Rgz Salon: Lyn Miller-Lachmann Reviews The Language Inside by Holly Thompson

Rgz SALON member Lyn Miller-Lachmann has been the Editor-in-Chief of MultiCultural Review; the author of the award-winning multicultural bibliography Our Family, Our Friends, Our World; the editor of Once Upon a Cuento, a collection of short stories by Latino authors; and the author of Gringolandia, a young adult novel about a refugee family living with the aftermath of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. Her most recent novel, Rogue--a spring/summer Junior Library Guild selection for middle school--is out this month!

We're honored to have Lyn here as part of the rgz SALON, a feature where top kidlit experts clue us in to the best YA novels they've read recently. Today, she discusses The Language Inside by Holly Thompson:

"Emma Karas is a 'third culture kid.' Her parents grew up in the United States, but she calls Japan home even though she is not ethnically Japanese. When her mother is diagnosed with breast cancer and decides to return to the U.S. for treatment, Emma is uprooted from her Japanese friends and her efforts to help survivors of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and dropped into a world that she doesn’t understand. The stress causes her to suffer severe and frightening migraines. To take her mind off her mother’s health, her parents’ separation due to work, and her loneliness, she volunteers at a nursing home near her grandmother’s house in Massachusetts. There, she meets Samnang, a volunteer of Cambodian heritage with a troubled past, and Zena, a middle-aged poet with 'locked-in' syndrome. As she becomes comfortable in her new surroundings, she feels guilty that she is not helping her friends in Japan as they rebuild from the tsunami. Ultimately, this thoughtful, good-hearted teenager finds herself torn and having to make choices that weigh her own needs and the needs of others.

"Thompson is a poet and novelist from the U.S. who lives in Japan, Her second novel in verse is a strong follow-up to the acclaimed Orchards, which mostly takes place in her adopted home. The elegant and heartfelt poetry in The Language Inside allows the reader to explore Emma’s internal transformation as she navigates different cultures and the people in her life. Emma writes, 'it’s not just losing / Japanese words / and phrases / it’s as if I’ve lost / half of myself here / but no one knows / because I’m a white girl' There is very little dialogue, but through Emma’s eyes we see other characters clearly and Emma’s changing relationships with them. The most original aspect of this powerful and compelling story is Emma’s interaction with Zena via poetry, as we see the growing friendship between two people who, in distinct ways, understand that 'lonely is when the language outside / isn’t the language inside.'"

Rgz Salon: Lyn Miller-Lachmann on POISON by Bridget Zinn

Rgz SALON member Lyn Miller-Lachmann has been the Editor-in-Chief of MultiCultural Review; the author of the award-winning multicultural bibliography Our Family, Our Friends, Our World; the editor of Once Upon a Cuento, a collection of short stories by Latino authors; and the author of Gringolandia, a young adult novel about a refugee family living with the aftermath of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. Her most recent novel, Rogue--a spring/summer Junior Library Guild selection for middle school--is out in May.

We're honored to have Lyn here as part of the rgz SALON, a feature where top kidlit experts clue us in to the best YA novels they've read recently. Today, she discusses Poison by Bridget Zinn (Disney-Hyperion), a debut author gone too soon:

"As a Rgz Salon blogger, I specialize in books that focus on diversity—authors and characters of color, characters with disabilities, and characters who live in poverty (such as the protagonist of My Book of Life by Angel, the book I reviewed last month). Still, I have decided to take part in the blogging effort on behalf of Bridget Zinn’s YA fantasy Poison as one of several Readergirlz bloggers who are doing so.

"Even before selling her first novel, Bridget was an active participant in the community of librarians, teachers, book bloggers, and writers. She gave much to the community through her blog, which highlighted new books and gave advice and encouragement to other struggling writers. She realized her life’s dream when her Poison sold to Disney Hyperion late in 2009, with a tentative publication date of summer 2012. By that time, though, she had been diagnosed with cancer, and in 2011, at the age of 33, she lost her battle. She never had the chance to see her novel in print.

"Poison was eventually published on March 12, 2013, and Bridget’s family and friends put together a blog tour to make sure her work would be remembered and appreciated. Because authors these days have to handle so much of the marketing themselves, and Bridget is no longer here to do the work she would have done so well and with so much enthusiasm, many friends and admirers have volunteered to do it for her.

