It Ain't So Awful, Falafel

It Ain't So Awful, Falafel

Juvenile fiction
"After 'dinner,' I go in the living room, where my parents are
listening to the radio in silence. The reporter is interviewing some
of the families of the hostages. We'd been hoping they would all be
released before Thanksgiving. My mom keeps saying that she feels
especially sorry for the two women. My dad keeps saying he never
imagined that Iran would be the enemy of the world.
I wish we could just be like everyone else in Newport Beach,
worrying whether or not we're going to have time to buy all the gifts
on our Christmas list, wrap them, and bake cookies shaped like candy
canes. I'd gladly trade unemployment and dead hamsters for those
worries any day."
Zomorod Yousefzadeh, the protagonist of Firoozah Dumas' It Ain't
So Awful, Falafel, originally from Iran, moves with her parents to
Newport Beach, California just in time to start sixth grade. This
time she is going to fit in and not be the strange foreign kid. She's
even picked out an American name--Cindy--gleaned from the Brady Bunch,
a period tv show. (If you haven't seen it, don't bother).
Things seem to start out well. Cindy finds her classes easy.
She makes really good friends. She enjoys Girl Scouts and adores
sleep away camp.
But clouds are looming on the horizon. In Iran Ayatollah
Khomeini has ascended to power, taking revenge on anyone who could
possibly have been an ally to the Shah. Friends and even family
members could be in dire peril.
"It is the first time in my entire life that the shah is no
longer the ruler. I have a huge science test today, but I feel like
my brain has just frozen. I wish my dad could write a note: Please
excuse Cindy from the test today. Our country just had a revolution."
Then there's the hostage crisis. As the number of days the
Americans are held captive in Iran lengthens thngs start getting ugly
in the United States. There are hateful bumper stickers and an act so
vicious Cindy hides it from her disheartened parents.
Speaking of this semi autobiographical novel, Dumas says:
"I hope that reading this book will increase your interest in
history. I used to think that history was just about memorizing dates
of battles, but history is really stories about people and the battles
we fight within. It's about all the stuff you don't see on the
evening news. It's about hopes, dreams, and popular music. The life
you are living right now will someday be history.
How will you tell it?"
If that isn't a challenge, I don't know what is.
On a personal note, yesterday I tabled at the UMaine Student
Organization Fair all four hours for Wilson Center. We got lots of
interest. In the evening we had the first Wilson Center Wednesday
supper of the semester. We got a bunch of freshpeople who I hope will
become regulars.
A great big shout out goes out to my Wilson Center family.
jules hathaway



Sent from my iPod

My Sister Rosa

My Sister Rosa

YA fiction
"Rosa is a ticking bomb.
I don't think it matters what you call it: psychopathy,
sociopathy, antisocial personality disorder, evil, or the devil
within. What matters is how to prevent the bomb from exploding.
It would be a lot easier if the parentals believed Rosa is a
bomb. It would be even easier if she wasn't a bomb. I would give
anything for her not to be the way she is. Rosa ticks off everything
on the Hare Psychopathy Checklist except for promiscuity, driving too
fast, and other adult sins. Give her time."
For some reason I didn't read William March's The Bad Seed when
it came out...maybe because I turned three that year. I mastered
functional literacy but was still in the children's wing as far as
literary choices were concerned. I did see the movie, being something
like five when it came out. It and Hitchcock's The Birds were the
movies that terrified me the most from my formative years. Recall
those were the years before movies were age rated.
Lucky for horror story affecianados in the YA/adult adult
range, Justine Larbalestier was inspired to reread the book and
research state of the art intelligence on psychopathology. My Sister
Rosa (source of the above quote) is the impossible to put down result
of her inspiration.
Narrator Che and his family are en route to New York City when
readers first encounter them. His parents are embarking on a business
venture bankrolled by old friends. Che is anything but thrilled. On
the eve of his seventeenth birthday, he'd much rather be headed back
to his native Australia.
The family moves a lot. In each place Che writes a goal list.
The items always start off with keeping Rosa under control. Almost
from the beginning she's been like unlike other kids. Emotions and
responses to other human beings came slow for her. And then there was
her fascination with killing insects.
Che and Rosa's parents will accept that Rosa may be socially
awkward or developmentally delayed. But they won't go anywhere near
to believing they may have brought a full fledged sociopath into the
world. Rosa is smart, manipulative, beautiful, and very charismatic.
So far no being larger than a guinea pig has died. But in New
York Rosa is quick to set goals of her own and identify people who
might stand in the way of her getting what she wants.
For ten years Che has been in charge of protecting Rosa from the
world. Now he has to find a way to protect the world from her.
On a personal note, yesterday I decided I'd get a bunch of signatures
on my YOU ARE WELCOME HERE sign before I turn it into Multicultural
Center. I started with my 2 churches. It's looking good. My sign
and I were cited in a sermon on combatting racism as a good example.
Today is my first college class in 27 years. I am so ready. I am
also bogged down in a massive project of rearranging furniture so I
can move an old recliner and bureau out of the studio. Nothing a sane
person would do on the first day of school. The house has to not look
like a hurricane struck when Eugene comes home. Yikes!
A great big shout goes out to all who are going back to school today.
jules hathaway


