ONE YEAR IN COAL HARBOR- POLLY HORVATH

I have a confession to make. I read a lot, but I don't think my reading comprehension is very good. Why, you ask? Well, because I can't remember books. Take Polly Horvath's EVERYTHING ON A WAFFLE, for example. WAFFLE was a Newbery Honor book about ten years ago, and I'm pretty sure I read it. The reviews say WAFFLE is about an eleven-year-old girl named Primrose who lives in a small Canadian fishing village. Primrose's parents are believed drowned in a terrible storm at sea, but Primrose is absolutely sure they are still alive. While she waits for their return,  she lives with her Uncle Jack, but spends most of her time at the town restaurant, The Girl on a Red Swing, where absolutely everything, yes, even lasagna, is served on a waffle. School Library Journal said this about the book:

EVERYTHING ON A WAFFLE is ultimately a folksy, Garrison Keillor-style take on small-town life, spiced with sometimes hilarious, sometimes poignant anecdotes about the quirks and adventures of individual townspeople as seen through Primrose's wise eyes. It's a quiet, but very funny book.

 Recently, A YEAR IN COAL HARBOR, the sequel to everything on a waffle, was published. It's gotten some positive reviews, and some people even think it will be in the running for the Newbery. I found it at the library over vacation. ONE YEAR IN COAL HARBOR picks up on Primrose's life year after EVERYTHING ON A WAFFLE ends. She's still living in Coal Harbor, but her parents have returned, just like she knew they would (I think they actually came back at the end of WAFFLE).

At the beginning of the book, Primrose is still spending lots of time with Miss Bowzer, helping out in the restaurant. She regularly visits Bert and Evie, an older couple who were her foster parents for a short while her parents were gone. Evie is also a cook, but her trademark ingredient is miniature marshmallows, sometimes even the colored ones. Primrose is determined that Miss Bowser and her Uncle Jack should get married, and she works hard at making that happen. And she is worried that she will never have a real best friend. Things change when Ked moves to town. Ked is Bert and Evie's foster son, and soon becomes Primrose's best friend. Primrose enlists his help in writing a cookbook, and protesting the logging of a nearby mountain.

If School Library Journal reviewed  ONE YEAR IN COAL HARBOR, I think they could say lots of the same things as they did about EVERYTHING ON A WAFFLE. Again, it has a folksy, Garrison Keillor-ish feel about life in a small town. There are lots of quirky characters. It's funny (although I wonder if kids will sometimes miss the humor). There's a kid friendly recipe at the end of each chapter. Miniature marshmallows figure prominently.

Not sure I think this will win the Newbery, but it's a great example of character development. And a fun read.

DEAR BLUE SKY- MARY SULLIVAN

DEAR BLUE SKY, by Mary Sullivan

Cassie's world is falling apart.

Her beloved older brother and running partner, Sef, 

has enlisted in the Army, and is headed to Iraq.

Her mother is drinking.  A lot. 

Her mother and father are fighting about Iraq.

Her older sister, Van, is dating a boy no one else likes.

Her little brother, Jack, who has Down's syndrome, has stopped talking.

Her best friend, Sonia, has stopped talking to Cassie.

Cassie's world is falling apart.

In her seventh grade social studies class, Cassie is assigned to connect with someone from another country. She decides to connect with someone from Iraq. On the internet, she meets Blue Sky, a thirteen-year-old girl from Baghdad. Blue Sky's life has been torn apart by the war- her home has been destroyed, she can no longer attend school, and a neighbor is blown apart right in front of her eyes. Blue Sky and her family want the Americans to go home, so that Iraqi people can begin to rebuild their lives. Through Blue Sky, Cassie discovers that war is much more complicated than it seems.

I loved this book. Mary Sullivan does a terrific job capturing how war impacted so many different people- Cassie, her siblings, and her mom and dad. Then she uses blog entries and email to capture Blue Sky's reality. This one is sure to bring up lots of conversations about the realities of war.  

WARNING: Have kleenex ready before you pick up this book!

TWO BY KADIR

Two glorious new picture books by one of my favorite, favorite, favorite author illustrators.

I Have a Dream contains a CD of Marin Luther King's original speech. Perfect for sharing with kids next week, in preparation for Martin Luther King Day.

Nelson Mandela traces the world changing peace warrior's life from childhood through his long political career. Another must have…

SLICE OF LIFE

I stand in the luggage area, waiting anxiously. It has been three months since I have seen Son #1. Three long months. The airport is crowded. Somehow, I have managed, in all of the excitement to forget my phone. I wonder if we will ever connect.

