed in the justice system
at a young age. He stabbed a stepbrother to death in a fight.
Despite only being fourteen when he committed the crime, he was tried
as an adult and sentenced to life without possibility of parole. He
tattooed the words "dead man" on his arm.
I imagine we'd all like to think of juvenile justice as fair--a
process by which society is protected from crime and law breakers are
either punished, rehabilitated, or both of the above. Some of us also
want judges to take factors such as the relative immaturity of
judgement of teens and their potential to change for the better.
Patrick Jones' Teen Incarceration: From Cell Bars To Ankle Bracelets
shows us how two major factors have helped determine the fate of
younger law breakers--even whether they lived or died.
The first factor is historical era. Convictions held by the
public effect how issues of crime and punishment are dealt with.
Many of you will recall the superpredator scare of the 1990s in which
we were warned of a generation of remorseless psychopaths menacing us
all. Too many young lives were destroyed by this tough on crime
approach.
The second factor is race. Very few people get through their
teen years and early twenties without at least a status offense (an
act that is criminal because of age). I, for example, consumed
alcohol well before my twenty-first birthday. Blacks are at much
higher risk than white peers for everything from being shunted into
the school-to-prison pipeline to being shot dead by a police officer
for very common misdemeanors or even being the wrong color at the
wrong place.
Jones also describes a continuum of consequences ranging from
non institutional diversion programs such as community service to
capital punishment and life without possibility of parole. He argues
cogently that, based on research, the best policy involves not locking
kids up. This not only allows youth to achieve their potential, but
keeps us all safer and demands far fewer tax dollars.
Teen Incarceration is a very important read for its target
demographic and well beyond. I'd highly recommend the book to parents
of teens and preteens.
On a personal note, the Orono Village Green, the culmination of years
of hard work on the part of people ranging from fund raiders to
construction workers and landscapers, was nicely dedicated. There
were amazingly succinct speeches at a dedication catered tastefully by
Debe Averill. Then the one and only Rick Charette gave the first
concert in the outdoor ampitheater. It was packed. Everyone was
enthusiastically singing along. When Rick asked for three adults to
hold signs for a song you can guess who was the first. Rick is a good
friend and it was wonderful to see him again.
As for Artsapalooza...
...stay tuned.
A great big shout goes out to all who participated in the day's
activities...especially Rick who gets that at heart we all love mud.
jules hathaway


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The Whole Town's Talking

The Whole Town's Talking

Adult fiction
"What can I tell you about the town? I suppose if you had
driven through it back then, it might have looked like just another
ordinary small town...but it wasn't. I was born and raised there, so
I know exactly what I am talking about. It wasn't a wealthy town,
either, but we all stuck together. And when we heard what happened to
Hanna Marie, everybody was upset. We all talked about it. Everybody
vowed to do something about it. But never, in our wildest dreams,
would anybody have guessed who would actually be the one to do it.
Or, more importantly, how they would do it. But to tell you more at
this point might spoil the surprise. And who doesn't like a good
surprise? I know I do."
In this one paragraph prologue to The Whole Town's Talking, fans
of Fannie Flagg will detect her unique literary voice, made famous in
Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle Stop Cafe. I have heard the book
alluded to as being in the tradition of Thornton Wilder's Our Town.
Close, but no cigar. I'd say an Our Town/Saturday Night Live hybrid
with touches of Leave It To Beaver and Footloose thrown in for good
measure. It tells the story of a town and its inhabitants--the good,
the bad, and the ugly--over a more than a century time span.
The story starts out with a Swedish immigrant, Lordor Nordstrom,
who settled on a promising piece of land in Missouri and called for
his countrymen to join him. He designed a planned community. One of
his first designations was the carefully chosen spot for a town
cemetary. Between 1890 and 1900 the population more than doubled from
the original 74 inhabitants. The town was named Elmwood Springs.
Merchants and professionals were invited to set up shop.
"All over the West and Midwest, small communities once called
Little Poland or Little Italy or German Town were changing their
names, becoming more American, and hoping to grow. Elmwood Springs
was lucky. Within the year, they had a doctor, a barber who could
pull teeth if necessary, and one Lutheran preacher named Edwin
Wimsbly. Not too fiery, as requested."
Era by era the town evolves as it and its inhabitants respond to
internal events as well at influences of the world at large.
Electricity arrives at the turn of the century. Movies give school
girls new dreams. Downtown grows. Soldiers go off to war.
As in Our Town, the unique and colorful characters of the fine
ensemble cast are born, grow up, and die. But what happens when they
arrive at Still Meadows, the maybe not so final resting place
established by the town founder, is one of the biggest surprises.
The Whole Town's Talking is a must read for Fannie Flag fans and
anyone who enjoys books rich in time and place and sweeping in
historic scope.
On a personal note, tomorrow is going to be a very important day for
Orono, Maine. We're going to dedicate the outdoor extension of the
almost nine year old public library. It took a lot of work and fund
raising to bring this dream to fruition. Then Rick Charette himself
is going to perform in the outdoor ampitheater. As if that wasn't
more than enough the day will be capped off with Artsapalooza.
Downtown venues from restaurants to churches and the firehouse lawn
will be alive with performances. Yours truly will be reading my
poetry for 40 minutes at Harvest Moon. It will be a day and night to
remember!
A great big shout out goes out to all participants.
jules hathaway



