Rabbit & Juliet (YA chiller)

     Rabbit (17), nee Sadie, protagonist of Rebecca Stafford's Rabbit & Juliet, is 

in a bad place. Since her beloved mother died unexpectedly her father has checked out. As unpaid bills pile up he loses himself in the bottle. His last parental act was to sign her up for a bereavement group run by a florist with no mental health professional training. Rabbit considers both the group and its leader dumb. She isn't too fond of her fellow bereaved. "But having somewhere to go that wasn't school, which I wouldn't have minded burning down, or my house, which I also wouldn't have minded burning down, was close to nice."...

     ...Little does she know that one evening in group she'll meet the girl who will turn her life around...

     ..."But sitting between Wispy Voice (sister, blood disorder) and Top-knot (husband, cirrhosis of the liver) was someone new. She was my age, or maybe a little older. When she saw me, she smiled like we went way back, but I'd never seen her in my life."

     It's not long until Rabbit, her ex bestie, Sarah, and Juliet are inseparable. But their relationship is rather tumultuous. Juliet is charismatic and mercurial. She can be supportive one moment and vicious the next; encourage harmony one moment, play her friends against each other the next. 

     But they will rationalize when she puts their lives in danger and when she has them do things they know are wrong because she has that kind of hold on them. 

     One day the trio discovers pictures that document three male peers violation of female classmates. Juliet persuades her friends not to hand them over to the police. The retribution she wants them to help her carry out would not only be classified as unethical but as aggravated felony. 

     They used to say that the Shadow knows about the evil that lurks in the hearts of men. Stafford certainly seems to grasp the evil that can lurk in the hearts of a manipulative girl.

On a purrrsonal note, yesterday Catherine and I volunteered at Bangor Pride. Before the event I was apprehensive. It was the first public event I would be going to since I started on the diet from Hell. I had no worries about yielding to temptation. I have sterling won't power. The unknown was how I'd feel and whether it would get in the way of my being mindfully present and being any use as a volunteer. So what happened? I'll let you know in my next review. Yes, this is my attempt at a cliffhanger--my shameless attempt to entice you into reading my next post. 

Today is really weird and not just because of the Stephen King movie weather--desolate and drizzly. I could not find Eugene when I woke up. He wasn't in the house or yard. His working truck and motorcycle were in the driveway. He doesn't walk anywhere if he can drive. He doesn't have local friends. When I called his cell phone it went straight to voice mail. WTF? It's 4 hours later and he's still MIA. This is a cliffhanger I don't know the answer to. The only known witness, Tobago, doesn't speak English.

A great big shout out goes out to all who participated in Bangor Pride and Eugene who I hope just went somewhere without telling me.

Jules Hathaway 

     

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Live Your Best Lie

     It's a lavish teen Halloween bash thrown in a hugely popular social media influencer's posh home. Parents away, of course. It starts off fine with music, booze, and guests posting videos. But then it rapidly goes off script. The party comes to an abrupt end when the hostess is found dead in a bathroom. 

     As Summer's murder is investigated readers learn that her life was nowhere as picture perfect as she depicted online. Her boyfriend had just broken up with her. She'd ruined a peer's online beauty business. She was blackmailing at least one friend into doing dirty work for her. She was at odds with her family, especially her controlling father.

     Summer had promised to tear the mask off and reveal all in her about to be published memoir. A lot of people had cause to be concerned about what would be revealed. Maybe motivation to make sure the book would never came out.

     Told in the alternating voices of four classmates close to Summer, Jessie Weaver's Live Your Best Lie is a complex narrative of terrified teens, each of them trying desperately not to be the one thrown under the bus as pressure is put on the police to solve the case as quickly as possible. 

On a purrrsonal note, I volunteered at community garden last night. Fortunately temps dropped to very comfortable. We're getting ready for a visit by MOFGA (Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association) which is a BIG DEAL. 

I'm working on a fashion project. I'd acquired a really awesome denim jacket that fits perfectly for free from Black Bear Exchange. Monday at Goodwill I bought a bag of sew on critters for $2. I sewed on 14 today. When I finish it will be gorgeous and one of a kind. I promise a picture. 

A great big shout out goes out to this year's community garden family. 

Jules Hathaway 

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Made In Asian America (juvenile Nonfiction)

     When I was going into the fifth grade Alla Lee entered my life. A college professor, she had had to flee her native Korea with her teenage son, Boris, when the government began imprisoning intellectuals. My mother explained the situation to me when she hired Alla to stay with Harriet and me afternoons until she got out of work, on snow days, and when we were home sick. People thought my college educated mother had taken leave of her senses. They were especially afraid that Boris would molest me or Harriet. Boris was a bespectacled boy so afraid of girls that he would not go to school dances. That is how I first learned about anti Asian prejudice. 