Suddenly, I hear that voice.

"Come on, let's go."

I hardly recognize the young man standing in front of me. There are still those gorgeous brown eyes. That smile with the dimple and the gap in the middle. But now, the few scraggly hairs on the chin have become a goatee. And the boy-man I sent away is a man. Tall. Thin. Handsome. 

I cannot help myself. Tears well up. It has been way, way, way too long.

******
He will be staying almost three weeks. I expect that he will have a suitcase. But he brings only a backpack.

"I left a lot at home," he says.

One thing he did bring was his plaque.

A one foot by two foot wood plaque with  a picture of the football team on the top, and a smaller, maybe 5" X 7" individual picture in the corner.

"Can we hang this up?" he says, dragging it out of his backpack that night.

"Of course," I say.

I am a little surprised, however, when I get up the next morning to find the plaque hanging over the fireplace in living room.
***********

I want, so much for my boys to become readers. They are not. I try to talk myself out of spending money on books they won't read. Even so, I find myself in the book section at Target the day before Christmas. I want to choose books for my boys.

Son #2 has just seen THE HOBBIT, so I buy that book for him. I hesitate for a minute for Son #1, then decide on a crime/thriller. I doubt that he will read it, but I just cannot quit trying.

****************
We get in the car to go to the mall.

"What is this, anyway?" he says, holding up the CD audiobook of SPLENDORS AND GLOOMS.
I am not a big audiobook reader, but somehow I reserved this one instead of the hard copy. I have been listening to it as I drive around Denver this week.

"It's a book I'm listening to. Some people think it will win the Newbery."

"What's it about?"

I tell him that I don't really know yet. That so far there is a witch. And a little girl who is the only surviving of five children. That she invites a puppeeter and his two assistants to her birthday party. And that I am not far enough to know how all of those pieces fit together.

I am surprised that my son is interested. Elizabethan fantasy just doesn't seem like his genre.

"I was listening to it yesterday when I went to PT," says son #1.

Again I am more than a little surprised.

**********

We go to the mall to buy new glasses. The glasses will take an hour, so we wander the mall. We buy a pair of tennis shoes, two pair of jeans. Still half an hour. We end up in the Apple store looking at phone covers. I show my son a cover that looks like an old book. I am joking. Thinking he will not  be interested.

"I want it," he says.

I try to keep the surprise out of my voice. "You do?" I say, in what I hope is a reasonably even tone. I tell him that if he wants a new phone cover, he needs to spend his own money. I think this will be enough to deter him.

The next night, we are watching a football game on television. It is about 8:30. "I wanna go to the mall," he declares.

"For what?" I ask.

"Cuz I wanna buy that phone cover."

Again I work hard to keep the surprise out of my voice. "I'm not sure you can make it before they close. Maybe you can go tomorrow. It's close to the dentist."

And once again, I am surprised the next day when he asks if we can swing by the Apple store on the way home from the dentist. A book cover.

*********
There have been so many surprises this vacation…

 He needs the car for physical therapy. So he has been getting up at six several mornings each week. Without being asked. Without me having to bang on the door or wake him two or three times. Without complaining. Then coming back to get me. At the time I ask. Without complaining.

Unloading the dishwasher. Without being asked.

Stepping in when his brother is complaining about the enchiladas I have made for dinner. "K, stop!" he declares firmly. "Someday you are going to be at college and you are going to wish your mom to make you a pan of enchiladas for dinner!"

Apologizing for the math class he dropped this fall. "I'll make it up this spring," he says. "I just couldn't catch up after the surgery. And I didn't want to get an F."

**********
It hasn't all been perfect. Last night there was a huge stack of dirty dishes in the sink when I got home from work. And the gas tank was empty, despite the fact that I had given him money to fill the car yesterday morning. Then this morning I woke at 3:14 to the TV blaring, because no one had turned it off when they went to bed last night.  And there are still endless conversations about good choices with girls, and drugs, and God.

Even so, I'm loving watching my man child grow up.

And dreading Saturday, when I have to take him back to the airport.