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Wait For Me

Wait For Me

YA/adult historical fiction
"Iris smiled at Lorna, as if that should have been obvious, and
Lorna's heart sank. She loved Iris dearly, but the chances of Iris
keeping her mouth shut about this lay somewhere between slim and
none. And once William knew, then his mother would know, and his
father, and on and on how far? Who else would be invited to judge and
condemn?
She and Paul had shared only one kiss, but suddenly Lorna knew
that the whole world--or at least her whole world--would soon be
determined to make sure they would never share another."
I give Caroline Leech's Wait for Me my hybrid readership
category for a special reason. Nothing in language or content pushes
the envelope. This poignant coming of age novel has a lot to offer
not-as-young adults as well as its target demographic. I suspect it is
one of those rare books like To Kill A Mockingbird that holds new
insights each time for those who read it more than once. I certainly
plan to revisit it in the future.
Lorna lives with her father on a farm in Scotland. Her two
older brothers, John Jo and Sandy, are away, fighting in World War
II. Nellie, a member of the Women's Land Army, a group filling in on
farms for absent family members and workers, is taking up some of the
slack, but, with Lorna still in school, more help is needed.
One morning an Army truck pulls into Lorna's yard. A new
worker, a German prisoner of war has arrived. Half his face has been
scarred with burns. Her father has let the enemy onto their farm!
Lorna is sure she'll never be in the least attracted to Paul.
He is a German after all. That is before they begin to talk. They
have each lost a parent. They both worry about loved ones in the
danger zone--his mother and little sister, her brothers.
"...And it was strange, the more they'd talked the evening
before--and his English had improved in the month since he'd arrived--
the less German he became. Or not less German, exactly, but more like
any of the normal boys, the Scottish boys, she knew at school. Lorna
didn't know what to make of that. He was not like she had expected
the enemy to be at all. In fact, she was beginning to realize that he
might not be so very different from her."
[I interrupt this review to bring you an unpaid sociological
message. Recall not so long ago I reviewed Four-Four-Two, a YA novel
set in that same war? The protagonist made this comment after seeing
a dead enemy soldier, "...Nations didn't go to war. Men did. Boys
did. The trouble was, defending his friends meant killing the boys
from some other nation: boys he actually had nothing against..."
Eerily similar?
This is the aspect of drone warfare that scares me the most,
especially at a time when the proportion of civilian "collateral
damage" is increasing rapidly. Drone warfare takes away the
possibility of the discovery of the humanity of the "enemy".]
I now bring you back to your regular scheduled review.
The respectful love that develops between Lorna and Paul is
contrasted with a near rape experience Lorna has at a dance held at a
local Air Force base. Ed, the soldier she is paired up with, becomes
very drunk and laces her lemonade. She has to physically fight him
off to prevent him from sexually abusing her. Later, as her best
friend's boyfriend, William, reveals her relationship and people
react, she muses,
"Would everyone react to her like this from now on? What if she
had drunkenly kissed the American, if she'd allowed Ed to do what he
wanted? Would that have been more palatable for Mrs. Urquhart
[William's despicable mother] than a sober and chaste--almost chaste--
kiss with a kind and caring German? Perhaps it would."
Although the characters are fictitious, the situation isn't.
The humanizing practice of placing prisoners of war on local farms to
many friendships and some love stories did happen in real life. Leech
received the following email:
"My father was a POW in Gosford and worked on a local farm. He
met and married my mum in 1948 while still officially a POW, and they
celebrated their diamond wedding in 2008. Sadly, Mum died in 2013,
but my dad is now ninety and still very much alive.
[Your] story could have been about them, and I just wanted to
let you know that they had a very happy life together."
Now don't you want to get your hands on a copy of Wait For Me?
You'll be very glad if you do so. :)
On a personal note, I won't be starting grad school this September.
It was a glitch, nobody's fault. I'd been told the grad school would
automatically contact my references. By the time I learned this would
only be true if I'd filed electronically and contacted my references I
was too late. On the bright side, they're holding on to my now
complete resume and I've beat the deadline for 2018 by six months.
Plus I have a year to get even more ready.
A great big shout goes out to all who believe in my ability to achieve
my dream and my husband who pays the bills and buys the food even as
he probably privately questions my sanity for wanting to go back to
school.
jules hathaway






