Does My Head Look Big In This? - Randa Abdel-Fattah

"What's the big deal? It's a piece of material."
My mother snorts. "Since when do people see it as a mere piece of material? You and I both know that's a tad optimistic, ya Amal."
"So what? I can deal with all the crap...I want to try...and I want that identity. You know, that symbol of my faith. I want to know what it means to be strong enough to walk around with it on and stick up for my right to wear it."

So that's why sixteen-year old Amal decides to go full-time. That means wearing the hijab anytime a man who's not part of the family is around. Outside her house, at the mall, at the cafè, but especially in school. Not a decision to be taken lightly, when you're an Australian-born -Palestinian-Muslim student in a posh non-Muslim school. It takes guts, but Amal is dead serious and won't listen to anyone telling her it's a crazy idea.

I really enjoyed reading this. My first thought was that it should be given to anyone who's ever wondered what a girl who wears the veil thinks and feels. What are the reasons behind her custom. Whether she was forced to wear it or she's proud of it. It answers all these questions and more, in a straight-forward way. But this is not simply a book with a message.
It's mainly a very funny, witty and engrossing read. Its main character Yamal is a strong-minded and extremely smart girl who sticks up for her traditions and culture, while being a normal teenager with everyday teenage problems like zits, boy crushes, bitchy queen bees and best friends with weight complexes. It's hard not to like her.
Then there're a myriad of secondary characters: Amal's classmates, her Muslim friends, her family, her grumpy Greek neighbour. They all make this book a pleasure to read. I especially loved Amal's relationship with Mrs Vaselli, the Greek neighbour. It has a bumpy start, but it gets warmer and heartfelt and bittersweet.

One underlining theme of the book was the different ways in which human beings can experience immigration. Some will try to forget their past and blend in with the locals, in the hope of being accepted as equals. Others will cling on their cultures, and stick together, so not to feel too far away from home, and to remember who they are. Others will never truly feel at home and will end regretting the journey all their lives.
And then there's the second generation, the kids like Amal, who are born in a country, but for many people, they will never belong because their parents came from somewhere else.
To Amal she is a real Australian and is entitled to the same rights as any other Australian citizen, but at the same time she's also a Muslim whose parents happened to be born in Palestine. Just like her friend Eileen whose parents are Japanese.
Although Amal is proud of her heritage and will always defend it against its detractors, you can definitely sympatise with her when she's constantly asked to respond for terrorists actions done in the name of her religion. Wearing the hijab makes it even harder, because it exposes her immediately to the public and it seems to give people the right to associate her with murderous acts committed by complete strangers. And while Amal can't tolerate to always having to defend herself, the author is also showing that is just ignorance and the media depiction of terrorists as simply Muslim which causes confusion and misunderstandings among people. When Amal decides to respond, she's always spot on: it's not about religion. Just like it wasn't about religion in Northern Ireland. It's about politics. It seems like a very easy thing to grasp when she says it, and yet, TV and newspapers makes it a lot harder to tell the difference.

Another aspect that it brilliantly dealt with is the treatment of women in Islam. Most of non-muslim would think that Islam would be suppressive of women's rights. While Amal has being brought up to stand up for herself, to believe in education as a means to achieve independence, and to protest when she's called a "chick" by her male friends.
When her Muslim friend is pushed by her mother to find a suitable husband so that she can leave school and be a good wife, Amal is appalled that her friend's mother considers this part of being a good Muslim. To her it's just part of a tradition, not of her religion.
While I don't know enough about Islam to say if this it true or not, I appreciate the author's efforts to show that not every Muslim thinks the same, and that there can be multiple interpretations of the same religion.

One thing that I had a bit of a problem, though, was with Amal's decision to avoid any physical contact with the opposite sex before marriage. I understand that it's part of her religion of which I know little about. But I do feel that it's very similar to the Christian idea of virginity as the highest form of purity and the idea of sex as sinful and impure. I strongly oppose this view , I believe it's unhealthy and unnatural. In the same way I shudder at the thought of virginity pacts and rings, I can't bring myself to warm up to Amal's idea of refusing any kind of promiscuity until she finds the right one with whom she will spend the rest of her life. I see it as a very unrealistic expectation which is bound to bring her disappointment. I know many won't agree and will tell me I should respect her right to choose not to have sex until marriage. I do respect it, but I don't agree with it, and I can't shut up about it.

