Devon Trevarrow Flaherty's Blog, page 42

Book Review: Moll Flanders

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I fully expected to enjoy this book. Among my favorites are so many of the classics: Wuthering Heights, Emma, Anna Karenina… you know, all that old stuff. And while I understand how this book made quite a sensation—because of subject matter, narrator choice, and even story set-up—I don’t see how it’s still clinging on to reading lists, these days. Maybe to make a point, or three points as referred to above. At the time, a male author presenting a story from the point of view of a strong female who basically slept around for financial security (because, really, what else was she going to do?) as well as committed countless robberies and (inadvertently) incest and the whole thing presented as a peek into her chronological life almost as if it were a journal: this is all super big stuff in the 1700s. I could hardly believe the book was that old. But it is, and we see that in the s-loooooow moving plot, the endless jabbering and details about nothing in particular (or about Moll’s thought process), the repetition, the repetition, the archaic language that is occasionally difficult to understand… We modern readers prefer a lot more money where the author’s mouth is, a lot more action and painting detailed internal images with fewer words, like poetry. For us, each scene and character must be razor sharp and pointed at one final thing. In the 1700s, they could just sit around a fire all night listening to the umpteenth reading of The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. Who Was Born in Newgate, and During a Life of Continu’d Variety for Threescore Years, Besides her Childhood, was Twelve Year a Whore, Five Times a Wife (Whereof Once to her Own Brother), Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a Transported Felon in Virginia, at Last Grew Rich, Liv’d Honest, and Died a Penitent. Written from Her Own Memorandums. (Yes, that is the entire, original title.)

Cuz here’s the thing: this novel was not an original story, and was always assumed to be based on the real life of one Moll something-or-other, an actual 17th century criminal. Apparently, criminal autobiographies were all the rage in the early 1700s, and Defoe, already famous for Robinson Crusoe (which is also based on the real story of Alexander Selkirk), was just capitalizing on this. Also, he had spent some time in Newgate Prison himself, where he took notes from his fellow inmates. Even so, Defoe had a whole lot of filling in to do, and it is said that his accounts of poverty, imprisonment, etc. are based on his own experiences with them. Other than those two novels, Defoe wrote other novels and many pamphlets and articles along the political bent. For the most part, he was a politician and businessman who also wrote, and he was everywhere on the spectrum from a merchant to destitute to a criminal.

And in the end, I still didn’t enjoy Moll Flanders. It was boring to me, and didn’t come together as a cohesive story, which I guess was because it was just the meandering tale of a woman who had been too much and seen too much and lived a really long time (for her time). Plus, I’m not shocked by her story: I already understand that desperate people are driven to desperate measures (though Flanders is partly just greedy, etc.) and that women, for much of history, have had to attach themselves to a man in order to survive, putting the matrimonial market in the male’s favor. Some of the Victorian classics are much more fun to read while they still highlight these inequalities. What I did find surprising was the consistent disregard Moll showed for the children she left peppered all over two countries, in both graves and random homes. While I don’t want to assume every woman is very maternal, the book gives no real thought to it, no explanation for it. Let’s be honest: most mothers are maternal, even fiercely so, which is why the word is maternal. But Moll seems to lament her good-for-nothing loves much more then her own flesh and blood, and, well, she’s all about numero uno.

That’s all I really have to contribute to the conversation on Moll Flanders. I read it. I thought it was a bit of a slog. Enjoyed the two notes in the margins from my mother-in-law’s college days more than I did the story, to be completely honest. There’s just not enough invested in the other characters, and not enough action or questions to make me want to read more. (There was also not chapter separation, which I always find difficult.) And I didn’t love Moll, though I could have found her interesting if she were written in a more modern voice, exploring her psychology without driving boring thoughts over and over into the page.

MOVIE

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So, I was sucked into the first version of this movie that I could find, which is the 1996 version with Robin Wright, Morgan Freeman, and Stockard Channing. Do not be fooled! Though this movie is called Moll Flanders, it bears little to no resemblance to the novel by Daniel Defoe. Like, even worse than How to Train Your Dragon, it doesn’t follow even one thing about the book. Not one character (except Moll, but in name only, not in personality even). Not one scene. I was super confused until I finally googled it like halfway through and learned I should stop looking for similarities, full stop. The movie is okay, got decent reviews in its time, but be forewarned: not based on the book. (I bet plenty of teachers and professors get a good laugh when they get book reports on Moll Flanders because of this popular movie.)

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I was kinda annoyed, so I looked a little further and came across a British TV series, Masterpiece Theater I think, from the same year (1996), titled The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders. Okay, so this one, starring the Dr. Corday of ER fame, follows the books so closely that they had to make it a rather long series of basically movie-long episodes. I did not watch them all because, like I said, I didn’t even enjoy the books and I was getting real tired of hanging out with Moll. This I know: it’s decently done, sticks very close to the story, and should you enjoy the book or want to study it further (or skip the book altogether) this is the version that you should get your mitts on.

Book Review: Disposable People

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I am almost a hundred per cent certain that I have read this book before. Not only is the information and even the layout familiar to me, but there are so few books like it, out there. Which is a shame. See, the story goes like this:

It was the beginning of the pandemic stay-at-home order and I was already tiring of social media. One of the main reasons for this was watching as a few of my friends seemed to be going up in flames of their own ire and bile, hell-bent on destruction for a solitary truth that I didn’t also see as our salvation. I couldn’t take it, so I unfollowed those friends, but not before one of them said something that got me thinking beyond their usual tirade (which was growing increasingly bizarre and twisted) and about what social issues make me passionate. This was months ago, before the urgent siren song of Black Lives Matter grew to fever pitch, and I knew that yes, there have always been a few things that bugged me in a way that made we want to do something about them. One of these things is human trafficking.