"I never knew Bridget personally, though I did read her blog sometimes. My decision to join the blog tour for Poison comes out of my own experience of having a disability and needing help to do things that would be difficult or impossible for me to do myself. Like the protagonist of my forthcoming novel Rogue, I have been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, a mild form of autism, and have struggled all my life with social interactions and social cues. Without the efforts that other people have made for me, and the accommodation that I have received, I would not have been able to receive my MFA degree, find an appreciative audience for my small-press-published YA novel Gringolandia, or have the opportunity to publish a second novel based on my own experiences of growing up on the autism spectrum. Having been the recipient of so much kindness and generosity, I feel it is important to pay it forward in whatever way I can.” -Lyn Miller-Lachmann

Rgz Salon: Irises by Francisco X. Stork, Reviewed by Lyn Miller-Lachmann

Rgz SALON member Lyn Miller-Lachmann has been the Editor-in-Chief of MultiCultural Review; the author of the award-winning multicultural bibliography Our Family, Our Friends, Our World; the editor of Once Upon a Cuento, a collection of short stories by Latino authors; and most recently, the author of Gringolandia, a young adult novel about a refugee family living with the aftermath of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. The book has had multiple print runs and is available for order. (Don't forget to read the fascinating Cover Story for Gringolandia.)

We're honored to have Lyn here as part of the rgz SALON, a feature where top kidlit experts clue us in to the best YA novels they've read recently. Today, she reviews Irises by Francisco X. Stork (Scholastic):

"Eighteen-year-old Kate Romero and her 16-year-old sister, Mary, have helped their father take care of their mother for years, after a car accident left her in a permanent vegetative state. The stress has taken its toll on their father, a Pentecostal minister with an increasingly restive flock. When Reverend Romero dies suddenly of a heart attack, Kate and Mary must take care of their mother themselves. Their financial resources are dwindling rapidly, and the people around them to provide support—Kate’s boyfriend, Simon; their Aunt Julia; and Andres Soto, the ambitious young preacher who intended to replace Rev. Romero even before his death—have their own agendas. When the intellectual Kate spurns Simon’s marriage proposal because she wants to attend Stanford University on scholarship and the artistic Mary falls in love with an unlikely gang member, the girls weigh, in their separate ways, their duty to family against their right to pursue their dreams.

"Stork (Marcelo in the Real World and The Last Summer of the Death Warriors) has proven himself a master of characterization and character development, and Irises—his first novel narrated from a female point of view (though in third person)—is no exception. There is a subtle creepiness in otherwise good people that draws the reader in and doesn’t let her go. Basically, no one is who he or she seems on the surface. A concerned and overwhelmed father turns out to exert a level of psychological control, even beyond the grave, that borders abuse. An ambitious preacher who challenges doctrine and urges congregants to be honest with themselves struggles with inappropriate sexual urges. (Stork’s restraint for this plot thread is masterful.) A resentful, grudging aunt makes a far larger sacrifice for family than she is willing to reveal. The reader senes the competition and jealousies beneath Kate and Mary’s apparent closeness. While Stork doesn’t feel compelled to give his protagonists a happy ending, insight into who they are serves as the first step to genuine growth and maturity." -Lyn Miller-Lachmann

Rgz Salon: Bestest. Ramadan. Ever. by Medeia Sharif, Reviewed by Lyn Miller-Lachmann

Rgz SALON member Lyn Miller-Lachmann has been the Editor-in-Chief of MultiCultural Review; the author of the award-winning multicultural bibliography Our Family, Our Friends, Our World; the editor of Once Upon a Cuento, a collection of short stories by Latino authors; and most recently, the author of Gringolandia, a young adult novel about a refugee family living with the aftermath of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. The book has had multiple print runs and is available for order. (Don't forget to read the fascinating Cover Story for Gringolandia.)

We're honored to have Lyn here as part of the rgz SALON, a feature where top kidlit experts clue us in to the best YA novels they've read recently. Today, she reviews Bestest. Ramadan. Ever. by Medeia Sharif (Flux):

"Now that she’s turning 16, Almira Abdul has pledged to observe the Muslim holy period of Ramadan—not a crumb of food or drop of water to pass through her lips from sunup to sundown for an entire month. She still remembers her humiliation the year before, when her very conservative grandfather noticed the cookie crumbs on her lips and berated her repeatedly in front of her entire family. This year, a number of other factors add to Almira’s stress level—her grandfather’s bullying of his daughter-in-law—her mother, to whom she is close—over how Almira is being raised, driving lessons from her grandfather, her attraction to a boy who her best friend also likes, and the arrival of another, far more beautiful Muslim girl who proves that looks and personality often do not go together. Over the course of the month, Almira discovers that her display of willpower is helping her lose unwanted pounds, but even that victory leads to unexpected complications for both romance and friendship.

"The author, of Kurdish and Muslim heritage, offers a portrayal that is both realistic and humorous. The experience of being caught between family rules and pressures on the one hand and the drama of peers on the other is one to which readers of all cultural backgrounds can relate. Sharif portrays a family that has become more assimilated with each generation and the difficulties of keeping everyone together and happy in such a situation. For the most part, the author gives Almira an authentic teenage voice, and she appears throughout the book as an enormously likable character who will keep readers cheering for her no matter what predicament she faces—or creates." -Lyn Miller-Lachmann

Rgz Salon: Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys, Reviewed by Lyn Miller-Lachmann

Rgz SALON member Lyn Miller-Lachmann has been the Editor-in-Chief of MultiCultural Review; the author of the award-winning multicultural bibliography Our Family, Our Friends, Our World; the editor of Once Upon a Cuento, a collection of short stories by Latino authors; and most recently, the author of Gringolandia, a young adult novel about a refugee family living with the aftermath of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. The book has had multiple print runs and is available for order. (Don't forget to read the fascinating Cover Story for Gringolandia.)

We're honored to have Lyn here as part of the rgz SALON, a feature where top kidlit experts clue us in to the best YA novels they've read recently. Today, she reviews Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys (Philomel):

"YALSA recently announced its shortlist for the William Morris Award honoring the best debut YA novel of the year, and one of the finalists is Ruta Sepetys’s Between Shades of Gray. I agree with the accolade, as this is one of the most fascinating and challenging books that I’ve read in a long time. It recounts a little-known episode in the history of the Second World War, but one close to the author and her family. Her mother was able to escape Lithuania for the United States during the war. Other members of her mother’s family did not, and they became victims of Stalin’s brutality once Soviet forces overran the Baltic nations and eastern Poland in 1939—the same time that Hitler occupied western Poland and most of central Europe as a result of the non-aggression pact between these two despots. Sepetys uses their experience as the foundation of her stunning debut.

"Between Shades of Gray begins in June 1941, when Soviet forces control Lithuania but the threat of a Nazi invasion is growing. Fifteen-year-old Lina Vilkas, her 11-year-old brother, and their mother are deported from their comfortable home in Kaunas, Lithuania’s second-largest city, first to a collective farm in southern Siberia and then to a barren work camp near the North Pole. They are three of several hundred thousand people from Soviet-occupied Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and Poland sent to Siberia along with millions of others on the even of the Nazi invasion. They have been considered enemies of the state and potential Nazi collaborators because of their wealth and nationalist political views. Lina’s father has already been 'disappeared,' and the rest of the family searches for news of him among the other deportees. On the journey, Lina meets Andrius, a handsome and courageous boy two years older. They are later separated. She witnesses the death of her mother and countless others and finds an outlet for her fear and sorrow through her art, drawing the barren landscape that Sepetys so vividly describes.

"Sepetys’s fictional account reads like a memoir in the style of Esther Hautzig’s The Endless Steppe, which describes a Polish-Jewish family sent to Siberia under similar circumstances. In that sense, it doesn’t have a traditional story arc but rather is a chronicle of the protagonist’s first two years of a twelve-year captivity, with the 'climax' the arrival of a kindly Soviet doctor who treats the ailing internees, teaches them to cure and store fish so they will survive future winters, and helps them connect with an indigenous village nearby. Reflecting the real events, Sepetys leaves unresolved what happens to most of the characters, though she gives the reader a powerful surprise ending. Defying the 'political correctness' of much historical fiction, she also paints an authentic portrait of the Lithuanian characters’ culture and attitudes, including the subconscious anti-Semitism that explains their later collaboration with the Nazis in exterminating over 90 percent of the country’s Jewish population between 1941 and 1944. She does so not directly but through a complex, troubling, and ultimately convincing portrayal of the Bald Man, a Jewish deportee who joins Lina and her family at every stage of their terrible journey." -Lyn Miller-Lachmann

Rgz Salon: The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater, Reviewed by René Kirkpatrick

René Kirkpatrick has been a bookseller and book buyer, specializing in children's and teen literature, for many years.She has a degree in elementary education and reads widely across all genres. She is currently a buyer at Third Place Books.

We're honored to have her here as part of the rgz SALON, a feature where four of the top kidlit experts clue us in to the best YA novels they've read recently. Here's René, discussing Scorpio Races, by Maggie Stiefvater.

"This was, hands down, the Children’s Book Department’s favorite book this year. How can you not keep reading when the first line in a book is, 'It is the first day of November, and so, today, someone will die'.