Anyway, I'm really happy I read this, it has definitely open up my mind about many issues, and it has given me a rare insight in the mind of a teenage Muslim in a way both entertaining and satisfying. You shouldn't miss it.

Other views:
Reading in color
Books love me
Adventures in reading
Bookshelves of doom
What Kate is reading
Becky's Book reviews
I was a teenage book geek


Please let me know if I missed yours.

Ahhh look!

I hadn't realised but the new cover for Magic Under Glass has been revealed!

I know I'm stuck with this anyway,

which is alright, but the US cover has much more meaning now. I wish I could just have it in my hands now and read it. Knowing that it exists only because lots and lots of bloggers showed their outraged to the publisher. It's not just more accurate and fair, it's also a lot prettier than the old one, I think.

Of Bees and Mist - Erick Setiawan

Why isn't this huge?
I haven't heard much about this gem of a pageturner around the blogs, but as soon as I saw it in the shop I knew I wanted to read it. The tag line reads: "Three strong women. Two feuding families. A singular story of enchantment". I didn't need more encouragement than that.
I was immediately hooked. The story was so easy to fall into although at first I was baffled by the use of supernatural elements, which I didn't know how to interpret. As soon as I got the hang of them, and managed to give them some kind of meaning, I dropped all my doubts and let my self be swept away by the story, the characters and the atmospheres.

Of Bees and Mist could be called a family saga, as it reminded me of how I felt when I first read The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. It has also many elements of fairy tales, but I think it is ultimately a story of powerful and extremes emotions. Love, Pain, Jealousy, Loss, Betrayal, Forgiveness. It's a story of relationships, of strong friendship and strong hate. There's not a lot of mild feelings going on here.
Like The Thirteen Tale it avoids carefully to be set in any particular time. It also doesn't give you any name for the country is placed in, not even for the town the whole story revolves around.
This helped to achieve the feeling of a mythical story, with no time or space, which could have happened anywhere, and anytime. Not today though, at least not in Europe. Women here bring a dowry to their spouses. They give birth at home. They wear long dresses and have maids if they're rich. It definitely tells of a world gone by albeit one which can't be confined to any country.
Its mythical features were enhanced by the lack of a specific religion, and the influence that the "spirits" have in the characters' lives. They can take form in ghosts, good or bad omens, premonitions, dreams, visions. They are alive and present the whole time.
It's human beings, though, who have the leading roles, no matter how many supernatural elements it contains. Two women especially: Meridia and Eva.
We follow Meridia's life from her birth in a house chilled by an unforgiving cold, haunted by ghosts in mirrors and by misbehaving staircases, and by an angry mist that surrounds it constantly.
The trick to enjoy this story, I warn you, is to not ask too many questions. Everything has its own interpretation, but you need to keep reading, and to fall into the story, to capture them, layer by layer.
So, yes, there's the mists, and there's the cold. But there's mainly Meridia, a lonely and neglected child of a couple who used to adore each other and now can barely stay in the same room. Meridia's mum Ravenna who teaches her how to be proud and never show her true emotions, suffers from forgetfulness and thus is a vague presence in Meridia's childhood. Her father Gabriel is a stern and cruel man who has never shown her affection. So there's no wonder that when Meridia falls for charming and playful Daniel, she can't wait to marry him and get out of the house. She thought she was escaping the mists to embrace lightness and warmth. Instead she clashes against Eva, Daniel's mother, and from then on she embarks on a lifelong struggle to become independent, smart and strong, while holding on to her marriage and keeping away Eva's bees.
I'll stop here, cause as much as I'm dying to tell you everything I loved about the story and the characters, I'd hate it to spoil it for anyone.
So what more can I say to convince people to read it? That its writing is beautiful? It definitely is. That sometimes when I was reading it I'd forget where I was and outside noises (i.e. cars) would startled me a bit? Er, yes.
That you'd have great fun interpreting the various magical elements? I certainly did. For me they were both real and symbolic. They were simply manifestations of human feelings and actions. There were smells, winds, bees, fireflies, flowers, people becoming invisible, ghosts. Really, there's lots.
You could also say that it's a story about senses. There's plenty of them and they all have important roles. The smells, the tastes, the colours...They are strongly a part of the story and the characters. The food especially is ever present, and you can tell the author had a great time listing the wonderfully exotic and delicious-sounding dishes that Meridia shares with Hannah, her first friend at the Cinema Garden, or with Daniel at the festival of the spirits, or that Ravenna cooks furiously in her kitchen. When food is concerned be sure it won't be your regular meat with three veg.
Not everything is wonderful, though. There were few little things that annoyed me sometimes. I couldn't believe it when I read a passage where Meridia is furious and the narrator describes her by saying "She did not seem like a woman then, but a man far more determined than he was". Really? It seemed ironic, coming from a book like this, where female characters are so much more powerful and strong-minded than male ones. Which brings me to this other thing I didn't like much. The lack of good strong male characters. Daniel is a bit of a wimpy kid, and Gabriel is a block of ice. Like, literally. But the good thing is that these characters grow and change and they all come to show different aspects of themselves, which I really appreciate. No one-dimensional characters here, except for some very minor ones, but that's OK. Because there's this other minor character who I loved to bits and who makes up for all the weak ones, and I'm not gonna tell who it is, but if you read it you'll know.
So, there, when is everyone going to read this now, so I can talk more about it?