THE MARBLE QUEEN- STEPHANIE J. BLAKE

Several weeks ago, I stumbled across THE MARBLE QUEEN somewhere in kidlitosphere. The book was endorsed by Barbara O'Connor, so right there, that was a good sign for me. I put my name in a book give away, and I WON! January 1, 2013, I won something! Seems like it ought to be a good omen to win a book the first day of the new year. And when the book came, I discovered something even way cooler! Stephanie J. Blake is a COLORADO author. She lives in Castle Rock, which is about 30 minutes south of me! We're almost neighbors!

THE MARBLE QUEEN, set in 1959,  is Blake's first novel. The main character,  Freedom Jane McKenzie, is the best mibster (marble player) in her grade/neighborhood, and wants to enter the Autumn Jubilee Marble Contest, and win the $100 first prize, but her mama,  Mrs. Wilhelmina Ann McKenzie, says that Freedom Jane is too old to be playing marbles with the boys. Freedom isn't ready to give up her dream. On top of that, Daniel, who has been her best friend for years, doesn't want to play with her any more, because she is a girl. And then her daddy, Homer Higginbotham McKenzie, is drinking way too much beer, which makes her mom angry.  

This book will, of course, raise the hackles of all your ten year old feminists. I suspect there will also be more than a few discussions about the friendship between Freedom and Daniel. How can someone who has been a friend forever all of a sudden turn his back on his best friend?  I also can think of a number of kids whose family members struggle with alcoholism or other kinds of addiction. I know I will hand this book to them, just to say, "Other kids have been there too."

When I finished reading the book, I had a great idea. Since we are practically neighbors, I thought it would be fun to host a little author party, right here at Carol W's Corner.  I asked Stephanie if she would be open to answering a few questions, and she graciously agreed. Please join me, then, in welcoming Stephanie J. Blake to my blog. 


Talk about your process. How did this book come to be? How did it get published?

The idea for the story came to me one Sunday while I was reading the paper. I was fascinated by an article about a group of old men who were reminiscing about their time as mibsters when they were children in the 1940’s and 50’s. Back then, marble competitions were sponsored by newspapers and children could win scholarships and cash prizes for becoming The Marble King. There weren’t many girls playing back then. I did some research and the story grew from there. It took about two years to write it.

 All told, it took me six years to get The Marble Queen published. I had about 13 rejections and have saved each and every one. The manuscript actually sat in the slush at Marshall Cavendish for almost a year before my editor emailed in April 2010 to ask if it was still available. I did a revision pre-sale and got the offer on June 10, 2010. The book came out to great reviews December 18, 2012.

How do you know so much about marbles? Were you a marble player?

I was not a mibster growing up. I am self-taught and have a pretty good spin shot! I have been collecting marbles for a few years. I have some special antique marbles that were found in thrift stores.

Who is Freedom? Is she based on anyone you know?

Freedom Jane was a name I’d picked out if I ever had a girl. Alas, my husband and I have three boys. Freedom is probably a lot like I was at ten—very headstrong, curious, smart, and a total tomboy.

How did you choose 1959 as the setting for the book?

The late 50’s are a magical time to me. I’d love to go back in time and wear bobby socks and poodle skirts. I set the story in 1959 because I wanted my characters to have innocence all around them. I didn’t want segregation issues or war time to complicate the story. I really wanted to explore early feminism and alcoholism.

Are there any instances in the book that are autobiographical, e.g. the fight on the first day of school, or dropping the collection plate, or being thunked on the head?

My mother used to wear a thimble on her finger when we acted up in church! I loved to skate when I was a kid, and I always coveted white leather skates with pink pompoms on the laces, but I never did get a pair. I fed my brother a worm once, and got into some awful trouble over that. My mom used to make zucchini slaw, and I just hated it.

 Friendships between girls and boys can get pretty hard around Freedom's age. Has this come up in your own life? How did you decide to make Freedom's best friend a boy?

As a girl, my best friends were usually boys. I had callouses from swinging on the monkey bars and I played sports. I didn’t care much for Barbie. My hair was always a mess. I was also close with my little brother, and we spent a lot of time playing together outside or on the playground across the street from our house. We moved around a lot, and I just didn’t identify with other little girls and the games they played.

So many kids I know struggle with family members who are alcoholics or drug users. I love that you showed Freedom's relationship with her father in the complexity that usually exists. Freedom clearly loves her dad, and he's not a bad guy at all. Talk a little about your thinking regarding that part of the book…

Freedom’s dad, Homer, is a complex character. He has these dreams and aspirations but can’t get out of his own way. Drinking is his escape. I wanted to be very careful and not make Homer a bad person when he drinks. Unfortunately, he is a weak man. Mama can’t stand weakness in anyone. 

