Character Interview + Book Giveaway: Maria from Marina Budhos' Tell Us We're Home

Recently, I had the opportunity to interview one of the main characters of Marina Budhos' book Tell Us We're Home. This book is about a strong friendship between three girls who find themselves united by a common thread: they are all the poor, immigrant children of maids in a wealthy New Jersey suburb. This book has been called a YA version of Kathryn Stockett's The Help. Here's my interview with Maria.

Hello Maria!

I am sorry to admit that you were not always my favorite person in this story. I was upset at you for much of this book because I did not always agree with the choices that you were making and the way that you treated some of the people in your life, particularly your mother. But, by the end of the book, I felt as though you has changed the most and I felt like I was super proud of you. How has this transformation affected your life for the better?

The biggest change is I feel more confident.  I’m not trying to please everyone all the time.  I think I kind of romanticized some kids, especially the American kids, like Tash.  Lola says I had stars in my eyes.  And maybe she was right.  It feels good to be a little more grounded.  Sometimes it’s a little harder, though.  I don’t get lost in my fantasy-head as much anymore.  And I feel as if I can see through some of the phony kids more.  But that’s probably good stuff—it’s what you need getting through high school.
 
I am not from an area of the United States that is even remotely like the one described in this story. I live in a rural part of the country where most people are very poor. There are some immigrants living and traveling through our state, but not in the isolated area where I live. Do you wish that you lived in an area where the average white people were less wealthy? Do you think that would have made a difference in the treatment that you and your family received in this story?

I can’t say I wish I lived in an area where the average white people are less wealthy, because I don’t know what that’s like.  I think it’s true that where I live I learned there really are all these levels to people.  What street you live on, what kind of car your parents drive, what camp they send you to—it all means something.  It’s a lot to understand and decode for someone coming from the outside.  So maybe in that way it might have been different if we were on the same economic level as everyone else.  But still, no matter what, it’s hard being different in any area, especially when a lot of people in my family don’t speak very good English.  And the impression I get is people have a lot of prejudice against Mexicans these days, so it’s especially hard for us.
 
I was appalled at some of the events that took place surrounding the treatment of day laborers and young men like your cousin, Renaldo, especially the game of "Jumping Mexicans." What would you like to say to those people who are willing to hurt another person just because of their nationality or immigrant status?
 
To realize that we are no different than all of you.  In fact, we have to do a lot of scary and hard things, just to be regular.  Like my cousin standing around in a parking lot, hoping someone picks him for a job and doesn’t throw a can at him.  Or my mother having to ride a bus really late at night, sometimes not in great neighborhoods.  Ever since the stuff with Renaldo, I’ve done some reading, and I’ve learned that a lot of people feel we’re taking jobs away from ‘hard working Americans.’  But I just wish they’d see how hard we work.  My uncle, he works all the time.  If his boss needs him for an extra job, he never says no.  The lights are on in our house all the time because somebody is always coming home from a shift, or a double shift, or some extra job. I just want people to understand that.
 
I love that you're a bit of a revolutionary by the end of this book. Who are your heroes?
 
My biggest hero right now is Sonia Sotamayor!  Can you believe we have a Latina Supreme Court judge! No, seriously, she’s my hero for other reasons.  She is calm and reasonable, and she got where she did through so much hard work.  I loved that story of her arriving at Princeton and she realized she was so far behind and she took the summer studying and reading all the books that the rich kids had already covered.  And now look at where she is!
 
You're in high school now. What are your plans, if any, for college? Will you continue to fight for human rights?
 
I think I learned that I am a fighter.  I didn’t know that about myself.  I hate hurting people’s feelings or having any big conflicts.  But I learned so much recently by being, well, not all that nice.  That sometimes you do hurt feelings.  And it hurts you inside, too.  But it’s worse to keep it all bottled up inside you.  Maybe that’s what human rights means.  That after a certain point, even those of us who want to stay nice, we can’t stand it any more.  We have to burst out.  We have to fight for what’s wrong.  We have to speak the truth.