other opinions:
In the Shadow of Mt TBR
Joyfully retired
I'm booking it
Gaskella

The Deportees - Roddy Doyle

The recent literary racefail events made me realise how much my reading (and the bookshelves around here) are mostly dominated by white authors writing about white characters. It's not always necessarily stated that characters are white, but it's implied. After the Bloomsbury debacle, I skimmed the shelves of the bookshop I work in, focusing on the kids/YA section, and noticed how little ethnic diversity was represented there. Same goes with my bookshelves. Not enough non-white characters or authors.
It's not today news, it's something I should have always been aware of. And I sort of was, but not completely. I've always been intrigued by books with characters from different cultures, because most of the times, it's the only way for me to get to know closely and personally someone whose background is so different from mine, even if this person is fictional. I'd love to be able to travel more, meet people from all over the world, with any kind of skin colour, and know how they live, what they think. But I'm stuck in Ireland, a sort of immigrant myself, with all of my friends being white (very white!) and almost all Europeans. I'm also not the most sociable person, and although Ireland is more multicultural than ever, I've never being friends with a Black or Asian person, for example. And that's where books come in handy. They supply me with what my lack of sociability should provide. That's a way of seeing it anyway.

And that's why I picked up The Deportees and other stories. OK, also because I heart Roddy Doyle to infinity and have been waiting to read this for ages.
This is a collection of eight stories which Roddy Doyle wrote for Metro Eireann, the first and only multicultural paper in Ireland. At the end of the 90's and the start of the noughties, Ireland's celtic tiger was beginning to roar. "I went to bed in one country and woke up in a different one", writes Doyle in the foreword. This new Ireland was the home of hundreds of thousands of "new Irish" coming from all over the world: Poland, Zimbabwe, Romania, Spain, South Africa, Philippines, Nigeria, Italy, Lithuania, France, Pakistan ...
In the 80's Jimmy Rabbitte, the character who forms the band the Commitments, famously said that the Irish were the niggers of Europe. Now Ireland is the place many Africans choose as their home, and Jimmy Rabbitte wouldn't even dream of saying the same again. No, now what he dreams about is forming a band made entirely of immigrants! In the story which gives the books its title, "The Deportees", we get to meet Jimmy again, years later, married with kids. And dying to form another band, even though his wife is expecting another child and hates the idea. But he can't help himself and one day he grabs his laptop and writes the ad for Hotpress:

Brothers and Sisters, Welcome to Ireland. Do you want the Celtic Tiger to dance to your music? If yes, the World's Hardest-Working Band is looking for you. Contact J. Rabbitte at 089-22524242 or rabbittej@banjo.ie. White Irish need not apply.

This was one of my favourite of the collection. It's basically a sequel to the Commitments, which despite being way too short for my greedy taste, manages to recreate the same cheerful, upbeat, and absolutely hilarious atmosphere of the original novel. Alone, it would make the book worth reading. But it's not the only great one in the mix. It's true that it's a very diverse collection, in every sense, but I found it had more highs than lows and I loved it in its entirety. I devoured it. And now I'm afraid I'll have to buy my own copy 'cause I can't bare to be without it.

I'd definitely want to reread some of them. Especially "Black Hoodie". It's a story told from the point of view of a white Irish teenager who teams up in school with an extremely intelligent and proud Nigerian girl and two other teens, one of which on a wheelchair, to tackle the issue of prejudices against black people and youths in hoodies. It has a real YA feel, the usual Doyle's irresistible humour and some great characters I'd love to know more about.