Sent from my iPod

Oskar and the Eight Blessings

Oskar and the Eight Blessings

Picture book
At this time in America's history when people seeking refuge
from perilous war torn nations is such a hot button issue, Richard and
Tanya Simon's Oskar and the Eight Blessings could not be more timely.
The year was 1938. In the wake of Kristallnacht (a violent mass
assault on Germany and Austria's Jews and their property) Oscar's
parents have sent him alone to America to join his Aunt Esther whom he
has never met. It's the seventh day of Hanukkah and Christmas Eve.
0skar, hungry and ill clad for the cold, has quite a long trek
in a foreign land to get to an address written on paper. His last
words from his father were that people can be good and he must look
for the blessings. As he walks along the strangers he encounters show
the wisdom in his father's words.
These days a lot of haters and prejudiced people are striving to
keep war emperilled folks out of the United States. Oskar and the
Eight Blessings shows readers and families that we don't need to be
rich or influential to help the strangers in our midst. The smallest
of acts help to show that people can be good...
...even here and now.
On a personal note, I had an amazing Saturday!!! I started out at
community garden. We had a really big group of incoming UMaine
freshpeople to help us with some of our big chores like cover cropping
some beds for winter. I had my group to supervise. Then I did some
sign holding on College Ave. There were six of us and we got good
reactions. Then I went to a family dinner with Eugene, all my kids,
and two significant others. That was truly precious!!! Family
dinners are a wonderful tradition.
A great shout out goes out to our amazing student helpers (with best
wishes for wonderful UMaine stays), my fellow sign holders, and my
precious family.
jules hathaway


Sent from my iPod

Miss Moore Thought Otherwise

Miss Moore Thought Otherwise

Juvenile biography
"Today libraries across America have thousands of books for
children. And thanks to the help of a little girl from Limerick,
Maine, who had ideas of her own, any child can choose a book from a
library shelf, curl up in a comfortable seat to look through it--and
then take it home to read."
The day I discovered Jan Pinborough's Miss Moore Thought
Otherwise: How Anne Carroll Moore created Libraries for Children at
the Orono Public Library story time was in full swing. Kids and
parents were singing enthusiastically about the itsy bitsy spider and
its water spout adventures. I was shelving in the spacious children's
wing, being careful not to bump into little people. Later the corner
puppet theater would become quite popular. I closed my eyes and found
it hard to imagine the library without our younger patrons.
Not that long ago, however, public libraries were adults only
affairs. Children weren't even allowed to enter them, never mind take
books out. Kids would forget to return the books. They'd get sticky
fingerprints all over them. Libraries remained hushed, age segregated
institutions...
...until Moore and a few visionary peers started changing
things. She wasn't just settling for child inclusion. She wanted no
less than whole sections of interesting juvenile literature with kid
sized furniture, live entertainment, and beautiful, fascinating
objects that could be touched.
In addition to running her own children's wing in New York,
Moore wrote book reviews to help peers discover good children's lit.
And her retirement was anything but.
Some of the most memorable hours of my childhood were spent in
the children's wing of the Beverly (Massachusetts) Public library
browsing and skimming. It was the reward for being good during
grocery shopping. When I had children of my own we took full
advantage of the children's programming of the Bangor and Orono Public
Libraries.
If you have similar memories you owe Miss Moore big time. Maybe
it's about time to learn a bit about the lady?
On a personal note, I've had an exciting couple of days. Thursday I
got to attend the Hasbrouk summer cookout. The Orono police and
firefighters grilled burgers and hot dogs and residents made sides and
dessert. That was some good eating!
That night I was at a sign making party. We were making signs for the
weekend which was students returning to or beginning at UMaine. They
were showing international students, LGBTQ students, and others who
experience prejudice and hate that UMaine wants them. We made some
good signs. I held mine on the bridge leading to UMaine for 5 hours
today. Traffic was crazy--literally thousands of vehicles. I got no
bad reactions--just good ones like waves, thumbs ups, peeps taking
pictures with smart phones...
A great big shout out goes out to the Orono fire and police
departments and my fellow sign makers and displayers.
jules hathaway


Sent from my iPod

The Hidden Life of a Toad

The Hidden Life of a Toad

Juvenile nonfiction
"April sunshine warms a shallow pool. In the water, strings of
jelly twist over, under, around. What is this tangle of stuff? It
looks like a pile of spaghetti."
A number of years ago when my girls were young (Adam hadn't
arrived) and we were exploring the shallowest edges of a lake I caught
a very strange looking creature with a tadpole tail and strong looking
hind legs. Of course after I showed Amber and Katie I gently released
it.
Well in the Orono Public Library's children's wing I discovered
Doug Wechsler's The Hidden Life of a Toad. It's an album of the toad
growth cycle from the spaghetti like stage to propogating the
species. The pictures are amazingly up close and detailed. Some are
quIte lovely. And, yes, there was a legged tadpole just like the one
I saw all those years ago.
Did you know that in Philadelphia a road is closed for several
nights to allow toads to reach their breeding place without getting
squished? People are finally realizing what an important part of the
web of nature toads are. (My mom used to relocate them to her garden
where they served as very vigilant insect devourers). Readers can
learn ways they and their families can help make the world safer for
amphibians.
If The Hidden Life of a Toad isn't in your library I suggest
that you hop to suggest they acquire it. You'll be glad you did.
On a personal note, I got to spend yesterday with Joey writing and
cleaning. But my life is starting to speed up even before fall
semester starts. Tonight I have community garden. I'm hoping my new
promising recruits show up. (I promised to bring in white chocolate
craisin cookies so I'd better channel my inner Betty Crocker.) Then I
have the international student social. What does one wear to
gardening and a social? Hopefully I can get away with my favorite tie
dye capris and coral tee shirt.
A great big shout out goes out to my community garden crew and the
UMaine international students family.
jules hathaway


Sent from my iPod

Are You An Echo?

Are You An Echo?

Juvenile bilingual biography/poetry

"If I say, 'Let's play?'
you say, 'Let's play!'

If I say, 'Stupid!'
you say, 'Stupid!'

If I say, 'I don't want to play anymore,'
you say, 'I don't want to play anymore'.

And then, after awhile,
Becoming lonely

I say, 'Sorry."
You say, 'Sorry.'

Are you just an echo?
No, you are everyone."