     In the years since I learned a lot more--not in my school but through independent reading. I was really pleased when, on a new book shelf in the Orono Public Library juvenile wing, I discovered Erica Lee and Christina Soontornvat's Made In Asian America: A History for Young People. It's an engaging narrative combined with a wealth of photographs to form a time-line stretching from way before America's nation hood to the 21st century. 

     It's a story of prejudice and persecution centered around the themes: they are different; they are inferior; they are dangerous; there are too many of them. For much of America's history Asians were deemed unfit for and denied citizenship. Although they were willing to take on the most grueling and dangerous jobs the government often limited their entry into this country. During the second world War they were locked up in squalid internment camps. 

     But it's also a story of resilience, persistence, and courage, of community and solidarity. 

     I highly recommend Made In Asian America for its target audience and way beyond. Most American adults know very little about Asian American history. Its lively blend of personal narrative and scholarship makes it much more readable and engaging than those volumes most of us were only too glad to leave behind when we graduated high school. It would be an excellent acquisition for school and public libraries. 

On a purrrsonal note, it's the first heat 🥵 🔥 ☀️ wave of the summer. Yesterday parts of Maine hit the triple digits. Eugene and his coworkers got the day off with pay because management decided it would be "too damn hot" for them to work. During the hottest part of the day he took me on a ride with the AC on which was such a refreshing treat.

A great big shout out goes out to Eugene and his company's management. 

Jules Hathaway 

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This Thread of Gold

     "For centuries, Black women have been overlooked, downtrodden, and dismissed. They  have been  sexualized, racialized, and ignored. Culture has often portrayed Black women as a monolith and in terms of victimhood. And yet, what we have not seen--still do not see enough of--are the real women behind the stereotypes radically resisting being spoken for...In reclaiming their individual acts and voices from the cultural narrative that, for centuries, would rather suppress them, This Thread of Gold will make these women visible--in some cases for the very first time."

     In This Thread of Gold Catherine Joy White portrays a wide range of awesome Black women in a wide range of professions. 

     Shirley Anita Chisholm was raised in Barbados by a grandmother who taught her to trust her own voice. As early as h

er college years she was active in the fight for racial advancement. In 1968 she became America's first Black congresswoman. In this role she was a fierce champion of a wide range of underdogs. She even envisioned reproductive rights as a necessary part of Healthcare. She coined the inspirational saying: If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.

     Wangari Maathai was raised by nuns in Kenya. She was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a PhD. Aware of the dangerous deforestation in her country and the desperate poverty and hunger of her country woman ("The more you degrade the environment, the more you dig deeper into poverty.") she created the Green Belt Initiative that not only planted trees, but empowered women to become agents of change. She was the first African woman Nobel Peace Prize winner.

     In 1940 Hattie McDaniel become the first Black person in history to win an Oscar for her role as Mammy in Gone With The Wind. She was segregated from whites the night of her great professional accomplishment. This honor didn't open the doors she hoped it would. White Hollywood continued to give her maid roles while many Blacks considered her a race traitor for taking those maid roles. She also was also instrumental in desegregating Los Angeles housing. 

     And these are only a few of the amazing sheroes readers will learn about. If you believe that Black Lives Matter most definitely put This Thread of Gold on your summer reading list. 

On a purrrsonal note, I voted for Hillary Clinton as the the lesser of the two evils. I am not a fan. In my opinion she was too good at standing by her man as he ended welfare as we know it, dooming so many women and children to inescapable poverty, and created those tough on crime laws that needlessly incarcerated so many people of color, ruining their lives and devastating their families and communities. The woman I desperately wanted to be the first woman president was Shirley Chisholm. I was on fire for her unbound unbought message. Finally here was somebody who was not going to cave to the rich and powerful, who would stick up for the underdogs. I think if we'd elected her back then we'd be a lot better off today. I was so happy to see her honored in this fine book.  

A great big shout out goes out to White for bringing us these truly engaging and inspiring stories. 

Jules Hathaway 

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Women Behind the Wheel

     For well over a century the automobile has been much more than a means of getting from one place to another. Those who market them tap into people's yearnings,  for status, prestige, adventures, and other such intangibles and play on them, often trapping them into transactions that are not in their best interests.

     In her Women Behind the Wheel: An Unexpected and Personal History of the Car Nancy A. Nichols describes the more gendered aspects of American car culture. Some of the topics she covers are:

*how cars almost from the start redefined courtship rituals and provided a new venue for sex;

*how advertisers struggled with the challenge of making cars appealing to women without making them seem less manly to guys;

 *how men were pitched driving for excitement and speed, but women were pitched driving for domesticity. "'Despite changes in form, style, and cargo space over the past 60 years,' Lezotte concludes, 'the function of the woman's car has remained the same. And that is to firmly reinforce women's gendered roles as wife and mother. '"

     If you're concerned about the roles of cars and the automotive industry in women's lives Women Behind the Wheel would make a great addition to your summer reading list."

On this summer solstice Eugene and I did a 9 hour road trip. We covered a lot of miles, stopped at a few yard sales, and saw a beautiful young deer 🦌. 

