Author: Tasha

Hush – Chilling Story of Abuse and Cover Up

| Tasha

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Hush by Eishes Chayil

Gittel lives in the closed Chassidic community of Borough Park in New York City.  The rules of the Chassidic community are strict and clear.  Their lives are separate from modern technologies and a modern lifestyle.  Family is to be honored and respected.  Marriages are arranged by matchmakers and parents.  Children are treasured, but live with strict limitations.  When Gittel witnesses her friend being sexually molested by her older brother, the community shuts down any mention of the situation.  When the situation progresses to a horrible end, Gittel must decide what to do and whether to betray her family and community or her friend.  Painfully, it takes Gittel years to admit what she has seen and bring it to light.  This is a remarkable book that exposes shameful secrets in the Chassidic community while equally showing the positive side of their beliefs and lifestyle. 

This is Chayil’s own story, a Chassidic Jew who also witnessed a friend’s abuse.  Through her writing she has exposed her own pain and truth.  Chayil’s writing allows all readers to respect the beliefs of this community.  Gittel’s family is warm and wonderful, the ideal family to contrast against the strict beliefs and limitations.  They fairly glow with love, the perfect foil for the other family suffering the abuse.  Chayil’s writing is subtle and solid.  Firmly grounded in reality, it depicts the community with honesty, demonstrating how rules that protect can also become rules that restrict and bind.  What is most impressive is Chayil’s ability to show that the responses from various people change when they know the truth, have seen it before, and understand there is an issue.  The establishment is not the enemy here, ignorance is.

Gittel is a character that readers see grow from a young girl to a married teen.  Through it all, she struggles with the truth and her own guilt about the situation.  Her emotions are vivid and blazing, yet they ring with truth.  Other characters in the story are just as well written, such as Gittel’s parents and husband.

A brave and amazing book, this is a glimpse for readers into a closed society written by a woman who understands it well.  It is also a call for all of us to tell the truth to shout it out in order to save those who we love who are enduring the unimaginable.  Appropriate for ages 15-17.

Reviewed from ARC received from Walker Books.

Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters – Beauty and Depth

| Tasha

Confessions of the Sullivan Sisters by Natalie Standiford

This is the second book from Standiford, who debuted with How to Say Goodbye in Robot.  It will be released this month.

When their grandmother, Almighty Lou, tells the family that she has been offended and will cut them out of the will unless a confession and apology is made, everyone knows that it must be one of the girls who offended her.  So the three teen Sullivan sisters write their confessions.  One girl confesses to being in love and not following expectations.  Another sister confesses to revealing family secrets online.  And the youngest sister admits to believing she was immortal with horrifying results.  The only question is whether it is the sisters who offended Almighty Lou and if so, which one was it?

Part of the pleasure of this book is discovering the secrets of the girls for yourself, which is why I made my summary so vague.  Each girl reveals inner thoughts, complicated emotions, and the struggles of not only adolescence but life.  Standiford has a smart, funny tone that imbues all of these girls and their thoughts.  It is a pleasure to read a fairly light novel that has depth and intelligence.  Even better, the girls are all bright and deep too.  Yet they act like teens, think like teens, and are teens completely. 

The characterization in the novel is nicely done for the three sisters in particular.  They speak with different voices, react to things in their own unique ways and are distinct and intriguing voices.  The parents are fascinating characters if a bit one-dimensional.  I kept hoping for a view of them beyond what we were seeing.  But that is a minor quibble.

A pleasure of a read, this book will do well with teens who enjoy general fiction.  The cover will draw in readers of books like the Gossip Girl series, who will discover a book with gorgeous girls AND depth.  Appropriate for ages 15-17.

Reviewed from ARC received from Scholastic.

Also reviewed by:

Booktrust Early Years Winners

| Tasha

The Booktrust Early Years Award winners were announced last night.  The UK awards recognize excellence in books for children under five years old.

Best Book for Up to Five Year Olds

One Smart Fish by Chris Wormell

Best Emerging Illustrator for Children Up to Five

Levi Pinfold for The Django

Best Book for Babies Under One

I Love My Mummy by Giles Andreae

 

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Flora’s Very Windy Day – Brilliant and Breezy

| Tasha

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Flora’s Very Windy Day by Jeanne Birdsall, illustrated by Matt Phelan

Flora has had enough of her little brother Crispin messing up her stuff.  But now her mother has asked her to take Crispin outside even though the wind is very strong.  Flora will be fine because of her “super-special heavy-duty red boots” but Crispin just might blow away.  If he does, it wouldn’t be Flora’s fault.  Outside Flora laughs at the wind and knows it won’t be able to lift her, but she does tell the wind that her brother is wearing regular boots.  Soon the wind blows harder still  and Crispin is lifted into the air.  Now Flora has to decide whether to just let him go, but she kicks off her super boots and flies off with him.  As they fly through the air, Flora is approached by several creatures to take her brother from her.  A sparrow wants him to sit on her nest, the rainbow wants him to guards its pot of gold, the man in the moon wants the company.  But each is turned down as Flora replies that she is taking her brother home.  But that’s if the wind will let her do that.

