Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead

Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Review copy provided by Netgalley

The story of Bridge and her friends is one that is sure to resonate with readers long after they finish. The primary theme is peer pressure and the evolution of friendships, and boy, does it hit that topic hard. Told from multiple points of view in a non-linear style, the story can be a little hard to follow at first, much like Rebecca Stead's other writing, but in much the same way as other work, if you persevere through your initial confusion, you are richly rewarded for your efforts. This is a book about the experience that all children go through as they enter junior high or middle school. Friendships are tested as children evolve and drawn in different directions. In some cases, friendships can't withstand that change. In others, they can and do.

Also up for discussion in this book is the effect of social media on the young. This book deals with a middle school student sharing inappropriate pictures with one another and the fallout that that sharing creates. It is a very uncomfortable topic, and I believe it is presented in a way to allow for that discomfort while also dealing with what a child might go through as a result. Really, it's powerfully presented and will make readers reflective. Even reading this as an adult, I was forced to reflect on how I might handle the situation myself. If I was a teacher and I had to deal with a student in this situation, how would I react? Would I contribute to the problem by reacting poorly, as much of the staff in the school does, or would I be more understanding? I hope for the latter.

Lastly, there is the other story being shared throughout the book. It is the story of a mystery character, one that you slowly come to realize is somehow connected to the central plot of the story, though you have to put it together piece by piece. It's another of story of friendships evolving and changing as a girl finds that her old friends are less and less relatable and maybe aren't the friends that they once were.

Ultimately, this is a story about the pressures of growing up. It's a story about the inevitable loss of innocence that teens undergo and how the relationships that they maintain help and hinder them in that process. Each character has their own life and questions that they must face, but their bonds, both good and bad, with other characters impact how they go about their individual lives.

Readers will be in for quite a journey when they read this. It's exhausting at times, but well worth the effort as all readers are sure to see themselves and others in the lives of the characters. This is not a story with good and bad guys, but people that making choices and dealing with the consequences of their actions. Beautifully presented, and memorably resolved. Great book.



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It Ain't So Awful Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas

It Ain't So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review copy provided by Netgalley

If this isn't in contention for something from the ALA this winter, I will be seriously disappointed. It has Newbery or Printz written all over it. I've never read any of this author's other work, and this is probably the first children's book I've ever read about an Iranian American character. If there was ever a book that deserved promotion from We Need Diverse Books, this is it. I loved this.

I'd call this book historical fiction, though it's not exactly ancient history. Still, the Iranian Hostage Crisis is something from before most of this book's readers' lifetimes. This book deals with a topic that most readers will know nothing about fairly and honestly. More than simply learning about the historical period, readers will find that they can empathize with the characters. The mistreatment of this family is hard to take. I found myself questioning the motives of every friend and acquaintance she had, and every character gave me a momentary reason to wonder about their allegiances and intent. Still, all in all, it was the kindness of her neighbors and friends that I found most endearing in this book. I really loved this book and I hope that many other readers will feel the same. Given the chance, this could be a book that people will still be reading and talking about years from now. Well worth the time it would take to read. Amazing.

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Wolven by Di Toft, OR I Conquer the Wilds

It was a weekend worth remembering; a disastrous attempt at building a fire with wood that just wasn't having it; a carefree jaunt through a flea market that redefined rockbottom pricing; an opportunity to dive headlong into a British paranormal adventures series about that most overdone of angles, lycanthropy. I couldn't be much happier. Okay, in certain respects my weekend camping trip could have gone much better. In others, it was pretty near perfect.

Let's choose to accentuate the positive though. That boils down to the number of stars that are visible in central Pennsylvania, good company making for good times, and Wolven by Di Toft. Before I dive into the depths of joy that Toft's book of a boy and his dog boy brought me, let me just thank my wife and my sister-in-law for pulling me along with them on their trip to the wilds of central Pennsylvania. I don't normally go for the whole roughing it angle. Don't get me wrong. I have no aversion to nature but, as Jim Gaffigan so eloquently put it, "I'd like to keep the relationship professional." You really don't get to see so many stars in my small suburban town. That was hardly the case in the pitch black of the campground I spent a few days in this week. The trick was finding a patch of sky unobstructed by the abundant trees to view the spectacle overhead.

In the daytime, between wrangling with an energetic niece and nephew (a nephew that could run even an olympic marathoner ragged), I read Wolven and what a pleasant reprieve it was. No vampire romances to be found in this one. In fact, neither of the characters are old enough to have any interest in that, though there was the one scene where the two of them were entranced at the carnival by a girl with a swirly gown and wild hair. Instead, this was more akin to Shiloh if Shiloh had been partially human. Toft writes a fair adventure, though I feel somehow uncertain after this first book. I know that there's a second adventure in store for those brave enough to plow forward, but I was kind of expecting the villains to be more lasting. You see, she killed all the baddies by the end of book one. Now she's going to have to introduce a whole new batch of rotten toads for book two. I suppose that's the way it works for some series. Each volume would stand on its own well enough that it wouldn't need a series to back it up.

We'll have to wait on that second one as I haven't seen it in any of my local bookstores, though it claims to be out and ready for reading already. In the meantime, I'm going back to the land of the shrouded night sky. I'll miss the constellations, but home is where your stuff is after all.

Jim Dale Carries Me Through the Classics

Let me start by saying that I am not one of those readers who believes that reading the classics is a reader's rite of passage, necessary in order to qualify his or her opinions on other works. I've never read the endless tomes of Leo Tolstoy or the collected poetry of Emily Dickinson, and though I'm sure there are those who would disagree, I don't think my thoughts are any less valid for this lack of experience. Despite this, I recently polished off a book that I had been trying to read for quite a few years, and I managed it from start to finish in just a little more than a day's time. It was J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan, a classic by most people's standards, but not the easiest story to grasp for a miserably incompetent American reader who gets caught on every dose of English wit and wisdom so liberally splashed onto every page by the renowned Mr. Barrie.

My secret to success wasn't anything brilliant. I'm not about to sell you on some stupid program guaranteed to make you a snooty reading snob in seven easy steps. Nope. I'm still the low-brow buffoon I've always been. I've just discovered a reading format that pushes me through the unattainable books that I never imagined I'd find myself finishing. The audiobook. Well, that, and I've found a reader who makes otherwise unbearable stories truly enjoyable. And that reader is Jim Dale. Now, I know that I'm not this man's only fan. In fact, in the world of audiobooks, Jim Dale has roughly the same status that Oprah has in the daytime television. He read the audiobook editions of all seven Harry Potter books, which one assumes would naturally catapult him to the forefront of the profession. The thing is, he did it really well. Every character received their own voice treatment. The man does voices, lots of them. And he wins awards for them, lots of them.

I didn't listen to the Harry Potter books though. I read them, page by sleep-deprived page. In fact, I came across Mr. Dale's talent thanks to Dave Barry and an awful daily commute. I was in the local public library wondering. That's something I spend an inordinate amount of time doing in libraries, wondering. I look and look, feeling strangely at home. Yet, that day I happened across the audiobook edition of the book Peter and the Shadow Thieves read by none other than Jim Dale. It'd been a couple years since I'd navigated my way through the innumerable pages of Peter and the Starcatchers, and I figured I'd put book two in the series off for long enough. Aside from that, I had to contend with two hours a day, five days a week of driving that I found about as bearable as most of the time I spent in college-level psychology courses. So I borrowed the audiobook, popped in disc one and settled into the most pleasant surprise I'd had in months.

If you looking for a real treat, I strongly recommend the aforementioned series in its delightful audiobook format. You'll find nothing better. I flew through the remainder of the books and found myself wanting more than anything to hear a little more. Jim Dale had brought Peter Pan to life for me in a way that no movie ever had, had renewed my interest in trying to finish the original Barrie book, had brought the wonder of Neverland into better focus. Now, Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson did a wonderful job putting together a compelling series full of action and intrigue, mystery and suspense. Dale went that extra mile though and animated it with only the power of his voice.

Anyway, when I returned the materials I borrowed and I thought there was nowhere else to go with it, I found myself back at the audiobook section leafing through the other listening options. And wouldn't you know I saw an audio edition of Peter Pan read by none other than Jim Dale? I picked it up without another thought and hurried out to my car to start my next adventure. By the next day, I'd finished it off though. I listened to it again. I didn't know what I found harder to believe, that I'd gotten all the way through or that I'd understood it well enough to thoroughly enjoy the experience. Well, that was how it all started. I'd become one of the Jim Dale faithful. I went back to library looking again for something else he could pull me through. I found classics. Jim Dale reads classics. As I write this, I have A Christmas Carol  by Charles Dickens and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. I'm nearing the end of A Christmas Carol right now, and it's been another excellent experience from the death of Jacob Marley up to now. I'm ready to descend into Wonderland as soon as I leave the snowy pre-Christmas streets of 19th century London. I have the strange feeling that it will be a lot of fun. Who knows where I'll go next? Maybe around the world in record time with Phileas Fogg? We'll just have to wait and see.

In the meantime, if you have the means and an otherwise horrific car ride ahead of you, stop by your local library and pick up an audiobook courtesy of Jim Dale. You won't regret it unless you have an aversion to quality entertainment. If you do, that probably explains your choosing to read this blog, but I can't account for taste. Thanks for taking a look. I've got to get back to the ghostly intervention of one miserly Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge.