Kevin D. Hendricks's Blog, page 40

Hattie Big Sky: Anti-German Fury on a Montana Homestead

The cover of Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson looks like something my mom would read, but it’s Little House on the Prairie with a plot and girl power. 16-year-old Hattie is an orphan who inherits her uncle’s homestead in 1917 Montana and works to prove the claim on her own. The timeframe puts the story in the middle of World War I and anti-German sentiment is brewing on the prairie.

It’s a simple story that weaves together several complex threads to make a satisfying whole that focuses on faith,...

Coaltown Jesus Hits Hope Instead of Hokey

In Coaltown Jesus by Ron Koertge, a teen struggling with his older brother’s death prays for God’s help and Jesus shows up in the sort-of flesh. Only Walker can see Jesus and he gets advice and insight like a guardian angel, only it’s on the odd matters like what girl likes him and how to score a pair of new sneakers. Or so it seems.

While Coaltown Jesus has the potential to be incredibly hokey, the offbeat, poetic style works. It should be kind of cheeseball and completely insulting. Instead...

Never Fall Down: The Cambodian Genocide

Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick is a sparse and somber account of the Cambodian genocide in the late 1970s told from the perspective of a teenage boy, Arn Chorn-Pond.

It’s an immediate and straight-forward account told in his broken English, sometimes detailed and sometimes bare, like you’d expect from a child.

Citizens are rounded up and killed or forced into camps and Arn is forced into music and realizes it’s a way to survive. He’s eventually forced into service as a child soldier and...

All the Right Stuff Except for the Plot

All the Right Stuff by Walter Dean Myers is a Socratic dialogue about the social contract, the unwritten rules that determine our behavior, wrapped around the barest of plots.

I’m not a big fan of philosophy and I love a good plot, so this one didn’t do it for me.

In the aftermath of the death of his estranged father, Paul begins a summer job working in a soup kitchen. Elijah, the proprietor, quickly begins to teach Paul about more than chopping onions. They get into deep discussions about the...

Project Mulberry Wades Into Race & Culture Without Drowning

When Julia and her friend Patrick team up on a state fair project, Julia is disappointed that the silkworm project is too Korean. She wants to do something more American.

Project Mulberry by Linda Sue Park (author of A Long Walk to Water) is a simple story that touches on race and identity, but doesn’t drown in them. It’s an internal debate for Julia, but it doesn’t overwhelm the story. It’s actually refreshing to see her struggle with difficult questions, ask some awkward questions, and move...

Mexican WhiteBoy: Baseball, Borders & the Barrio

Mexican WhiteBoy by Matt de la Peña is gritty. It’s real and it’s tough. It a gives a glimpse of life in a poor Mexican barrio near San Diego.

We see it through the eyes of Danny, a mixed-race teenager trying to come to terms with his mixed up identity. His mom is blond and blue eyed, his dad is Mexican. He feels out of place at his white private school and in the poor neighborhood his dad grew up in. But his dad is gone. His mom is off in affluent San Franciso with her boyfriend. Danny’s left...

Dyamonde Daniel Dives Into Poetry & Homelessness

The Dyamonde Daniel series by Nikki Grimes features an in-charge and lively girl name Dyamonde (pronounced “Diamond”) who is confident in who she is. They’re really short chapter books that can be read in one sitting.

The opening book, Make Way for Dyamonde Daniel, was about moving to a new place and making friends. It was simple and good.

The second book, Rich, was surprisingly sweet. A poetry contest is announced at school, and while Dyamonde isn’t interested (math is her subject), her friend...

The Dreamer: Dangerous Writing & Authoritarian Fathers

The Dreamer, written by Pam Muñoz Ryan and beautifully illustrated by Peter Sis, is the story of the childhood of poet Pablo Neruda. He was an absent-minded dreamer struggling with an authoritarian father.

It’s full of wonder, but it really feels like a mere introduction. I wanted more. And I should confess I’m not into poetry. I preferred the details on Neruda’s life than the excerpts of his poetry.

The end of the author’s note includes a powerful detail about General Pinochet’s soldiers ransa...

Salvage the Bones: Tough World & Then Katrina Hits

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward is a brutal novel:

Teen sex that might not be rape but isn’t exactly consensual
Dog fights
Teen pregnancy
A mom dying in childbirth
An overwhelmed, distant and alcoholic single father
Rampant poverty

And then Katrina comes down and blows everything to hell.

It’s a tough read (good thing I didn’t read it; the audiobook was very well done). But it’s also got heart. It won the 2011 National Book Award and there is some light that shines through the darkness: the language...

Doug TenNapel’s Cardboard & Comic Book References

In Cardboard, the creator of Earthworm Jim (Doug TenNapel) gives us a graphic novel about cardboard creations that come to life. It’s full of heart and off-beat quips.

I’m slowly getting into comic books and graphic novels, thanks to Gene Luen Yang and G. Willow Wilson most recently, but also the longtime influence of Ben Edlund (The Tick!) and TenNapel.

One thing I’m loving about comics that I can also see being a big downside is the referential nature. Here’s a perfect example from Cardboard...