Book H00T #35 Fly Girl

What a lovely little read this is. It ticks all my boxes: spunky female protagonist, a series of challenging episodes, lovely writing and some real issues for later discussion.

Ida May Jones is a twenty year old young woman who is desperate to take to the skies again. Her departed father taught her how to fly and she has experience crop dusting. But as a black maid she has to work hard to make this dream a reality. Ida May dreams of going to Chicago’s Coffey School of Aeronautics to obtain her license. Also, when her brother enlists and is sent to the Pacific, Ida Mae promises to stay and look after her family and the strawberry farm.

Temptation comes when Ida Mae hears about the WASP, Women’s Airforce Service Pilots, scheme. She wants to do her part for the war effort and as a woman, let alone an African American woman, it is going to take some swift moves and clever thinking. Ida's light skin and 'good hair' certainly helps her "pass" as white, but this also leads to some crises of conscience.

Based on the real WASP, to whom last year President Obama awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, this book teaches history and civil rights without ever feeling like a lesson. “. . .If you’re colored, you get the short end of the stick. If you’re a woman, you get the short end of the stick. So what do we get for being colored and women?”

 The characters are warm and well drawn, and the narrative is pacy.  You'll be itching to get airborne too!

Five hoots!

Until next time happy tales,
Barking Owl

H00t #34 The Rosie Black Chronicles: Book 1 Genesis

Great cover don't you think?

I'm not a fan of some science fiction, let's get that out of the way from the get go. But,  I do love dystopian fiction and Lara Morgan's  Rosie Black Chronicles looks to be a great series in this genre.

Book One is set in a futuristic Australia, Newperth to be precise, and being a Perth  native, this piqued my interest. Morgan devises an apocalyptic event which is frighteningly possible; the "Melt" has sunk coastal cities. In the author's notes, she credits Tim Flannery's The Weather Makers as her inspiration. I'll be honest here, I wanted much more to take place in this setting of futuristic Perth. The action moves "off-world" far too quickly for my liking. Perhaps Book Two might have the action closer to home?

The division of the people of Newperth into the "Centrals, Have-nots, Bankers and Ferals" is also realistic and credible for Western Australian readers. The division of our city into those who are North, those who are South, and those who live in Fremantle certainly rang true. I also found myself thinking about the geography of the setting; where would Central East Darling Grove be on current maps?

Rosie finds a mysterious box in the first few pages that sets the action of the narrative into motion. And the action and suspense is pretty relentless for much of the book. There's drama and romance in there too, but for the most part the reader is on a rocket-ride lurching from event to event.

Rosie is certainly clever, gutsy and likable. Teens, and YA fans who enjoyed dystopias such as Patrick Ness’s Chaos Walking Trilogy, Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games books, Susan Beth Pfeffer's Moon Trilogy, or John Marsden’s Tomorrow When the War Began will love it. 

One final point to Morgan's credit, there's no forehead smacking cliff-hanging moment at the end. I know some readers hate that.

Three and a half hoots out of five.

Until next time,

Happy tales,

Barking Owl

Hoot #33 Mice Gordon Reece

This psychological thriller had me hooked very quickly. Shelly and her mum are both victims of abuse; Shelly is bullied my her previous 'friends' in some horrible ways. Her mother is bullied by her ex-husband in a messy divorce and she is also bullied in the workplace. The two little mice scurry off to the country to lick their wounds. But, their bad luck doesn't end there. 

The pace of this book is just right. It builds and builds until Shelly and her mum finally fight back.

Something that irked a little for me was the repetitive characterisation of the two of them as mice. It was a little heavy handed for my liking, but, is probably about right for the young adult readership.

The tone and tension reminded me a little of Beautiful Malice, a big hit with every teen girl I've recommended it to. However this has more depth I think. It will certainly make readers think about the ethics of fighting back and how far you would/ should go to protect yourself and your loved ones. It also has some lovely connections to Macbeth running through the story (Shelly is studying the play for her examinations.)

All the characters are well drawn. And if you have ever been bullied, which lets face it a lot of people have, then the scenes where poor Shelly is retreating further and further into herself because of horrible girls at her school will resonate with you. And no, I don't think the bullying is at all unrealistic or too violent.

Four hoots out of five

Happy tales,
Barking Owl

Book H00t #32 Pippi Longstocking

Happy Book Week to you all! As you can see from this post, Book Week is a particularly big one at my school, culminating in dress up day. Now we teachers always find this a source of much discussion, if not angst.

This year the theme is "Across The Story Bridge." What does that suggest to you? We went through characters that are associated with bridges but trolls and billy goats didn't really appeal. So we decided to choose characters that have crossed the bridge from print to film.

All this is leading up to my re-reading of Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking. For costume inspiration, I bought the lovely new edition illustrated by Lauren Child. And I am enjoying reading it so much. It reminded me how much I loved her sassiness.

Pippi is an excellent example of a strong girl who knows her mind, is independent and has fun at the same time. She also has a pet monkey!

If you haven't read Pippi Longstocking, or need a refresher, this edition is a lovely read.