The simple seeming poem above spurred over a million volunteers
to muster to help following a 2011 Japanese disaster: the one two
punch of an earthquake and tsunami that left over 200,000 people
homeless. It was a poem that had been saved from obscurity by a
writer's extreme tenacity. Are You An Echo?: The Lost Poetry Of
Misuzo Kaneko by David Jacobson et al tells the fascinating story of
the poem and its creator.
Misuzu was born in 1903 and grew up in a Japanese fishing
village. She was so imaginative she sometimes had difficulty telling
the difference between events she had experienced and ones she'd read
about. She was very fortunate early in life. Her mother managed a
book store. Unlike most Japanese girls of that time, she was able to
stay in school until the age of seventeen. As an adult she became a
popular children's poet.
She died tragically young.
Setsuo Yazaki grew up with a great fondness for a poem, Big
Catch. As an adult poet he embarked on a quest to find more about its
author. Fortunately he was tenacious. In 1982, after sixteen years
of searching, he tracked down her brother who had her diaries which
contained all her poems.
Decades later David Jacobson encountered some of Misuzu's
published work and was astounded that her poetry had not been
translated into English. Are You An Echo? is his beautiful
remediation of the situation. It combines her poems, beautifully
illustrated by Toshikado Hajiri, with the story of their creation and
rediscovery. It's a beautiful addition to multicultural literature.
It just goes to show, as I always say, if you have a library
card and make good use of it, you're never far from discovering
treasures.
Oh, yeah, you probably want to know how the poem inspired over a
million volunteers...
...read the book and see.
On a personal note, I am having a blissful weekend. Yesterday I
stayed to home to write and clean. I made incredible progress in my
studio. It's more beautiful and inspiring together. Today after
church Eugene and I went for a drive. We stopped at Mardens and
Brewer Goodwill. Eugene got clothes. I found the most incedible
Things Remembered musical snow globe in perfect shape!!! Eugene got
it for me. Joey cat is now the happy owner of nine new jingle balls
and a bigger new light up ball. In a few minutes I'm going to heat up
a frozen pizza which is a treat.
A great big shout out goes out to Eugene and our good Joey cat.
jules hathaway


Sent from my iPod

It

It

"The terror which would not end for another twenty-eight years--
if it ever did end--began, so far as I can know or tell, with a boat
made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with
rain."
Stephen King's It begins with one of the all time best opening
lines in the history of novel writing. The use of the everyday and
banal as a conduit to unspeakable evil is the spine chilling premise
around which the story is built. It is amazing that King can carry it
flawlessly for 1093 pages. Kudos to the master of horror! I take off
my backwards UMaine baseball cap to him.
It's the fall of 1957. A big time storm has just passed through
the town of Derry, Maine. The electricity is still out. Little
George Denbrough has a paper boat crafted by his big brother William
(Stuttering Bill) who is in bed getting over the flu. He's having a
great time chasing the boat through the swollen street streams. The
fun abruptly ends when the boat is sucked into a storm drain...from
which two yellow eyes peer out.
Of course that isn't going to end well. (The author's name
should be a big time clue). Little George's bloody body is found with
an arm missing. He's only the first. When kids start turning up
murdered and mutilated...well think how that would play out in your
neighborhood.
Only it isn't a one time gruesome chapter in the history of
Derry. Every twenty-seven years or so the town becomes a little
chamber of horrors. In addition to individual gruesome homicides
there are events like the explosion of an ironworks in which an Easter
egg hunt is being held.
Stuttering Bill and his group of bully beleaguered preteens must
somehow do battle with a supreme evil. Then as adults they are called
to a grizzly reunion. It is back...
This is a very powerful book that should probably not be read
home alone on a dark night unless being startled by every noise is
your cup of tea. Actually it might be best holding off on reading
until the next presidency. During a Trump reign it can be very easy
to imagine Pennywise the clown has left Derry for bigger digs. This
can lead to colorful nightmares. Trust me on this.
On a personal note, planning for the Ending Violence Together event in
September is going really well. There will be tabling and speeches
followed by a march around downtown Bangor. I think, given current
political conditions, we so need this chance to come together over
this topic.
I had an amazing dumpster find: a sturdy, soft book bag (you know who
can always use a book bag) covered with sparkly sequins. Everyone
notices it and is surprised to learn where it came from.
A great big shout out goes out to my fellow committee members. It's a
privilege to work with you. :-)
jules hathaway





Sent from my iPod