Burying the Moon

Juvenile fiction in verse 

     What was the first thing you did when you got out of bed this morning?  Chances are you headed for the bathroom.  Chances are also that you never give the incredible privilege of indoor plumbing a thought.  "Privilege?," you may be thinking, "How can something so basic be a privilege?"  Author Andree Poulin and illustrator Sonali Zohra show younger readers in their poignant and powerful Burying The Moon.

     Every night Latika and the other girls and women in her village carry out an errand that shames them in a field where nothing is able to grow.  Her grandmother is bedridden with an illness that she can't shake.  Her aunt is grieving the loss of a very young son.  Her sister has had to drop out of school at the age of twelve...

     ...as Latika herself will soon have to.

     ...it's all because the village has no toilets.  Out of shame the adults don't bring this problem to the attention of anyone who can solve it.  So nothing changes...

     ...until one day an engineer visits the village.  When Latika learns that engineers build useful things she has an idea.

     At the end of the book readers learn that around the world over 600 million people around the world have no option other than relieving themselves outside with disastrous consequences for their health, safety, and ability to get decent educations.

     Don't you think that's about 600 million too many.

On a purrrsonal note, I am a huge fan of Engineers Without Borders, a group that creates ways for communities to have basics like toilets and clean water.  If you share my life that these are basic human rights, learn about them and support them or spread the word about their good work.

A great big shout out goes out to Engineers Without Borders.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

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Family Of Liars

YA mystery 

     When my younger daughter, Katie, gave me a box of amazing looking chocolates I decided to save them for just the right book: one that would totally captivate me.  None of the very good books met that criteria...

     ...until E. Lockhart's Family Of Liars showed up in my Inter Library Loan stack.  It's the prequel to her 2014 critically acclaimed We Were Liars in which readers were introduced to the Sinclairs, a seemingly perfect family, able to spend entire summers on their idyllic looking private island, only to discover the decidedly sinister side of this golden clan.  Candace's quest for the truth about the accident that left her brain damaged is a chilling unravelling of the ugly truths behind carefully guarded secrets.

     In Family Of Liars we go back a generation to discover the longevity of the Sinclair secrecy and deception. 

     Narrator Carrie (Caroline) is the oldest daughter of Harris and Tipper Sinclair who live by the motto:  be a credit to the family.  Translation:  appearances are everything.  It extends beyond academics and athletics.  Harris has had extensive surgery done on Carrie to correct what he considers a weak jaw line, surgery that would become the gateway to an opiate addiction.  Of course emotions were to be carefully vetted.  No Sinclair should ever be caught looking depressed or despondent...

     ...even in the face of tragedy.  The youngest Sinclair child, Rosemary, had drowned the summer before.  To deeply stricken Carrie it seems like the rest of the family has moved on.  Tipper, hostess of the clan, has started in on the round of family festivities as though nothing is amiss.

     She's in for a surprise though.  Carrie's Uncle Dean and his kids, Yardly and Tomkin (Thomas), arrive with three unexpected teenage boys in tow.  George is Yardly's new boyfriend.  Major and Pfeff are his chums.

     Their arrival will portend more than increased cooking for Tipper and a heavier workload for the family's housekeeper.  Pfeff, by his own admission, makes very bad decisions.  This factor in regard to romance will pit two Sinclair sisters against each other.  Before the summer is over the unspeakable will have happened.

     If you're a We Are Liars fan be sure to read Family of Liars.  If you've read neither you're in for a treat.  Just read We Were Liars first.

On a purrrsonal note, the weekend was grey and rainy.  It made me realize how lucky we were to get perfect parade weather on Friday.  I mostly did internship work and blogging and tried to stay off my feet.  For awhile I'd been passing on my exercise bike.  I have some kind of soft tissue injury in my right leg.  It hurts to put weight on it.  I'm limping around like a three hundred year old vampire.  Lucky for me my friend Erin is letting me ride to school and back with her because I can't imagine walking to the bus stop and back.  (Jules)

I am glad she has a ride.  (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to Erin.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

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Black American Refugee

Adult nonfiction

      "But I know I survived because I was never able to make America my home.  I never watched my childhood neighborhood illuminated by helicopter lights in search of criminals or inundated with hipsters in search of apartments.  No state, city, or town has been a mother to me, cradling generations of my family, only to see them destroyed by unemployment or poverty."

