La Casa en Mango Street

Sandra Cisneros 

    La Casa en Mango Street es la historia de una chicana, Esperanza, en un barrio latino.  Ella habla de las personas en su calle, como Mamacita, una mujer que no sale de la casa por miedo de no estar apta hablar en inglés. 

     Esperanza tiene memorias felices de su niñez, especialmente con su hermanita, Nenny.  Exploraban en una tienda con cosas rotas y viejas, sin luz para personas sin dinero.  Nenny descubrió una caja de música y ofreció comprarla, pero el hombre dijo que no era en venta.

     Esperanza ve y experimenta muchas cosas feas en su barrio.  Alicia es una muchacha que tiene que limpiar y cocinar para su padre, pero también quiere ir a la escuela.  Por eso, tiene que estudiar durante la noche y ve ratones. 

     Una amiga, Sally, tiene un padre que la maltrata.  Ella se casa muy joven y su esposo no la permite salir de la casa.  Una vez, fue a un carnaval con Sally, y Sally mintió a ella.  Sally no regresó para reunirse con ella, y un grupo de muchachos la violaron. 

     El fin es mi parte favorita.  Es muy triste, pero hay esperanza y determinación.  A un funeral, tres hermanas viejas saben que Esperanza quiere salir de Mango Street para siempre, pero le aconseja que ella deba regresar para los que no pueden salir.  Esperanza no quiere pertenecer a su calle, pero le da cuenta de que su barrio y historia es una parte de ella.

The Skeleton in the Closet

M.C. Beaton

As far as I can tell, the only difference between YA and (not "literary value/highly symbolic") Adult Literature is the presence of alcohol and romance.  The romance in this one isn't too graphic, but not child appropriate.  

     I enjoyed the fact the book is British, using words like "trainers" and British spellings.  I was very disappointed that the skeleton was not literal.  They kept doing home renovations, and I kept hoping....  Overall, I found the book a bit of a slow read, excessive time spent describing colours, clothes, and the weather, as well as timid protagonists.  My first thought was that the weather was symbolic, but as a book labeled as a mystery, I feel the book's entertainment qualities are as important as meaning.

     Fellworth Dolphin is a sheltered, duty-bound son.  By the time his parents die, he is middle-aged and feels that life has passed him by.  He can't drive, never went to college, and never visited nearby London.  When his family comes for the funeral, he tells his Aunt Agnes that he is engaged to Maggie Partlett, a fellow server with him at the Palace.  She poses as his fiancee at the funeral, and he tells her about the large inheritance his father left him in the bank, as well as a mysterious box of cash he found in the house.  Maggie moves into his house, and soon they are working together to investigate a train robbery in which his father was a suspect.  In the end, an expensive dress worn by Gloria Lewis, (former) Inspector Rudfern's daughter, leads them to get a full confession from her father.

     

Six Feet Over It

Jennifer Longo:  Author

Wade:  Father.  Buys a graveyard and moves his family from Mendocino, by the ocean, to Hangtown.  Uses bad language, not a very good father.

Meredith:  Mother.  Retreats from the world by painting seascapes and visiting Mendocino alone.

Leigh:  Narrator.  Teenager forced by her father to sell graves in the graveyard he purchased, even though she's not legally old enough.  She has a bad attitude, and the book sounds kind of whiny at times.  It's annoying to read, but accurate.

Kai:  Leigh's sister, leukemia survivor.  Older, but often mistaken for the younger sister.  Leigh loves her a lot, but describes her as the kind of person you could go to for sympathy, but you would end up comforting her.  A really talented cross country runner.

Emily:  Leigh's secret best friend in Mendocino, where they lived before moving to Hangtown.  Died at girlscout camp and is buried in Hangtown.

Elanor:  Homeschooled girl who works at Rivendell, which delivers flowers to the Sierrawood graveyard.  Tries very hard to be Leigh's friend, but she pushes her away since she feels it would be unloyal to Emily to make a new friend.

Balin:  Elanor's brother, Kai's boyfriend.

Dario:  Indocumentado who forces Leigh to speak Spanish when digging graves.  Everyone loves him, and he comforts all the people at funerals and visiting graves.  Lives in a trailer in Sierrawood, which he decorates with Christmas lights.  Becomes Leigh's friend, pressures her to enroll in Driver's Ed, and teaches her to drive.

Ana:  Dario's girlfriend, whom he marries and brings across the border.  Beautiful; artist; made their wedding rings.

Samuel:  Latino who holds Ana and Dario hostage until Leigh negotiates and pays a ransom.