"On a small island wreathed in fog and mist, two people prepare to race their horses for a massive pot of money. Sean and Puck have very different reasons for wanting to win the race but they are both determined to do it, only Puck is the first girl to ever sign up, and she wants to race her pony, and Sean has never lost a race on his water horse. As the two of them begin to get to know each other, we learn more and more about the lives they live on the island and how they are all entwined with the water horses that come out of the icy sea searching for flesh.

"So deliciously fabulous, so atmospheric and romantic in all the definitions of the word, it is a book for breathing in and reading slowly. I read it in one long draught and carried it with me everywhere I went after I was done. It is a definite re-read and should be on every horse lover’s shelf. But, please, even if horses aren’t your favorite animal, pick it up and read it just so you can enjoy the way Maggie writes."  14 and up. $17.99. Scholastic.

Rgz Salon: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor, Reviewed by René Kirkpatrick

René Kirkpatrick has been a bookseller and book buyer, specializing in children's and teen literature, for many years.She has a degree in elementary education and reads widely across all genres. She is currently a buyer at Third Place Books.

We're honored to have her here as part of the rgz SALON, a feature where four of the top kidlit experts clue us in to the best YA novels they've read recently. Here's René, discussing Daughter of Smoke and Bone, by Laini Taylor.

"Daughter of Smoke and Bone is a fabulous fantasy filled with demons and angels, starlight and hell. The story focuses on blue-haired art student Karou who runs mysterious errands for a person who may not be human while she tries to get through school. When black handprints begin to appear on door lintels around the city, she becomes swept up in a war between winged beings and the only family she’s ever known.

"A big, thick book that guarantees hours of riveted reading, Daughter of Smoke and Bone is a great book for the teen (or older!) reader of fantasy. The story takes place in Prague and seems to be firmly anchored in the here and now with this other world just out of sight. I would read it again just to see what I missed the first time around." 14 and up. $18.99. Little Brown.

Rgz Salon: Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai, Reviewed by Lyn Miller-Lachmann

Rgz SALON member Lyn Miller-Lachmann has been the Editor-in-Chief of MultiCultural Review; the author of the award-winning multicultural bibliography Our Family, Our Friends, Our World; the editor of Once Upon a Cuento, a collection of short stories by Latino authors; and most recently, the author of Gringolandia, a young adult novel about a refugee family living with the aftermath of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. The book has had multiple print runs and is available for order. (Don't forget to read the fascinating Cover Story for Gringolandia.)

We're honored to have Lyn here as part of the rgz SALON, a feature where top kidlit experts clue us in to the best YA novels they've read recently. Today, she reviews Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai (HarperCollins), a National Book Award Winner for 2011:

"The novel begins during Tet, the Vietnamese New Year that also serves as the birthday for all Vietnamese people. This year, in 1975, Ha is ten years old, and even she perceives the concern among her family and neighbors that the next Tet will see cataclysmic changes. The government in Saigon is barely hanging on, and within months, the Communists gain control of the entire country. Ha’s father, a South Vietnamese Navy officer, has been missing for years, but his fellow officers urge Ha’s mother to flee the country with her four children—Ha and her three older brothers Quang, Vu, and Khoi. After weeks in a refugee camp, they find a sponsor in Alabama and move to their new home where they encounter language difficulties and prejudice. To gain acceptance and assistance, they have to be baptized as Christians and attend church, though Mother clings to the old ways in secret. Ha and her three brothers struggle, grow, and find ways to make a life in their new land, and by the next Tet, all have begun to find a direction.

"Loosely based on the author’s own immigration experience in 1975 at the age of nine, this novel is told in verse that reflects the protagonist’s grappling with an unfamiliar language. Because Vietnamese is a pictorial language, images play a strong role in the narrative—the papaya that Ha misses, other typical Vietnamese foods and their poorly-matched American counterparts, the chick that Khoi hatches and tries to bring with him, Vu’s motorcycle and karate moves that make him the most popular of Ha’s family, the bully that Ha calls Pink Boy. Many of the poems rely on sound—alliteration and onomatopoeia—to depict Ha’s first efforts to learn English. Her teacher is 'MiSSS SScott' and her tutor 'MiSSSisss WaSShington.' She thinks of her first two friends, Pam and Steven, as 'Pem' and 'SSsì-Ti-Vân.' Along with evoking the process by which a confused immigrant learns a new language, Lai gives all her characters—not only Ha but also her three brothers and her mother—distinct desires and personalities that make them memorable and compelling." -Lyn Miller-Lachmann

Rgz Salon: Lyn Miller-Lachmann on Girls Who Try to Help

Rgz SALON member Lyn Miller-Lachmann has been the Editor-in-Chief of MultiCultural Review; the author of the award-winning multicultural bibliography Our Family, Our Friends, Our World; the editor of Once Upon a Cuento, a collection of short stories by Latino authors; and most recently, the author of Gringolandia, a young adult novel about a refugee family living with the aftermath of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. The book is in its third print run and is available for order. (Don't forget to read the fascinating Cover Story for Gringolandia.)

