Literature reviews

Blankets – Craig Thompson

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This graphic novel was beautiful.  The story was touching and very well crafted. It’s a story of growing up, your first love and the challenges that come with being in a very religious family. We follow the author Craig as he’s growing up, this is semi-autobiographical, realistic-fiction, some parts actually happened and some are made up as they make for a better story. The art work is great, a little rough, which makes it compelling.  The book is thick, but the story was so good I couldn’t put it down and read the entire thing in an evening.  Craig’s feelings for Raina come through amazingly, you can practically feel what he feels.  This story is heart breaking, painful, beautiful and definitely worth the read. You’ll finish it in no time, it’s that good, I promise.

Into the river – Ted Dawe

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For those who don’t know, this book was up for consideration to be banned in New Zealand.  I can see why some would have thought this, but glad New Zealand was mature enough to decide not to ban it.  In fact I recently read that it’s getting a movie deal. If you read the abstract for this book it actually tells you nothing about the story. In fact I think the abstract for this book is pretty awful and useless. This story is about Te Arepa, who is called Devon for most of the book, Te Arepa is an identity he sheds pretty quickly into the book. He is incredibly smart and gets into a private boarding school where he finds a new identity amongst the city and white European New Zealand culture, where he names himself Devon, and sheds his Maori identity. That in itself speaks volumes as he now doesn’t fit in with his own people anymore and doesn’t really fit in with the rich white crowd at his school either. I’m not really sure how reflective this actually is as to what is happening with New Zealand’s Maori youth, but it doesn’t seem too far-fetched. Most of the book happens during Devon’s high school years, the friends he makes, the girls he hooks up with and the shameful and naughty things he gets up to at his boarding school in Auckland so far away from his family in the rural North.  I read this book to completion, but found it a little challenging as I can’t really identify with Devon and his completely male boarding school, I have no actual real life experience with the things he was meant to handle and that made it difficult to keep my attention.  I can see why it was considered for ban though, it alludes to paedophilia (Student-teacher relationships), sex scenes and a rape scene, so if you’re looking at reading this or suggesting someone read it I would rate this as senior read with an age restriction of 16+.

Mortal Fire – Elizabeth Knox

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If you like magic and mysterious circumstances you’ll like Mortal Fire. This is the story of Canny Mochrie and how she finds her magic.  Set in Southland (a fictional New Zealand) in 1959, Canny is a Pasifika girl and a mathematical genius who can see something Extra.  That’s how she describes the magic she can see in and on things, they are runes she can’t understand, and no one else can see them.

Canny ends up being shipped off on a trip with her step-brother Sholto over the summer, forcing her to leave the bedside of her best friend Marli who is struck in an iron lung due to Polio. She is anxious and a bit surly until she stumbles upon the magical Zarene Valley and manipulates the situation so she and Sholto must stay at the Zarene family guesthouse.  She then uses her time there to figure out the magic runes that the Zarene’s teach their children.

The plot thickens when she stumbles upon a be-spelled house which imprisons an attractive young man, Ghislain.  As she gets to know him, they fall in love, though if you ask me it is a little bit quick and forced. And as she is discovering more and more about the secrets of magic and the valley, she discovers even more about herself.

This book as some great themes: tragedy, first love, friend and family relationships, all mixed together with magic and mystery told by a pasifika-esque voice which is a rarity in itself.  I enjoyed unravelling this thread and reckon many others might too.

Sylvie the Second – Kaeli Baker

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Wow, talk about heavy. Yet this was an easy read despite the content as I read this in a day over a few hours.  Our story teller Sylvie is unnoticed in the middle of her crumbling family.  Her older sister Cate (Calamity Cate as Sylvie calls her) has mental health issues and is hospitalized again for trying to take her own life.  Sylvie, is fed up with always coming in last next to her sister and being completely unnoticed at school.  She dyes her hair and buys some new clothes becoming a completely different person overnight.  This gets her noticed, especially by the boy she’s really into, but also by people she really doesn’t need in her life.

She goes to a party just before school lets out for the year, this story happens over about a three month stretch, including Christmas and New Years, during New Zealand’s summer, and gets into trouble.  She’s caught the eye of the wrong guy and he ends up raping her at the party.  This leaves her confused and miserable.

Her parents are so wrapped up in their own dissolving marriage and hurt and pain of their first born in the mental ward, that they completely skim over Sylvie when she really needs them most.  The only person in her corner is her best friend Belle (of the books, Sylvie is really into alliteration) who helps her get her feet again over the summer as Sylvie struggles with the fallout of her own and others actions.

I rather enjoyed this book, despite the content and feel it gives a good account of how someone so young might deal with the issue of rape.  It also deals with everything positively as I felt Sylvie made all the best possible choices in dealing with her dilemma.