A great big shout out goes out to Eugene. 

Jules Hathaway 

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Little Monsters

     Kacey, protagonist of Kara Thomas's Little Monsters, had spent most of her childhood and teens in a very dysfunctional lifestyle with her single parent mother and her series of boyfriends. Eventually child protective services got called in. She was removed from her home and placed with her father and his family. She was determined to keep her distance. But her stepbrother, Andrew, made it a point to break through her defenses. And her little stepsister, Lauren, won her over. She's also acquired two besties, Bailey and Jade. 

     Kacey's new town, Broken Falls, has a local ghost story. A long time ago firemen had been called out to a property on Sparrow Kill, only to find it engulfed in flames, the family's five children trapped inside. The father was dead of a self inflicted gun shot. 

     His wife, Josephine, was never seen alive again. 

     "Depending on who you ask, Josephine Leeds is still here, walking up and down Sparrow Kill, her white nightdress bloody and filthy at the hem. People call her the Red Woman, and they say she can can only be spotted at night. 

      That's why we're here. To see for ourselves. 

     To scare the shit out of ourselves. Because what else is there to do during a Broken Falls winter?"

     The we includes not only Jade, Bailey, and Kacey, but Lauren, reluctantly allowed to come along to prevent the parents from interfering. The plan is to conduct a seance in the still (barely) standing barn. Before they can really get started part of the barn collapses. 

     The next night there's a party that Kacey, Jade, and Bailey had really been looking forward to. Ominously Kacey's besties don't message her on details. Feeling that this is payback for including Lauren to buy her silence, she stays home. The next day Jade calls her to say that Bailey never made it home. 

     Suddenly there are search parties combing the towns and woods on days when snow doesn't make it too treacherous. At least slightly inept police officers are in everyone's faces looking for clues. The most likely culprit--the one on whose property Bailey's Smartphone was found--has an alibi. Jade is becoming increasingly hostile to Kacey. And Lauren is falling apart.

     Interspersed with the narrative chapters are excerpts of Bailey's secret journal. The thoughts expressed are quite disturbing. 

     If twisty chillers with many dark and deadly secrets are your cup of tea, make sure to put Little Monsters on your summer reading list.

On a purrrsonal note, today the Orono Public Library is closed in honor of Juneteenh which is totally awesome! Best wishes for all my readers who observe this celebration.

A great big shout out goes out to Eugene who surprised me with an adorable class of 25 graduation 🦉. 

Jules Hathaway 

     

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Win Lose Kill Die (YA chiller)

     Gotta love those chillers set in elite private schools. They make for some great summer reading whether you're at the beach or at camp or taking it easy at home. And have l found a real winner--Cynthia Murphy's Win Lose Kill Die. 

     Murphy's narrator, Liz, is returning to her boarding school, Morton Academy, after a truly crappy summer. The last day before vacation she'd sustained a serious head injury in a boating accident--one in which another student, Morgan,  had died. After months confined to her home with her dysfunctional family, she yearns for a return to normal...

     ...Which is so not going to happen...

     ...The first day of classes a fellow senior, Jameela, receives a threatening note: "Morgan's death was not an accident. I killed her. And you're next." That night she dies of an asthma attack...

     ...or maybe a sabotaged inhaler...

     ...The next victim, Frank is found dead in the woods, his head crushed by a huge boulder, Jameela's inhaler in his hand.

     The students are wondering who will be next. The adults don't seem to be really invested in bringing the killer to justice. So Liz and her friends are taking matters into their own hands--trying to stop him before he gets more victims. 

     *Could the deaths have to do with the century old secret society with really creepy rituals all the victims belonged to?

     *Could the murderous cult that was around in the 90s be making a comeback?

      *And how about the headmistress who is doing everything she can--perhaps even bribing the cops--to prevent an investigation?

      Think you can solve the mystery before you get to the end of the book?

On a purrrsonal note, it's a cool but sunny day here. I've been taking pictures of the kids working in the children's garden for the library and gardening in the community garden. 

A great big shout out goes out to my garden family. 

Jules Hathaway 

     

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Pixel Flesh (adult nonfiction)

     "As young girls, we learn early on that beauty matters more than anything--that it is the first dimension of the the feminine gender role. Ugliness is inherently evil, inherently othered."

     The pressure for women to conform to their time's standards of beauty--usually dictated by the male gaze--has been around seemingly forever. But never before has it been as ubiquitous and evil. And something has to be done about it. That's the call to arms Ellen Atlanta sounds in Pixel Flesh: How Toxic Beauty Harms Women. 

     So what's going on? For one thing there's where social referents come from. Whereas earlier generations may have compared themselves to actresses, models in magazines, musicians, and the "cute" girls at their school, today's teens are constantly bombarded with the very altered images of celebrities and influencers, often made ashamed of their bodies and desperate to get rid of their "flaws" by any means necessary. 

