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Andy Reviews The Road to Paris

Posted by: on: April 21, 2012

Cover of "The Road to Paris (Coretta Scot...

Cover via Amazon

Welcome to the fourth installment of Andy’s Sack o’ Books.

The Road to Paris By Nikki Grimes

Paris Richmond is trapped by love. She loves her foster family, who has taught her what a family should be. She loves her brother, who has lived in a group home since he was deemed “incorrigible” for stealing from a previous foster family. She loves – and hates –  her alcoholic mother, whose weakness and selfishness has sabotaged her life.

Paris’ happy life with her new family is shattered by a phone call from her mother, who wants her back. The rest of the story is about how Paris came to live with, and love, her new family. It is also about her conflicted heart. She wants to love her mother. She wants to completely belong to a family. She wants to be with her brother again. But she also wants to remain with the family that loves her.

That’s a lot to put on an eight-year-old girl.

The Road to Paris gets many things right. In some cases, I know with certainty that it does. In other cases, it convinces me that it does even though I have no way of knowing – it sounds right; it fits with what I think I know of human nature.

The author creates a very real and perfect conflict for Paris. For the most part, there are no villains in this story. Paris’ mother has her problems; often Paris hates her, but she also wants to love her and she wants her family to be whole again. When Paris goes to visit her halfway through the book, we find out that Viola is not a monster and that a spark of love has survived the years of hurt. The foster family too is not composed of monsters. How many stories have we seen and heard about kids who bounce from once horrific foster family to another? Paris and her brother have certainly bounced around, but the book is not about those families; it is about the one family that turned out to be the right family.

Nikki Grimes is interested in real life and real feelings, not melodrama. We’ve all seen television shows and movies, and read books, where a character suddenly and without warning has an extreme reaction to something seemingly insignificant. This leads to the realization that the character has A Secret, which of course leads to the inevitable Discovery or Disclosure of The Secret. And of course that Disclosure or Discovery is drawn out as long as possible, for maximum emotional impact. Because that’s drama and drama is good. Right? In The Road to Paris, Paris does in fact have the occasional “freak out” that, to those around her, must seem unwarranted. For instance, there is an early meal at the Lincoln house where Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln each decide to have a can of beer. Why should this send Paris running to the bathroom to throw up, and why does she then seclude herself in her bedroom for the rest of the evening? And why is she surprised the next morning that normal life has continued uninterrupted? The Lincolns don’t know, and never know. Or do they? It doesn’t matter.

At another point in the story, Paris has an unfortunate reaction to sleeping in a completely dark bedroom. And again, this Secret is not kept through the entire book. In fact, Paris immediately spills the beans to one of her new brothers, and the situation is quickly and perfectly resolved.

What I really appreciate about Nikki Grimes’ writing is that she “gets” that many of us have hot button issues, and that we usually don’t take the time to explain our inner workings to everyone we meet. And so we often have reactions that take others by surprise and must make us seem somewhat crazy. However, Grimes does not use this for cheap drama. And the way that she avoids going for cheap drama is that while the Lincolns and others may not understand what sets Paris off, we do. Because while Paris has her secrets, they are not kept secret from the readers. And this is as it should be – the story is told from Paris’ point of view, and so to share some of her thoughts with us but not others would be, well, cheap.

Another aspect of this that Grimes gets right is that Paris’ reactions always fit the circumstances. We understand why she reacts the way she does to the beer. It fits. And we understand why she reacts the way she does to the pitch black bedroom. There is also a situation involving a perceived betrayal by her best friend. Readers may not agree that Paris has been betrayed, but they can certainly understand why she would be upset and why she would never want to go that girl’s house again. We even understand why she would build a wall around herself when another girl tries to be her friend.

 The Road to Paris is a very realistic depiction of a very real situation for many kids. And while alcoholism and foster care are not happy topics, this is not a depressing book. In a way, it is the story of a girl who, after years of pain, finds herself with too much love.

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Reflections on a Reading Experiment

Posted by: on: April 20, 2012

With some hesitancy, on March 26, I started a reading experiment here at Allison’s Book Bag. As part of my Intercultural Communication course, I’ve been studying how people from various countries and cultures view the world around them and interact with one another. For my final project, I needed to read theories, conduct research, and draw conclusions about intercultural communication. After rejecting many possible topics, my husband suggested I analyze books. Because of their being among the most widely accessible and recognized books in my state to both teachers and students, I decided to focus on Golden Sower nominees. Over the past month, I posted my analyses of nineteen multicultural nominees.

I felt hesitant about my reading experiment for two reasons. Trying something new and outside of my comfort zone always makes me feel nervous. For example, the first time I tried Chinese food, I ate only the chicken and cookies. These were the most familiar to me. Actually, the second time, I agreed to try rice only if covered with a sweet sauce. Nowadays, my husband and I enjoy most ethnic foods except spicy ones. As for children’s literature, I grew up reading mostly ones about my European American culture. To my delight, I soon found myself being absorbed in my multicultural reading list. There are authors such as the prolific Joseph Bruchac, whom I enjoyed so much that I want to read more of their novels.

The books for my study fell into three reading levels: primary, intermediate, and young adult. Of the eight primary books, five dealt with racism. Four of those were biographical and dealt indirectly racism or sexism by profiling individuals who had faced discrimination in pursuit of their goals. The fifth issue book tackled racism directly through an overtly moralistic tale. Of the remaining two books, one was a folktale and one talked about daily life. The folklore lacked any clear connection to its Cuban roots. Books about daily life were conspicuously absent except for in I Love Saturdays y domingos by Alma Flor Ada. It is a great example of intercultural communication, comparing the visits of a girl to her American grandparents on Saturdays and her Mexican grandparents on Sundays. As for the authors, African American authors wrote the four books dealing with prejudice, an Asian American wrote about sexism in China at the turn of the century, a Cuban American author wrote the folklore tale, and a Mexican American wrote the story about daily life.

Of the six intermediate books, five of them dealt with racism. Except for the two stories by African Americans, all of them also included references to beliefs, customs, and language. One of the Asian American books even included scenes of characters talking about what it means to be American but also of another culture. While not actually writing biographies, two authors had drawn upon historical events for their novels. The lone exception, Skeleton Man by Joseph Bruchac, is the only genre story (suspense) in any grade level. As for authors, a range of multicultural ones were represented: African Americans wrote two, Asian Americans wrote two, a Mexican American wrote one, and a Native American wrote one.

With the exception of one book that turned out to be more regional-based than cultural, each of the young adult books dealt with racism. One of the Asian American books even included scenes of characters asking what one’s culture has to do with one’s abilities. Like with the intermediate grade level, while not writing biographies, three of the authors of young adult novels had also drawn upon historical events. As for the authors, a range of multicultural authors were represented: an Asian American author had written one, Mexican American authors had written two, and a Native American had written another. Surprisingly, although I know examples exist, African American authors lacked representation in the Golden Sower nominees at the young adult level. Lord of the Deep by Hawaiian author Graham Salisbury referred to negative attitudes of outsiders towards locals rather than between ethnicities.

One of the criteria for receiving a Golden Sower nomination is that a book must be reflective of a culturally diverse society. My ten-year sample indicates that the committee does pretty well, although there are groups that still need stronger representation. For example, Extra Credit by Andrew Clements is a current nominee written about Arabic culture. (It did not make my research booklist, because I restricted my selections to those by multicultural authors. Arabic authors have yet to earn a nomination.) Beyond that, the gaps I most observed were multicultural stories about daily life on the primary list and genre stories featuring individuals of other cultures for any age level.

A second reason for my hesitancy about my reading experiment is that I wasn’t sure how readers would take to the absence of regular reviews . For the past month, my posts have instead focused on themes within multicultural Golden Sower nominees. To my relief, the hits on my site remained above fifty on a daily basis. Comparing these hits to ones from recent months, where hits ranged between forty and fifty, this reading experiment seems worth trying again.

Time will tell if the topic or the approach is what had the most appeal. At any rate, I intend to undertake more research projects. For example, I work with kids who have special needs. How are authors depicting them and what expertise are they drawing upon? As another example, my husband and I hope to adopt. What novels are out there on that topic? While reading the Austin books by Madeleine L’Engle, I started wondering about the portrayal of families in contemporary young adult books . Am I wrong that most seem dysfunctional? Not to forget the multicultural project that I just finished, I’d like to branch out to books written by authors of other nationalities.

When I first posted about my experiment, I received encouragement from readers that you are interested in reading about culture. What about my above proposed topics? What additional themes would you like to see explored? Are there encouraging or disturbing trends that you see that might be worth exploration? You can help determine my next literary research project!

For convenient reference, all the posts related to my multicultural research project are listed below:

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Andy Reviews: Code Talker

Posted by: on: April 14, 2012

Cover of "Code Talker: A Novel About the ...

Cover via Amazon

Welcome to the third installment of Andy’s Sack o’ Books.

Code Talker By Joseph Bruchac

If foreign enemies invaded your land and killed your people and did everything they could to eradicate your culture, and then they were attacked by foreign enemies, whose side would you take?

Soon after Code Talkers begins, Pearl Harbor is attacked by the Japanese.  The Navajo Tribal Council immediately passes a special resolution declaring:

“…the Navajo Indians stand ready as they did in 1918, to aid and defend our government, and its institutions against all subversion and armed conflict and pledge our loyalty to the system which recognizes minority rights and a way of life that has placed us among the greatest people of our race.”

Remarkable.  This floors me. This resolution is passed at a time when Native American children are taken from their homes, their hair is cut short, and they are made to reject their language and their culture as being worthless.  This is the system that “recognizes minority rights”?  And yet Ned Begay, the fictional character at the center of Code Talkers, is ready to join the Marines and fight the Japanese.  And he’s only fourteen.

Ned is persistent and passionate, and his parents agree to let him join the Marines when he’s sixteen.  (This is still a year too young, but the Navajo don’t have birth certificates and so as long as a boy’s parents tell the recruiters that their son is old enough, that’s good enough for them.)

One of the many challenges during wartime is transmitting messages securely.  The Japanese were adept at breaking U.S. codes.  And so the military devised intricate encryption methods, but this resulted in messages that took hours to decode.  Enter the Navajo language.

The Navajo language was not the first language to be used for the transmission of wartime communications.  Other Native American languages were used in both world wars, and Basque was used in World War II.  But Navajo, it turned out, was especially effective.  According to Wikipedia, at the outbreak of World War II there were fewer than thirty non-Navajo who understood the language.  And the code that was devised – which, for example, used the Navajo word for “potato” for “grenade” and the Navajo words for “iron fish” for “submarine” – was confusing even to Navajos who weren’t a part of the code talker program.

Ned Begay is perfectly suited to be a code talker.  It is interesting that Bruchac did not choose to make Ned part of the “original 29″ – the twenty-nine Navajo code talkers who developed the code.  My guess is that this decision was made so that the story wouldn’t get bogged down in cryptography, but rather could skip ahead to the use of the code in combat.  This was probably a wise choice.

When it comes to combat, Code Talkers has plenty.  Amazon says this book is for kids aged ten and above.  I poo-pooed parents who expressed concern over the gruesomeness of the skeleton man legend told of in Bruchac’s Skeleton Man; in the case of Code Talkers, I would tell parents that they should be sure their children are mature enough to handle graphic descriptions of the horrors of war.  Bruchac does not hold back.  His description of Japanese villagers who would rather die than be captured is especially chilling.

I learned a lot from this book.  I had heard of the code talkers before, of course, but I had never taken the time to learn anything about them.  I imagined a few Navajo in a big control room at “Military Headquarters,” receiving and sending messages.  But that really doesn’t make much sense, does it?  If a code talker is going to send a coded message, there has to be another Navajo on the other end to receive it.  And many of those “on the other end” were in the thick of battle, using their forty-pound radios as shields.

Major Howard Connor, 5th Marine Division signal officer, declared: “Were it not for the Navajo, the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima.”  But although the skill, bravery, passion, and strength of Native Americans was finally recognized through their contributions in World War II, I still find the situation somewhat sad.  Why did the Navajo language have to save our butts for anyone to think the Navajo culture was anything other than worthless?  It makes me think of the way our planet’s great biodiversity has become valued due to the promise it may hold for the development of new medicines.  But why should the natural world have to earn its keep?  Why isn’t it enough that nature is beautiful?  And so why wasn’t it enough that Native Americans are people, whose culture is as important to them as European Americans is to them?

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Good Enough by Paula Yoo

Posted by: on: April 10, 2012

There’s something to be said for the idea that one likes to read books that capture one’s own experiences. I love Good Enough by Paula Yoo, because of all the ways I can relate to it: Main character Patti is an overachiever in school and yet capable of having fun. Her parents have flawed ideas about what might bring her happiness, but are otherwise stable, hard-working adults who want only the best for her. That’s why although they encourage her to play the violin, they don’t want her to pursue the risky profession of a musician. Her church youth group is as flawed and normal as her school peers, while also believing in God. And, like most average adolescent girls, Patti is attracted to the best-looking guys in school.

There are some differences between Patti and I. My hard-earned grades got me into college, but the Ivy league schools weren’t even a consideration. I grew up the only child of a widower father. And, while I liked to play piano, but my actual passion has always been writing. Yet despite these little discrepancies, I felt as Paula Yoo was writing about me, which isn’t something I often feel about the fiction I read.

There’s also something to be said for the idea that one should write about what they know. As a graduate of Yale University, Paula Yoo would intimately know all the intricacies of what applications to those schools would involve. Perhaps, this is why she can give strategies for being accepted, examples of SAT questions and tips on how to solve them, and provide perfect responses to interview questions. None of this academic talk ruins Good Enough, because Yoo writes with a light and interesting style. As a former concertmaster for an all-state high school orchestra, Yoo would also intimately know all the intricacies of playing an instrument for it. Perhaps, this is why she can list classic musicians, list their styles, talk about who inspired them, tell what challenges they faced, and explain how to best play their musical scores on the violin. In between the music talk, Patti (like Paula Yoo) sneaks out occasionally to see cool bands, undergoes a bad home perm that burns her ear, and works on a few songs with a cute guy in her classroom.

There is one outstanding way in which Paula Yoo and are different. She is Korean American; I am Canadian. And so in the same way that Yoo can easily write about the rigors of applying to Ivy League Schools or competing for concertmaster position with an all-state high school orchestra, she can also easily share aspects of her Korean American culture. From her, I learned some Korean phrases and foods. Three recipes are even included, all with funny tips about how to obtain or prepare the ingredients: “Again, I’m assuming you know where to buy kochu jang. If you don’t, try to find the nearest Korean church in your town and sneak into their kitchen…. Don’t forget to return it afterward, because ‘Thou shalt not steal’ is the eighth commandment.”

How to Make Your Korean Parents Happy

  • Get a perfect score on the SATs
  • Attend Korean church every Sunday
  • Don’t talk to boys
  • Don’t rock the boat
  • Be good at math

For Patti, gong to church was not just about congregating to celebrate God and socialize with others. “Korean church is also where parents try to one-up each other on their children’s accomplishments.” This theme of being successful is huge in Good Enough. Patti’s parents believe that their daughter will be successful if she is accepted into the Ivy League schools. Her parents have good reasons for this belief. Her parents grew up in Korea, where they had to pass a difficult entrance exam to be accepted into university. That was the only way to get a job and have a career. Her father struggled so much during his youth with calculus that he attended a hagwon (private school) every day from two o’clock in the afternoon until ten at night including weekends. Moreover, he studied every day for fourteen straight hours until exam day. Talk about pressure!

Yet Patti learns that success is not everything: “Safe from what, Dad? Nothing’s safe! Remember how Stephanie’s mom yelled at you. She didn’t care what college you went to! It’s not about where you go to school or what job you have!” Several examples of racism are scattered throughout Good Enough, the above being one of them. In the cafeteria, the football quarterback taunts Patti: “Ching chong … Jap” Patti wonders what her ethnicity has to do with her being brainy or physically uncoordinated? On Halloween, a white classmate dresses up as a geisha and says, “Me speakah no Engrish.” Patti wonders if the girl would have dressed up like this if there were other Asians in the school besides Patti.  Then there’s the incident at a clothing store, from which I took the above quote. The family is in line at the register when her dad remembers that he needs socks. When their turn at the register comes, a customer behind them complains, “Where did that Chinese man go?” First, Patti’s family is not Chinese. Second, again, what does their ethnicity have to do with anything? Even when Patti’s dad returns seconds later and apologizes with an accent, the customer complains: “Is he speaking English?” Not willing to let the moment go, the customer rants, “These people, they come to our country, they don’t bother learning the language.” Ironically, Patti’s parents have been so determined to ensure her success in America, that the family speaks only English at home. Patti herself knows only a few Korean phrases.