Freedom has picked up on that. It’s the breaking of Mama’s rules that worries Freedom more than the actual alcohol use. She has unconditional love for Homer, even though he continues to fall short and disappoint Freedom. My editor and I were more worried about how Mama was portrayed. In early revisions, I had to soften Mama up to make her more likeable.

 I know a little about you from the cover, and from your website. I know that you live in Colorado, and have three sons, and love to bake. Do you write full time? If not, what do you do for your “day job?” When and where do you find time to write?

I am a full-time mom and part-time writer. While I have a dedicated office area on the main floor of our home, I struggle with writing. Sometimes I write for days, but sometimes months go by and I don’t write a thing. In the summer, I love to go fishing. I’d rather go fishing than write any day of the week.

What is next on the agenda? Do you have another book in the works?

I am working on a companion novel to The Marble Queen. It's set in April of 1971 and will be Barbara Jean's story. Freedom will be college-aged and Higgie will be a difficult teen. Some themes will be alcoholism, Vietnam, first crushes, and divorce.

Stephanie may be hosting an author signing in the near future at one of our local bookstores. If so, you know I will be sitting in the front row!

POETRY FRIDAY

I love poetry. And  books. And my kids. And teaching. And lots of other things too.

One of the things I love most is dogs. Last summer, right after the shooting in Aurora, Cindy Lord posted a link on Facebook. Outside Washington, D.C, it seemed, there in an organization called the Warrior Canine Connection. They raise golden retrievers and labs. The dogs are trained by veterans with Traumatic Brain Injuries, and eventually, they become service dogs for other veterans.

Last summer, the Warrior Canine Connection had a litter of six Golden Retriever puppies. They allowed another organization, www.explore.org, to put cameras in their puppy nursery. And you could watch the puppies 24/7. And that's pretty much what I did, those first few awful days. And then I kind of got addicted and spent a lot of the rest of the summer watching them grow.

Levi, Abby, Penny, Ruby, Lucy, and Grace have moved on. But last week, a new litter was born. And today, the camera went live again, and you can watch five roly poly yellow lab babies with barrel tummies and exclamation point tails. You need to go here for a soul break!

It seems only right, then, to have a dog poem in their honor. And so I turn, again, to Mary Oliver, who has a lovely poem about her dog, Percy.

"The sweetness of dogs (fifteen) "

…I thinking how grateful I am for the moon’s
perfect beauty and also, oh! How rich
it is to love the world. Percy, meanwhile,
leans against me and gazes up into
my face. As though I were
his perfect moon.” 

Mary Oliver 

Read the rest of the poem here.

And after you are done puppy watching (which I should warn you is totally addicting and absolutely ruins any possibility of getting anything productive done all day!) you can go over and check out the rest of the Poetry Friday posts with first-time host, Matt, at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme. 

SLICE OF LIFE

 So it's January 1, 2013

and many of my friends in the blogosphere

are choosing 

the "one little word"
that will be a life-theme 

for this year.

2012
was a hard year
A year when I doubted myself
as a teacher
a mom
a friend
a human being
again and again and again.
 And a year when I doubted my God
again and again and again.

And now I am trying to choose a word for 2013.

Hmmm.
Just one word.
Maybe my word should be Trust?
I want to trust that last year was part of a bigger plan
That all things will work for good.
And that this year will be better.
Maybe trust would be a good word.

Hope?

Maybe my word should be Hope?

2012 was a hard year for our family

A lot of dreams had to die.

And I am having a hard time believing

that we will regain our footing
that my boys will find their way
grow into the men that God
intends them to be.
Maybe hope would be a good word. 

Open?
Maybe my word should be Open. 

The boys are leaving…

I want to be open

To whatever might come.

 As hard as this year has been

I am not sure

that I am ready to be done

having kids at home.

And I wonder

is there another kid out there

in the foster care system

That needs me

as much as I need them.
Maybe open would be a good word.

Explore.
Maybe my word should be explore.  
This year, I want to explore
a new hobby--
some kind of art-
clay, or collage, or knitting, or watercolor.
I want to explore new volunteer work--
maybe with a agency
that trains service dogs,
or rescues Golden Retrievers or labs.
I want to explore a new kind of physical activity-
maybe go back to swimming, or try water aerobics.
Maybe explore would be a good word. 

So, while I know
that this is January 1st
and I should be ready
to choose a word
right now I can't.

For right now, my word is
wait.