     One trend Atlanta discusses that has alarmed me since my daughters' childhood is something she mentions in the chapter Algorithms of Desire. Being sexually desirable to the male gaze has for ages been the gold standard for women's worth. That's why as we grow older there's all that pressure to dye hair/botox wrinkles/submit to surgery in order to pass for still hot. Now children at increasingly young ages are pressured to look and act seductive and put in situations no children should ever experience.

     "It was instilled in us from a young age that we were to be sexual objects, decorative fantasies that exist to please men. To make them happy and horny was our power. We were algorithms of desire--forbidden flesh to be captured and consumed--and that felt totally normal,  encouraged and competitive even."

     Another has to do with the ways we perceive our bodies. Rather than seeing ourselves as whole individuals we're taught to mentally cut up ourselves and others and assign ratings to bellies, breasts, butts... "The fragmentation then intensifies past self-loathing and into self-correcting."

     And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Wait till you see what Atlanta has to say about the transition to motherhood. If you want to understand all the ways in which toxic beauty culture is hazardous to women's health and well-being you'll want to put Pixel Flesh on your summer reading list.

On a purrrsonal note, we're actually having a sunny 🌞 weekend in Maine for the first time in ages. I went to some yard sales with Catherine yesterday. Today Amber and Brian are going to have a father's day cookout. BTW I'm finding that trying to post every day is unsustainable. I'm going to shoot for every other day and see how that goes.

A great big shout out goes out to Eugene and all the other fathers who are being honored today. 

Jules Hathaway 

     

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Three Things I Know Are True (YA fiction)

     Life as you know it can change in a moment. In the time it takes two teenage boys to go up to an attic to get the Halloween decorations...

     ...and find a gun...

     ...a loaded gun...

Now 17-year-old Jonah is bedridden, unable to move or speak, being kept alive by machines, and cared for round the clock by nurses. And the boys' families, across the road neighbors and formerly friends, are on opposite sides of a lawsuit.

     Liv, narrator of Betty Culley's Three Things I Know Are True, is Jonah's younger sister. She's the only one in the family who can see Jonah's underlying personality struggling to shine through. Her father is dead. Her mother expends a lot of energy dealing with the logistics of Jonah's care but spends little time actually with him. Liv has figured out what his sounds and limited gestures mean. She's the one the nurses consult when they don't know what to do...

     ...She's also protecting her mother. As the trial nears there is a lot of contention between people who fear their second amendment rights being taken away and people fearing their lives being taken by the wrong person with access to guns. Liv "steals" the family's newspaper if it contains opinion peices her mom might find triggering...

     ...which is a lot of responsibility for a high school sophomore. Liv can't concentrate in school and is in danger of being held back. 

     ...And Liv has her secrets. While her mother has declared Clay (the boy whose father owned the loaded gun) and his family the enemy, she takes a more nuanced approach. She knows that he loved Jonah and will probably carry guilt for the rest of his life. They continue their friendship in secret. 

     This poignant novel is highly engaging and empathic both in regard to the humanity of Jonah and his challenged and grieving family. Culley is a nurse who has worked in pediatric home hospice. She has just the background to avoid the clichés and write honestly and authenticly. 

     Three Things I Know Are True also deals with an issue teens, who have grown up going through active shooter drills while seeing state and national legislators refuse to enact laws that would make schools safer, are very much invested in. Therefore, I highly recommend the  book not only for individual reading for its target demographic and way beyond but also for parent-teen book clubs and as a replacement for one of the far from golden oldies in high school literature classes. 

On a purrrsonal note, on Thursday evening the Orono Public Library had a family concert in the outdoor amphitheater to celebrate the end of the school year. The weather was perfect. People and their dogs had a fine time. Of course I was the paparazzi. I got some really good pictures. 

A great big shout out goes out to all participants and the people who brought the event together. 

Jules Hathaway 

     

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All The Things We Never Knew

     I've heard an adage--hurt people hurt people--a number of times. But I never had a real sense of its meaning until I read Liara Tamani's All The Things We Never Knew.

     When Carli faints at a high school basketball tournament Rex catches her. Even after paramedics take her away he can't stop thinking about her, wondering how she is. On the way home from the game he learns from her brother's IG that she had a gallbladder attack and will have to have her the defective organ removed. That night he breaks up with his girlfriend. He cuts school to see Carli before her operation. 

     It turns out his feelings are reciprocated. And as they start getting to know each other things are looking good. 

    But remember what I said? Rex's mother died in childbirth. His father seems to blame him for the loss of his life companion. He's hardly ever home. And when he is he's never in the same room with his son. Despite his popularity at school Rex is desperately lonely. 

     Although Carli is a very talented basketball player she hasn't enjoyed the game since middle school. She's afraid of how her teammates and everyone who's counting on her will react if she quits the team. And she has no passion to replace it with. As if that isn't stress enough there's her parents' imminent divorce. Carli and her brother, Cole, have to tell a judge which parent they want to live with. 

     So the relationship is rocky, full of hurts and regrets. 