We're honored to have Lyn here as part of the rgz SALON, a feature where top kidlit experts clue us in to the best YA novels they've read recently. Today, she reviews Camo Girl by Kekla Magoon (Simon & Schuster, 2011) and The Trouble With Half a Moon by Danette Vigilante (Putnam, 2011):

"In the first year of my MFA program, I wrote a YA novel about a 14-year-old girl who takes a number of risks in order to help a boy she wants as a friend. As a result of my own project, I’ve been drawn recently to novels about other tween and teen girls who also get involved in the troubled and perhaps dangerous lives of younger boys. Two of those books, Kekla Magoon’s Camo Girl and Danette Vigilante’s The Trouble with Half a Moon portray young protagonists who are, like mine, biracial or bicultural.

"Magoon’s second novel, following the acclaimed The Rock and the River, explores a 12-year-old girl’s conflict between her loyalty to her oldest friend and her one chance to become popular. Shunned by most of her classmates and teased for her vitiligo, more visible because it’s on her face and she’s biracial—African American and white—sixth grader Ella Cartwright finds companionship in Z, a white boy who lives in a fantasy world. Z used to be Ella’s neighbor and consoled her when her father died, but his life fell apart after his father abandoned the family, his house was foreclosed, and he and his mother started to sleep at the Wal-Mart where she works. When the handsome, outgoing new student Bailey—the only other black student in the class—wants to be Ella’s friend, she begins to neglect Z in favor of Bailey and his friends.

"Ella feels guilty when she pulls back from Z, and her abandonment of him sets off a spiral of events that lead him into danger and she and Bailey following in a last-ditch effort to save him. Did she, in fact, betray her oldest friend for the cool new kid? Is she responsible for what happens to Z, or are his problems beyond her ability to fix? Camo Girl addresses these questions in a way that is poignant and realistic, leaving much for the reader to think about in terms of standing up, fitting in, and our responsibility to each other.

"Vigilante’s main character, 13-year-old Dellie, is of Puerto Rican and Afro-Caribbean heritage, living in a culturally diverse housing project in Brooklyn, New York. Ever since her five-year-old brother died in an accident resulting from her negligence, Dellie has not been allowed to leave her suddenly overprotective parents’ sight. They are consumed with grief and emotionally distant. When five-year-old Corey and his irresponsible, abusive mother move downstairs, Corey fills the emotional void that Dellie’s brother’s death left. Dellie finds herself becoming increasingly involved in Corey’s precarious life at the same time as she grows more distant from her best friend and worries that a boy she likes may be attracted to a cleverer rival. Another new neighbor—an older Jamaican woman with deep spiritual roots—shows Dellie the way to help Corey, her parents, and herself.

"Pitch perfect dialogue and strong, complex characterizations made this debut novel a gripping story from the very beginning. Vigilante does a good job of creating a five-year-old boy who acts his age and reveals only enough to get what he needs without drawing too much attention to himself and provoking more abuse. Little Corey, in fact, becomes a flashpoint in the conflict between Dellie and her friend, which grows out of her friend’s relationship with a boy with whom Dellie does not get along. As in Camo Girl, the climax of The Trouble with Half a Moon comes when Dellie’s devotion to the younger boy puts her own life in danger as well as his, and she learns the limits of her love and protection." -Lyn Miller-Lachmann

Rgz Salon: This Thing Called the Future by JL Powers, Reviewed by Lyn Miller-Lachmann

Rgz SALON member Lyn Miller-Lachmann has been the Editor-in-Chief of MultiCultural Review; the author of the award-winning multicultural bibliography Our Family, Our Friends, Our World; the editor of Once Upon a Cuento, a collection of short stories by Latino authors; and most recently, the author of Gringolandia, a young adult novel about a refugee family living with the aftermath of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. The book is in its third print run and is available for order. (Don't forget to read the fascinating Cover Story for Gringolandia.)

We're honored to have Lyn here as part of the rgz SALON, a feature where top kidlit experts clue us in to the best YA novels they've read recently. Today, she reviews This Thing Called the Future by J.L. Powers (Cinco Puntos Press, 2011).

"Growing up in a shantytown in today’s South Africa, 14-year-old Khosi Zulu rarely sees her mother, a teacher in a distant town, or her father, who lives with his mother even farther away. She is shocked, therefore, when her mother returns to the shantytown after a two-month absence, wasted and coughing blood. Although Khosi’s mother shuns traditional healing in favor of modern medicine, she refuses to visit a clinic for medicine because she doesn’t want to find out that she has AIDS. Schooled in traditional medicine by her Gogo (grandmother) and the neighborhood healer, Khosi wants to be a healer herself, a mission reinforced by her regularly occurring dreams and visions; yet to achieve this aim, she has to stand up to a witch who has cursed her, a drunk man who harasses and beats her because she won’t let him be her 'sugar daddy,' and a neighbor who accuses Khosi’s mother of stealing her insurance money and threatens revenge. In addition, Khosi has promised her mother she will become a nurse and leave South Africa, and the act of choosing between healer (the past) and nurse (the future) means showing disrespect to at least one of her ancestors.

"Powers seamlessly combines contemporary realism with the supernatural in this powerful and singular novel for readers in middle school through adult. The story is grounded in Zulu beliefs, legends, and folk traditions, giving Khosi’s dreams and the interventions of her ancestors a level of believability that most contemporary realistic novels with a fantasy component lack. Furthermore, the dreams are relevant to the story events, and all of the scenes, whether realistic or supernatural or morphing from one into the other, tie into the central theme of how respect for ancestors can guide a young person toward the future. While maintaining her central theme as the focus throughout, Powers builds tension and interest by raising the stakes through the three pursuers of Khosi—the witch, the drunk, and the vengeful neighbor—her mother’s physical decline, and the life-threatening purging ceremony that Khosi and her Gogo endure in hopes of saving Khosi’s mother." -Lyn Miller-Lachmann

Rgz Salon: The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney, Reviewed by Rene' Kirkpatrick

René Kirkpatrick has been a bookseller and book buyer, specializing in children's and teen literature, for many years. She has a degree in elementary education and reads widely across all genres. She is currently a buyer at Third Place Books.

We're honored to have her here as part of the rgz SALON, a feature where four of the top kidlit experts clue us in to the best YA novels they've read recently. Here's René, reviewing The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney. (Ages 14 and up. Little Brown, 2010).

"The Mockingbirds takes place in a boarding school. Themis is a quiet school, people are expected to behave honorably, but when something horrible happens and you can’t go to the school, what do you do? When music student Alex is raped after a concert where she had too much to drink she has no idea what to do. She is embarrassed, feels like it was her fault, doesn’t want people to know, she doesn’t feel as if there is anywhere to turn. When the boy starts to spread rumors about her, The Mockingbirds step in to help. They are a secret group dedicated to righting the wrongs perpetrated by students on students that the school can’t or won’t take on.

"The Mockingbirds deals with a harsh issue but one that needs to be taken on. More women than you know have to deal with this issue and, even though we are given the right to say no, between one thing and the other, NO doesn’t happen. When Alex wakes up in the morning and doesn’t have a clear idea how she got naked, she begins to feel sick and when she sees the condoms in the garbage she feels ashamed. She doesn’t know how she got here and can’t remember anything. Over the course of time, snippets of the night before come back, and with each memory she becomes more and more depressed. When her friends finally pull the reason out of her, they take steps to help her to deal with it.

"It’s a hard book to read, but an important one. We still don’t talk about sex openly, we hide it away and when it happens, whether by choice or not, it often becomes something that is distasteful and shameful and it is almost always the girl who gets hurt. Maybe this book will help girls become stronger, maybe it will help us figure out how to keep it from happening, maybe it will keep us from being embarrassed by something we didn’t instigate, want, or need and start the discussion about staying safe." -René

PS-Read the Cover Story for The Mockingbirds and Story Secrets about the book too!

Rgz Salon: What Can't Wait by Ashley Hope Perez and A Good Long Way by Rene Saldana, Jr., Reviewed by Lyn Miller-Lachmann

Rgz SALON member Lyn Miller-Lachmann has been the Editor-in-Chief of MultiCultural Review; the author of the award-winning multicultural bibliography Our Family, Our Friends, Our World; the editor of Once Upon a Cuento, a collection of short stories by Latino authors; and most recently, the author of Gringolandia, a young adult novel about a refugee family living with the aftermath of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. The book is in its second print run and is available for order. (Don't forget to read the fascinating Cover Story for Gringolandia.)