In the past, I have gone so far as to volunteer and travel halfway around the world for the sake of helping a few victims, to two different countries. I have marched. I have donated. I have bought items and read books. I even wrote an article that was used on a website (and was supposed to be in a magazine, but they bought it and never published it). But the twirly-swirly life of the modern, middle class American woman-with-family has a way of stripping one of one’s passions and even one’s will to do anything that isn’t related to excelling at that particular day. What had I done recently? What could I do? And like so many people have been revealing about themselves on the internet, lately, I turned to books as a first step (back).

I began with my TBR and the nonfiction and philosophy lists, but found that they came up short on this particular topic. So I did a little more searching and decided to begin with two books: one about trafficking acound the globe and the other about trafficking at home, in the US. To be frank, the list of well-rated books on this topic was s-lim pickin’s. When I ordered a gently used copy of Disposable People by Kevin Bales, I did not realize it was a book I had already read nor that it was twenty years old, sixteen years since the revision. (There is another version which was updated in 2012.) Even so, it remains a titan in the world of slave trafficking information, and it is an excellent book for several reasons. I am glad that I read it (again).

Kevin Bales is like the authority on trafficking, what he would call slavery, especially when it comes to books. He seems to come out with a book every few years, which is no small feat since he has to do a majority of the leg-work himself since reporting and studies can be sparse and unreliable. His other books which have made it onto my TBR are Blood and Earth (2016) and The Slave Next Door (2010; which I believe I might have read, as well). His other books include Ending Slavery (2006) and some collaborations with others including Modern Slavery, To Plead Our Own Cause (stories told in the words of the slaves, themselves), and Slavery Today. Those all seem like excellent places to start educating oneself about the reality of modern slavery throughout the world. His books consistently garner great reviews, both critical and pedestrian.

Disposable People was Bales’ first comprehensive book about modern slavery, maybe the first anywhere. It focuses on educating the public, one reader at a time, about what modern slavery is, how it is different from “old” or even ancient slavery, and how diverse and widespread it is. He makes examples of slave systems in a half-dozen countries, focusing on one scenario from each place that will teach us something about modern slavery and give us a handle. The sections of the book break down into an introduction, followed by sex trafficking in Thailand, leftover old slavery in Mauritania, labor camps in Brazil, debt bondage in Pakistan, and bonded labor in India (basically). Most of these situations include child labor. His conclusion is a chapter titled “What Can Be Done?” He uses stories and lots of undercover research to let us in on a big, dirty secret: slavery still exists today and in many places is booming. The new slavery is insidious, in that it does not look to operate legally, but still uses violence to hold people against their will and without basic freedoms in order to get the most capital gain it can out of them in a relatively short time, and then discard them. It relies on government and police corruption and our desire not to see that our own purchasing and investing habits contribute to others’ enslavement in a truly global economy. Not that he’s preaching or shaming: Bales is more of an informed guide and a fellow seeker of the truth. He shares some facts and figures, but he specializes in this book with plopping the reader down right in the middle of the slaves’ quarters and walking them through a day in the life, then weaving it all together to draw some comprehensive conclusions. It is rare that a nonfiction book is written fluidly enough to hold the reader’s attention, but I didn’t feel any need to set the book down, at any point. True, it’s something that really interests me, but it is also written well, though not at all flowery.

Since the book is twenty years old, there are some things that I am sure have changed (even one major thing about India’s relationship with NGOs that even I noticed), involving the particulars of this book. I am going to keep reading and follow that up with some internet research, especially on some of the organizations that he mentioned. Even so, the most up-to-date version of this book is still a great place to begin exposing oneself to the reality of worldwide modern slavery. While situations may have changed in any one of the countries he exposes, the awareness is still there and the understanding of what slavery looks like now as opposed to a couple hundred years ago or a couple thousand. It also offers some ways to move forward, throwing your weight into the arena on behalf of the enslaved. Bales does make some basic assumptions, but they are really basic, like “slavery should end and most people want it to end” or “everyone should be free and all people are created equal.” In a way, his voice is dispassionate, but not in a bad way. He’s presenting facts and anecdotes, but you are also sure that he cares about these people and about you.

However, because of it being relatively outdated, I decided to do a little more searching and moving of some more titles over to the TBR, including Bales’ most recent book. I will keep you updated, as always, as I read. I also decided to extend my reading into a series on social passion, that I have woven into my usual TBR. The topics that I plan to cover more in depth include slavery, racism, native peoples, abortion, and adoption, which are all topics that make me passionate and/or are specifically relevant to this time and place. It might get a little uncomfortable up in here, but I will concentrate on reviewing the books rather than venting my opinions.

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QUOTES

(I underlined like half the book, but here are a few choice quotes.)

“…the law can do little against the combined strength of a sexist culture, rationalizing religion, amoral exploitive economy, and corrupt government” (p78).

“The idea of bearing total responsibility for oneself and one’s family, which total freedom would require, can be frightening. Freedom of movement does not guarantee food to eat or work to do” (p108).

“The media, especially the Western media, are enormously powerful in confronting slavery, but their impact tends to be short-lived” (p147).

“It is a sad commentary on Pakistani society that its almost complete segregation of men and women tends to place women in one of two categories. There are the women a man respects and protects, normally his family members; and there are all other women, whom many men are willing to violate if given the chance” (p160).