     Despite their flaws both Rex and Carli have a lot of goodness in them. I don't see it as possible to read their highly engaging story without pulling for them, wanting them to succeed. 

     I highly recommend this thought provoking, emotion provoking, and bittersweet narrative to readers in its target demographic and way beyond. 

On a purrrsonal note, this is a good news/bad news thing. I went to see my neurologist. The fabulous news is that he considers my brain recovery--as in getting my masters degree after a stroke--phenomenal. The bad news is that I have to cut down drastically on sugar. And it's not just that, where I've already cut back on fats, sodium, and caffeine, stuff like ice cream is all I enjoy these days. Without those calories and with my metabolism I have no idea how I'll stay over 100 pounds. I used to enjoy food as much as anyone else. Now I wish I could take pills and never have to eat or think about food ever again. 

A great big shout out goes out to my neurologist who actually listens to me and treats me like an intelligent human being. 

Jules Hathaway 

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Say a Little Prayer

     Let me tell you about a woman who I believe you'd be happy to have as a neighbor--kind, thoughtful, hardworking, always willing to lend a hand. She and her husband were eagerly awaiting the birth of a much wanted baby...

     ...until they received tragic news. Due to a genetic defect the fetus would never experience consciousness and would die by eighteen months. 

     Now this woman's fundamentalist church was the center of her life. She always was glad to do whatever she could to help other members and contribute to the church's practice and mission. When the minister learned of her plight he told her that the pregnancy was God's will. Abortion would, therefore, be a sin and result in her being kicked out of the church and shunned by the entire congregation. Not to mention burning in Hell for all eternity.  

     I hadn't thought about this woman and her plight for years...until I read Jenna Voris's Say a Little Prayer. 

     "I've been sent to Principal Rider's office exactly twice in my life--once last year, when he'd personally handed me a trophy for winning the state geography bowl, and again today, for slapping Amanda Clarke across the face. 

     I don't think there's a prize for this one, unfortunately."

     Riley, Voris's protagonist, Amanda, and their respective parents have been summoned to the principal's office to discuss the incident. In order to avoid a suspension she agrees to attend the Pleasant Hills Baptist Church youth camp during the upcoming spring break and write an essay about what she learns. 

     This seemingly benign placement is highly problematic. Until really recently Riley was a member of Pleasant Hills. A year earlier when she'd discovered that she was bisexual the church's insistence that all gays end up in Hell made her begin to feel unwelcome. However she didn't drop out until her older sister was publicly shamed and officially kicked out.

     Riley has seen the absolute power Pastor Young has over his congregation. She suspects that his strict enforcement of an elaborate set of rules has more to do with maintaining his absolute power than with ensuring their salvation. She's going into the camp motivated not to learn a lesson, but to take him down. 

     "If I could find a way to commit each of these supposedly 'deadly' sins, spin them into something positive and useful, it would completely negate his entire sermon. This week's theme would cease to exist, and everyone sitting in this chapel would realize what I've known for a year now--nothing Pastor Young says is true. He's not our salvation, he's not the light holding the darkness at bay, and he's definitely not the definitive voice of moral purity." 

     Voris drew on intimate personal experience in writing Say a Little Prayer. 

     "It took me a long time to unlearn the hateful things I was taught growing up. Now I know that saying the Lord's Prayer won't 'cure' anyone's gay thoughts. I know that some churches are safe and welcoming and kind, but that wasn't my experience, and it's not Riley's either. Because of that, Say a Little Prayer includes elements of religious trauma and homophobia, but it also includes hope. My wish is for everyone who picks up the book to carry a little of that hope back into the world with them."

On a purrrsonal note, while Riley grew up in a fundamentalist church, I was raised in a church at the opposite end of the Protestant spectrum. St. Peter's was country club Episcopal. I remember realizing that, although the mission society was always raising money to help the "unfortunate" people they had so much Christian love for, if any of the targets of their benevolence ever showed up in person they'd run home screaming and scrub themselves with lye soap. At 11 I refused to be confirmed which was a big deal because my mother was director of religious education and my father was church organist. And the mission society was just the tip of the iceberg. Although the Sunday school teachers paid lip service to Jesus loving all the children--red and yellow, black and white; all are precious in his sight--they expressed very prejudiced (and sometimes quite crude) opinions about people of color upstairs in coffee ☕️ hour. But the biggest sticking point for preteen me was the insistence that the only path to salvation was through Jesus. I knew some really wonderful Jews and Muslims. And I couldn't believe that an all knowing all loving God would designate so many people for eternal damnation. 

For much of my life I've alternated between searching for a church where I could be me and feeling that that was mission impossible. In fact my most recent attempt was to avoid having a fundamentalist minister turn my funeral into an infomercial for salvation. But I lucked out. Church of Universal Fellowship not only accepts, but embraces my nonbinary, questioning, social activist self. 

During the pandemic I really was bothered by how a lot of churches framed it as divine retribution. As in if you died you deserved to. I wonder how many people died because of the ministers who said that masking and getting vaccinated was defying God's will and threatened to kick out anyone who did so.