Birdsall has created a book that sings.  Her prose is filled with bounce and lovely small details.  Each encounter ends with a similar response from Flora and from the creature making the request, creating a book that has just enough repetition to feel complete and whole.  Her words read aloud with grace, the refrains tying a bow on each situation.

Phelan’s art has a wonderful breezy style that matches the subject perfectly.  The children and their mother are real people with frizzy hair, apple-red cheeks, and quirks of their own.  The illustrations nicely capture the motion of the wind and the blowing leaves with a welcome feeling of freedom.

A perfect autumn read, this book is sure to blow fresh air into any story time.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by A Patchwork of Books.

Soup Day

| Tasha

Soup Day by Melissa Iwai

Today is soup day, so a little girl and her mother head to the store through the snowy streets.  There they buy the ingredients for their soup, careful to choose the vegetables with the brightest colors.  They pick out green celery, yellow onions, orange carrots, white mushrooms and more.  Back at home, they wash the vegetables and cut them into little pieces.  The little girl gets to help with a plastic knife and the softer veggies.  After sautéing the vegetables, broth is added and the soup cooks.  The mother and child play together as the smell of soup fills the house.  Finally spices and pasta are added and then they sit down to dinner with Daddy. 

Iwai has captured cooking from a child’s point of view.  The selection of vegetables mentioning their colors is done with a gentle tone, and most children will not notice that colors are being reviewed in that part of the story.  The focus on what the little girl is able to do is charming and affirming for children.  Seeing her pride and involvement is a large part of the story. 

Iwai’s illustrations are done with acrylics and collage and Photoshop.  They mix the textures of textiles with the crispness of photos and the brushstrokes of painting.  The result is a rich blend that makes for engaging illustrations.  The book is printed on nice heavy pages, making it welcoming for toddler hands.

This book is as warm and welcoming as a big bowl of homemade soup.  Add it to your recipe for a great story time or a unit on soup or food.  It would be ideal paired with a version of Stone Soup.  Appropriate for ages 2-4.

Reviewed from copy received from Macmillan.

Off for a Bit

| Tasha

Spending the waning days of summer vacation with my boys.  We will make a trek to Chicago to visit some of our favorite museums and have some lazy days too. 

Posting will be sporadic at best.  See you in September!

Anne Frank’s Chestnut Tree

| Tasha

From Treehugger comes the news that the chestnut tree that was outside Anne Frank’s attic window has fallen. It is the tree that she mentioned often in her diary.  The tree was 152 years old and has been dying for some time.  There was a support structure holding it up.

It says so much about the power of books and the connections they build that I have tears standing in my eyes.  I haven’t read this book for years and years, but I remember it deep inside. 

Others obviously do too, since there are six genetically identical species being nurtured which are already 7 feet tall.  One will be planted to replace the mother tree.  Others are headed to Holocaust museums around the world.

The power and connection of literature continues just as this tree will.

Cupcake

| Tasha

Cupcake by Charise Mericle Harper

Vanilla Cupcake is born after ingredients are mixed together and he is baked in a toasty warm oven.  He is decorated with plain vanilla frosting and then meets all of the other cupcakes that have been decorated in a much more fancy way.  By the end of the day, he is the only cupcake that remains and hasn’t sold.  He bursts into tears and a candle nearby hears him crying.  Cupcake explains what has happened and the plain green candle understands because he has very fancy siblings of his own.  Then Candle has a great idea and hops off to find exactly the right thing to decorate Cupcake.  They try all sorts of things from pickles to pancakes and even a squirrel!  But nothing is quite right.  Just when readers think that Candle and Cupcake will finally figure it all out, there is a delicious twist that will have everyone laughing out loud.

This book is a hoot!  I had worried with its sparkly cover and sweet subject that it might get a bit too syrupy, but just when you think that might happen the humor kicks in and takes the book in a different direction.  Harper’s writing is simple, adding to the humor by its straight-forward tone.  Her art is also simple and graphically strong with its black outlines and pastel colors. 

A book that captures the cupcake craze with a sweet tone and plenty of giggles, share this one at any sweet storytime you may be planning.  Appropriate for ages 3-5.

Reviewed from library copy.

Also reviewed by:

Bones

| Tasha

Bones by Steve Jenkins

Really all any book needs is Steve Jenkins’ name on the front and his great illustrations inside.  Just those two things and you know it’s going to be great.  In this book, Jenkins turns his attention to bones and skeletons.  The size and shape of bones are explored as are skeletons of the human body and of various animals.  Information is given about bones and the illustrations of the bones are laid out on very colorful pages that highlight the bones but offer some vibrancy as well.  This book of bones should be in every school and public library.

Jenkin’s text here offers just enough detail to be informative but also never too much too be weighty.  It offers the same bright, freshness as the illustrations themselves.  His illustrations are studies in restraint as he works his paper magic using a very limited boney palette of colors.  The design of the book makes it rather like an archeological discovery, since you never know what bones you will find when you turn the page.  Several of the pages fold out to offer large scale illustrations, including a full human skeleton.  Along the way, readers are asked questions and get to think about the body, the bones and how they function.

A virtuoso book, pull this one out for Halloween and get some sweet science mixed in with the candy.  It is appropriate for ages 7-10.

Reviewed from library copy.