We're honored to have Lyn here as part of the rgz SALON, a feature where four of the top kidlit experts clue us in to the best YA novels they've read recently. Today, she reviews What Can't Wait by Ashley Hope Perez (Lerner/Carolrohoda, 2011) and A Good Long Way by René Saldaña, Jr. (Pinñata Books, 2010).

"Talented young Latinas who struggle to reconcile their dreams with the demands of their families are featured in two new books by Latino authors. In both What Can’t Wait and A Good Long Way the girls’ families expect them to cook, clean, babysit, or contribute to the family income through part-time jobs that encroach on their time for schoolwork and rest. While responsibility to family is important, these strong girls find ways to overcome the restrictions and limitations and to build the foundation for a better life than that of their mothers and sisters.

"Although Jessy is only one of three point of view characters in A Good Long Way, Saldaña weaves her story in with that of the two brothers, Roelito and Beto, Jr. After a fight with his father, Beto, Jr. runs away to Jessy’s house, hoping she’ll take him in. Jessy refuses, fearing the rage of her alcoholic father if her friend is discovered. The next day, Jessy, an honor student, breaks down in class, remembering her own attempts to run away, while Roelito looks for his older brother at school and Beto Jr. goes to work with his father in order to reconcile with him. Saldaña explores a man’s responsibility—a father for his family, and an older brother for his younger brother—and a girl who has to give up responsibility for her dysfunctional family in order to save herself.

"A Good Long Way takes place over a single 24-hour period in which the precipitating event leads to new insights and changes for all three characters. Jessy’s strength in facing her difficult family situation helps Beto, Jr. to see the good in his own father’s rules for him, while she decides to bide her time until she can go to college and make her own life. Saldaña uses multiple points of view effectively to tell his characters’ stories and differentiate them. He explores a theme about which he is passionate without being preachy, instead letting his characters come to their own conclusions. The ticking clock adds to the tension and urgency, helping to make this short but profound novel a first choice for reluctant readers.

"While Jessy looks forward to college, Marisa, the protagonist of What Can’t Wait, sees her academic achievements belittled by her immigrant parents, neither of whom went beyond the sixth grade in school. The youngest of three children, Marisa, a high school senior with dreams of studying engineering at the University of Texas, is expected to meet the needs of everyone else in her family, including her five-year-old niece because older sister Cecilia’s husband is an abusive drunk. When Cecilia’s husband is critically injured in a work accident, Marisa’s father promises that their family will be taken care of. No one will go hungry or become homeless, but everyone will have to make huge sacrifices. For her part, Marisa has to take on more hours of work at the supermarket, as well as caring for her niece. Her schoolwork suffers, and she has to make hard choices about the viability of a relationship with the boy she likes. Attending the University of Texas in Austin means abandoning her troubled family altogether, because they live in Houston and she will only be able to visit occasionally on weekends.

"Perez sets up a seemingly intractable conflict between a teenage girl’s loyalty to her family and her quest for individual fulfillment and success. She shows both sides of the values that have kept Marisa’s impoverished family together and with the bare necessities at the same time as those values reduce the options of its most ambitious members. Like A Good Long Way, Perez’s novel doesn’t preach, and it doesn’t offer easy solutions, but it depicts a strong Latina teenager who seizes control of her life in pursuit of a better future for herself and, in the long run, for her family too." -Lyn Miller-Lachmann

Rgz Salon: Jazz in Love by Neesha Meminger, Reviewed by Lyn Miller-Lachmann

Rgz SALON member Lyn Miller-Lachmann has been the Editor-in-Chief of MultiCultural Review; the author of the award-winning multicultural bibliography Our Family, Our Friends, Our World; the editor of Once Upon a Cuento, a collection of short stories by Latino authors; and most recently, the author of Gringolandia, a young adult novel about a refugee family living with the aftermath of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. The book is in its second print run and is available for order. (Don't forget to read the fascinating Cover Story for Gringolandia.)

We're honored to have Lyn here as part of the rgz SALON, a feature where four of the top kidlit experts clue us in to the best YA novels they've read recently. Today, she reviews Jazz in Love by Neesha Meminger (Ignite Books, NY, 2011).

"Like the music and film industries before it, the publishing industry is changing quickly. Consolidation of publishers and imprints has led to bigger books and fewer choices in terms of genre and subject matter, at least from traditional channels. However, it’s become cheaper and less risky for smaller presses and writers themselves to publish, leading to a large, chaotic, and diverse universe of independently published books.

"Big Six publisher Simon & Schuster brought out Neesha Meminger’s debut YA novel, Shine, Coconut Moon, which I reviewed for Readergirlz Salon in November 2009. For her second novel, Meminger has chosen to join the growing indie publishing movement, and the impressive quality of writing and design that characterizes Jazz in Love bodes well for authors with unique stories who choose to go with small presses or strike out on their own.