“The tale, like so many stories …. is a twisted one, full of characters who change from good guys to bad guys depending on who’s telling it” (p186).

“Here we are presented with one of the fundamental dilemmas of slavery: which is preferable, freedom with starvation or bondage with food?” (p194).

“…in India interest rates can be as high as 60 percent; but the basic arrangement is that all the worker’s labor equals the interest and the principal must be paid in cash” (p203).

“Without oversight the opportunities for cheating and graft were plentiful” (p228).

“We couldn’t be more wrong if we believed that because the Black Death ended in the Middle Ages, we don’t have to worry about epidemics anymore. In fact, new diseases are evolving all the time; slavery is also evolving and changing, erupting wherever the conditions are right” (p233).

“In the ballooning populations, rapid economic change is bringing some people into the modern world of good medicine and technology, ‘Western’ lifestyles, and a new sense of self and achievement. Other people are being consumed” (p234).

“The best contraceptives in the world—education and social protection against poverty in old age and illness…” (p234).

“There are already pilot programs showing the effectiveness of targeting profits” (p240).

“The crucial question is: Which is stronger, the corruption or the bonds of social consent?” (p245).

“When law enforcement—and the violent potential of gun and jail behind the law—is selective and profit-seeking, the law has effectively ceased to exist” (p245).

“Governments and businesses are more likely to suffer international penalties today for counterfeiting a Britney Spears CD than for using slave labor” (p249).

“Slavery will never be stopped if freed slaves can be easily replaced with new slaves” (p250).

“Some of the well-known writers of this century, such as Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison, have explored how the trauma of slavery is passed down even through subsequent free generations” (p253).

“…Rehabilitation means more than just freedom plus a pair of goats” (p255).

“…minds must become free as well as bodies…” (p255).

“If we can learn anything from the lives of freed slaves, it is that liberation is a process, not an event” (p256).

“They are trapped by public ignorance: most people believe that slavery ended in the nineteenth century” (p259).

“They fought to stop legal slavery, and they won that fight. We must fight to stop illegal slavery” (p260).

“Otherwise, what we like to call the ‘free world’ will continue to feed on slavery” (p261).

Book Review: Chasing Vines

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If you are an American Christian, it is likely that you have encountered Beth Moore. Maybe I have, but this book, Chasing Vines, is the first time I can say for sure I have read her. Now it seems that everywhere I look I see Beth Moore and everywhere I turn I hear a reference to Chasing Vines, which I believe is her most recent of many, many books. I am one of the ones who have been referencing her, but we’ll get to that in a bit.

There seems to be a pattern with book clubs (or women) and Beth Moore: a majority of women gush over her use of language and how she awakens the Bible for them and makes them feel all the feels. A smaller minority, if the group is amicable enough, will venture a little speech in which they admit that Beth Moore is not their “style.” I am in this minority, and I waited until the end of the book group to admit it because I was happy that other people were so happy and I didn’t want to be the Debbie Downer. Plus, there are good things to say about Chasing Vines, and I guess I’ll get to that right after I tell you the very little I know about the force, Beth Moore.

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Sure, she’s an avid writer of inspirational literature—which is how I have encountered her—but she’s also the founder and head of Living Proof Ministries (which is Bible-based and for women). She primarily writes books and Bible studies. She is a globe-trotting speaker and appears in many videos. Wikipedia calls her an “evangelist, author, and Bible teacher.” She also appears to be a Texas firebrand with her enormous popularity on the ascent, a woman who is devoted whole-heartedly to her God, her family, and living in harmony with the outdoors.

Here are her books. Some of these might be journals and a some of them, I think, are guided prayer, but there is so much and I couldn’t really find it well-organized anywhere:

When Godly People Do Ungodly ThingsBelieving GodWho Will You Trust?Get Out of That PitSongs of DeliveranceFully AliveSo Long, InsecurityThe Undoing of Saint SilvanusLiving Free: Learning to Pray God’s WordThe QuestDeliveredLiving Beyond YourselfBreaking FreeFeathers from my Nest90 Days of Faith seriesWhispers of HopeA Woman’s HeartA Heart Like HisAudacious

Bible Studies:

To Live Is Christ: PaulJesus, the One and OnlyThe Beloved Disciple: JohnThe Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and JacobLives of Integrity, Words of Prophecy: DanielStepping Up: PsalmsIt’s Tough Being a Woman: EstherHere and Now—There and Then: RevelationSeeking a Heart Like His: DavidMercy Triumphs: JamesChildren of the Day: ThessaloniansEntrusted: 2 TimothyVoices of the Faithful series

Chasing Vines begins with a trip that Moore took with her daughters to Italy, where she became suddenly and unexpectedly obsessed with viticulture. She spent the next, I don’t know, few years researching the vine from a worldly and a Biblical perspective, forming ideas that would eventually become a series of observations bound together in one book. The subtitle is Finding Your Way to an Immensely Fruitful Life and the idea is essentially that you are meant to bear fruit and that good fruit comes in season, from the care of the vinedresser and also from the rocks, the manure, the tough stuff of life.