5 Hoots out of 5

Happy tales,
Barking Owl

Book Hoot #31 The Ask And The Answer

The second in the Chaos Walking trilogy, The Ask And The Answer is a story of dictatorship and rebellion. It picks up moments after The Knife Of Never Letting Go left off. Viola and Todd are being kept apart by the Mayor of New Prentisstown, formally Haven.

For a lot of the story, each believes that they are fighting on the right side of the conflict. Todd is a part of The Ask and Viola The Answer. And this is one of the book's main themes; in war, is there a 'right side'? I imagine this would quite a challenging idea for some readers. But there are other themes here that show Patrick Ness is certainly not talking down to his readers.

The Spackle, an alien race who make a small appearance in Chaos #1, are more central to the plot in this book. The Mayor puts his son, Davy, and Todd in charge of using the Spackle as slave labour. They even brand them in an eerily similar way to the Jewish race being tattooed in the Holocaust. There are also moments of torture and ethnic cleansing in this story line. And as Todd struggles with his conscience; the old excuse of 'just doing my job' works for a while.

Meanwhile Viola finds herself in a group of terrorists. Just as The Ask is primarily made up of men, The Answer is primarily women and so there are themes of female emancipation in her sections. Mistress Coyle the leader of The Answer carries out a series of bombings and the book asks the reader to consider 'collateral damage'. Viola struggles with the actions of the rebels, but like Todd is blinded by the charisma of her leader and what seems at first to be their just cause.

I would highly recommend this series. I'm about to start Monsters of Men and can't wait to see how the series is concluded.

Five out of five Hoots!

Happy Tales,
Barking Owl

Book Hoot #30 Sugar, Sugar

Sugar Sugar seems an uninspired title for such a good book. Carole Wilkinson sets the story in 1972, so far in the past that for YA readers it may seem like another planet!

Jackie has left suburban Adelaide chasing her dreams of being a fashion designer. She travels from London to Paris for the weekend, thinking that she will show her marsupial and native fauna clothing ideas to a famous fashion designer. It is in Paris that the adventures begin. Jackie loses her folio and chases it across Europe, ending up in Afghanistan. Instead of swearing, she says sugar, hence the title.

Being a wanna-be fashion designer, Jackie is always snappily dressed:

I had a wash and changed into my grey velvet hot-pants and green pigskin boots... my maroon tights perfectly matched the swirls in my paisley blouse, and my over the knee high heeled boots looked great.

As she moves from Paris heading gradually east, we see Jackie transform and mature. Clothes are a constant motif throughout the story, but as she sees the poverty and conditions some people live in, she realises that there are more important things than fashion. Friendship and loyalty are two themes running through the book.

As I said earlier, the time period would be very unfamiliar for today's YA readers, the lack of communication with family when you're overseas is certainly a thing of the past. Jackie sends aerograms, doesn't telephone because of the expense and she doesn't have a camera either. in the endnotes Carole Wilkinson says:

When we travelled through the Middle East, photographic film was expensive and the need to record one's life in minute detail belonged to the distant future. We took ten photos.

It's a bit of a shame that this ability to be out of touch has gone; even when you're on the other side of the world today, you can still read emails, and your parents can be in touch immediately. I think that the setting, the time especially, would interest readers.

The places and landscapes are also especially well written. The sort of risk taking adventures that Jackie has make you want to stuff your hot-pants and thigh high boots into a yellow rucksack and hit the overland Hippie Trail.

Four Hoots/ Five

Recommended for older readers, being hippies there are some drug experiences...

Happy Tales,

Barking Owl

Book H00t #29 The Help

Kathryn Stockett's best selling, first novel The Help is about three women: two black maids and one white university graduate, who live in Jackson Mississipi. Set in the early sixties, the multi-voiced narrative shows their different experiences of the dawning of the civil rights movement. Their determination to find their own voices and make their own protest makes this book an engaging and compelling read.

There are hints of what is happening in the wider world, references to the march on Washington and Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech for example. So, I think this would make an excellent novel to read as a companion to a study of this historical period. But it is a compelling page turner in its own right. *I was reading on an IPad, so that page turning was silent :) *

While the stories of the mistreatment of the maids are compelling, it is the kindness of these women to their charges that also stays with the reader.

Aibileen is raising her seventeenth child, and she teaches her all that she is "good and kind and important", lessons her mother does her best to undermine. She has recently lost her son, and this has been a catalyst that makes her change. She is a woman who shows the power of commitment and faith.

Minny, has a "sassy mouth", is an excellent cook and is regularly beaten by her husband. She takes some pretty memorable revenge on the nastiest of the white women in the book, Hilly, and this is the impetus for her placement with another employer who doesn't know her reputation, and doesn't really know how to treat 'the help.' She cares more for this silly woman than you would think possible, and they have a friendship which seems remarkable given the circumstances.

Skeeter has just graduated from Ole Miss, and despite earning a degree and wanting to become a journalist, is pushed into blind dates by her friends and overbearing mother, until she has that ring on her finger. The mysterious disappearance from the family plantation of the woman who raised her makes Skeeter look closer at the lives of the black women around her. This is an awakening for her and the start of the book that brings them all together.

I really enjoyed this novel, it was a quick read, but a really satisfying one at the same time.

4 hoots/ 5

Happy tales,

Barking Owl