Mending club

Am I short or is it my imagination?

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Mending club

The bags piling up. 

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Mending club

My best friend, Lisa Morin, left, runs Black Bear Exchange and the campus volunteering center. She has two GAs, both named Emma. I call Emma Smith Emma 1. 

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Mending club

While other people did more complicated projects on sewing machines. 

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Mending club

A recent activity was turning unwanted shirts 👕 into reusable bags like this one for the Black Bear Exchange, the campus food pantry and clothing exchange.

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Sisters Alone (juvenile fiction in verse)

     Tweens seem to really have an affinity for narratives that pit relatable young protagonists against villains or forces of nature that seem insurmountable. Picture the perennial popularity of Home Alone. Shifa Saltagi Safadi's Sisters Alone, written in eloquent free verse, will prove quite appealing to youngsters who enjoy suspenseful stories.

     Leena and Rami, Safadi's narrators, have recently lost their beloved mother. Baba, their father, must travel to Japan for work. Fortunately while he's gone the girls are scheduled to be on a school vacation trip. He wouldn't want them to be home alone, especially with a major blizzard predicted. 

     To be eligible to go on the trip students must have passing grades in all subjects and have turned in their signed permission slip..

     ...Guess what's riding around in the bottom of Leena's backpack.

     When Leena isn't allowed on the bus Rama stays with her. Their father is on the way to Japan. The sisters will be home alone for a week. Rama thinks it's no big deal. 

"We have books, Wi-Fi, warmth, and

before we know it, Baba will be back."

      She's not counting on the blizzard taking out the power and sending a huge tree crashing through the roof and walls, making the house unsafe. And the girls have no way to call for help. Rama's phone is broken; Leena's isn't charged.

     Their only shelter is an unheated, drafty shed. 

"How do we warm ourselves

without a fire,

without a heater, 

without a blanket?

What do we eat when there is no food?"

     Besides the truly engaging and suspenseful plot there is a lot to love about Sisters Alone.

     One thing is the way Safadi brings both sisters to life as complex individuals with a difficult relationship. Little sister Leena believes that she caused their mother's death. Her grief is complicated by guilt. She spends as much time as she can scrapbooking the family's happy past, letting stuff like grades slide. She sees Rama as a demanding perfectionist. Rama is the more organized sister. But she has her own struggles. She can't get rid of the Monster that lives in her, causing her to catastrophize:

"Drops of hot sweat prickle on my skin, 

My breath comes out in pants

as I feel myself start to 

spiral in a

Monster Attack. 

What if we run out of food? What if

Baba never comes back?"

Although she loves Leena, she resents her carelessness and irresponsibility and how she gets away with it.

     Another thing is the way anxiety and intrusive thoughts are woven into the narrative through the portrayal of Rama and discussed nonjudgementally in the author's note. Mental health issues are very important for tweens to understand and much too little talked about. 

     Finally there is the portrayal of the sisters as Muslims. The practices of their religion are woven into the dailiness of their lives. It's hard to explain. I feel the way I felt when I discovered Ezra Jack Keats' The Snowy Day in which a little Black boy experiences joy when his neighborhood is blanketed with the white stuff. 

     In short, Sisters Alone is a suspenseful, engaging narrative that will be enjoyed by its target demographic and way beyond. A good purchase for school, public, and home libraries.

     I lived a large part of my life with undiagnosed anxiety. It was such a relief to see a counselor and learn how to diminish it. I know many people who live with it. It's incidence is increasing among people who went through key development stages during the pandemic, making this fine book even more relevant. 

On a purrrsonal note, with a couple of frost free nights and some beneficial rain my garden is looking really good. I'm spending as much time as possible reading outside near it. I'm keeping a close eye on forecasts with an eye on covering my flowers when frost is predicted. Last night I had dinner with Bailey and Cam and their three cats 🐈 😻 🐈‍⬛️ who are purrrfect hosts. They have a new second floor apartment right in downtown Bangor. Their living room has these incredible arched floor to ceiling windows that afford quite a view. We had a really good time. When I got home Tobago was quite excited to smell the other cats on me. I am feline Facebook. 

A great big shout out goes out to Bailey, Cam, and their precious cat companions.

Jules Hathaway 

     

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Up In Flames (YA fiction)

     The first time I read a book by an excellent author I check to see if they have any others published. I was over the moon when I discovered that Hailey Alcaraz's Rosa By Any Other Name was her sophomore offering. I speedy quick sent away for her Up In Flames by inter library loan...

     ...and it was all I hoped for and more. The plot was super engaging and suspenseful. The characters were complex and believable. It was easy to imagine and relate to. Very relevant social justice issues were integral to the plot...

     ...and it was a reworking of a century old classic. I admit I'm not a big fan of this genre. >

It generally involve works that I read ages ago to not flunk classes--like The Iliad, The Odyssey, and anything by Austin. But this is a reworking of a novel I read of my own free will and, in my opinion, captures the ambiance of the original. See if you can guess what it is by the end of this review. Hint names and initials are big tells. 

"Ruby Ortega always got what she wanted. 

     However, Ruby Ortega also often wanted what she couldn't have"

     When we first meet Ruby, Alcaraz's narrator, she's basically stealing the show at her younger sister's quinceanera, wearing a dress her mother considers indecent and being wooed by the male attendees, bored by their attention because they aren't her long time crush, Ashton Willis...

     ...but when he arrives his news is a real buzz kill for Ruby. He's excited for her to meet his girlfriend, Millie Hamilton. 

     "Girlfriend? For as long as she had known him, Ashton had never had a girlfriend. She had always thought of him as patiently waiting for her to come around, and now that the stars had finally aligned, he had a girlfriend? They were supposed to be together."

     Much to Ruby's chagrin, an aggravating stranger, Remy Bustillos, was eavesdropping on their conversation. 

     Ruby starts college at Ashton's school determined to make him see the light. But a crisis is on the way in the form of wildfires that have been drawing nearer to Ruby and Ashton's homes. When they arrive Ruby rushes home to find her mother dead and the rest of her family in a state of shock. 

     Even after the flames have retreated there's no going back to school for Ruby. True her home is intact. But the luxury bed-and-breakfast the Ortegas run and the reception hall they were having built suffered serious damage. Her father has become incapable of running things. Her sisters are too young to share the burdens of being in charge. So it's all on Ruby. 

     Ashton drifts in and out, unsure of his role and future. Remy, however is providing assistance and connections when she really needs them. 

     Will Ruby ever wake up and smell the coffee ☕️?

     Have you figured out what the original book is? I'll reveal tĥe answer in my next review. 

On a purrrsonal note, wintery weather is closing in much too fast. I have to wear a coat when I go places or read near my flowers 💐. The furnace kicks on. Tuesday night was our first frost. I covered my flowers and they did fine. I hope we get at least a few warm days before the worst season of the year assaults Maine. 

A great big shout out goes out to the people who deliver heating fuel. 

Jules Hathaway 

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