So, this book was not on my TBR. I looked it up, and Beth Moore is not on my TBR anywhere, in any category, which gives me a little hint as to what would happen next. But I have a bestie who wanted to use quarantine time to read this book with a few friends and Zoom a book discussion once a week. I couldn’t turn her down and so forked over the money for the hard cover on eBay. (I don’t love straying from my TBR and I don’t love Zoom, but I do love my friends and spiritual growth.) Before I knew it, I was holding this book and I was, well, underwhelmed already. I never judge a book by the cover, but I do judge covers as part of a book. This cover would be alright—a blonde woman strolling down a long, verdant path between the grape vines—but what were the stylists thinking with their choice of Moore’s pose? It couldn’t be more awkward, and Moore is a beautiful, photogenic woman. Instead of something engaging, we have her looking down at the ground, her legs crossed, and her arms awkwardly extended. Where’s her face? It is a small thing, but it made me think that there was a lack of talent in the production of the book, and you don’t really want to start that way.

Next, I dove in with the assignment of the first two chapters, and kept on at a pace of two to three chapters per week until we wrapped it up this past Friday. Now, I knew right away that Moore was not really my “style,” but like I said, I waited until the last meeting to share this. Sometimes keeping your mouth shut is the best policy (okay, often), and it was good that I didn’t just write her off. Because I did get something, multiple somethings, out of the book.

What I got out of the book: It is true what they say, that Beth Moore really knows how to paint a picture. Her writing is very beautiful, sometimes startlingly so, and considering that she is talking about Biblical truths, she has a way of making them rise up around you and then you’re there, wherever that is, from her home in Texas to a vineyard in Tuscany. She’s also one of those people who make very unique and fascinating observations about everything from having a dog to the imprecatory Psalms. She’s a real learner, an overcomer, a humble woman who can surely string some words together to work magic. I underlined at a rate of a sentence a page, where a real truth would jump out and bite me on the nose or tug at my heartstrings. I feel she’s earnest and honest and I was happy to get to know her a bit and to roll around in her prose.

Where Moore and I have different styles: She’s no three-point sermon woman, at least not in Chasing Vines. In other words, I love a well-constructed structure in any kind of book and expect it in non-fiction. Though the skeleton is there in the section headings and chapter titles of Vines, the actual writing lacked clear direction. She kind of dove into something and then moved on to something else, leaving you hanging on an observation that felt incomplete. And, even more importantly, the form lacked rigor. I love logic, it was one of my favorite classes in college, and I appreciate a well-argued position. While there were Bible verses galore, Moore didn’t make vital connections between the verses, her research, and her writing. It left me thinking, Well that sounds nice, but I’ll have to look into that. I think many readers are okay to trust an author and relax, but I don’t swing that way. I would be curious to read one of her Bible studies, especially since she does have a knack for making things come alive, making them palpable, but I wanted more structure on two levels.

Christian women will keep picking up Beth Moore books and having study groups and going to her speeches and conferences and what not, and I’m sure many, many women will be touched by her and the things that she has to offer, including beautiful writing, honesty, and observation. I won’t be running back to her books because while I enjoyed the words, I was distracted by a lack of structure, like I was feeling instead of thinking my way through Moore’s obsession with grapes. It’s just me, but it’s not only me.

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QUOTES:

“He gifted worshipers with the language to recount His commitment to them and to call upon His fruitfulness to act on that commitment” (p25).

“Have guts enough to choose the things that matter now” (p74).

“We still argue when we feel like the other goes too far, but we mostly dwell somewhere in the in-between, where saints still know they’re sinners but don’t forget they’re saints” (p79).

“The favor is dependency” (p113).

“He keeps shaping and reshaping us from glory to glory, and when living becomes nearly the death of us, He leans over our clay bodies and breathes fresh life into our lungs” (p114).

“It’s easy to get it in our heads that we’re tolerated more than enjoyed” (p120).

“But for most of us, the not-doing is infinitely more difficult than the doing. Give us a to-do list or a deadline or an assignment, but for the love, please don’t ask us to let go and be still” (p131).

“God reserves the right to reveal His specific leadership to His servants as we go, rather than all at once, from the start. He intends for us to stay attentive to Him…” (p137).

“I can send you somewhere and not go with you, but how can I show you something without being present?” (p141).

“If we dig down far enough, many of us who serve God would discover we’re more deeply convinced of our love for Him than of His love for us. When life beats the love right out of us, what happens then?” (p203).

“On the playground of privilege, intimacy with the divine slips down the aluminum-smooth slide of self-reliance” (p214).

“Will you delegate to someone else the fight for the ground God entrusted to you?” (p234).

“We forget that we were meant to work together, feast together, mourn together, and celebrate together. These are birthrights…” (p247).

“The credit for a great harvest goes to the Vinedresser, but the glee abounds to all” (p249).

“To be half hearted is to get the worst of both worlds” (p249).

“He called His people to a reversal of natural tendency—both as a service to others and as a way to set them apart from the world” (p254).

“In Christ’s meticulous census, the community exempt from the love of Christians has a population of exactly zero” (p260).

“On the phone one day, wearied by our self-imposed boundaries, I said, ‘I want to learn about what you believe. What books would you recommend to me?’” (p264).

“I think laughter is audible hope” (p274).

“And peering down lengthy tables protracted like branches, alive and abiding, He will behold the fruit of the Vine” (p282).

Series Review: Dragonbreath

Disclaimer: The Dragonbreath series has nothing to do with Dragon’s Breath ice cream.

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It’s not that easy to find a local author to support, but my son did it for me. Ursula Vernon is an author out of Pittsboro, which is a town not that far from here (Durham, NC) and a place I will drive to for their used book store (Circle City Books), donuts (Phoenix Bakery), and old time soda shop (S&T’s; especially while camping at Jordan Lake). My husband and I have also been there as guests of a bed and breakfast and back in the day when it was locally famous and existed, The General Store made a life-changing pulled pork sandwich and plenty of other hip and delicious things. Alas, no longer and I have become very distracted waxing poetic on small town life and pork…

Most people have not heard of the Dragonbreath series, yet most people could get their hands on them, even if they had to order them to their local bookshop or online. For one reason or another, this series is the first series my reluctant reader son has decided to read in its entirety, on his own. It does have a format similar to Captain Underpants and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, with its many comic-like, childlike illustrations. It is technically fantasy, with its dragons and other animal characters, though it is sort of like Wimpy Kid and fantasy had a baby, because Danny the dragon is just another school-age kid trying to fit in.

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It’s tough being the only mythical creature in a school full of reptiles and amphibians. It’s also tough being a dragon who cannot breathe fire… not yet, anyhow. With his trusty friend Wendell the iguana, they embark on many adventures in these childhood stories, which include everything from sea serpents to ninja frogs to, well, a hot dog that creates werewolves. The point of all of this: laughter. I find the characters cute and the situations imaginative. I also am very happy that the illustrations are clean and don’t look like they were drawn by a child, but by an actual artist. My son finds them engaging and funny, keeping him turning the pages when so many other books would not. Danny’s not known for his intelligence or love of all things academic—that’s Wendell—but he’s brave and kind and a good character to come up along-side of, especially when you’re a kid who could use less school and more adventures. Perhaps it’s the creatures: my son loves creatures of all kinds. (Note: While my son is in middle school, this is a series more fitting for most elementary school-age kids. Because he is a reluctant reader, I have been advised to let him “read down” when he finds books he likes and then to celebrate the win.)

There are eleven books in this series, and I can’t help but wonder if Vernon meant to make it a round ten and also if she will continue adding to the series. Vernon has also written other books, including the newer Hamster Princess series (having something to do with Cinderella) and has won various awards for her books, including Dragonbreath. Her website can be found HERE.

The series is:

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DragonbreathAttack of the Ninja FrogsCurse of the Weir-wienerLair of the Bat MonsterNo Such Thing as GhostsRevenge of the Horned BunniesWhen Fairies Go BadNightmare of the IguanaThe Case of the Toxic MutantsKnight-Napped!The Frozen Menace

I have not read them all, but my son is almost done. If you have a child who likes books in the vein of Nate the Great, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Captain Underpants, Dog Man, etc., then these might be the next move. You could also use them to entice a reluctant reader who enjoys fantasy and/or creatures. Worked for us.

Author Review: Todd Parr

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This review has been a long time in coming. Todd Parr didn’t fall onto my list of TBRs in any conventional way (though I just looked it up and one of his books is on the Best Picture Books list). It was more of a way for me to volunteer at my kids’ school. It shouldn’t be surprising that I used to volunteer annually for the Scholastic book fair. When the Montessori school, then, had a famous author coming to read to the pre-schoolers through middle schoolers, they reached out to those of us who had a track record of supporting literacy and a weird way of sniffing books as they arrange them, and I was asked to help host Todd Parr.

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I had seen Parr’s books on the bookstore and library shelves and I bet you have, too. They stand out for their simplicity, thick black lines, and raucously bright primary and secondary colors, not to mention some of his titles. I’m not sure we had read any, at the time, though, so I checked some out from the library and then each of my kids bought a Todd Parr book to have signed at the event. I have the most adorable photos of both my kids, in their classrooms, laughing at one of Parr’s comment. (Will I be able to find these photo for you? Yes, I did!) This about sums up the event for me, which is that Parr was wonderful with the kids: funny, sincere, and calming and definitely had his elementary school shtick going on. He was also pleasant and professional, which I appreciated, rushing about making sure drawing boards were set up, kids were seated waiting in circles, and water bottles placed in key locations.

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It was a dream day, for me.

Parr was a flight attendant before becoming an author. He has churned out books since 2002, a TV show called Todd’s World since 2004, and has come by a number of awards, especially honoring his contributions to the environment and equality. He partners with companies from Sesame Street (with shorts) to Cheerios, Toys R Us, and No Kid Hungry. His books often have messages, from helping kids get in touch with their feelings to learning how to care for the world. His series include the Otto books and the ToddWorld books. They are sometimes silly, but often have a subtle gravity to them. And with their being very easy to read and look at, they appeal to children at an age when they are just beginning to think about their world and how they should be in it.

Here are some of his titles:

The Don’t Worry BookBe Who You AreThe Kindness BookLove the WorldThe Joyful BookTeachers RockThe Goodbye BookThe Okay BookThis Is My HairDo’s and Don’tsThings That Make You Feel Good, Things That Make You Feel BadOkay to Be DifferentThe Peace BookThe Feelings BooksUnderwear Do’s and Don’ts



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The truth is, if you have a child and they are going through something, it’s likely there is a Todd Parr book for that. There are books about different seasons, events, and experiences, and especially about how a child relates to themselves and to the world. Very peacenik-ky (or California-y) which many parents are happy to get on board with. My son’s favorite, at the time, was of course Underwear Do’s and Don’ts, and mine was The Feelings Book, which I could personally use to read every once in a while. There are detractors, of course, especially since Parr’s illustrations are rudimentary, though that is part of the point of them. You don’t buy these picture books for their beautiful illustrations. And, like other illustrators before him, Parr chooses to people his world with children and adults in every color of the rainbow except the colors of real skin—a way of making them both universal and encouraging of diversity.

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I like Parr’s books, celebrating the child who’s reading (or being read to) and spurring them on toward being a great citizen and one who’s comfortable in their own skin. I would recommend a few of them make it to your child’s or grandchild’s bookshelf.