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Flying Lessons & Other Stories

Flying Lessons & Other Stories

Juvenile short stories
"But we all have stories like that, right? They might be milk-
snorting-out-of-your-nose funny ones, or listen-to-how-cool-and-
awesome-we-are ones, or come-close-so-we-can-whisper-in-your-ear juicy
ones. They might be old favorites or stories about new experiences.
But no matter what, out stories are unique, just like we are. And that
is what this book is all about--ten diverse stories from ten great
authors. For all of us."
The above quote is the last one in Ellen Oh's foreward to Flying
Lessons & Other Stories. She's the editor of this most excellent
collection. When she says ten great authors she's making an
understatement. It was all I could do not to drool in a public
library when I scanned the contents pages. We're talking book geek's
dream line up. Then after weeks of mostly rain we got a perfect sunny
day where I could read outside near my in-full-bloom daffodils and eat
candy. Life doesn't get much better.
My absolute favorite is Grace Lin's The Difficult Path. Lingsi
is a servant for the Li family. When selling her, her mother had
insisted she be taught to read. She's a much better student than the
family's only son, FuDing, a repulsive boy who prefers pulling wings
off insects to reading. One day the tutoring comes to an end. If a
more suitable bride cannot be found she will have to marry his
disgustingness.
Throw pirates with a fierce woman leader in and you get a truly
satisfying tale.
Very few authors can make free verse as narrative sing like
Kwame Alexander does. His Seventy-Six Dollars and Forty-Nine Cents
packs his poetry power into a short story format. Anyone who has ever
had an aggravating teacher will be hooked by the first page.
Monk was a Star Wars addicted geek. He had a crush on a girl
way out of his league status wise. But "That was before." You'll have
to read the book to figure out before what.
During his lifetime Walter Dean Myers won every major award
there is in children's lit. We're talking two Newberys. He ventured
into areas most authors would have stayed clear of. His monster (done
in both all text and graphic novel) brought readers the full
complexity of the judicial system.
His Sometimes a Dream Needs a Push explores the relationship
between an athletic father and his newly disabled son. Chris' dad was
grooming him to follow in his sneaker steps. Then there was a car
accident. Walking would no longer be in Chris' future.
"'Sometimes I think he blames himself,' Mom said. "Whenever he
sees you in the wheelchair he wants to put it out of his mind.'"
And there are seven other equally excellent stories. Flying
Lessons & Other Stories is an excellent summer read for both book
lovers and kids who put literary ventures way low on their lists of
vacation priorities. It's a treasure for diversity loving parents who
can remember juvenile library sections being white as Wonder Bread and
CIS hetero as Westboro Baptist.
On a personal note, I was over the moon to discover not only this most
excellent anthology, but an organization cofounded by Ellen Oh: We
Need Diverse Books. The mission is exactly what you'd think. If you
agree with me that it's crucial in children's lit, check them out on
Google. I was flabbergasted. It will help me find more lovely
diverse books to review on this blog.
I also hope it may help me find a home for a manuscript I'm working
on. It has to do with my minority group: the gender fluid. We need
more books in which kids like the kid I was who are gender
nonconforming today can see themselves.
A great big shout goes out to authors of diverse books, publishers
gutsy enough to put their work out there, and Ellen Oh for her work to
make more diversity in the field actually happen.
jules hathaway


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Hatching Chicks in Room 6

Hatching Chicks in Room 6

Picture book
What is more adorable: a puffball baby chick or a fully
engrossed kindergartener? You don't have to choose. Caroline
Arnold's Hatching Chicks in Room 6 brings you both.
Teacher Jennifer Best has backyard chickens that provide not
only eggs for her family, but part of her curriculum. The newly laid
eggs she brings to her classroom take 21 days to hatch. During those
weeks the students learn a lot about their inhabitants. After the
magic moment of hatching the children get to tend to the birds for
about a month,
This lively volume with its captivating read for kids, teachers,
and home schooling or unschooling parents.
On a personal note, Joey cat got an unusual 14th birthday gift: his
own little rocking chair. He loves napping on it. Meanwhile Effie
Mae, our new community garden puppy mascot has made herself adored by
the whole garden crew.
A great big shout out goes out to Joey, Effie Mae, and the other
critters great and small who add so much joy to our lives.
jules hathaway


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Untamed

Untamed

Juvenile biography
"Chimpanzees are more like humans than any other living animal.
They have personalities--each one is as different from every other.
They have minds that can solve simple problems. They have emotions
like happiness and sadness, anger and frustration, and grief..."
Sheroes are an important element in getting more girls and women
into STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) careers. Anita
Silvey's Untamed: The Wild Life of Jane Goodall can make an important
contribution to this. Published by National Geographic for Kids, it
lives up to their high standards of excellence and has knock out
photographs.
Goodall is one of those rare individuals with a passion and
focus spanning over 75 years. When she was five she could stay still
for hours to observe an animal. She found formal education boring.
She much preferred being in the natural world. In her twenties she
was able to fulfill her childhood dream of going to Africa to study
chimpanzees. It required time and patience to gain the trust of the
elusive animals. But when she was able to she made an earth shaking
observation. She saw one using a piece of grass to "fish" for
termites. People had thought humans were the only tool users walking
the face of the Earth.
In 1986 at a conference Goodall learned about the horrendous
conditions under which medical research chimps were kept. Her focus
shifted from field research and advocacy. Today, in her eighties, she
travels around the world conducting this crucial work,
Untamed is a great read for budding naturalists and anyone else
with an inquiring mind.
On a personal note, my own little wild at heart beast is celebrating
his 14th birthday. He is a for sure miracle cat. Born with urinary
tract problems, he almost died at 3 and 11. It makes my heart sing
that he is healthy and happy with the energy of a kitten. He is
already getting lots of attention and he will get a new catnip toy
this afternoon. Prayers of any faith for his continued well being
would be greatly appreciated. It is truly a joyous day for the
Hathaway family.
A great big shout out goes out to Joey and the Veazie Vet crew who
enable him to stay in the game, the many companion animals who add so
much to our lives, and those special professionals who treat all
creatures great and small.
jules hathaway


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Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice

Juvenile biography
"In 1955, my junior year, Miss Nesbitt and Miss Lawrence team
taught Negro History Week. We really got into it. We spent that
whole February talking about the injustices we black people suffered
every day in Montgomery--it was total immersion...I was done talking
about 'good hair' and 'good skin' but not addressing our grievances.
I was tired of adults complaining about how badly they were treated
and not doing anything about it. I'd had enough of just feeling angry
about Jeremiah Reeves. I was tired of hoping for justice.
When my moment came, I was ready."
You almost surely know about Rosa Parks and her role in the
Civil Rights movement. You must recognize her refusal to give her bus
seat up to a white passenger and arrest as the motive for the
ridership strike that led up the desegregation of public transport.
What you may not know is that months before her public stand a 15-year-
old high school student had taken exactly the same action with
drastically different results. If this is news to you, be sure to
read Phillip Hoose's Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice.
Colvin's moment came that March. She and three schoolmates
boarded a bus. The white seats at the front filled up quickly. A
white woman wanted a seat. The three other blacks in the row got up.
That wasn't good enough for her.
Colvin wasn't going to take it anymore. She'd been studying her
constitutional rights. She'd paid her fare. There was a rule that a
rider didn't have to surrender a seat unless another was available...
...all of which meant nothing to the motorman and driver who
ordered her to stand and the police officers who dragged her off the
bus and threw her in jail.
Colvin was tried, found guilty on three charges, and placed on
probation. A lot of black people were angry. But it was decided not
to protest her mistreatment with a bus boycott. She was young and
considered emotional and possibly uncontrollable. The great aunt and
uncle who were raising her were a maid and a yard "boy" worker. The
family lived in a poor part of town. She was not considered a
guaranteed win.
Colvin now had a police record. Many of her high school
classmates ostracized her. An older married Korean War veteran took
advantage of her, leaving her pregnant. A good student with college
dreams, she was forced to drop out of school.
During the second month of the bus boycott called because of
Rosa Park's arrest Colvin was asked to be a plaintiff in a lawsuit
that would be tried in federal court. White people would retaliate
against her and her family with threats and violence...
...so read the book to see what happened.
On a personal note, I am proud to say I am now on the steering
committee of the Peace and Justice Center. I was picked for my
creativity and commitment. My first meeting was last Friday. After a
wonderful vegetarian pot luck feast we had speeches about departing
members and introductions of new members. Students gave a
presentation on their visions for hope. I read a poem I had written
for the occasion. We had a large group discussion on hope. At one
point someone wished for us to sing a song and I jumped right up and
led This Little Light Of Mine. :-) I think I am going to enjoy this
new commitment.
A great big shout out goes out to my Peace and Justice Center Community.
jules hathaway



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The Warden's Daughter

The Warden's Daughter

Juvenile fiction
"How do you be a child to a mother you never knew?
For twelve years my father had been enough. Family photos and a
yellowing newspaper story had been enough.
Sure, from the time I'd first heard the story, I'd thought about
my mother. Anne O'Reilly. The lady who saved me from the milk
truck. I cried for her. For myself. Sometimes. And that was it.
That's how the world was. Other kids had mothers. Cammie O'Reilly
didn't. End of story."
Only you know it isn't end of story. Cammie, protagonist of
Jerry Spinelli's The Warden's Daughter is about to turn thirteen.
That Mothers' Day she and her father have placed flowers on her
mother's grave and gone to a ball game. She's caught a glimpse of
what she was missing.
"...Dormant feelings stirred by a smile at a ballpark moved and
shifted until they shaped a thought. I was sick and tired of being
motherless. I wanted one. And a second thought: If I couldn't have
my first-string mother, I'd bring one in off the bench,
But who?"
Cammie comes up with a not so promising candidate. She and her
warden dad live in an apartment in the prison he runs. Eloda Pupco is
the trustee (inmate) who cleans the apartment and watches out over
Cammie. Now Cammie is going to do whatever is takes to turn Eloda
into her adopted mom.
It's a hot, humid, strange summer for Cammie. The prison has a
new infamous inmate: Marvin Edward Baker, the alleged killer of a
teenage girl. Best Friend (Reggie) is pursuing fame via an appearance
on American Bandstand and trying to get Cammie to take more of an
interest in her appearance. After all they're about to start junior
high. Cammie is experiencing confusing, intense emotions. Her
usually effective ways of riding out anger suddenly don't work.
The Warden's Daughter is a vivid, poignant coming of age story.
I highly reccomend it to readers, including those well beyond the
target demographic.
On a personal note, I can strongly relate to Cammie's need to recruit
a family member. In my case it was a sibling. Although Harriet did
not die, he [transgender] incurred very severe brain damage when he
had spinal meningitis. Dad tried to get Harriet put away as a ward of
the state and emotionally checked out. Mom had far more than she
could handle and an aversion to sharing problems with outsiders (non
family members). I was constantly reminded that Harriet was fragile
and that I was to take over his custody when Mom passed on...
...not exactly what a preteen wants to hear.
For decades I yearned for a sibling I could actually be an equal
with (and sometimes even protected by) as opposed to a prospective
caretaker for. I'd just about given up...
...when Silvestre entered the picture. Suddenly he seemed to be
everywhere I was, getting up in my business, intuiting more about me
than most people who'd known me much longer. It wasn't just my
imagination. Dean Robert Q. Dana assigned him to be my mentor.
With Silvestre in my life in a year I've survived the summer I
lost my school committee seat and my last child to home moved out,
gained the self confidence to apply for a highly competitive grad
school program, was able to get beyond anorexia after decades, and
come out about having petit mal epilepsy and gain a lot more control
over it.
A great big shout out goes out to Silvestre, my brother from
another mother.
jules hathaway



