It's All about the Kids, 'bout the Kids

You know The Bush School Library has all kinds of resources for parents and teachers too, right? We have books and videos encouraging adults in their work of raising and educating children -- everything from Experience and Education, by John Dewey (who inspired Helen Bush) to Madeline Levine’s Teach Your Children Well: Why Values and Coping Skills Matter More Than Grades, Trophies,or “Fat Envelopes”.

We have Free Range Kids: Giving Our Children the Freedom We Had without Going Nuts with Worry, a book by the World’s Worst Mom. (Lenore Skenazy is not really a bad mother, but the online controversy when she let her child ride the subway alone? OMG.) We have that wonderful French documentary, Babies. Four babies from birth to walking, four countries, four very distinct parenting styles.

I’m thinking about this today because I was looking up Kylene Beers this morning. (Do you know her? No reason to if you are a parent. If you are a reading teacher, I highly recommend checking her out. We have her book, Notice and Note: Strategies for Close Reading. My friend, a second grade teacher in Los Angeles, has been singing her praises for a year now.) So, anyway, like I said, I was looking her up this morning and here were the first words I read:

. . . a couple of weeks ago, I came across the Meghan Trainor music video hit “All About That Bass.” To be honest, I found that song because of the brilliant riff by some high school kids titled “All About Those Books.”  That song sent me in search of the original.  Now, with both lyrics in mind, I find myself humming “It’s all about the bass/books” all the time. And those lyrics set my mind in motion: what is _____________ all about? No surprise, I fill in that blank with the word “education.” What is education all about? I answer that with it’s “all about the kids.” That’s it. It’s not about a test. Not a blue ribbon. Not racing to the top.  It is all about the kids. When we lose sight of that, well, we simply lose.

Wow. There is it. What is best for our kids? There are lots of answers to this. Here are some of mine: Clean air, clean water, good food. Shelter, love, confidence. Opportunity, trust, faith. How do the actions we take as parents, educators and taxpayers support our children? Not our pocketbooks, not our schools, not our egos . . . our children. We love them with tender voices and soft hands. We feed them with food, stories, ideas, choices. We shelter them with a clean environment and safe spaces. We let them take risks appropriate to their age; we let them fail and experience disappointment and give them comfort in our arms. We celebrate their successes. We accept them for themselves, this amazing gift that the universe has loaned us for a time.

Lila, by Marilynne Robinson

Oh my goodness, I am reading and L-O-V-I-N-G Lila, by Marilynne Robinson. Every night, I think -- oh good, it's time to read some more Lila. It's dense though, and so far, I'm only reading it before sleep, so I am forced to take it slowly, which is unusual for me and in this case, good.

Why am I so entranced? Lila, herself, is such a compelling character. A young woman, maybe in her 20s, she's been homeless nearly her whole life. At 4, she was taken away from the people she lived with by the only person who ever showed her any tenderness, a disfigured woman called Doll, and they spent the next 10-15 years "running" from those folks. Eventually Lila walks into a church and feels an immediate and deep connection to the old man up front. Meanwhile preacher John Ames, a widower in his 60s, looks up and notices this woman. She's not pretty, but there is something about her that grabs him. Kismet?

The books starts with their connection and builds out -- Lila's life with Doll, her love for John Ames, Doll's death, how she survived on her own, their marriage, her confusion around faith and existence. It asks the big questions and the small ones. It's funny and heartbreaking and always surprising. Lila is continually distracted by wondering what happened -- to Doll, to her mother, to the folks they traveled with some, to the folks they ran from. Doll would never answer. "Never you mind," was her constant refrain. Her wondering helps her (and the reader) reconstruct or at least imagine the past she was first too young to remember and then was too much a child to question.

I both look forward to seeing Lila through her search for identity and dread coming to the end of the book. When was the last time that happened? I can't think of a time.

Book Club Suggestions

I was chatting with a parent volunteer today, helping her find some new books to read-aloud with her 3rd grader, and admitted that I love to tell people what to read, but totally dislike being told myself. It's why I can't be in a book club. 

Sure doesn't stop me from telling YOU what YOUR book club should read next, though!

