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Now that cracked me up! Probably unintentionally, though.
Jeepers, mister! I think my grammar program is keen.
Climbing the Stairs by Padma Venkatraman.
World War II, the British Empire, and growing up in India: a great setting for a novel. Vidya is raised in a non-traditional family (she even plays volleyball at school) in 1940s India. Her father is injured in a peaceful march, and they are forced to move into the house of Vidya’s grandfather. This is a traditional family, with traditional expectations, and Vidya must struggle to keep her sense of self even as labels and roles swirl around her.
There are two constraining forces here: a traditional extended family constrains a teenage girl raised to make her own choices by her father; the British constrain her people. Both Vidya and her nation are at a time when their sense of self and their drive for self-determination are bubbling to the surface; both are hemmed in by rules and injustice. Setting Vidya’s coming of age story during this time in India’s history is very effective. The personal is political, and in this story the political is personal as well.
As a novel that lets us travel into a different time and culture, this works well. The two struggles nicely play off one another. The cultural details are never overwhelming, but it is clear that our assumptions about relationships, daily habits, foods, etc, don’t apply here. Venkatraman uses natural imagery to good effect; the references to blood using flowers or the sound of a head injury as a coconut splitting, serve to keep our imaginations firmly in this setting.
Despite the clash of family and the historical setting, the book doesn’t have that ‘grab you by the throat’ kind of pacing or plotting that I was expecting. I’m not certain that was a bad thing, but I did at times feel a little distanced from Vidya despite the first-person perspective. Of course, that might be just the right touch for an audience that isn’t necessarily ready or willing to delve into the grittiest parts of Indian history and culture. It is more like a appetizer than a main course. Which is to say, excellent, for it left me looking up more books set in India, wanting more.
Summary: It was more like oatmeal than curry. I wanted it to be more like curry.
And all the teens at the book club agreed. They wanted a little more zest and tension.
On the bright side, I think I’ve got a better sense of how to get these quiet, reserved teens talking. (Crossing my fingers that keeps up!)
a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down…
a little colorful salesmanship for high-fibre pumpkin mini-muffins
(I added diced candied ginger for a luscious and fiery kick, too.)
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What are you doing with your spare time?
“Across the Universe” by Beth Revis
Humans on a spaceship, far from anywhere, isolated and in an extremely non-normal social setting…classic sci-fi. It’s such a great platform to ask, “What if?”. And it is likewise the perfect chance to ask, “What makes us us?”
This book had great pacing and the two main characters had great voices. I wanted to know more about them and I wanted to know it now! They were full of emotions and questions – they weren’t just talking heads or walking hormones. Their unique perspectives inside the ship made them great narrators and also gave them natural reasons for conflict. The setting and the personalities provided the tensions – no need for contrived plot injections of misunderstandings or random happenings.
It wasn’t as deep or nuanced as I might have liked, and I was left wanting more detail about the society of the ship beyond the circle of characters, but it is YA. I think it was only my perspective that made me want more, not the writing.
This would be a great introduction to sci-fi. I read it to see if I could use it for our teen homeschool book club, and had to rule it out because of the sexual content – the other families wouldn’t go for it. It’s not sexually explicit, and the main characters aren’t involved (aside from an attempted rape), but it’s outside the comfort zone for these parents. Too bad, because there’s a lot to talk about in this one, a lot to disagree about and wonder about.
I was worried when I saw ‘Book #1′ on the cover that I’d be left hanging, but “Across the Universe” has a satisfying resolution. Not all happiness and unicorns/supernovas, but the kind that lets you close the covers without monologue-ing at the author, ya know?
Reading “Across the Universe” with possibly the most gripping opening chapter I have ever read, and certainly the most gripping in a long, long time. It’s classic sci-fi with humans on a spaceship boundless distances from Earth. I haven’t read this sort of sci-fi in years. Love it. Palette-cleansing.
Listening to “At Home: A Short History of Private Life”, the sort of wide-ranging, companionable book filled with amusing anecdotes which I like to imagine my thoughts resemble.
Knitting the toe of a sock. How satisfyingly close to completion.
Parenting two children through the panic-filled last hours before a science fair. Next year we’ll be done a month in advance, I swear it.
Running in bright sunlight and brisk, chilly wind. But loving the sun and the prairie-blue sky despite the wind.
Ignoring the vacuuming, the empty fridge, the cat vomit. They’ll all be there in two hours.
this was all the knitting I managed in three days over the weekend
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three days with a fundraiser pancake breakfast, a kickoff party for 60 soccer players and parents, an 18km run, 3 soccer workshops and a partridge in a pear tree
and then yesterday I did 6 loads of laundry and 14 other things important enough to go on my Toodledo list
I put my foot down and added ‘relax’ to the list. And ‘hug both kids’.
Some days you’re the list’s minion. Other days you master the list.
A Question of Loyalty by Barbara Greenwood
Deborah finds a young rebel hiding in her family’s barn in 1837. Her father and brother are off fighting the rebels to keep the colony safe, so why does she choose to shelter him? Has she made the right choice? As suspicion and malice start to swirl around her, has she actually put her family, their farm, their lives in danger?
________
Short and snappy. A great book to bring to life the complex landscape of rebellion – the action isn’t in the rebellion itself, but in dealing with the rebels. I liked that this book was more about people than history, because it made the book really resonate on an emotional level. That’s where a read aloud has real educational value, when the facts meet emotions and give the brain something to hold onto.
Don’t get me wrong, the history is still there, but the main rebel in the story isn’t in the heart of the rebellion, he’s on the periphery, caught in the currents of the whirlpool. We learn about the rebellion and the issues that it created, absolutely. But we also learn about daily chores, and how women feel when their menfolk are called away to be part of the militia, and we get to the emotional heart of a rebellion: the fact that your friends, your neighbors, your people, are suddenly no longer a rock on which you can depend. You can’t take loyalty for granted. And what does loyalty mean?
Unlike many books set in history for young people, this book lets the characters have histories that drive their actions. The clearances of the Scottish highlands, the war of 1812, these ‘recent’ historical facts play into the choices characters make in this book. As a reader I think it’s wonderful, but as a homeschooler, I love it because it ties together several things we are learning about.
Greenwood wrote a good book here. Short and full of tension. Human and yet full of sweeping history. I highly recommend it for homeschoolers.
my stomach wishes it was Tuesday
On Tuesday Rainer makes sushi.
Especially if you can look past a few things…
…a rapidly decreasing raglan sweater.
I’m working on Saranac for my dad. I’m on fire with knitting drive, and am thinking of knitting one of these sweaters next: Friday Again, Mandel, or Folded. I’ve realized my closet is stuffed with cardigans, and I loooove me some cardigans, but what I really reach out for some days, days when I feel rather more Piglet than Tigger, is a nice, simple, classic sweater to throw on.