I want to go to college, of course.  But right now I’m trying to focus on high school and not getting too distracted.  (There are a lot of cute guys, here, hey!)  But seriously, I’ve got a lot on my plate: doing my work, and being a part of clubs, and helping my family.  It is different for me.  I still have a lot of responsibilities at home.  And Mami, she’s proud of me, and she wants me to go to college, but I don’t think she wants me to go away for college, like most of these American kids do.  That would be too hard.  So I’m taking it day by day.  Change comes little by little, I guess.

And, I always try to bring every interview that I do back to my classroom. Right now we're studying the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in my sophomore English class. Do you feel that young people have the power to change the world for the better?
 
I totally do.  But it isn’t easy.  And I think I learned something too.  It’s not enough to just want to change the world. You have to ask Why do I want to change the world? Am I doing it because it makes me look good, or I feel a little better for a while? Or it makes me look cool in the eyes of other kids? That’s not enough.  You really have to want change because you think it will be something better for everyone.  Because you have a vision of what the world can be.  

*  *  *

Wow. Thanks to Maria (and Marina Budhos) for this incredibly powerful interview. I love it when authors are able to capture the beauty, pain and truth of real life in their writing. This book, Tell Us We're Home, is painfully truthful, but ultimately inspiring. Thanks again!

Giveaway details: I have one copy of this book ready to send off to one US resident. To enter, simply comment on this review explaining why you'd like to read this book. This giveaway closes February 7th at midnight (EST).  Make sure to leave an email with your comment so that I can hunt you down if you win!

Book Review: Tell Us We're Home by Marina Budhos

What does it feel like to be different? This a question explored by many YA authors. In Marina Budhos's book Tell Us We're Home, this question is made central to the book by its three main characters: Maria, Jaya, and Lola.

Each of these girls are not only "different" because they're going through typical adolescent changes, but because they're the children of immigrants. Their mothers, like so many in our country, work as maids or nannies in the homes of their wealthy suburb neighbors. With these three main characters, Budhos ultimately describes three very different approaches and reactions to feeling "different," even when the characters are facing very similar circumstances. Simply put, there is no "one" immigrant experience or "one" reaction to being told that you're not welcome in a school or a town or a country.

Each girl has their own story and Budhos gives each story the time and attention necessary to develop. I definitely gravitated toward one girl more than the others. But by the end of the story, I understood each of the girls any why they had to react the way they did to the circumstances of their individual lives.

The more that I think about this book, and I have definitely done a lot of thinking since reading it, the more that I see the plight of the "new" American represented in this book. I do not live in an area of the country where there is a lot of immigration, but there is a large population of Somalian refugees in a nearby city (about an hour away). Every year since this group of refugees has come to live in our state, I hear my students (again, not really living anywhere near these people) making more and more ignorant comments about these people. Why? Because they're different. All of the observations and complaints break down to that one category: Difference is scary.

How are we ever going to learn to live together in peace in our country if we don't begin to realize that there are possibilities in difference and that it's not necessarily a horrible thing to be exposed to difference? And, in books like Buddhos's, it becomes obvious that the differences that we sometimes perceive as threatening are pretty surface. Underneath, teens just want to fit in. They want to find commonalities, not differences and they want to feel that they're home in their own country.

This conversation is larger than this one book. But, this book is a great catalyst for starting that conversation or the thought process that may lead to seeing this issue through a different lens. I know that I've been thinking about it regularly ever since I read this book. Surely, that's a mark of a great read!

Author Interview + Book Giveaway: C. Lee McKenzie, Author of Princess of Las Pulgas

Today I'm lucky enough to have C. Lee McKenzie, author of The Princess of Las Pulgas visiting. She's been kind enough to answer a few of my questions and she's offering up a copy of her book to one lucky commenter. Here's what we talked about:


In this book, Carlie grows up in a wealthy, privileged lifestyle for much of her life and is then forced to move to a much poorer area. This is an interesting topic to me because I teach in a very poor school. Though we lack resources, our students are rich in their spirits. I learn great life lessons from their courage every day. Is this true of any of the characters in this novel?

