Six Months Later

Six Months Later

YA/adult fiction
"As in November 10? No. I read it once and then again. A
bunch of other calls are all from November too. I glance up,
panicked, finding a calendar on the wall and a flyer for a winter
dance that should be eight months away.
The evidence hits me like icy darts, needling me toward the
impossible truth. I've been asleep for six months. A coma or
something. Somehow I've missed six months of my life."
Chloe, protagonist of Natalie D. Richards' Six Months Later,
wakes up at night in a school room with no memory of where she's been
or what she's done. Somehow she has to pick up the strands of her
life, even basic stuff like her senior year class schedule. And she
has to do this without anyone discovering the gaps in her memory. She
doesn't want to be the object of pity and subject of gossip she was
when she had to cope with panic attacks earlier in her high school
career.
Time loss, however, is not the only aspect of her life that has
Chloe confused. In the lost six months she's seemingly become the
polar opposite of her former self. An indifferent student has become
a scholastic superstar. The boy she had a total crush on is now the
devoted boyfriend she wants to keep at arm's length. She's attracted
irresistably to a classmate she'd formerly written off as a juvenile
delinquent. While she's become super popular at school, her long term
best friend won't speak to her.
Could all this change be connected to an SAT study group she
participated in over the summer? Could it be a cover up for something
truly sinister?
Fans of Lisa Scottoline and Jodi Picoult and all others who
enjoy a suspenseful mystery will find Six Months Later to be simply
irresistable.
On a personal note, I got a whole new perspective on Homecoming
yesterday. Dining services had been getting ready--getting people
psyched for treats like hot wings (good and spicy hot) and
individually icing hundreds of football cookies. I worked brunch.
People were lined up and stampeded in when we opened the doors. And
they kept coming. I heard in one hour 200 people entered. After I
finished serving I went to cleaning tables. People were still
arriving. I had to manuver like our football players to get to the
tables. That day in Wells was one wild ride.
A great big shout out goes out to my team mates who were going above
and beyond to make the event a success, Anna and Simon who were
keeping the troops rallied, and Michael who was acing team leader. I
couldn't possibly be more proud to be part of the family.
jules hathaway


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The Hate U Give

The Hate U Give

YA/adult fiction
"Khalil doesn't move. He doesn't utter a word. He doesn't even
look at me. His body stiffens, and he's gone. I hope he sees God.
Someone else screams.
I blink through my tears. Officer One Fifteen [badge number]
yells at me, pointing the same gun he killed my friend with."
Can you imagine seeing a friend who has broken no laws shot in
cold blood by a police officer? This is a plight too many black
Americans have been put in. It's also the episode that starts off
Angie Thomas' The Hate U Give, a fine debut novel that humanizes and
hopefully stirs compassion for people most of us only catch glimpses
of in news stories.
Khalil was Starr's best friend when they were little kids. Now
he's dead. People are angry that another black boy has been slain by
someone mandated to serve and protect. There is little to no trust
that a grand jury will indict the officer involved. In Starr's
neighborhood anger explodes into protests and rioting.
When Starr was ten she saw another good friend killed in a drive
by. Her parents had enrolled her in a mostly white private school.
To fit in both her worlds she has to switch between two personas.
"...Williamson Starr doesn't use slang--if a rapper would say
it, she doesn't say it, even if her white friends do. Slang makes
them cool. Slamg makes her 'hood.' Williamson Starr holds her tongue
when people piss her off so nobody will think she's the 'angry black
girl.' Williamson Starr is approachable. No stank-eyes, side-eyes,
none of that. Williamson Starr is nonconfrontational. Basically
Williamson Starr doesn't give anyone a reason to call her ghetto."
A number of Starr's rich, white classmates see Khalil as a
thug: a drug dealer and gang banger. One thinks the cop did
civilized society a favor by pulling the trigger.
How will the neighborhood in which Starr's family lives and her
father has a store react if the grand jury refuses to indict the cop?
Read the book and see.
I was happy to learn that Thomas has a second novel coming out.
I'll be sure to read and review it.
On a personal note, my life continues to revolve around school
and work. I did enjoy some of the Coming Out Week events. I attended
the Rainbow Resource Room open house and tea party, shared my story of
coming out as gender fluid at the first ever Coming Out Monologues,
tie dyed tee shirts for myself and my top supervisors, and stuffed a
darling moose and dressed them (my moose is gender fluid like me) in a
UMaine shirt. I got my flu shot. I discovered a little free library
that had three books I was very eager to read. I could trade three
others for them.
Great big shout outs go out to all who made Coming Out Week sensational.
jules hathaway


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On a personal note, last night when I posted my review I forgot to add one. That's grad school for you. It continues to be quite the challenge, mostly because of how far behind I am on computer skills. My first class when I learned how extensively embedded they are in the curriculum I felt like I'd run into a brick wall. You know how it is with walls you can't climb. You have to give up or find a sharp instrument and start chipping away. I'm persistant in chipping and finding people to help. I'm beginning to see daylight. I did go to two parties Saturday. The first was my daughter Amber's Alice In Halloweenland party. As always it was ghoulishly perfect. (If you need some ideas on making your Halloween party memorable, check out her crafts blog: http://amberscraftaweek.blogspot.com)