For more information on Todd Parr, click HERE. He has an active internet presence at his website.

Liasing with the Man

I’ve been in the writing biz for a long time. There is a caveat to that, which is that I have been only part-time in the biz for most of those years, sometimes very part time. In fact, there have been years when I got almost nothing done. And there have been others where I have worked for a publishing company, contracted with a magazine or publisher, and even two wonderful years when I worked full-time as a writer and indie-published two novels. I was an editor for one publication or another from high school all the way through college, and I left college with a novel begun and reams of not-as-promising poetry. I have subscribed to Poets & Writers and Writers’ Digest on and off through all these years, and have read a number of books about the writing process and publishing. I have attended residencies and workshops. Sporadically I have also been a member of various writing communities, including a regular writing group for a number of years.

All that to say, though I have been distracted by my full-time job as a mother of small children and then a home school mom, I have been in the writing machine for my entire adult life and expect to go full-time again in two years. Still, I find myself very awkward when it comes to approaching agents and editors. Still. Let’s be honest: I’m not sure I’ll ever be great at selling myself. It’s not really my personality. But I feel myself under an enormous amount of pressure in this area, because if I don’t sell myself it is possible I won’t be able to sell a novel, or even a short story.

I am encouraged, though, that sometimes selling myself can be as simple as corresponding appropriately with an editor, agent, or publisher. I am worried, too, that I do not have enough contacts in the field or have not done enough networking, but my main goal is to get my stories read, and in order to do that, I at least have to send along a package or a query that gets the story from the email to under the eyes of an actual person.

After a very long time of part-timing my writing to death, I have been doing some submitting during the Stay-at-Home order. I rallied all the knowledge that I could recall from my years in the field and threw a couple of my babies out there for perusal. So far, I have shopped out three op-eds and two short stories. I am actually a little thrilled, because while I have not found a home for any of them yet, I have received no less than five encouraging rejection letters (yes, this is what we are reduced to. A little encouragement in a rather discouraging business can be water to a parched soul and can also signal that a story truly does have potential), including two from top-of-the-line speculative fiction magazines. (And these for a story that I just can’t quite imagine where it could fit, since it’s barely sci-fi.) And when I see an inbox full of notes from the big newspapers, I get all giddy.

So, for your edification, here are the bits of advice I can give you about submitting, which you can take with a grain of salt because I have not quite made it yet (though I do feel encouraged that I am getting better at it, considering my responses in the past two months compared to my responses several years ago):

Network. That’s one that I don’t do extremely well, but it’s the conventional advice. I would add that maintaining positive relationships among that network is also important. You don’t just want to “know people,” you also want those people to like and respect you, to get warm fuzzies when they encounter your work. Networking in the writing world can include joining writing groups, attending seminars, workshops, conferences, readings, and residencies, and reading out yourself. I supposed submitting also counts, so you want to make sure you are a good correspondent, which is detailed below.Edit your work. Do not send first drafts of stories (or novels) with misspellings, plot holes, etc. Unless you are specifically writing a pitch (like for a magazine or newspaper that hires based on pitches), you want a finished, clean manuscript that you have edited yourself multiple times and perhaps even had some friends or—even better—contemporaries look at and then used their feedback to better your story. (I also advise giving it some space. Don’t submit the second you finish, but give it some margination time and then come back to it.)Find out how to write a great query, cover letter, pitch, etc. Different publications and publishers will want different things, just as different writing forms will require different things. For novels, you will also have to figure out how to write great synopses and outlines (of varying lengths). The point is, you want to go to the experts to find out how to write an appropriate and enthusiastic pitch of the correct type and length. There are resources for this: books, magazine articles, online, etc., but you will also want to take your time and edit this part of the submission, as well. Maybe talk to someone who’s good with marketing, sales, or resumes.Format according to the rules. I have an actual book on my shelf that gives me guidelines and examples for all the different things that a publisher, editor, or agent might ask for (like cover letter for a novel, manuscript for a short story, etc.). There are standards, and at the very least you should be meeting these when you send inquiries. Otherwise, no one will take you seriously and you are much less likely to get your stuff read. I have been amazed, over the years, by how many interviewed editors, agents and publishers admit that they won’t even look at someone’s work if they did not submit correctly, including the name of the proper editor, margins, type font, etc. Which leads me to…Get specific. There are industry standards, and then there are publication standards. Unfortunately, you can’t just get your story all packaged up and then whip it out to place after place with that package. Each agent, editor, and publisher has their own guidelines and you will need to find those and adjust your submission based on them. Some places will take mail-in submissions with a SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope), though this is less-and-less necessary. Some will want an email and some will require you to fill out an online form. Almost everyone will have random details about what and how to submit, but almost none will be clear about everything, which is why you need to already know the industry standards. Please note that almost everyone wants the appropriate person or title addressed in your cover letter or email, and some publications won’t even really consider you without it.Respect rules. If someone gives you guidelines and you can’t meet them, then don’t submit there (or adjust to meet the guidelines). You don’t want to make a bad name for yourself. A reputation in the writing world is as important as it is in other industries. Maybe more. Pay close attention to rules about multiple submissions and length of time required before re-submitting (there or elsewhere). Also, make sure never to break rules about how and when to contact (including not inquiring about a submission during said time period).Edit to the word count. Having just spent some time submitting op-eds at a rapid pace, I have been dealing in word count. Each newspaper that I submitted to had a word count standard, some of them rigid, and so by the end I had something like five versions of each piece, each with a different word count. (I seemed to submit to ever-shrinking word counts.) To be honest, I feel like the shortest versions of each article were best, having been edited and cut the most.Submit where appropriate. I am not so great at this one, either, which may one day bite me in the butt. But the conventional advice is to do some research on each publication (or agent) before submitting to them. Most places would go so far as to say you should have actually read the publication before. Now, I’m a real practical gal, and I don’t have the time or monetary resources to read every publication (and books from certain editors) before choosing a place to land. But it would be best to at least (and I definitely do this) go the website or peruse a list of previous projects for things that you recognize in order to get an idea: is this an appropriate place for this story? If not, then move on. It’ll just waste your and their time, and they will notice that.Last but not least, be polite. One way of being polite is to not overwhelm a person and not cross inappropriate boundaries. Another way is using conventional pleasantries, addressing people by name, and saying please and thank you. I just asked my writing group the other day an etiquette question about submissions: if I get a positive rejection letter, is it okay to respond with a one-sentence thank you. (They said yes.)