I think it’s true of several characters in Princess. Carlie certainly learns about courage from K.T. and that’s the last person on earth she expects to learn anything from. Carlie judges K.T. based on her tattoos, her “rappy-head shifting” behavior and her “in-your-face” attitude. Then she finds out that K.T’s behavior is a way to protect herself from terrible memories and mean kids. 

Juan learns about Carlie’s own courageous fight to survive in this strange new place and without her loving father to guide her. He assumes she’s just a preppy Channing girl when she’s so much more.

Everyone finds out about Mr. Smith’s courage. He gives up a prime teaching position in an up scale school because he’s “needed” in Las Pulgas. I love Mr. Smith.


I love that you’ve included an English teacher in your novel who is a positive role model and inspiring to his students. Often, adults are portrayed as negligent and irresponsible in YA lit. Was it important to you to have a positive adult figure in your book?

I try to have positive adult role models in all my books. They don’t have to be perfect and they deliberately aren’t because I like to show that it’s never too late for people to reach their full potential. I like to show that it’s not only teens who struggle to find a place they fit. Being an adult doesn’t automatically bestow wisdom upon us; it often only bestows power. 

Because I’m a super nerd, I absolutely love Shakespeare. I have taught Othello and absolutely adore this play. There is so much wisdom and craziness in it! And, it’s perfect for teens because of the jealousy and love triangle elements. Why did you choose to include this play in your novel?

I love Othello and, at the same time, I hate that jealous, sad, pathetic Moor. I’m like Carlie; I want to rewrite the play and let Desdemona set that guy straight. Alas, that can’t happen. I also chose this play because of the separation of the father from the daughter at the beginning of the play. Carlie has a hard time saying her lines because she hates to say goodbye to her father a second time. That offered opportunities to bring up how Carlie still grieved, but was trying to recover.

I have a fascination with the Spanish language. I don’t speak it, but desperately want to.  I was definitely attracted to your use of Spanish in your title. Do you speak Spanish? Or, are you like me and just wish that you could?

I used to be able to get by when I was in a Spanish speaking country. Now, I don’t know.  I spent a summer in Valencia and by the end of my time there, I was able to carry on a fair conversation. It’s so easy not to use the language when you’re in the US that I don’t use it. Still on a trip to Nicaragua last year I manage to wrangle a few fresh lobsters from a fisherman and he even gave me a local discount. How about that?

What’s up next for you? Do you have another book in the works, or is it time for a break?

I’ve finished my third novel. At least, I’ve stopped writing and put “The End” at the bottom. There may be rewrites in my future. This one will be a bit different; it has a male protagonist, but it has a few adults that I admire as well as a couple less admirable ones. I really like this main character, but then I always fall in love them. They’re like my kids, and since I’ve only had boys, I’m very fond of this guy, Hutch McQueen. He’s so lost at the beginning that he makes my heart ache. I had to figure out how to save him.   

Thanks for the interview! If you'd like to find out more about this book, check out this video trailer:

 And, on to the part you've all been waiting for! The giveaway! To enter, please comment on this interview and tell us why you'd like to read this book or remark on some aspect of this interview. Make sure to leave your email so we can contact you if you win!

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Book Review: I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali and Delphine Minoui

I am trying to get more and more nonfiction onto my free reading shelves for my students. This is not an easy task when it comes to needing accessible, interesting material for teens aged 14-19. Lately, though, there have been more nonfiction options for teens. This is one such book.

First of all, the title is intriguing and basically says a lot with just a few words. I've done two book talks for this memoir already, and each time there have been audible gasps when I just hold the book up and students read the title. It's shocking. And, when I tell them that it's real, students just can't believe it. There is no better hook than a gripping, emotional title.

This story takes place in the small, conservative Muslim country of Yemen. I am trying to learn more about the Middle East (and other areas of the world) in hopes of teaching World Lit in a more current, interesting way. Traditionally, sophomore English at our high school is called World Lit and the materials are all ancient and Euro-centric. It's comprised of Shakespeare, Greek Mythology, Greek literature, and Kafka. Not a modern, non-male, non-white perspective to be had.