"Seventeen-year-old Jasbir Dhatt, a top student with strict immigrant parents from India, juggles three boys, her parents’ ambitions for her, and her quest to reunite a family friend with her first love in this humorous, fast-paced novel. When her parents catch her hugging classmate and friend-since-kindergarten Jeevan 'Jeeves' Sahota, they are so outraged that they begin a Guided Dating Plan to find a more appropriate match. Even though Jeeves, like Jazz, is in the FSL (Future Stars and Leaders) program at their suburban high school and his family is wealthier than hers, he is of a lower caste and thus unsuitable. (Although the families are Sikh rather than Hindu, caste is still important to Jazz’s traditional parents.) The arranged suitor, Gurmit, turns out to be far nicer and more interesting than Jazz expected, but he’s also gay, a fact both he and she must keep secret. Meanwhile, Jazz finds herself attracted to 'bad boy' Tyler R., a transfer student whose family, though of Indian heritage, hails from Trinidad—a place of origin considered inferior by 'Indian Indians' of all backgrounds. When all the plans unravel and the secrets come out, Jazz discovers that she is far more resilient—and has far more options—than she first believed.

"For most readers, Meminger offers a fascinating window into Punjabi-American lives that also weaves in cultural information seamlessly and offers opportunities to compare and contrast one’s own cultural limits and expectations. Readers who share the cultural background of the characters will recognize the generational divide between traditional parents and children who have adopted the ways of the new country, as well as the diverse experiences of an Indian diaspora that includes England and the Caribbean. Meminger has a pitch perfect ear for dialogue. Her teenage characters talk like teenagers; her adult characters sound like adults; and she captures the vocabulary and inflections of immigrants from India and visitors from England and Canada. While the book begins as a romance, it takes some unexpected turns that lead readers to examine the difference between love and lust.

"Ignite Books, NY plans to publish more fiction for teens that reflect our nation’s diversity as well as a commitment to gender equality and social justice. The high production quality of Jazz in Love bodes well for future titles. Those looking for a fun, smart read will be well served by this novel and, hopefully, more from Meminger and her new publisher." -Lyn Miller-Lachmann

Rgz Salon: Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes, Reviewed by Lyn Miller-Lachmann

Rgz SALON member Lyn Miller-Lachmann has been the Editor-in-Chief of MultiCultural Review; the author of the award-winning multicultural bibliography Our Family, Our Friends, Our World; the editor of Once Upon a Cuento, a collection of short stories by Latino authors; and most recently, the author of Gringolandia, a young adult novel about a refugee family living with the aftermath of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. The book is in its second print run and is available for order. (Don't forget to read the fascinating Cover Story for Gringolandia.)

We're honored to have Lyn here as part of the rgz SALON, a feature where four of the top kidlit experts clue us in to the best YA novels they've read recently. Today, she reviews Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes (Little, Brown, 2010).

"Lanesha, who has just turned 12, lives in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans with the midwife and seer Mama Ya-Ya, who has taken care of her ever since Lanesha’s mother died in childbirth. Lanesha was “born with a caul, a skin netting covering my face like a glove” and because of it, Mama Ya-Ya says she has the 'sight.' In the week before Hurricane Katrina, Lanesha—who has always been seen by the other children as an outcast because of this connection to the spirit world and who has been spurned as well by her wealthier Uptown relatives—makes two new friends and hears Mama Ya-Ya’s prophecy of a great darkness following the storm. When Hurricane Katrina hits, the Lower Ninth Ward floods, and 82-year-old Mama Ya-Ya enters her death throes, Lanesha brings everyone, including neighbor, classmate, and new friend TaShon, to the attic and then onto the roof. Gifted in mathematics as well as in sight, she uses her skills to calculate how much time she and TaShon have to escape before the water submerges them.

"An acclaimed author of novels for adult readers, Rhodes brilliantly captures the setting and the experience of so many young people trapped in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Most of the novel takes place before the hurricane hits, allowing her to show the lives of people in the Lower Ninth Ward, who have been depicted in the media as faceless victims. Lanesha is a singular character, rooted in the folklore of Africa and the American South but also with dreams of her future as an engineer. Bridges are an important symbol throughout the novel: Lanesha wants to build them; she and Mama Ya-Ya serve as bridges between the living and the dead; and Lanesha and TaShon (along with their dog, Spot) find safety on the Martin Luther King overpass, a bridge over the flooded city." -Lyn Miller-Lachmann