Book Review: What I Carry by Jennifer Longo

What an amazingly beautiful cover and a great story. 

Muiriel was born into the foster system when she was abandoned at birth. The nurses in the John Muir named her after the John Muir Medical Center where she was taken as a foundling. And this was the beginning of her strength.

The story opens as she leaves another foster placement. Her social worker, Joellen, is taking her to an island outside of Seattle where she will live with a foster mom who decided to take one last foster placement - a teen (though prior to this she has only fostered little ones). Muir takes pride in "packing lightly" and depending on no one but herself. But this island and the community there challenges her beliefs about herself and about her world. 

Jennifer Longo wrote this book (as stated in the Author's Note at the end of the story) because her daughter, who was born into the foster system, noted that she often doesn't find herself represented in books. Longo listened to a number of kids who live or lived in the foster system and this story came out of those voices. 

Longo states: "Voices of adults, well intended or not, overwhelmingly drive the myopic, adult-centric false narrative of foster care and adoption in America, talking over those of the kids in foster care who are screaming and no one is listening."

At the end of this story there are several resources listed for more information. One of these resources is Aging Out Institute. There are others listed in the book.

You can find a copy of this book on the Nashua South shelves (as soon as I donate this copy!) 

Thanks for the recommendation from Valerie a guidance counselor from Londonderry.

 

Book Review: Jackpot by Nic Stone

My mother always told me to not judge someone, that we must walk a mile in their shoes to understand what they are going through. And this is a story about that and about how hard that can be.

Rico works in a convenience store - making money to help pay the bills at home - to put food on the table and a roof over her family's heads.

Zan is the school rich boy - the guy with the "perfect life" with a silver spoon in his mouth - nice clothes, huge house, great car. 

(Here you need to imagine the sound car tires make when you hit the brakes suddenly)

But the truth here is that we need to understand each others' stories before we can understand each other. 

Circumstances throw Zan and Rico together after Rico determines that she sold a winning lottery ticket to an old woman who visited the store. The ticket hasn't been cashed in and Rico thinks that the woman's dementia is standing in the way of riches. Rico offers to help trace the old woman. 

As they work to find the woman, Zan and Rico learn more about each other -- slowly. And their preconceived notions begin to fall away. 

Assumptions are a perilous trap and one that we all occasionally fall into. You are young, I am old. What assumptions do you have about me? What assumptions do I have about you? How can we take off those blinders, learn each others' stories, and make our world feel like a safer place to be?

 

Book Review: Brown Girl Dreaming / Jacqueline Woodson

This is a memoir -- in verse -- of the evolution of an author -- who happens to live in brown skin. How can a book get any better than that?

This book is so gently written. It will take you back to the 1960s and early 1970s when Woodson was just beginning her life. She was born in Columbus, Ohio - but spent most of her early life between places, the north and the south: Brooklyn, NY and South Carolina. And while the stark different between her grandparents red stone house with a porch for sitting and a yard big enough for gardening and playing AND living in Brooklyn where there is only one tree, people are crowded together and the air smells of city - the biggest difference was how a brown person had to walk so differently through each of these places. There was a freedom in NYC to walk through the neighborhood (though not past a certain street) that was different from the back-of-the-bus life in South Carolina. The vestiges of Jim Crow still colored the world in the mid sixties.

But this is more than living and growing as a person of color. Here Woodson shares her evolution as a writer. Her love of words and her different way of learning to read. She shares her love for her family. And finally, she draws a verbal picture of growing up in the Church of the Latter-Day Saints. Here you will find a life filled with double dutch and fireflies, friends and bullies, family joys and sorrows, living between two worlds, Christianity and Islam, words, words, words. 

One of my favorite quotes: 

"If someone had taken
that [picture] book out of my hand 
said, You're too old for this 
maybe
I'd never have believed
that someone who looked like me
could be in the pages of the book
that someone who looked like me
had a story."

You can find a print copy of this book in the South library. Nashua Public Library also has print copies and you can borrow the audiobook from Overdrive.

Nancy Drew: The Palace of Wisdom / Kelly Thompson

Nancy Drew has been around for a LONG time. My mother read both the Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys mysteries as a child. She shares how she couldn't wait to get the next Nancy Drew book. Her brother was gifted the Hardy Boys books. They would each read their book and then they would trade. I can imagine my mom snuggled under her covers reading these books. There was no heat in the upstairs of her home so she would hold the book in one hand and when that hand got too cold, she would switch hands. 

The first Nancy Drew book was published in 1930 which was even before my mom was born. The Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books were all authored by ghost writers. Over time, Nancy Drew has changed to meet the changing culture and tastes of more current readers. There are also The Nancy Drew Files which include a touch of romance (gag). I wish I still had one or two of my mom's Nancy Drew books so that I could compare the old titles to the new editions. I really want to see the differences. 

And all that leads to this book right here. Now we have a Nancy Drew graphic novel. The story was interesting and engaging. There is totally danger, mystery, friends working together (and some kissing). This is the first in the series and I can't wait to see what the next issue offers. 

This book is offered in print in out school library.