The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman

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I must admit, I tried to read this book about three times.  It was lent to me by a good friend and took me ages to return as I just wasn’t read to read it at the time.  I really am glad now I gave it a proper go.  I quite like Neil Gaiman and have read some of his adult works and some of his poetry, but this is my first foray into his young adult works. I especially enjoyed the language in this book, somewhat difficult and old fashioned, but absolutely rich and expressive.

In this story we follow Bod (full name Nobody Owens), from baby to young adult as he grows up in a graveyard, attended to by the ghostly inhabitants and his guardian Silas, who is a different creature unto himself. As we watch Bod grow he eventually begins to wonder about what happened to his real parents, killed by a man named Jack for an unknown reason.  But just as Bod is beginning to wonder about his family we find that the killed Jack is still looking for Bod, meaning he cannot leave the safety the graveyard has granted him.

Despite having an unorthodox childhood, he still hits those same milestones of other children and is an exciting read as he goes through all those mistakes and mischief of growing up. Would recommend this one for an older reader(14+) as the language can be a bit complex, but the story should resonate with any teen.

I am Rebecca – Fleur Beale

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This book is the second in a burgeoning series by Fleur Beale called ‘The Children of the Faith’.  We follow fourteen year old Rebecca through the rituals of engagement and marriage in a Christian cult like setting within New Zealand.  For those of you familiar with New Zealand’s Gloriavale, a Christian community branded as a cult, this is the essential background and inspiration for this tale. We follow as Rebecca is forced to accept whichever single male of age proposes to her father (she’s not even allowed to be there!), while she has no say in any decision made in her life.

I found this book rather disheartening as a feminist, watching as Rebecca was simply forced to accept what was happening around her without consultation or explanation. In saying that I can see how this might be quite eye opening for a teen, seeing how secretive and silent her and her twin Rachel must be due to how little freedom they are afforded.  This could be a good read for a teen struggling with a lack of perceived freedom as it can show  exactly how bad it could get and may actually be for a person really in Rebecca’s place.

Half Bad, All Good

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Half Bad by Sally Green is a book an older teen can really sink their teeth into.  This book is the first in a trilogy about Nathan, who is a half white, half black witch.  In a world full of white witches and the only one of his kind he is isolated and feared, which creates a mix of resentment and longing in Nathan that many teens may be able to identify with. In Nathan’s world when you turn seventeen you are bestowed powerful gifts by a blood relative, unfortunately for Nathan it is a constant struggle to survive long enough to be given his adulthood powers and have the ceremony performed. Being a ‘half code’ as they call it he is constantly watched by the council of white witches, checking to see if he will follow in his mother’s footsteps of a reputable white witch, or his fathers and infamous black witch, deemed a murderer who is constantly on the run from Hunters, witches from the white witch council charged with destroying black witches. When Nathan is taken away from his home and his accepting family due to council fears he will go black he must learn how to survive on his own in the wild and find his father, his only living relative who might be willing to perform his gift giving ceremony. This book was thrilling and wonderfully crafted with a hero who is genuine and resourceful.  This is definitely a recommended read.

Charming and Cosy

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I found Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett delightful.  It was a book I was happy to read over and over to my three year old, as it was often requested, as it didn’t feel like a chore.  We follow Annabelle, a young girl who lives in a very black and white town.  She finds a box filled with colourful yarn and proceeds to knit sweaters for anything and everyone she can with it. I love that she shares this wonderful magical box of yarn and her talent for knitting with her town.  Jon Klassen’s use of colour is also wonderful, it starts out small, just a sweater for her and her dog Mars, but eventually everything in her town has a sweater, buildings, cars, trees- you name it, it has a cosy made for it!  The whimsy of this book is what makes it a real winner in my eyes.  I also enjoyed the sense of ‘what will be, will be’ and that you can be happy just being yourself despite others trying to bring you down.  It may seem like a heavy message for small children, but I feel it is uplifting and a wonderful thing for kids to hear.

Jump To It!

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ool reads Bounce by Megan Schull is an enjoyable read and great for your burgeoning tween. The story is told by Frannie, a twelve year old girl whose family is rather disjointed and unaccepting of her.  The book is set over Christmas with her parents going on a trip leaving her and her older brother and sister alone for the holiday.  Her siblings are as bad as her parents, ignoring her and making her feel terrible, leading her to wish for a new life as someone else, and that’s just what happens.  She wakes up Christmas morning as a different twelve year old girl.  For the first time in her life she is experiencing what it means to be part of a caring and gentle family and learning what it means to be your own person without losing that crucial support from those around you. In Frannie’s day-to-day life she has no understanding from the people who are supposed to be the closest to her and having the love and warmth of the people around the girls she wakes up as each Christmas morning helps her to realise that she can be her own support person.  Each time she ‘bounces’ into another life she is met by a whole new circumstance and a host of different characters, each one teaching her something about herself.  She learns about confidence, in which she is sorely lacking, about belief in not just others but in yourself and this helps her build her inner strength.  A great read for those turbulent years rife with bullying and self-consciousness.