This book would be a perfect way to introduce women's rights, children's rights, and Middle Eastern culture/ religion/ philosophy to students. In it, Nujood basically causes a small revolution when she escapes her home and forces a group of judges to listed to her case. Married off at the age of ten, she was brutally raped and abused by her "husband" and his family. Her own family did not support her desire to divorce her husband, so she ran away and advocated for herself. All of this action is in spite of the dangers that could have befallen her if her relatives had decided to shun or harm her for shaming them.

After this case received national and international attention, other girls came forward with their cases and laws about the age of consent have been changed. Of course, there are still lots of instances where young girls have been married off to much older men, but this spark has caused a wave that could help many girls and women in countries like Yemen.

Most importantly, this book offers a window into a foreign world and does so with great respect for the culture and traditions of the Middle East. It is not a smear, but an insight into a way of life and thinking that is very unfamiliar to myself and my students. Plus, it's well-written and engaging.

If you know of any other nonfiction reads that I should order for my classroom, please leave a comment. Thanks for any help you can offer!

Book Review: Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

I picked this book up in my mailbox early this evening. It's cold here in Western Maine, so I came home and started a fire in our wood stove. Three hours later, with the fire blazing, I emerged from this book. It was an incredible journey.

I've read about Russian Gulags and about political prisoners sent to Siberia to suffer, work, and die. I did not know about the Lithuanian teachers, librarians, politicians, doctors, lawyers, and military who were sent with their families thousands and thousands of miles into Russia to die horrific deaths. Even as America was allied with Russia against the Axis powers, Stalin was torturing and killing millions--some estimates say that he killed 20 million people. Insanity.

This book tells the story of one such Lithuanian family who is deported into Russia, along with thousands of others from their town. Stuffed into cattle cars, deprived of food and water, many died along the way. Their destination--A forced labor camp, where those who hope to survive are forced to sign papers admitting that they are criminals and accepting a 25 year prison sentence.

In the mist of this chaos and suffering are sixteen year-old Lina and what's left of her family. Her father has been separated from his wife and two children, but Lina and her mother and brother have hope that he is still alive. Lina is a talented artist and writer who documents all that she sees in the forced labor camp, including the abuses from the Russian guards and the small joys of life.

Because, amongst all of the heartache and trauma, there are little moments of happiness. Lina meet a handsome young man named Andrius who helps her to secure extra rations for her family. Friendships are formed, holidays and birthdays are celebrated, life is lived. It is so very moving to read this story and find that the will to survive triumphed in enough people so that stories like this one made it back into the world. We all have a lot to learn and admire from people like these.

This piece of historical fiction has my interest piqued. I am going to search out more information on this topic and will hopefully come across more stories like it. This is going to be a great addition to my collection of human rights YA lit and WWII YA lit in my classroom. It's readable and thought-provoking and it sheds light on an area of history that I have not read much about. A must-have for any high school classroom and classroom library.

**Review Copy Obtained through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program**

Hardcover Edition Available in March, 2011

Book Review: IraqiGirl: Diary of a Teenage Girl in Iraq

IraqiGirl: Diary of a Teenage Girl in Iraq is a collection of blog posts published by a girl who wrote under the pseudonym "Hadiya" from 2004 to 2007. 

Reading these entries, it quickly becomes clear to me that, by blogging, Hadiya is risking much more than offending a few of her readers. I realized how very much I take for granted on a daily (if not hourly basis). The ability to write about my thoughts, to count on electricity, to know that I will return home from school, that people around me will not simply disappear, never to be seen or heard from again. This writing is not grandiose, but it is so very eye-opening.

It was clear in reading this that Hadiya is not living a better life since the US entered her country and toppled Saddam Hussein's regime. She may have been poor under Saddam, but she is absolutely stifled under American occupation. I don't know if I'm alone in this ignorance, but I feel like this voice is one that I have not yet heard since we entered Iraq in 2003. I know that it was dangerous for her to write on her blog (a freedom that I take for granted every day), but I am so thankful that she has put her voice into the international arena. I feel much more enlightened as to what it would be like to live in a war zone after reading this collection of blog entries.