A great big shout out goes out to Pastors Malcolm and Mariah, Steffi who runs the office, and the whole glorious congregation. 

Jules Hathaway 

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I promise this is the last graduation picture.  I just wanted you to see how good 👍 I look in regalia. 

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You Belong To Me

     We tend to associate cults with religion gone extremely wrong. A number of YA novels have featured protagonists trying to escape from isolated extremist religious communities, usually under the dictatorship of a charismatic minister, featuring harsh discipline, deprivation, and cruelty. But in You Belong To Me Hayley Krischer shows that they can exist in more secular organizations. 

     "Girls like me don't get invitations to Deep events. Girls like me aren't supposed to be interested in beauty serums, namaste hands, mindfulness apps, crystal water bottles, and the expensive white lace dresses that everyone wears who is adjacent to wellness guru Deena Patterson. Especially not me, Frances Bean Ellis, the teacher's daughter."

     Bean (as her friends call her) is quite unlikely to be recruited by the multimillion-dollar beauty and wellness company run by Deena and daughter Julia. She's way less wealthy than her elite private school peers--a teacher's daughter on scholarship. She's a member of a Victorian goth group. She describes the Femme (Deep branch for teenager girls) bunch as "Girls with huge smiles on their faces, looking like someone vacuumed the brains out of their skulls."

     But Bean has a crush on Julia. So when she gets a fancy invitation to a Femme event she accepts despite her friends' and mom's misgivings. And she's quickly enchanted by the luxurious ambiance and the sense of community. Not to mention the message. 

     "I've never heard someone speak like this before. There've been motivational speakers at school, and sure, I've seen people online preaching on how to live a clean life. But Deena's so passionate, so understanding...And of course, she's right. I'm in charge of myself. Thats what I want. To be in charge of myself."

      Bean becomes more and more involved with Femme, the Deep organization, and Julia and more alienated from her former besties, especially when they start writing an expose on Deep and Femme for their school paper. She resents her mother's questions. 

     But even she is deeply troubled and not sure what to do when she sees one of the Femme girls dead in the hot tub of the Deep spa.

     What evil lurks in the hearts of Deena and her minions? Betcha you want to find out. 

On a purrrsonal note, I'm back from a romantic weekend getaway with Eugene at camp. The weather again was a tease. It 🌧 Ed Saturday and then cleared up 🌞 Sunday when we left for home. I got in some good reading. And we watched a really funny movie before bed. 

A great big shout out goes out to the love ❤️ 😍 💖 ❣️ 💕 💘 of my life, Eugene of course. 

Jules Hathaway 

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The Champions (YA fiction)

     Years ago Kara Thomas wrote a book about a nice little town where people were becoming scared because someone was killing the cheerleaders. Readers wrote to her asking if there was more to the story. Her answer was the very worthy sequel to The Cheerleaders: The Champions in which she not only presents readers with a superbly crafted chiller, but also shines the light on an issue people tend to sweep under the rug.

     Eleven years earlier media coverage of the cheerleaders' deaths had made Sunnybrook infamous and left the residents yearning for a more positive defining narrative. Salvation has arrived through the high school football team, the Sunnybrook Tigers. They've captured the state championship two years in a row and seem on track to bring home a third victory. Needless to say, in the high school and the town they're big time heroes. 

     "It's near impossible to get tickets to games, and every business on Main Street has a PROUD SUPPORTER OF SUNNYBROOK FOOTBALL poster in their front window. Last year, a record number of football players signed with D1 colleges, and all anyone can talk about is where this year's seniors will end up."

     Hadley, Thomas's narrator, is not a fan. For years she's had her heart set on attending Columbia and becoming a New York Times staff journalist. Starting her senior year she's determined to become editor of the school paper and up against tough competition. She wants to get a hard hitting piece on a controversial topic into the first issue...

     ...needless to say, a piece on the Tigers is not what she has in mind. But when no one else volunteers she takes the assignment. With the editorship in mind she's going to slay the piece even that it's about the last thing she wants to write.

     Staring at her empty document, she's distracted by an email by SportsFan@gmail.com: Tell Kirk you can't do the article. Make her give it to someone else." It's only the first ominous message she receives from this anonymous source implying that the guys on the team may be up to something more sinister than trophy pursuit...

     ...maybe aided and abeted by adults at the school and in the town who have vested interests in seeing that nothing jeopardize the miracle comeback narrative...

     ...and maybe somehow linked to the tragedy people are so eager to leave in the past.

     Needless to say a lot of people don't want Hadley uncovering secrets even with one player dead, another in a coma, and the team starting to fall apart.

     In our society too often "promising" male athletes are able to get away with just about everything. It's especially egregious in cases of sexual assault when their misdeeds are covered up by not only their teammates, but the adults in charge. Including this reality in a highly engaging YA novel could raise awareness of this issue. 