Here are some books I've read that I would have loved discussing when I finished them:

Unless, by Carol Shields

Reta Winters -- contented mother, wife, writer, translator -- finds herself thrown for a loop when her daughter drops out of college to beg on a Toronto street corner with a sign reading "goodness." I think it's because Reta and I must be close to the same age and when I first read the book, my children were about the age as hers in the novel, but I cannot get enough of this book. I've purchased other Carol Shields books, but I haven't read them yet. I'm just not done with Unless. The structure, the mix of tragedy and comedy, the language -- there is so much in this slim volume.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot
An unusual selection from me as I don't read a lot of non-fiction, but I'm trying to be inclusive here. This was on all the best seller lists a couple years ago. Did you read it then? Do you know the story? Henrietta Lacks was a black woman in Baltimore who developed cervical cancer. A researcher trying to grow human cells for research took a sample of hers and they grew unlike any collected before. Okay, interesting questions of patient rights arise, but it doesn't stop there. Her story intersects with the polio vaccine and the Tuskegee Institute, among other mid-century focal points. Skloot did a great job of representing all the voices in this fascinating, and controversial, history.

Gemini, by Carol Cassella
Another medicine-based story, this is a well-written novel by a local doctor/writer. I loved all the main characters, even as they infuriated me. The writing and language are good. The plot twists are surprising, yet realistic. Two different stories unfold in alternating chapters -- a contemporary drama and a kids' friendship about 20 years earlier. It makes for a good structure for the story arc as a whole.

The Spare Room, by Helen Garner
This novel from Down Under gives you a medical drama without the financial concerns. I know, right? That's not something you get with American novels. Narrator Helen offers an old friend a place to stay while she is in treatment for stage 4 cancer. It turns out that Nicola is in total denial and her specialist is a quack. Fascinating, funny, horrifying, the reader reels from the disconnect of seeing Nicola in her self-absorbed dysfunctional state while hearing what a wonderful, generous, creative friend she was. We only get glimpses of the true Nicola -- she has been possessed by a desperation so fierce that she is lost to her friends and to herself.

An Untamed State, by Roxane Gay
"Once upon a time, in a far-off land, I was kidnapped by a gang of fearless yet terrified young men with so much impossible hope beating inside their bodies it burned their very skin and strengthened their will right through their bones." So begins Mireille's story of imprisonment, torture, surrender, betrayal, and the nearly impossible climb back to life. It's a hard read, but Gay is a generous author; she gives us hope and love and prose so beautiful you will weep. 

Middlemarch, by George Eliot
Is your group in the mood for a classic? This fits the bill, plus gives you passion, feminism, hypocrisy, greed, vanity, love, snark and glorious writing. It's oh so meaty and many, many writers owe Eliot their careers.

I'd love to hear what you think of this list! What's on yours?

A Reader Responds...

Lindi has written about darkening her days of summer with heavy books, and makes a good case to pick these up when the sun arrives early to erase any dark thoughts caused by reading about violence and grief. But for me, summer reading remains more indulgent. While propped uncomfortably in a tent, trying to get the headlamp to illuminate the words, nothing but a lurid mystery will do. When faced with a weekend with the extended family, several generations talking all at once in the same space, then a YA novel with urgent plot lines and breathy incomplete sentences is the only thing I can focus on. And when the nights turn sticky and the open windows bring no relief, well, then it is time to turn on the TV and hope for the best.

Winter, on the other hand, is the time for sturdier stuff. Well researched historical fictions in which characters scheme and drink flagons of white mead take my mind off car pool rotations, homework supervision and menu planning. Three part Victorian tomes fill the long nights, stretched on the couch, nearly napping. Chapters of award winning novels fill the minutes of waiting in a pick-up line. Reading about polar explorers stuck on the ice in fierce blizzards put my own struggles to drive up the slightly snowy hill into perspective. I’m looking forward to all of that. Winter is coming!

Of course, the best books are those that have no season, those that are well written and memorable as well as being entertaining. I read two this summer that stand out among the rest: Longbourn by Jo Baker and Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan.