In addition to the journal-style narratives, Hadiya also writes poetry. She is rather talented in this area. I can see myself using several of these poems in my classroom. But, her writing is not perfect and she admits that she struggles with language. Rather than see this as a put-off, I felt as though her sometimes awkward phrasing felt more authentic than if she had been a polished writer.  Without the gleam of figurative language and fancy prose, Hadiya comes across as a real teen. A frustrated, scared teen who is forever changed by a war that is taking place in her front yard. It could not get more real than this.

I am definitely going to put this book on my classroom shelf. Though my students, especially my young freshmen and sophmores, have not grown up with this war on their doorstep, it has been the background noise on their televisions and the stuff of their local news for the majority of their lives. Many of these young teens do not remember a time when they did not hear the word "Iraq" without the word "war." And, some have lost loved ones and will continue to know and love American soldiers who are headed to the Middle East.

Anyone who is even remotely interested in learning more about the Iraq War from an actual Iraqi should read this book. And, it is a must-have for high school (and possibly middle school) libraries and classrooms. I hope to read more nonfiction written by real teens in the future.

Author Guest Post: Anna Levine, Author of Freefall

Anna Levine's Freefall takes place in Isreal, where all teens complete mandatory military service. I was intrigued by this setting and this culture, so I asked Ms. Levine to explain her choice to set her book in this locale. Here's what she had to say:

Israel is my inspiration. I’ve lived here for years, but still don’t get it. When I wander through the streets of Jerusalem (inevitably getting lost because the roads twist and turn on each other) I am overwhelmed by the sights, sounds, smells and commotion. I love the way the populations mix and go about their business in the most normal way possible. I guess I want to capture the magic of this city which gets a lot of bad press, but if you live here you realize how the people, the culture and the flavors all blend together.  

I use Israel as my setting because I live here and want to capture the pulse of the country, but in truth, I write about characters, about teens struggling to find themselves, assert their individuality, find love and acceptance among their friends and family, like teens do everywhere.

Book Review: Trash by Andy Mulligan

As a high school English teacher, I am always looking for great whole-class reads. I think that I might have found one with Andy Mulligan's novel Trash. One of the challenges I face in selecting books that I can use with all students in a class is readability because I have a variety of students in front of me and because I read aloud lots and lots. (Not every book is great when read aloud.)

And, I am forever looking for accessible, interesting, and current World Lit. Yes, I know that there are tons of adult books that are great out there that also qualify as World Lit, but it can be difficult to find a whole-class read that is interesting and dynamic and written about a culture other than the US.

Trash will take my students to a place that they have definitely never been.  Lots of my students live in poverty, but not like these kids. This story takes place in an unidentified South American/ Latin American country where the law is lawless and the people suffer under corrupt politicians and police officers. This is a world unlike any other that I've ever read about. Scenes that take place in the dump where the children live and in the prisons are so full of vividly disturbing imagery. There is no way to read this book and not picture the absolute hell that these people live in, sometimes for their entire lives.

But, this book is more than just a sad story about the lost children of the dump. It's a mystery and a political expose and it's told through the eyes of several characters. The adventure that these boys take you on will be wild and intense, but feels real and like a tiny little victory for human kind. It's a suspenseful read. I loved it. Now, I just need to come up with a plan for reading it with my students. That shouldn't be too difficult!

Summer Break Reading Challenge (8)

For this activity, Karin the Librarian has asked participants to create a Read-a-Like-List of books. We can choose any type of book, but there has to be some sort of explainable connection between the books. I've chosen to think about a group of YA books set in the Middle East. I am taking part in the Middle East Reading Challenge, hosted by Helen of Helen's Book Blog.

I haven't read a lot of YA books that take place in the Middle East, but I feel like I should. Every year, I have students who (for one reason or another) choose to serve our country and enter in one of the branches of the armed forces. Right now, I have at least four former students and two relatives who are serving in the Middle East.

It really used to feel that I needed to teach students about multiculturalism because my students needed to learn to get along with and understand ethnic populations and diversity within our own country. Now, I feel that I absolutely need to be able to prepare my students to encounter other cultures in other countries. Not the same experience.