On a purrrsonal note, it looks like Eugene and I are going to camp tomorrow. It's a good thing I got more library books! Hopefully it won't 🌧 too much. Hopefully we'll find yard sales with awesome merch. Tomorrow I'll be offline and I'll post Sunday.

A great big shout out goes out to Eugene. 

Jules Hathaway 

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Mariam Sharma Hits The Road (YA fiction)

     When Mariam, narrator of Sheba Karim's Mariam Sharma Hits The Road, gets a phone call from her best friend, Ghaz, a New York University student, she gets some shocking news. Ghaz hadn't read a modeling contract carefully enough. A picture of her in basically underwear in a very sexualized pose is larger than life on a billboard in Times Square. 

     Now this would come as a shock to just about any mom. If this was one of my kids at that age I'd have had serious concerns about how this would impact their future. But Ghaz is in a more difficult parental situation. Her desi Muslim parents shut her in her room without access to her laptop or phone. They are shamed by how she has disgraced their family in their conservative religious community. They want her to finish college in Pakistan and not come back to America until she's properly married. 

     Umar, the third member of the besties trio, comes up with a rescue plan: a kidnapping and a cross country road trip to New Orleans. 

     Ghaz is not the only member of the trio who has family issues. Mariam's father totally abandoned her family when she was a toddler, never to be heard from again. She wonders if this is why she ghosted a really decent boyfriend when they got serious. Is she too much like her missing parent? Umar is gay. His father is virulently homophobic. 

     "It was weird, to think in the far reaches of the universe, two suns drew closer and closer in a cosmic dance of love, while down here some people tried to get as far away from one another as possible. My father from us, me from Doug, Ghaz from her parents. Then there was Umar, sometimes running away from his sexuality, sometimes running to it. And now me, chasing after my father. All three of us in flux, our friendship serving as an emotional anchor."

     Despite spats the three draw even closer as the miles go by. Their colorful ventures into novel situations such as drag shows and honky tonks and hard won insights into their family situations make Mariam Sharma Hits The Road a highly engaging read.

On a purrrsonal note, the library children's garden and the community garden are coming along super. A lot of good veggies are being b

planted. Even my little garden is looking pretty. 

A great big shout out goes out to all our gardeners. 

Jules Hathaway 

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A picture from the sendoff

This is one of my favorite higher education send off pictures. I'm wearing the totally gorgeous graduation outfit Elizabeth Allan got me. Our shopping day was so much fun. It was incredible that during one of the busiest parts of the academic season she found time to take me to Target. In the picture I'm with Elizabeth and my advisor, Leah.

Today my fun will be taking pictures at the Orono Public Library's children's garden and volunteering at the Orono Community Garden. Getting lots of fresh air and sunshine. Doing my best to be repulsive to ticks, black flies, and mosquitos.

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Two YA Novels in Verse

     My very favorite novels are written in free verse. I like how the required economy of words leaves no room for the verbose, the superfluous. Takes you to the gist. And the books that manage to vividly convey a distinct sense of time and place, of personalities and relationships within that format are pure magic. So the day I discovered two of these gems in the YA section of the Orono Public Library I felt truly blessed.

 

    Rex Ogle's When We Ride takes readers to a neighborhood long past it's years of niceness and prosperity. 

"Cars on bricks in front yards. 

Angry pit bulls barking mad.

Paint flaking off houses like dry skin.

Bars on windows, like detention centers.

Junkies walking up the asphalt, day and night"

It's a place where people struggle to keep a roof over their heads, food on the table, and the lights on. Ogle's narrator, Diego, works after school bussing tables at a diner. His mother works six days a week at two jobs.

     Diego's mother is determined that he achieve the kind of success and life she couldn't have. She's going to do whatever she can to help make this happen. 

"She's always saying, 

'Education is everything.

And you're going to college 

if it's the last thing I do.'"

And Diego is fulfilling her expectations. He's achieving academically despite the time he has to spend working. He's filling out college applications. 

     Diego and Lawson are long term best friends, more like brothers, even though their lives are going in drastically different directions. Lawson is an indifferent student. 

"'Why you bother with that shit?

Grades don't mean nothin' in the real world. 

They're just letters and numbers."

Worse yet he's doing and selling drugs. He's gone from just selling grass to pushing harder drugs, getting involved with seriously dangerous people in the process...

     Leaving Diego caught between loyalties--to his mother and her dream or to his bestie and his survival. 

     What we're taught about the fight for women's suffrage in America tends to be pretty sanitized. We learn about about the movement leaders, the big conferences, and the marches. We're told that one of the most fundamental rights of those of us who aren't he/hims was gained by hard work and sacrifice and should never be taken for granted. We're not usually filled in on the premeditated cruelty and outright brutality some of our foremothers had to endure. Marcie Flinchum Atkins' One Step Forward reveals some very inconvenient truths. 