Mark of the Thief

Jennifer A. Nielsen

     This book is a cross between historical fiction and fantasy.  Set in ancient Rome, Nic is a slave working in the mines.  He refuses to go into a hole where Julius Caesar's treasure is hidden because one man sent before him died, and the other went crazy.  He runs away from his master, Sal, and almost escapes.  While hiding in the shadows, he hears General Radulf plotting treachery against Rome.  He is seen in the shadows by a slave about to take his place, so he soon finds himself entering Caesar's cave in search of a bulla.  He encounters a griffin, which he names Caela.  She fights him until he puts on the bulla, then rides on her back out of the cave to a strawberry field, where the guards find them sleeping.  Senator Valerius sees the wound Caela gave him on his shoulder and tells him it is a special mark, which he later learns is called the Divine Star.  They are captured, and brought before Sal.  Due to the begging of his sister, Livia, and a promise to marry Sal, he sells them to the venatio rather than killing them.  He is guarded by a girl, Aurelia.

     At the venatio, he is eventually tied to a horse, against the wishes of his owner Felix, and sent into the arena.  His magic accidentally causes an earthquake as he fights for his life, and Caela is wounded.  She flies away with him, finally dropping and leaving him when he accidentally lets her have the gold nugget the Romans had used to get her in her cage.

     After running from the Romans in the sewer, he is found and nursed back to health by Aurelia, only to be put in chains by her and the exposed children she cares for.  She intends to take him to Senator Horatio, one of the many people offering a reward for Nic.  Radulf attacks, and through Nic's powers they escape to Senator Valerius and his son Crispus.  Nic is accidentally chased by the dogs into a fountain in the moonlight, which leads the bulla to make the room as bright as daylight.  He then knows that Diana is fueling the bulla.  He goes to rescue Caela from the baths on the Appian Way, where he has a showdown with Radulf.  Radulf simply wants to see what he is capable of, and lets him escape with his life.

     Eventually, Nic faces Radulf in the arena.  Valerius ceases power by allowing Radulf to kill Horatio and blaming both Nic and Radulf.  Nic proves his innocence by having Aurelia shoot an arrow toward him, then redirecting it to right in front of Valerius's nose.  When the Praetors appear, Radulf disappears.

     

I Have A Bad Feeling About This

Jeff Strand

     This book is pure humor, which means readers will need to be old enough to appreciate it rather than taking the story seriously.  The first page, other peoples' reviews of the book, is actually worth reading.  There is one use of the f word that would need to be blacked out, after which it could be used in a 7th and 8th grade library. 

     Henry and his friend Randy go to a 2-week survival camp, which promises to make men out of wimpy boys. Their instructor, Max, is well-muscled and intimidating, but well-meaning.  My favorite scenes are when Max tries to teach the boys and comments on their complete incompetence.  Erik, a secret nerd, is more well-built than the rest.  Jackie is a 13-year-old with low self-esteem and green hair.  Stu is "tall and gawky."  

     When the Survival Games finally begin (the kids fight with paintball guns and knives), Henry is the first one out, only to return to camp and discover that Max has been murdered by three evil men: Mr. Grand, Chad, and Ethan.  After escaping from them by pretending to vomit and pulling a fake grenade on them, he runs back to the woods.  The boys are soon engaged in a battle against the men, aided by a girl from a nearby music camp, Monica.  In typical YA fashion, Monica ends up dating and kissing Henry.  

full ride

Margaret Peterson Haddix

     Haddix's books have an impressive amount of variety, a sharp contrast to the authors that use the same plots and simply replace the characters.  As a grade schooler, I thought she was the absolute master of plot twists and cliff hangers at the ends of chapters.  Even as a college student, these books continue to capture my attention, and I genuinely enjoy reading them.  This book would be a good addition to a 5th-8th grade library, though its length (343 pages) may make it more appealing for avid readers.

Summary:  Becca is a popular 8th grader with a rich family when her dad, Roger Jones, is suddenly arrested and sent to prison for white collar crimes after a nationally televised trial.  With the help of her father's lawyer, Mr. Trumbull, she and her mother go into hiding by moving to Deskins, Ohio.  She begins high school while her mother works as a nurse.  Instead of hanging out with the popular kids, she decides to lay low and ends up becoming a part of the "nerd" group.  

       Fast forward to Becca's senior year.  Her first friend, Jala, has graduated early due to pressure from her family and started attending Ohio State, but she still has Stuart (rich, sometimes obnoxious, determined to go to an Ivy League school), Rosa (closer to Becca than the boys, also poor, watches the popular girls with her since it reminds her of telenovelas), and Oscar (a bit less studious, humorous, and kind). 