Before I can teach, I need to learn. I've made a concerted effort in the past to read about African and Asian countries, so this year I'm going to move on to the Middle East. Here are some titles that I hope to read, in no particular order.

I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali

                                                       







In the Name of God by Paula Jolin

IraqiGirl: Diary of a Teenage Girl in Iraq by IraqiGirl

The Space Between Our Footsteps: Poems and Paintings from the Middle East by Naomi Shihab Nye

Book Review: Free? Stories About Human Rights from Amnesty International

Whenever I go into Barnes and Noble, or some other such bigger bookstore, I make sure to pick up at least one guilty pleasure book and one book that absolves me of guilt altogether. On my last trip to B & N, this book is the one that I just knew would take away any of the guilty pleasures I had enjoyed that day.

It's been awhile since I've done anything to promote awareness about social causes (outside of lessons I teach in the classroom), and it feels good to think about organizations like Amnesty International again. Aside from being a great inspiration, this collection of shorts stories and poetry was a great read. I am not a huge fan of short stories (hence my stalled attempt at finishing Pretty Monsters, which has been collecting dust on my bedside table for months).  But this is more than a group of tales pieced together: It is the story of universal human rights.

In fact, each of the stories in this collection is paired with an actual Article from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. There are thirty such articles expressed in this document, but there are millions of people who have lived their lives without enjoying the simple freedoms that this document seeks to protect. 

Here are synopses of my favorite stories/ poems from this collection with the Article from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that the story illustrates:

"Klaus Vogel and the Bad Lads" by David Almond: A group of neighborhood boys are bullied into discriminatory acts by the leader of their "gang". It takes a new boy, who has survived unspeakable trauma, to show the boys that peace and truth takes more patience and courage than violence and lies.

Article 1: We are born free and equal. We all have our own thoughts and ideas. We should all be treated in the same way.

"School Slave" by Theresa Brelsin: A young boy named Ryan, always in trouble at school, finds a mysterious message written on a piece of trash on his way home from school. In an act of extreme courage and daring, Ryan finds an illegal sweatshop, where a group of young children have been locked in. This is a thoughtful story that exposes a violent underground movement that uses children as slaves.

Article 4: Nobody has any right to make us a slave. We cannot make anyone else our slave.

"After the Hurricane" by Rita Williams-Garcia: This short story is written in verse. It is about the hours and days directly after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. In this story, a group of boys searches the city for clean drinking water to bring to their families. They find themselves blockaded and kept from the water trucks. Guns are trained on them and police actually open fire when the boys attempt to walk toward the water truck. Incredibly powerful, especially given the brevity and cadence of the lines in this poem.

Article 13: We all have the right to go where we want to in our own country and to travel abroad as we wish.

And this is just the beginning. There are so many more moving stories in this collection. I did not absolutely love every one of the fourteen stories in this book, but I felt an overwhelming sense of purpose when reading it. I think that I need to share these stories and the issues that are raised in this collection with my students in the fall. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in civil and human rights.

Book Review: We Were Here

As it turns out, I've had Matt de la Pena's book We Were Here on my To Be Read shelf for far too long. I think that I knew that it was going to be an amazing book with all sorts of tragic characters and gritty truths about life. I think that this is why I put it off. I didn't want to be heartbroken, to care about a main character that I could not save or help.

As it turns out, I was right and wrong. I was right that I would care about the main characters and that this book would be filled with all sorts of crazy truth. But, they did not need my help. Each of the three main characters figured out his path in his own way.

The central character, Miguel, is placed in a group home for teen boys who have done something criminally wrong. We don't know exactly what Miguel has done, but I think that we know the entire time that he is not a criminal. Whatever he did, he did not mean to cause harm.

Miguel does not fit in at the group home. He purposefully distances himself from the other boys, and spends much of his time reading great literary classics. It is interesting that each of the classics he reads seem to be incorporated in this novel. Here are the books that reads and the way that I see them fitting into the plot/ structure/ characters of the novel:

The Color Purple by Alice Walker: This classic (which I've seen on Broadway and hold close to my literary heart) is told in a series of journal entries, which is also the style in which We Were Here is narrated. Because of the structure, the book is only as revealing and honest as the main character (writer of the journal) is with herself. Very true of We Were Here.


Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston: I didn't much see the connection between these two texts until later in the book. There's a bit of a road trip, an escape, and a quest for love or meaning. I think that this a parallel between the two books. Also, I think that the character Mong might have been Miguel's Teacake, in a way. This probably will make no sense to anyone but me.

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger: Not told in journal format, but might as well have been. Catcher is a crazy whirlwind of a novel, as is We Were Here. There's also that underlying insanity and reflective quality of Catcher that shows up in We Were Here. I think that Holden Caulfield and Miguel would have a lot in common if they were to meet. Neither characters are "phonies" by any stretch of the imagination!

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck: This is probably the most heartbreaking connection for me. To me, Miguel is George and the third central character, Rondell, is like Lennie. The ending does not turn out the same way in We Were Here, but the patience and frustration that Miguel feels toward Rondell totally reminds me of how George feels and treats Lennie.

This was a great read. I plan to read other books by this author, but I think that I need some time to digest this one first. This is definitely a modern classic. It's well-written and heartbreaking and real all at once. Sigh.

Book Review: The Keeper

First of all, I would just like to say that I do not know much about the game of soccer. I love American football with a passion, but have never really developed an interest for watching soccer matches. Also, I do not usually like to read books about sports. So, why did I read a book about the sport of soccer? Well, I am trying to increase the amount of sports lit that I have available in my classroom for my male students (and female students who like to read about sports). This book came to me as part of a grant that I wrote to supply my classroom shelves with books for boys.

Aside from all of this not liking soccer too much, Mal Peet's The Keeper was a pretty engaging tale. I had read his WWII saga Tamar and loved it, so I decided to give this read a chance. It was not bad. There were some pretty interesting details about South African culture and there were even some supernatural twists. Also included was a bit of a mystery centered around a ghost who comes and trains the main character to become an unbelievably successful soccer keeper (or goalie).

The book is framed in a sort of retrospective. Gato, the main character, is being interviewed by a journalist after winning the World Cup (apparently a huge deal). The story goes back and forth between the present and the past. My favorite parts were centered around the environmental issues facing poverty-stricken South Africans who are forced to engage in the clear cutting of their jungle habitat to make money, even though this means a loss of their traditional way of life. I would have loved to have more of the story focus on this issue and less of the soccer, but then it wouldn't be a sports novel.

Overall, this was an entertaining read. I think that some of my boys (and possibly some female students as well) will get into this story. It kept me reading, and that's saying a lot when it comes to a novel about soccer!

Book Review: Tyrell

After reading Coe Booth's Tyrell, I know that it will haunt me for some time to come. The characters and the situations that the characters are facing are so real that this book almost reads like nonfiction.

Tyrell is a fifteen year-old African American teen who is trying to keep what's left of his family together. After his father is arrested and put in jail, his mother falls apart and stops paying the rent. Tyrell is forced to figure out ways to provide for himself, his mother, and his younger brother Troy. This is not the first time that Tyrell has had to step up and be the man of the family, but this time he has had to drop out of school and it doesn't look like he's ever going to be able to go back.

To complicate matters, Tyrell's mother was convicted of welfare fraud during a previous bout of homlessness, and the welfare system will not grant them the same level of aid as they'll need to find a place to live and get back on their feet. Because of this situation, Tyrell and his family are forced to accept the only housing that's offered: Temporary shelter at a roach-infested motel in a horrible section of the city.

Fortunately for Tyrell, he is young and creative and he cares about his future. He could easily earn some extra cash selling drugs, but he does not want to end up in prison like his father. Unfortunately for Tyrell, there is not a lot of legal jobs for homeless fifteen year-old black males in the city. Will he manage to find safe shelter for his family? Or, will he give in to the pressures of those around him who assure him that he can make a whole lot more money illegally than legally?

This is a high-interest read for anyone who is interested in inner-city lit. I can tell that the author, Coe Booth has seen some horrible sights in her life because there is no way that this is not at all based on reality. It's well-written and gripping. You will not soon forget Tyrell or his friends and his little brother. These are real people, not characters!