     The narrative arc of the story goes from 1913 to 1920. The setting is Washington DC where Woodrow Wilson is doing his presidential best to ignore the suffragists. Even some of their supporters are urging them not to distract the head honcho when there's this world war going on. Only they don't see their cause as a distraction. How can America claim to be fighting for democracy while denying so many of its citizens the right to vote?

     The narrative is a blend of fiction and nonfiction. The narrator, Matilda Young, was a very real person, as were most of the characters of the book. However, the historical record only goes so far. Atkins had to extrapolate from the very little known about Matilda and the literature about the time in which she lived to create her daily actions and thoughts. 

     Matilda was the youngest in a lively family of seven: two parents, four daughters, one son. She was only fourteen when she cut school to secretly to attend the Woman Suffrage Procession. She wanted to see thousand of women marching. 

"No, Matilda, 

you cannot go.

You're too young. 

It's too dangerous."

She was angered when she saw men including her father physically and verbally abusing the marchers and the police doing absolutely, nothing. Unsure of what kind of suffragist she wanted to be and apprehensive about being jailed she began the began sorting mail behind the scenes at headquarters. 

   As the years went by, Wilson went out of his way to ignore the suffragists and their demand, and nothing changed, they devised a new tactic, a silent protest. Women would take turns picketing the White House. At first Matilda stuck to behind the scenes work...

    ...But as Wilson entered his second term she joined the picket line. People began to assault the women. But when the arrests began it was the women who were arrested, jailed, and tortured brutally behind bars.

"Throughout the entire research, writing, and revising process for this book, I never ceased to be amazed at the great sacrifice that suffragists made for our right to vote. Some of them gave up considerable time, money, and comfort. Inez Mulholland died pursuing suffrage for women. Others nearly died from the abuse and hunger strikes in prison."

     Atkins wants YA readers to know that even if they're, like Matilda when she became involved in the fight for suffrage, too young to vote, they can make a real difference by staying up on current events and policies, getting involved with the issues that matter most to them, and communicating with elected officials. 

On a purrrsonal note, OMG, do I have news!!! A people magazine editor has been interviewing me and Amber to do a story on my getting my masters degree after a stroke. Today it came out on the internet. It is so well written. Check it out and feel free to share with your friends and acquaintances. I am certainly going to celebrate with my girls.

A great big shout out goes out to Brian Brant for doing such an excellent story.

Jules Hathaway 

     

     

     

     

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A Catalog of Burnt Objects (YA fiction)

"On November 8, 2018, my hometown of Paradise, California, was obliterated in a  manner of hours by the Camp Fire, the most destructive and deadly wildlife in the history of the state. Eighty-five people died. Ninety percent of the structures were destroyed. And 50,000 people were displaced."

     At that point in time Shana Youngdahl was living on the other side of America in Maine. Although she did her best to support her hometown and help the people whose lives were impacted it never felt like enough until she came to believe that she use her formidable writing talents to do so. The result was A Catalog of  Burnt Objects. 

     "But this book is not just a story of fire. It's a story of family, community, and first love. Because one thing I have learned is that disaster isn't the whole story. It's an important part of it. But the people, their lives, their loves and struggles, and how they get through them--that's the story."

     Caprice, Youngdahl's narrator, is in a complicated and bittersweet family situation. Her older brother, Beckett, has been the drug using black sheep and the cause of much parental strife. After he got out of high school his folks saw him only sporadically until he hit rock bottom, causing a truck crash that left his best friend, Mason, unable to talk or breathe on his own. Now he's come back from four months in rehab. Caprice has no idea what he or family life will be like. 

     "All I really wanted was to get through the coming year without any big surprises, finish the app I was developing, and get into college. That was my program, my plan."

     And then there's Caprice's beloved grandmother who played a major role in her upbringing. She's in a small, drab room in an assisted living place, handicapped by dementia. Sometimes she can't remember who Caprice is or even remember that she is a grandmother. 

     There are some ominous signs like a strangely colored evening sky and the smell of smoke. But most of the residents don't suspect the imminent tragedy until it's upon them with the frantic need to escape through dangerously clogged roads.

     Caprice and her family end up sleeping on cots in a store, trying to cope with a very uncertain future. Their beloved cat and grandfather are missing. Caprice believes that her grandfather is dead and it's her fault.

     Youngdahl reminds readers that fire seasons are growing longer and more wide spread due to climate change and that wildfire smoke contributes to between 16,000 and 30,000 needless deaths a year.

     "I don't tell you this because I don't have hope. I do. I wrote this novel because I do have hope. People can come together and make change. They can support one another and build a better world."

On a purrrsonal note, we're having another 🌧 weekend in central Maine. Except for going to Governors with Eugene Saturday, I've been inside making good progress on spring cleaning and chilling with my good wing cat, Tobago. Can you believe I've run out of library books? Not to worry. I've got 4 inter library loan books waiting for me at Orono Public Library. If the weather isn't too crappy I can pick them up tomorrow. 

A great big shout out goes out to precious Tobago, my best little cat in the world. 

Jules Hathaway 

     

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