Closer to Nowhere

Closer to Nowhere

Juvenile fiction
"I'm safe for now.
But I don't know
how long that will last.
I'm afraid
if I start to believe
I belong here,
everything
will change
again."
Cal lost his beloved mother when he was very young. He stayed
with his abusive father until the man went to prison. Now he's living
with the family of his mother's twin sister, Taryn. He'd like this to
work out. But PTSD stands in the way of his being able to feel
secure. He sees home as something that goes further away as he tries
to reach it. Plus his dad is getting out of prison and wants to
regain custody.
"My parents were my support
system. Totally solid.
We were a great team.
But, like, three years ago,
Just before I turned nine,
Mom's sister got leukemia
and died. And everything
started to fall apart."
Hannah is Taryn's daughter, Cal's cousin. She is dedicated to
her goal of making the US Olympics gymnastics team. She considers Cal
a "fake kid"--someone who hides himself behind a shell. She finds him
hard to understand. She misses the way her family used to be.
In Closer to Nowhere Ellen Hopkins tells the family's story
through their alternating perspectives. Hopkins has previously nailed
YA and adult literature. This first venture into juvenile fiction
turf is also masterful. She creates vivid, unique, easy to like, but
far from perfect characters and places them in relatable
circumstances. Kids in her target demographic and beyond will quickly
be pulled into this engaging coming of age narrative.
Hopkins' authenticity stems in large part from her using what
she knows in a very personal way. Her first YA novel, Crank, was
inspired by her daughter's addiction to crystal meth. At one point
this daughter left her three young children with her boyfriend's
brother. Hopkins was able to rescue them and gain custody. The
oldest, diagnosed with PTSD, faced multiple challenges. This child
inspired the character of Cal.
"...I hope this book will plant seeds of empathy for kids with
behavioral problems they can't always control. They don't want to be
classroom 'freaks'. They want friends. They want to fit in, even
when it's difficult to tamp down their emotions. They deserve a
deeper look and another chance. And another. And another."
Hopkins is an amazing writer, creating narratives that raise
important questions and nurture empathy as well as being spell binding
reads. I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.
On a purrrsonal note: weather is one of the major topics in Maine this
week. Last weekend we were hit with a blizzard. Eugene worked 20
hours between Saturday and Sunday plowing. The work was far from over
when parking lots and streets were cleared. With another storm
predicted for tomorrow, the blizzard battlers have been using
excavators to load snow mountains scoop by scoop onto dump trucks to
haul away so they'll have space to make more snow mountains with what
they clear from streets and parking lots. No business like snow
business. I plan to ask my manager about the feasibility of calling
in if the commute would be too dangerous. Route 2 with no sidewalks
can be dangerous when the morning commute is at its height, the snow
is making the streets slippery under tire, and visibility sucks. (Jules)
No snow, no snow, NO SNOW!!! It keeps the birdies away and keeps my
daddy hooman away at night. (Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to people who work patiently with kids
and adults with trauma based behavioral problems.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway




Sent from my iPod

Hi, it's me, Tobago, wishing all our readers who celebrate it a happy lunar new year.

Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone

And here's Tobago looking with dismay at the new snow accumulations.  Wonder what Mother Nature has in store for February.

Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone

Now we're more buried under the white stuff.  I'll have to give you pictures of the snow mountains on campus.  Some of them are taller than me.

Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone

This is the book.

Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone

Counting By 7s

Counting By 7s

YA fiction
"Next of kin.
That's what they want to know. Kinfolk. Who talks like that?
But that's what they are asking me."
Holly Goldberg Sloan's Counting By 7s is another of those older
books I only just got around to reading it even though people have
been recommending it for ages. I wasn't expecting much. I never
expected it to grab my heart. So I had to review it right away
instead of relegating it to my back up notebooks created earlier in
the pandemic when I chose binge reading over binge viewing, day
drinking, or building Tobago an authentic medieval castle cat house
she probably would totally ignore.
Willow is a twelve-year-old highly gifted student who hates
school. She studies her middle school classmates like an ethnologist
(one who studies people and their relationships) rather than bonding
with them. She has major obsessions concerning the number human
medical conditions, and plants.
One day she comes home to finds police car parked in front of
her house. Both of her parents were killed in a car accident. Her
only known relative resides in a home for dementia patients. Her
parents hadn't cultivated a network friends. So social services sets
in motion the process of getting her into a group home. At her age
adoption and the stability it would offer are highly unlikely.
But there are is a very unique band of beings that comes behind
getting her a better option:
*Dell: the burnt out guidance counselor Willow starts seeing when her
school falsely accuses her of cheating on a test
*Pattie, a Vietnamese single parent who runs a nail salon
*Mai and Quang-Ha, her teen children
*Jairo, a taxi driver with college aspirations
*Cheddar, a portly ginger cat
They don't know the ropes. They don't have the clout of the system.
But they have determination and the ability to think outside the box
on their side.
If you're anything like me you'll be caught up in the narrative,
really caring about the outcome.
On a purrrsonal note, being neurodivergent myself, one of the things
I really appreciated about the book was how it didn't draw a clear
line between "normal" and "abnormal" characters. All are portrayed as
deeply human with quirks and strengths.
When I saw a counselor for six months in 2021 I learned that I have
anxiety. I don't mean in the popular jargon sense, but the clinical
sense. It's something that will probably be a part of me for the rest
of my life. Just like petit mal epilepsy. I didn't want the taking
pills for the rest of my life. So I worked with my counselor on
developing strategies for short circuiting it. I'm also dropping
situations that are predictably anxiety provoking. I now volunteer at
blood drives instead of donating because I'd get really anxious about
building my iron up enough weeks before I donated. A funny thing
happened when I started coming out about my anxiety. A lot of people,
including people who seem to have it all together, said "me
too." (Jules)
Do cats get anxiety? I get very anxious when my daddy hooman goes out
in the big snowstorms. (Tobago)
A great big shout out and a message to hang in there goes out to
people with anxiety, depression, and all the other diagnoses that are
on the rise in 21st century America.
Tobago and Jules Hathaway



Sent from my iPod

I can't imagine who has been spreading all the critters all over the floor.  Couldn't be Miss Innocence there begging for some cat treats.

Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone