Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry - Mildred D. Taylor

Roll of Thunder
Hear my cry
Over the water
Bye and bye
Ole man comin’
Down the line
Whip in hand to
Beat me down
But I ain’t
Gonna let him
Turn me ‘roun


I didn’t want to read this book. It felt too much like a text book, one of those required reading that are always too preachy or just plainly boring, but highly educational. I should have known better, given it won the Newbery Medal, and I have yet to read a book which won that medal that I didn’t like.
Another reason why I was reluctant is that I knew it had to do with racism against black people in America, and since I hate injustices, I thought I couldn’t read this without feeling really angry and ending up not enjoying it at all.
I was partly right. It is about injustices and discrimination but the story and the characters won me over almost instantly. The slight problem I had at the beginning was with its use of southern American accent, but I got used to it pretty quickly and it actually added to the story.

Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry is set in the cotton-growing farmlands of Mississippi delta in the 1930s and it tells the story of the Logans, a somewhat privileged family because, unlike the rest of the black people in the area, they own their own land and they’re proud of it. Their story is told through the eyes of their only daughter Cassie, a strong-head 9 year-old, who slowly and sadly realises that, although slavery had been abolished almost 70 years earlier, inequalities are still very much alive, carried on though intimidation by most of the white people. Schools are still divided between black and white, and while white kids are carried to school by bus, black students have to walk, no matter how far their house is.
Being the daughter of a well-educated and strong-minded teacher, Cassie finds hard to accept these differences and can’t understand the reason why she should be ashamed for being what she is.
There are few scenes that I won’t easily forget: the humiliation that Cassie and her brothers have to suffer every time the school bus splashes them with mud, the anger Cassie feels (and rightly expresses) when she is ignored in the grocery shop, the way a teacher could be dismissed so easily for no obvious reason, other than intimidation.
And yet, even if it was a tale of inequality and injustice, it still had the warm feeling of comfort that only loving families can give. Cassie and her brothers are protected by a circle of grown up figures that teach them the rules of the world, advice them on how to behave, what to accept and what to change. Sometimes these advices seemed questionable to me. For instance, when a white kid tries to be their friends, constantly showing them to be different from his arrogant family, Cassie’s father warns them against this kind of friendship, saying that times are not ready for that yet, and when the white kid will grow up, he will learn to be just like the rest. Instead of encouraging a little change that could show things could be different, their father decides to be defensive and sceptic. Aside from this, he and their mother try to teach them their best values, while trying to cope with the reality in which they’re living.
One of my favourite quote is a wonderful metaphor that compares the strength of one little fig tree with their own:

You see that fig tree over yonder, Cassie? Them other trees all around…that oak and walnut, they’re a lot bigger and they take up more room and give so much shade they almost overshadow that little ole fig. But that fig tree’s got roots that run deep, and it belongs in that yard as much as that oak and walnut, It keeps on blooming, bearing good fruit year after year, knowing all the time it’ll never get as big as them other trees. Just keeps on growing and doing what it gotta do. It don’t give up. It give up, it’ll die. There’s a lesson to be learned from that little tree, Cassie girl, ‘cause we’re like it. We keep doing what we gotta, and we don’t give up. We can’t.

All in all, it’s a very readable book, and I understand why it became a classic, even though I’d have preferred it to be a bit more subversive!

Paddy Clarke ha ha ha - Roddy Doyle

Paddy Clarke is ten years old. He lives in Dublin, in the fictional north side Barrytown, with his little brother Sinbad, who wears a patch on one eye to help the other lazy one, a mother always busy with his two baby sisters, and a father always busy reading his newspaper. It's the 60's and a child's life takes place mostly outside, in the streets or in the fields which still surround the area, playing football, stealing from the shops just for the dare, exploring the near building site, always looking for danger.

It's a tough world. Teachers can still beat kids up. Bullies are respected and even emulated. But for Paddy the scariest threat is at home, where the fights between his parents are whispered, night after night, while he's in bed, trying to shut them out, or to magically make them stop with his thoughts.

This book is a trip in Paddy's mind. A sort of childish stream of consciousness. Facts, memories, events, questions and dialogues, all follow one another with no apparent logic. It's a truthful way of capturing a child's world, his way of thinking, his heroes (Geronimo, the leper priest, George Best...), his fears.
Specifically, what Roddy Royle does really well is showing how incomprehensible the grown up world seems to a child. How senseless and illogical.

Why didn't he like Ma? She liked him, it was him that didn't like her. What was wrong with her? Nothing. She was lovely looking, though it was hard to tell for sure. She made lovely dinners (...) There must have been a reason why he hated Ma. There must have been something wrong with her, at least one thing. I couldn't see it. I wanted to. I wanted to understand. I wanted to be on both sides. he was my Da.

The child's perspective feels so real, Doyle sticks to it so firmly you almost think that a child wrote it.
Maybe this was also the reason why I couldn't enjoy it completely. I struggled to finish it even though I enjoy some parts very much. What it lacked was fluidity. It felt fragmented, there was no common thread that usually keeps me interested and wanting to read more.
Sometimes I wished the flashes of stories that were told would go on longer, that became part of a whole. But to me they never did.
Some dialogues were really funny and reminded me why I love his other Barrytown books so much. But with this, I never felt completely absorbed and I was glad when I read the last page.
That said I didn't give up on him. I still have to read two of his books. "The woman who walked into doors" and "Paula Spencer". One day, when I'll read them, I'll let you know if they lived up to the expectations.

Other Blog Reviews
Nymeth at Things mean a lot
Kristi at Passion for the page

I was a Rat! by Philip Pullman

This charming little book is a funny, moving and extremely entertaining tale that only confirms what a great storyteller Philip Pullman is.
It’s the picaresque adventure of how a little boy in a page uniform, who knows little about the human world - but a lot about cheese - knocks one day at the door of a cute old couple, Bob and Joan, and candidly declares “I was a rat!”.
Bob and Joan, seeing he is alone in the world and nobody’s looking for him, take him under their roof, give him a name - Roger - and try to teach him how to be a proper boy. Not an easy feat though, because little Roger has no clue of what a boy does or doesn’t do. But he understands the basics rules of life (at least of a rat’s life): eat when hungry, gnaw anything in sight range, run away when beaten up or when confronted with cats.
His naïve approach to the world inevitably starts a series of unfortunate events that catch him completely unaware, and that leads him away from the loving care of Bob and Joan and right into the hands of scrupleless shifty characters who are only looking to use him.
I found his encounter with the philosopher royal, who wants to study him to become famous, especially funny and clever. Here's a little taste:

“Now Roger” – he began – “why are you wearing a page-boy’s uniform?”
“I dunno. I expect I forgot but I’m not sure. If I could remember whether I forgot it I’d know if I had, but I probably forgot without remembering it”
The Philosopher Royal was used to problems of epistemology, so he made sense of that with no trouble at all.

In addition to Roger’s misfortunes, readers can enjoy and recognise the typical tabloid in the pages of The Daily Scourge, always looking for the screaming title, the big scandal or any story that could sell the most, and always ready to change opinion according to where the wind blows. These might be the funniest bits in the story. I love them!
Also, the general illustrations by Peter Bailey are adorable and made me care for poor Roger even more.

All in all “I was a Rat!” is a story good for everyone. It’s a satire of the press, of the royal family and of the whole English society, and it’s also a great story in a kind of old-fashion way. The kind that’s probably best read aloud at bed-time, one chapter at the time.

Thanks so much Ana, for this. Your present was spot on:)
Ps: The book uses a working class English, which I guess won’t help children to learn their grammar, but it would certainly make them laugh!

other blog reviews:
Nymeth at Things mean a lot

The Blue Girl - Charles de Lint

What a great book to start the year with! It was such a gripping read that at times I wished I could spend all day reading it, and at the same time I didn’t want to read it too quickly so that I wouldn’t come to the end too soon.
It’s my first encounter with Charles de Lint’s work, but I will definitely look for more books written by him. I can clearly see him becoming one of my favourite writers.
This one had a special meaning to me, even before I had the chance to read it. It was a book that I chose for a project for my MA in publishing. We had to pretend we were publishers and choose what books we were going to launch. Browsing Amazon for good young adult books not yet translated in Italian I was attracted by the beautiful cover art for “The Blue Girl” and immediately picked it. I’ve been wanting to read it ever since! And I’m happy to say it didn’t disappoint me one bit. Sometimes it’s good to judge the book by its cover!

So, for those who never heard of Charles de lint, he is the founder of a subgenre called “urban fantasy”, where traditional elements of fantasy fiction and fairy tales like fairies, ghosts and all sorts of magical creatures mix with the urban setting of the modern world. The majority of his books are set in an imaginary provincial town called Newford, where anything is possible (a bit like in Sunnydale, and the references to “Buffy” don’t stop here, stay with me!).

“The Blue Girl” tells the story of 16 year-old Imogene, the new girl in town, who’s determined to leave her trouble-maker past behind her, and live a new life in Newford. Maybe that’s why she chooses to befriend Maxime, a shy, smart and bullied student, and tries not to draw attention to herself. But Imogene’s strong personality, punk look and straightforwardness don’t help to pass unnoticed. However she manages to keep things under control, including the school bullies, until Adrian, the Ghost of a lonely kid who died in the school’s parking lot few years before, falls in love with her and tells her about his fairy friends, the Little People, who live in their school. While Maxine is excited to think that fairies really exist as she always hoped, Imogene thinks it’s nonsense and refuses to believe it. And that’s when the trouble starts.

“The Blue Girl” is not only a well-written, funny and clever fantasy novel. It’s also the story of a typical High School, which can often feels like a horror movie. Where bullies can pick on the weak, the shy and the different, and where friendship become the only means to survival.
This is why this book reminds me so much of “Buffy the vampire slayer”. Imogene and Maxine’s relationships is so much like Buffy and Willow’s at the beginning. The quick, hilarious dialogues have the same feel, and Imogene’s casual attitude to the unusual and the scary is so like Buffy’s, even without superpowers. They also have a librarian called Ms Giles! Even if she’s only mentioned a couple of times. And what about the use of words like “research-mode” and “ghost boy”?
Don’t be put off, though, if you’re not exactly a Buffy fan. The book is far from being a rip off of the show. It’s unique in its values and perspectives. And it’s a must read for anyone who enjoys fantasy, adventures, cool dialogues and the idea of having a bunch of amoral fairies dressed like hippy with dreadlocks, an imaginary friend who’s not imaginary anymore, and some scary soul-sucking shadows all wrapped up in one single book!

other blog reviews
Chris at Stuff as dreams are made on

"What's in a name?" Challenge

Ever since I saw this challenge I wanted to join, so here I am. Annie had the idea and now she even has a blog for it, with lots of Mr Linkys to post our reviews in the right places. Rules and conditions are here.
I had some problems finding a book with a plant in its title. Do fruit qualify as plants? If they don't I'll try and think of something else, but I'm trying to use only books that I already have, which is not easy! Anyway,this is what I came up with:

COLOUR
THE BLUE GIRL BY CHARLES DE LINT
I'm reading it now and I also included it in the Young Adult challenge. I'm absolutely loving it, I think it's safe to say I'm already a Charles de Lint fan! Sometimes it's good to judge a book by its cover :)

ANIMAL
I WAS A RAT! BY PHILIP PULLMAN
My secret Santa present!

NAME
PADDY CLARKE AH AH AH! BY RODDY DOYLE
I've no idea why I haven't read this yet,given that I'm such a fan of Roddy Doyle's writing, but each book has its own and right time to be read, and I think its time has come now. It will also qualify for the Booker Prize project, for which, so far, I've only read one!!! shame...

PLACE
HOMAGE TO CATALONIA BY GEORGE ORWELL
I've started this and then I left it unfinished. But I've always meant to go back to it because I really want to know more about the spanish civil war from someone who was actually there. I've loved the film by Ken Loach, "Land and Freedom", which was inspired by this book, so I think I should like this. Maybe the right time has come for it as well.


WEATHER EVENT
ROLL OF THUNDER, HEAR MY CRY BY MILDRED TAYLOR
I'm only using this because it was the only book that I own, with a weather event in the title! It's not a book that I've been wanting to read, I got it for free, but maybe it will surprise me.

PLANT
JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH BY ROALD DAHL
You can't go wrong with Roald Dahl. Well, at least if I can get away with a giant peach been counted as a plant. Which it is. Right?