Another one which intrigued me but left me ambivalent at the end was "The Pram". It's a genuinely spooky story about a Polish child-minder, a baby, a pair of creepy twin girls, and an old pram. Taken out of contest, as a sort of ghost story, I would have loved it. It actually spooked me out quite a little bit. It's cruel, and it shows the condition in which child-minders, especially foreign ones, are treated by wealthy Irish families. But I felt uncomfortable about the way the polish nanny comes across. Without spoiling the ending, if I were one of those wealthy southsider kind of mothers...let's just say I probably wouldn't feel very welcoming towards a Polish nanny again. Maybe the point of the story was only to write a well-crafted urban-gothic story without any other intent. That's fine. But in a collection where the main point seem to show the beautiful country Ireland has become because of the arrival of foreign folks, and to present a different take on some urban legends about what these foreign folks do in the private of their homes (setting up brothels and slaughtering Irish sheep, for instance), this particular tale seemed to me out of tune.

New Boy wasn't out of tune at all. It was short and moving, and just about perfect. It shows how the introduction of a new boy, from Nigeria, into an Irish class, causes some disruption. But it's nothing different than to what happens to a newbie in almost every school. Kids are cruel, at first, and bullies love to show their muscles at every occasion. But the new boy is tough too, and he won't be an easy target. I loved how it shows the little kid's thoughts, his bewilderment at the absurd behaviour of his teacher and his classmates, and I loved the ending. Wonderfully bittersweet.

Another one I really enjoyed was "Home to Harlem", about a black Irish young man, who goes to New York looking for his roots, trying to understand where exactly he can fit in. It was seriously funny, if maybe lacking of a real plot. I didn't mind, cause the dialogues, and the Roddydoyleness made up for it.
So, yeah, I enjoyed most of them, with the exception of "57% Irish" which was too confusing, and too rushed, although I liked its basic idea.
Although not all perfect, they were truly enjoyable, and more importantly, they were necessary.

P.S. While posting the link to Metro Eireann I found out that you can read even more stories on the website. I never even thought of that. Score!

P.P.S.
I also found this video of Roddy Doyle talking about his book.What he says about the meaning of Irishness is important. That the act of defining a nationality is an act of exclusion and thus it's problematic. I completely agree. The idea that permeates the Deporteess instead is one of inclusion. It's embracing as opposed to confining. And that's why I can't help but sings its praises with all my heart.

There are cats in this book - Viviane Schwarz

I'm excited about a picture book again! It hasn't happened in ages. I'm sure there are floods of brilliant picture books out there, but we as a shop don't get that many recently, and as a result I'm picture book-starved. This one here was a pleasant surprise, and definitely one of my favourite ever.

It's a lift-the-flap book, but it takes the concept to a whole new ingenious level. There's no story, just the interaction with three cats - Moonpie, Tiny and André - who get woken up by you turning their blanket up and then ask to play with them. They literally become your playmates. You can engage in a pillow-fight with them, throw wool at them, save them from drowning, drying them up and then tuck them in, all in one book!
I not only love the concept, but also the humour, the kittens' expressions, the bold sketchy lines, the bright colours, everything!
While I was looking for some web images to show you the book, I found a youtube video where the author Viviane Schwarz reads the whole thing, with sound effects included! If you have 4 minutes to spare, you can watch it here:


and you could even visit her website, where you can view her gallery, read her blog and bio.
In fact, I recommend you do all of the above. This woman rocks!

Unsung YA Heroes, a.k.a. My Favourite Young Adult Books you (probably) haven't read yet

Kelly at Yannabe has come up with this awesome project - Unsung YA heroes - and it's all about celebrating the love for lesser known YA books in need of more TLC...how could I not be in it??
It's a bit like the Nerds Heart YA Tournament (which btw, is happening again and why didn't I know anything about it until yesterday?!) except that it's not a tournament and that we can pick books published any year, as long as they haven't reached the big audience they deserve (yet).
If you would like to read more about the project, learn how it works and maybe even post your own list, go read Kelly's master post here.