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Four-Four-Two

Four-Four-Two

YA historical fiction
"They didn't have to tell each other why. They knew what a
friend Billy Yamada had been to Oki. But Yuki also thought of what
Billy had lost. The war had taken away his chance to go to college,
to be a star football player. Yuki had heard people use the phrase
'lost his life' but he had never thought what it meant. Billy
wouldn't have a chance to be the man he was going to be.
Don't think about it, Yuki told himself. You can't think about
it."
Yuki, protagonist of Dean Hughes, Four-Four-Two, can't afford to
let himself think about his friend who was killed in battle. Fighting
in the Europeon Theater of World War II, he and his fellow soldiers
are engaged in the grim task of running through barrages of enemy fire
to capture hills that are German strongholds. And he's taking this
huge risk for a nation that sees him as an alien threat, knowing that
no matter how hard and loyally he and his fellow Japanese Americans
fight, those who survive will return to second class status in their
native land.
Before reading Four-Four-Two I had no idea that during World War
II there was an all Nisei (Japanese-American) unit that was the most
decorated unit in this nation's history. About half of them received
Purple Hearts. They also has a disproportionately high mortality rate.
America entered World War II after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
We were at war with the Axis powers: Japan, Germany, and Italy.
While German and Italian Americans suspected of treason were dealt
with on a case by case basis, over 110,000 Japanese and Japanese
Americans, never accused of or tried for any crime, were removed en
masse from their homes and incarcerated in camps surrounded by barbed-
wire fences, shot by guards if they attempted to escape or got too
near the fence. For many draft age sons in the camps, serving in the
military seemed to be a way to show their loyalty to their country.
Narrator Yukus and his best friend, Shigeo, are fictional characters
created to represent these men.
Although the racism of the time is a crucial element of the
story, one of the themes of this coming of age narrative goes beyond
race, nationality, and era.
"Yuki tried to think what the word meant. Honor. He had
thought he'd known when he had joined the army. Now he only knew that
he couldn't let his friends down. He had to fight for them, and he
expected them to fight for him. Nations didn't go to war. Men did.
Boys did. The trouble was, defending his friends meant killing the
boys from some other nation: boys he actually had nothing against..."
Four-Four-Two should be required reading for all people
contemplating military enlistments.
On a personal note, writing class is going along swimmingly. I
presented a future op ed piece on ageism and a set of poems. Both
were received enthusiastically. Sadly there is only one more class
for this session.
A great big shout out goes out to all who who participate in this
group, especially the refreshment bringers.
jules hathaway



Sent from my iPod