And one further piece of advice: keep a spreadsheet. It doesn’t technically have to be a spread sheet, it could be loose leaf paper full of scribbles, but the point is to keep yourself organized. You can’t put forth your best effort if you’ve lost track of where or when you’ve submitted what, what the guidelines were, and when you can re-submit. My spreadsheet contains columns for Title, Date of Submission, Publication/Company, do they allow multiple submissions?, Contact Info, Notes, Results, how many days until I can submit elsewhere?, and Resubmission Date. I then highlight the rows yellow for current submissions, red for a dead project, and green for an acceptance.

There is no green yet on this new spreadsheet, but there will be!

Go ahead and build up your tool belt, don your hard hat (because rejection can be brutal), and practice, because practice makes better.

Book Review: The Strange Case of Origami Yoda

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There have been many times during my twelve-year-old son’s life that we have tried to force science fiction, and especially Star Wars on him. While he has grinned and born many of these objects (sheets, clocks) and experiences (movie marathons), he has never really clicked with any of it. I should not have been surprised, then, when I picked up Tom Angleberger’s The Strange Case of Origami Yoda thinking it would help nudge him to read more, that he didn’t even finish it, let alone read the next books in the series, Darth Paper Strikes Back and The Secret of the Fortune Wookie (and now four more after that).

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I mean, sounds like a cute idea, right? Chapter books meant for more reluctant readers, complete with little sketches, presented as the case files of a middle school-er trying to figure out if the strange kid’s origami Yoda has the power of the Force behind his sometimes bizarre advice. Each chapter is written from one of the kids’ perspectives and is illustrated by one friend and is given a dissenting opinion by another. It’s really about the nerds finding love and maturing, and some of the characters are rather endearing for such sparse interaction with them. I also enjoyed how the main character blunders through his own changes and awakenings without ever making it obvious or heavy. (His issues include being bold, being kind, and choosing the right kind of friends.)

This is not the world’s best book, not that anyone claimed that it was. It is very, very short and so it can’t develop a tremendous amount. It seems to have the opposite idea from Harry Potter as to how to get kids to read. Less words is better. And a few more drawings. Speaking of which, I did not enjoy the illustrations. I know that they were supposed to be drawn by a middle school-er goofing around, but they were messy and poor, which it turns out I don’t like any better than drawings supposedly done by kids that are clearly done by adults. I also would have preferred if this book were written as a conventional novel, and not in epistolary form. I understand that the whole shtick is that it’s a notebook of a middle school-er, but I think the idea of an advice-giving origami Yoda and the characters themselves is enough to carry this story without the added gimmicks. (Might be more difficult to convince the kids they don’t need the gimmicks.)

Then again, I’m not a middle school boy. I know my middle school boy wasn’t buying it, but plenty of kids have. I do like the idea, and certainly if your kid is a reluctant reader in to sci-fi (not that this book is sci-fi. It’s not) and/or Star Wars or enjoys books in the vein of Captain Underpants, Big Nate, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, or Dog Man, then this would be a good place to go. And, unlike many of these types of books, Origami Yoda does have a heart.

Book Review: The Wheel on the School

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You  might think, anymore, that I’m pulling your leg when I say a book was my favorite in fourth grade. It does seem like I say that a lot, but fourth grade was a golden year for me, so by “fourth grade” I mean around fourth grade. And in reality, I’ve only made this claim half a dozen times, now completing (I think) all the great literature I read under Mrs. Sullivan’s tutelage. (Let’s see… A Wrinkle in Time, The Borrowers, Caddie Woodlawn… oh! There’s one more to review soon, and that is The Indian in the Cupboard. And I haven’t reviewed Matilda yet! That’s a great one.)

One of my favorite books in fourth grade was The Wheel on the School. It’s possible it was my absolute favorite of elementary school, and I made that claim for many years. I remember fondly connecting to the characters, transporting myself in my mind to the salty air of seaside Holland, and making a three-dimensional book project complete with moving parts (like turning wheelbarrow wheels and faces that would peek up over the dyke when you pushed and pulled on a popsicle stick).

Well, it was inevitable that I would share my favorites with my son, whom I homeschool. He is finishing sixth grade right now, and as I said, we are reading the last of my favorites. He’s been much slower on the reading upswing. And I don’t think that any of my favorites has been a favorite of his. He prefers fantasy (Fablehaven, Dragon Breath, How to Train Your Dragon) and stories about boys in nature (Where the Red Fern Grows, The Sign of the Beaver, Old Yeller, Shiloh). What was it that I preferred? Homey fantasy? And stories about girls having adventures? Yeah, I think that about covers it. Spunky gals, like Matilda, Meg, and Lina.