On a personal note, last night when I posted my review I forgot to add
one. That's grad school for you. It continues to be quite the
challenge, mostly because of how far behind I am on computer skills.
My first class when I learned how extensively embedded they are in the
curriculum I felt like I'd run into a brick wall. You know how it is
with walls you can't climb. You have to give up or find a sharp
instrument and start chipping away. I'm persistant in chipping and
finding people to help. I'm beginning to see daylight. I did go to
two parties Saturday. The first was my daughter Amber's Alice In
Halloweenland party. As always it was ghoulishly perfect. (If you
need some ideas on making your Halloween party memorable, check out
her crafts blog: http://amberscraftaweek.blogspot.com)
It was wonderful seeing all my kids. After that I went to the
community garden volunteers supper. I once again got the longest
standing and most social gardener award. It was an evening of fine
food and fellowship.
Great big shout outs go out my family, my community garden family, and
all who are helping me tear down the wall.
jules hathaway




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Bunk 9's Guide To Growing Up

Bunk 9's Guide To Growing Up

Juvenile/YA nonfiction
"But take it from us: while there are a whole lot of changes
that happen on the road to womanhood, they're all leading somewhere
completely wonderful. (And once you get the hang of it, tampons
aren't scary at all.) So that's where the BOOK comes in. We're here
to walk you through the process, head to toe, all of these changes
called puberty. And while we're at it, we'll throw in some tips and
advice on how to take care of yourself now that you're growing older,
so that you'll not only survive puberty; you'll completely, totally,
100 percent own it."
If there was a book I wish had been around when I was a late
blooming pre teen or, even more, when I had daughters, it's Bunk 9's
Guide To Growing Up. It is, by far, the most comprehensive book about
puberty I've ever read. I've read many more than the average blogger
or human being.
[As told to] author Adah Nuchi gets the need for peer connection
for girls in and approaching the first great gendered life change.
She got almost all her info in a camp setting. She created the
fictional Camp Silver Moon to pass this knowledge on.
Bunk 9, a group of 16-year-old counselors in training, recreates
the summer when they were twelve and at all different stages in the
process. Readers will get to know them as individuals, quirks and all
from Briana "social butterfly*night owl*raccoonaphobe" to Lea
"chocolate connoisseur*foreign correspondent*ropes course avoider".
Chapters correspond to weeks at camp. The first four cover the
stages of puberty; the last three revolve around comprehensive topics:
boys, health, and feelings. Much of the text is told in a collective
narrative.
"The summer we were twelve may have been our fourth one at Camp
Silver Moon, but it was clear from the moment the camp bus pulled into
the parking lot that this summer WOULD BE DIFFERENT..."
But there are plenty of individual comments in colorful asides.
Meg Hunt's illustrations give the book the comfortable coziness
of popular series books for this age group. Think Dork Diaries. In
addition to pictures of the girls and a rather menacing looking
raccoon, there are stickers and other cool things.
If you are a parent or significant person in the life of a girl
entering or about to start puberty, run, don't walk, to your local
bookstore to pick up Bunk 9's Guide To Growing Up. Read it before
passing it on. Make sure your public library has a copy.
What I want to know is when someone will put out a similar book
on that other big gendered life change called menopause. Much of
what's around now looks like you'd need a PhD in endocrinology to get
it.
You know I'm right.
On a personal note,


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Poverty And Hunger

Poverty And Hunger

Juvenile nonfiction
When I was a child trying to leave the supper table without
touching the Lima beans, Mom or Dad would remind me of the starving
children in Africa to guilt me into cleaning my plate. I bet many of
you had similar experiences. It was a go to tactic for decades. I
think you'll agree that while it succeeded short term (the Lima beans
or liver disappeared) it didn't exactly lead to empathy.
Children are capable of empathy and wanting to help at really
early ages. An attitude of gratitude for what they have, compassion
for those in need, and a burning desire to help are some of the best
gifts we can cultivate in our kids in a world where too many of their
peers, not only in third world countries, but in the United States
live and sometimes die in dire poverty.
But how?
Books can be quite valuable in this endeavor. Poverty And
Hunger by Louise Spilsbury and Hanane Kai is a good introduction to
these topics. The text is to the point, but not intimidating.
Children are given ways to help those in need and a list of books and
websites to learn more.
The pictures beautifully compliment the text. On the first two
page spread where poverty is defined, for example, you see an adult
and child napping on a sofa surrounded by the comforts of home while
through a window you catch a glimpse of an adult and child sleeping
rough (homeless). Plants wither in parched soil. A little girl
drinks water that is far from clean.
And then there's the cat. On nearly every page there's an
orange cat with striped tail and paws. Getting younger kids to find
the cat from page to page is a good way to help them to learn to focus
on illustrations.
I have only one beef with the book. It leads children to think
that it's only kids in other countries living in poverty. There are
growing numbers right here in the United States, the world's richest
nation.
On a personal note, UMaine is on October Break. A lot of us are doing
our jobs and beaucoup studying. I sure am! Last week dining services
had a very special dinner: a celebration of all things Maine cuisine--
everything from crab cakes through baked beans and brown bread to
needhams.
A great big shout out goes out to my fellow studying and recreating
students and the awesome chefs who make every meal a celebration.
Jules Hathaway


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