Good Enough “is based on my own life growing up as a ‘violin geek’. I have often read books about violinists that come off as very ‘well-researched,’ but do not have the authenticity and ‘insider knowledge’ that a real violinist would have. I tried to bring that authenticity across in my novel. In addition, although my novel is about a Korean American teenage girl who pursues her love of music despite her immigrant parents’ academic pressure on her, I wanted my novel to strike a universal chord among all teens.”
–Paula Yoo, Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind

My rating? Bag it: Carry it with you. Make it a top priority to read.

How would you rate this book?

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Author Paula Yoo

Posted by: on: April 10, 2012

Paula Yoo has some interesting stories to tell about how she knew when she wanted to become a writer. For example, according to her profile at Lee and Low, Yoo began writing short stories and even mini-novels in kindergarten. On the back of the latter, she’d even draw a picture of herself with a biography that read: “Paula Yoo, age 7, is a second grader at Keeney Elementary School. This is her first book.”

In an interview at Asia in the Heart, World on the Mind, Yoo shares that after reading Charlotte’s Web in the first grade, she felt inspired to write her own stories. Her first “novel” was a 75-page handwritten book entitled “The Girl Called Raindrop.” Yoo submitted it to Harper & Row because they published her favorite series, the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Yoo received a nice letter from them saying that she was ‘talented’ and should consider trying out for their writing contest for children ages seven to ten. However, Yoo was so upset they were rejecting ‘The Girl Called Raindrop’ that she tore up the letter. She thought, ‘I’m not a CHILD writer, I’m a REAL writer!’

Basically, Yoo has wanted to be a writer since the moment she learned to read. She loves putting words on paper to create a whole new world, an entire universe filled with fascinating characters. And–Yoo wanted to have her picture on the back of a book, just like her favorite authors!

Before becoming a full-time writer,Yoo worked as a freelance musician, English and music teacher, journalist, and tv screenwriter. By working as a reporter for The Seattle Times, The Detroit News, and PEOPLE Magazine, she paid off her journalism graduate student loans. Journalism taught her how to write on deadline. Yoo then taught for a little bit before switching over to being a full-time TV screenwriter for shows like Beyond the Break (The N), Eureka (SyFy), Hidden Palms (The CW), Side Order of Life (Lifetime), Tru Calling (FOX), and The West Wing (NBC).

Her lifelong dream of becoming an author came true with the publication of Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story. He was the first Asian American to win a gold medal at the Olympics in 1948 for diving after facing racial discrimination. Yoo submitted her nonfiction book to the Lee & Low Books “New Voices” contest, because she loved their books and thought it’d be a good entry for them.

Her first young adult novel Good Enough was written between her TV jobs. Yoo says, “I was unemployed and took advantage of the free time to work on a new novel. I wrote about my life as a teen violin geek. I literally wrote this novel in five weeks straight. It just poured out of me. I then revised it and sent it to my agent and he submitted it to yes, HarperCollins, and they finally decided I was a ‘real’ writer and not a ‘child’ writer and published it!”

The above information I compiled from mostly from online biographies. I encourage you to also check these interviews:

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Looking Ahead

The end of my thematic review months is coming to a close. Starting mid-May, I'll review an assortment of books.

  • May 22: Regine's Book by Regine Stokke
  • May 25: Zoo Station, true story by Christiane F.
  • May 29: Boy 21 by Matthew Quick
  • June 1: Sort of Like a Rock Star by Matthew Quick

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Thirty days. Average of 2000 words per day. A total of 58,600 words. I am a NaNoWrimo Winner in 2012.

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