       Her mother tells her that it is too dangerous for her to apply for financial aid, so Becca begins looking for scholarships.  The Whitney Court Scholarship seems to be the answer to all her problems, and all she has to do is write an essay about a member of Whitney's graduating class.  After looking through the yearbooks, in which Whitney appears everywhere, she decides that Whitney is the only person worth writing about.  As she talks to former teachers and neighbors, she finds that they refuse to talk about Whitney's life after high school.  She finds two newspaper articles on the deep web about a DUI and suspected drug use,  which lead her to conclude that Whitney threw away her life.            She becomes suspicious that the scholarship is another scam of her father and writes a scathing letter to her father, but simply saves it on her computer.  She is contacted as a finalist and goes in to the interview, only to find out that Whitney has schizophrenia, and she was invited to the interview because the Courts think she is mentally ill.  She sent in her rant about her father instead of her real essay about Whitney.  She tries to prove her identity by finding her birth certificate online, only to discover it is gone.  She runs home.

        Her mother reveals that the real reason they are in hiding is that her father has information against Excellerand, a corrupt computer company like Google or Microsoft.  To silence him, they may attack Becca and her mother.  Since Becca revealed her identity to Mr. Court, who reported it to Ms. Stela, her guidance counselor, who made a post online, Becca and her mother need to contact Mr. Trumbull to ask him for new identities.  Their only safe way to communicate is by mail, which is too slow, so Becca goes on a college trip with her friends, with the secret intention of visiting Mr. Trumbull.  When she visits him, she is accidentally handed a letter by the new receptionist.  She discovers her father is imprisoned there in Atlanta, not California, as the letters they receive through Mr. Trumbull's office indicated.  She visits her father and discovers that Mr. Trumbull has been faking the correspondence between her father and mother, as well as the entire Excellerand threat, so that he can blackmail Excellerand.  He made them believe that Roger had evidence against them that he did not, using the disappearance of Becca and her mother as proof.

        Roger tells Becca what she must do now (after she decides against his first idea, blackmailing Mr. Trumbull).  Becca and her mother gather vocal evidence against Mr. Trumbull in an FBI sting operation, which ends with his arrest.  Becca is now free to keep her identity and go to college.

Crossing Over

Ruth Irene Garrett with Rick Farrant

    Garrett describes her choice to leave her Old Order Amish community to marry Ottie, a man with a lively personality who was twice her age.  She knew him through his work as a driver for the Amish and a patient of her mother, a reflexologist.
    Garrett describes her fond memories, such as playing "horse and buggy" as a child, serving as a teacher, and love for her mother, as well as some of the problems within the Amish community.  The Amish, who consider themselves Christian, trace their roots to the Anabaptist movement and the teachings of Jacob Ammann.  Some of the doctrinal issues include absence of the assurance of salvation, omission of the Great Commission, a focus on tradition and man-made rules such as the Ordnung, and a reliance on works to be saved, rather than the grace of God through the work of Christ Jesus.  Garrett mentions that if many Amish are asked whether they will go to heaven, they will reply, "That's God's choice."  She also describes how Amish are discouraged from reading the Bible and conduct church services and pray in German, even comparing this to the practices of the pre-Reformation Catholic Church.  On a more personal level, she relates her experiences with a father who ridiculed and raged at his wife and children, at times physically punishing them out of unmerited anger.
     Overall, it appears to me that Garrett found sounder doctrine after leaving the Amish.  She refutes each of the points of false doctrine listed above.  As well as the aid of a Lutheran church, a key reason for this knowledge is her dedicated study of the Bible.  I do think, however, that Jeremiah 48:10, "A curse upon him who is lax in doing the Lord's work!  A curse on him who keeps his sword from bloodshed!" deserves more context when Garrett uses it as a proof passage against pacification.  The prophet speaks about God's judgment upon unbelieving Moab through the swords of the unbelieving Babylonians.  While this passage may be related to the topic, I believe there are clearer passages in the Bible, such as commands to the Israelites to fight wars, which directly address the topic of Christians serving as soldiers.  Her use of 1 John 3:16 on the same topic is beautiful, an encouragement for all our current military members and veterans.
     She does, however, describe how she rationalized sleeping with Ottie before marrying him, as well as arguing that divorce is better than living together and hating one another.  I believe this helped me understand how confusing it must be to know that a church has false doctrine, but then not know what to throw out and what to keep.  In addition, Ottie had been married 3 times before, and she describes her new Lutheran pastor's reaction to this only as one of acceptance, mentioning that the sin of divorce is not unforgivable.  While this is certainly true, in the spirit of Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, I hope that the pastor also discussed the importance of marriage, the fact that divorce is a sin, and possibly repentance.
     One part that struck me was on page 123:  "With the Amish, it was the Amish first.  With the Lutherans, it was God first.  Faith to the Lutherans was a relationship with God, not with an institution."  For those of us in the WELS, I think this is a good reminder.  While this could appear to border on the side of not caring about doctrine and saying all Christians should just be one big happy family, she shows in the book that she cares about doctrine.  It is true that we are loyal to God and the Bible first, not our denomination.  Would she have this impression in the WELS?