     Like so many other kids, Tiffanie Drayton, author of Black American Refugee: The Narcissism of The American Dream, and her siblings had emigrated from Trinidad and Tobago to join their mother who wanted a better life for them than what their native land had to offer.  She'd saved enough for them to join her by working as a nanny.  This was the American dream, right?

     Except that for Drayton it gradually morphed into the American nightmare.  She had arrived excited about the American dream, sure her chosen land would "love her back." Her first clue that that was not the case came on an interstate car trip when she was eight.  Her family had stopped at a hotel with a pool.  When white guests objected to their presence she and her siblings had to leave the pool.  In middle school remedial classes were full of Black kids while she was one of the few non whites in advanced classes.  The family of a boyfriend was aghast at the color of her skin.  Eventually as an adult she saw her relationship with America as toxic and chose to return to the homeland she had left as a child in order to thrive.

     If you really want to understand how racial inequality is still very much alive and well in our supposedly post racial nation you owe it to yourself to read Black American Refugee.

On a purrrsonal note, on Friday I was able to get help submitting my 42 page internship portfolio and my Upward Bound summer job application and resume.  So I went to the Bookstore and bought myself the cat, Muffin, I'd promised myself as an incentive for working my ass off.  We had a purrrfect day for the Maine Day parade.  I marched with International Students Association and carried the Japanese flag.  (Jules)

I knew she could get that work done.  (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to all who participated in the parade.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

     

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You'll Be The Death Of Me

YA mystery 

     Some authors not only earn their audiences and encore publications, but improve with each offering.  In the realm of teen mysteries, Karen McManus is part of this select group.  Her You'll Be The Death Of Me is the cat's pajamas.  To her always perfectly paced suspenseful narrative style she adds more complex and nuanced characters.  It's a total win win.

     Ivy, Mateo, and Cal are seniors at Carlton High.  They had formerly been a close knit trio.  That had ended in eighth grade.  So when they take a cut day together and decide to go into Boston together they're tentative and uncertain around each other.

     Then awkward morphs into deadly.  In Boston Ivy spots Boney (Brian) against whom she has a serious grudge.  He's the guy who, just the day before, running as a joke, beat her out for class president.  It's a role she's held for three years.  Let's say she has a bone to pick.  But when she catches up with him in an apartment in a nearly vacant between owners building...

     ...she finds him dead, a hypodermic needle sticking in his arm.  Cal and Mateo barely get her out of there before the police arrive, carrying her since she fainted.  On their way out they pick up a phone they think is hers...

     ...Only when they get to a safe location and Ivy wakes up she still has her phone.  So they've fled the scene of a crime, lifting potentially important evidence.  While they try to figure out what to do...

     ...rumors fly on and off campus that Ivy is the mysterious blonde woman person of interest sought in connection with the murder...

     ...who may also be a popular art teacher crossing a line faculty members should never cross.  Not to mention that serious drug dealing may be involved.

     Needless to say, Ivy, Mateo, and Cal are having the world's worst cut day.  Not all of them may live to tell about it.

     If you're a Karen McManus fan or an affecianado of well written YA mysteries you owe it to yourself to put You'll Be The Of Me on your summer reading list.  

On a purrrsonal note, I had a really creepy experience in the Commuter Lounge Thursday.  Our GA, Quil, set out stuff for taco Thursday and left me in charge so he could go to class.  Normally the food vanishes quickly.  But where we still had a lot left over nearly two hours later I was getting the heebie jeebies.  In dining I was paying careful attention to the talk about when hot food gets too cold (under 140 degrees) or cold food gets too hot (above 40 degrees) microscopic pathogens can be fruitful and multiply, resulting in personal illness and institutional legal liability.  I had a well earned reputation as a temps bitch.  So with no elements to keep the food warm and no thermometer to test it I was way out of my comfort zone.  I tried to talk people out of taking the food.  They said stuff like, I've had worse.  I email shared my concerns with Ben, ending with the idea that we need to create hard and fast food safety rules for the Commuter Lounge.  He emailed back that I'm right and we will.

     My dining managers would be so proud of me!  (Jules)

Speaking of managers I miss Anna who brought Jules and me together.  I haven't seen her in ages. (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to others who see something, say something.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

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