I have chosen to talk about 5 young adult books, which I have loved, reviewed, but somehow haven't praised enough. In no particular order:


The Year the Gypsies Came by Linzi Glass

I read this back in 2008 and I still think of it as one of the most lovely-written YA I've come across. Skimming through my review makes me want to read it again right now. I had forgotten so much. Set in the '60 in Johannesburg, South Africa, it's the story of 12-year-old Emily and her dysfunctional family and how their lives are forever changed by the arrival of another strange family, one summer.
This what I wrote in my review:

What I loved most about this book is the way it’s written. The only word that I can find that describes it it’s gentle. It feels like a petal that softly touches the story and never intrudes too much. You can almost smell the flowers and the trees with exotic names (jacaranda, poplar, bluegum…) while you listen to a story told by Buza, the Zulu watchman who sits on a wooden stool all night at the edge of the garden, holding his stick who has been passed through generations and holds the power of sixty dead Zulu warriors.

I loved its sense of nostalgia, the wisdom and the beauty of those Zulu tales, the atmospheres that the writing created...It definitely deserves a much broader audience.

The Poison Throne by Celine Kiernan

To be fair, this one hasn't been released in the US or UK market yet, which is why it doesn't feature prominently on LibraryThing. But it did really well in Ireland, where it was first published, and also in Australia.
According to Amazon it will be released in Us and UK in April 2010, with brand new covers which look really cool, so look out for it!
From my review:

This story is not your usual fantasy adventure for teenagers. And maybe that's why it took me a little longer to get into it. It's a story about intrigue at court, yes, but at its core it's a story about relationships, about the strong bond that can exist between friends, family or lovers. It's real, and it's intense, but in a world ruled by protocol and politics, personal affections can become obstacles, or even powerful tools, depending who is using them.

I thought the honesty in the writing was unusual. It's very elegant but very physical and intimate too. As for all the books featured in this post, I'd love to read it again, especially before reading the second chapter "The Crowded Shadows".

The Foretelling by Alice Hoffman
I've read this before I started blogging, so I haven't written any reviews for it. But I still remember it as one of my favourites. It's the story of Rain, daughter of the queen of the Amazons, and next in line to take her place. Rain's birth was the result of a horrific rape, and that is why her mother shuns her. It's up to Rain to prove to her clan and to herself that she's worthy of being a leader.
Sparsely and skillfully written, this is a book you can read in one intense afternoon, and still carry it with you for a long time. It has a poetic, mythical quality to it which is matched by a wonderful message of peace and acceptance. It's also about women warriors, strong, independent and proud. What's not to like?


My Most Excellent Year by Steve Kluger
This is pure undiluted feel-good pleasure. It doesn't pretend to be anything else that great fun. The subtitle says it all: A novel of love, Mary Poppins and Fenway Park. Now, I don't know much about Fenway Park, but Love and Mary Poppins...yeah, definitely big hits with me:)
Especially when The Love was between two boys, Augie and Andy. This is what I wrote in my review:

The romance, oh the romance...Of course I'm talking about Augie and Angie. Maybe I don't read much YA gay romance between boys, but I thought this was the sweetest, most romantic, most adorable, most everything boy-on-boy literary love. The way their family and friends reacted was even cooler. They knew all along Augie was gay and they were wondering how long it would take him to figure it out. I probably felt closer to him than to any of the other characters.

I literally smiled and giggled all the way through it. And when I wasn't smiling I was fighting back emotional tears of empathy.
No wonder it managed to win all its rounds for The Nerds Heart YA Tournament and claimed its crown!



Broken Soup by Jenny Valentine
Although I still love Finding Violet Park more, I have gushed over it enough, I think. Broken Soup is great, too. Jenny Valentine needs to be HUGE!
This is what I thought after reading Broken Soup:

The charm of Jenny Valentine's style relies in the characters, I've already said that. But of course is not just that. It's in the way she describes emotions, which belies an attentive observation of human nature. It's in the metaphoric language, exemplified in the title, which can say so much with very little words. It's in the palpable love for all her characters. And in the fact that I feel I should reread this book right now to be able to explain why it was so good, because there's so much to highlight and to appreciate.
Oh, and there's a bit of a surprise ending, which combined with everything else that happens before, is a wonderful heart-warmer.

There's nothing else I can say, except READ IT!

Here endeth my "Unsung YA heroes" love letter. *Off to check out all the other unsung heroes*

Bloomsbury steps back!

From the Bloomsbury Kids website: “Bloomsbury is ceasing to supply copies of the US edition of *Magic Under Glass*. The jacket design has caused offense and we apologize for our mistake. Copies of the book with a new jacket design will be available shortly.”

Three brief sentences. But they mean a lot. Our voices have been heard, and thanks to many readers who complained to the publisher, one step toward a wider multicultural visibility has been taken.
I'm really looking forward to seeing the new cover now!