It would be easy to say that Longbourn is the downstairs to the upstairs of Pride and Prejudice, but that summary misses that point of this original and fully imagined novel. Think of a household with 5 daughters in the days before maxi-pads. Guess who had to wash the rags! When Elizabeth Bennett famously sets off to Netherfield in the mud, Sarah the housemaid knows the pink Persian silk dress will be ruined. When Mr. Collins arrives at short notice for his twelve day stay, Mrs. Hill the housekeeper knows there is no time to properly air and buff the guest chamber and so makes do with a spray of evergreen and berries in a vase and goes off to roast a hen with parsnips. James grooms the horses and takes the family to the balls and dinner parties. But the book is not merely about cold mornings and chilblains and cooked chicken. The characters are all fully realized with secrets of their own. The writing is a dream to read and the plot pulls you along. While it probably helps to have read Pride and Prejudice, this novel stands on its own. Rest assured the story of Sarah and James is as romantic as anything Jane Austen can pen.

Mr. Penumbra is also a romance of sorts, illuminating the way old books and high tech can mingle and support each other. The plot is a bit farfetched - employees of the titular bookstore race across the country to discover secret reading rooms, arcane book societies, hunt down type punches (the literal printing fonts) and make book scanners out of cardboard and computer chips. Somehow the goose chase of a plot doesn’t matter because it is such fun to read about the discoveries. Written with wit and imbued with creative ideas, this book zips along breezily, until the final emotional punch at the end. Unlike The Circle by Dave Eggers which is a heavy handed screed against Google, Mr. Penumbra enthusiastically embraces all kinds of reading. So, if a heady combination of topics as unrelated as Aldus Manutius, rock climbing, fantasy fiction, secret societies, research, type fonts, 3-D models, and tall ladders hold any interest, this is a book for you.

Today it is warm, but rainy. The days are getting shorter, but it is definitely still summer. Back to my mystery.

Summer Reading Recap, Grown-Up Edition

Hey y'all!

It's summer! And what a glorious summer Seattle is having this year! Temperatures consistently in the 80s with a few 90+ days sprinkled in, day after day of sun. It has been one for the books... and I mean the record books.

But as long as we're talking about books, let me bend your ear about what I've been reading. People talk about "beach reads" and "chick lit" for the summer, and yeah, I read my share of what I call popcorn, but I also tend to reserve my dark and serious books for these bright days. Don't want to be reading depressing stuff when it's dark at 3:30 in the afternoon, oh no.

So what stands out for me in the grown-up fiction realm this summer? Number one is definitely An Untamed State, by Roxane Gay. Followers of this blog will remember that last May I was eagerly anticipating its publication. [Quick plot recap for those who need it, Mireille is a Miami woman kidnapped while visiting her parents in Haiti and held for 13 days before she is released.] The novel exceeded my expectations. It's harrowing and there are some scenes where I just had to pretend I didn’t know what was going on. It’s also authentic, hopeful and compassionate. Gay very skillfully writes about violence without titillation of any kind. I can imagine a person reading some of the torture scenes in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and, well, getting off a little. You know? It's hard to resist the push of our culture's misogyny and glorification of violence. I mean, look at Fifty Shades of Grey. But Gay does not allow that in her writing. Mireille has had a bad thing, a series of bad things, happen to her. They are done by men, and Gay's not giving the reader anything but the ugly truth about that. One Goodreads reviewer said that for her, “An Untamed State is about what a woman absorbs.” That’s succinct and true, just like Gay’s beautiful writing. Another theme that stands out in An Untamed State is the notion of before and after in a life. Mireille's imprisonment and recovery both are dark and hard. The after isn't necessarily her release from the kidnappers.

The second novel I loved this summer is The Possibilities, by Kaui Hart Hemmings, a thoughtful book of grief and resilience. Hemmings is probably better known as the writer of The Descendants, which was made into a George Clooney movie a few years back. Like her more famous book, The Possibilities is about relationships’ complexities. Here’s my Goodreads review: “You know how you know and love someone; you think you know them better than themselves maybe even? And you love them, deeply, warts and all? And then they do something surprising. Not out of character, because that suggests they're an actor. Just something that you didn't see coming. That's how this novel is. Hemmings has written a book about long-time friendship and love and family, and I thought I could see where it was going, but then she surprised me with moments so perfect, so unexpected -- the whole novel captures that essence of how complicated and multi-layered people are.”

Stay tuned for more mini-reviews of what we read this summer. Now back to the sunshine… where’s my book?