[image error]This is the copy I still have, from fourth grade, on my shelf

Lina is one of the main characters in The Wheel on the School. Set in a small village, Shora, on the coast of Holland, Wheel on the School won the Newbery award in 1955 and was illustrated by Maurice Sendak (of Where the Wild Things Are fame). The book is about a small group of village children—the whole school, in fact, which is something like six kids. Lina, the only girl, has just presented them with the problem of storks not coming to their village anymore, and she is determined to put a wheel on the school to provide nesting space. The kids set off to find a wheel, a storm is brewing off the coast, and we follow each child as they have local adventures and discover some characters in the village. In the end, it’s the storm against those determined school kids and an inspired village.

Meindert DeJong was a Dutch-American author. He was born in the Netherlands and moved to the US when he was about the age of the kids in his book. He didn’t start out as an author, but a librarian made the suggestion that began a respectable career. Though I have only ever read The Wheel on the School, his prize-winning books include Shadrach, Hurry Home Candy, The House of Sixty Fathers, Along Came a Dog, and Journey from Peppermint Street. I’ve definitely heard of the last two. And he also received some lifetime achievement recognition for his contribution to children’s literature. (Note of minor interest: DeJong lived mainly in Michigan and North Carolina, which is where I also mainly have lived in my life. He also lived in Holland and Mexico. I also lived in Indiana and, briefly, Israel.)

I still love this book, though it helps that it really opened up my imagination in my formative years. It is a classic, though a lesser-known one, and I certainly would recommend it as classroom, bedtime, or elementary chapter-book reading. It is peaceful, even though there is action happening. The language is nice. It is just a well-written book from a time when books for children were expected to be well-written. I like, too, that this isn’t a book you’ve read before. There isn’t a glut in the market of early-20th century Dutch school children and water birds. The themes and lessons hearken back to a simpler time, which is maybe why this book feels peaceful to me. The illustrations are nice: simple and well-executed. Your children (or you) are still going to find themselves in the characters, and the story is interesting enough to keep you turning the pages.

Author Review: Robert McCloskey

I started off on reading Robert McCloskey way back when my son and I read Homer Price, like a few years ago. Shortly after, I reviewed the classic, Make Way for Ducklings, and then got Lentil from the library. All this time later, I have read all of his picture books (which aren’t many), and can give a review here.

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Robert McCloskey was a well-known author and illustrator who wrote and illustrated from the 1940s to the 1960s. Despite many awards and honors, he then stopped writing his own books and lived another forty years. Some of his titles have become classics and a few of them not as much, though they are all beautifully illustrated and full of calm, quaint, and slightly magical stories. They often portray the people and places in McCloskey’s life, including his daughters, Sally and Jane, and his wife. His books are:

Lentil Make Way for Ducklings Homer Price (chapter book)Blueberries for SalCenterburg Tales (chapter book)One Morning in MaineTime of WonderBurt Dow, Deep-Water Man

Over all, McCloskey’s picture books tend to have participatory noises that a parent can make while reading aloud (from seagulls to boat engines). They also tend to have that touch of magic realism or the absurd, which is especially interesting when juxtaposed against the quiet, calm of the normalcy he mostly portrays. His stories take place mostly in Ohio (his place of origin) and Maine (where he and his family would summer). Blueberries for Sal and Lentil you can read in well under ten minutes, but the rest of them are longer for picture books, and are going to set you back more like 15 minutes.

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I started at the beginning, with Lentil. (McCloskey has a thing for bizarre names.) It is about a boy (Lentil) who can’t sing and can’t pucker his lips to whistle, so he learns to play the harmonica. When his small town’s most important citizen comes back into town, old Sneep causes trouble that only Lentil can undo. It’s a cute story. If you know Homer Price and Make Way for Ducklings, you know this story. It’s old-fashioned, with sketched drawings that come straight from a time and a place, the Midwest of the 50s, no apologies. I liked it, with its touch of magic realism.

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One Morning in Maine is a good read for a child who has just lost his or her first tooth, or is about to. It does have a brief message of “big girls don’t cry,” at least over small things, and it also drags on a bit. It’s a day-in-the-life of a family (McCloskey’s family) on a Maine island, but it centers on Sal losing her first tooth and becoming a “big girl.” It features a characteristic love of and respect for nature and also of humanity.

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The very popular Blueberries for Sal has especially beautiful illustrations, which is saying a lot because McCloskey’s illustrations, though typically black and white and sketch-y, are so detailed and accurate and observant, so reverent toward nature and people and the small things, that they inspired me to awe. There is a tension in this book that is caused, I supposed, by being modern. I mean, as a mom I am reading about a bear in close proximity to the mom and child and I’m freaking out. But it’s not meant to be that way. It’s another gentle, even idyllic, tale about daily life and small things: a mom and daughter picking blueberries to can. Blueberries for Sal is a good one.

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When McCloskey wrote Time of Wonder, he made the transition to color illustrations. They are different is style, being a lot less detailed. His story-telling style also shifted, here, and Time of Wonder is McCloskey’s furthest afield: told in present tense, second-person, it’s almost more of a long poem. It sounds like a meditation, maybe, not a traditional story, even though it is a story, about the end of summer and the coming of a hurricane. The illustrations, though different, are still very skilled and beautiful.

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Burt Dow, Deep Water Man was my least favorite, largely due to the illustrations and some the repetitiveness. The whales are the least realistic of all McCloskey’s illustrations, and I sort of mourned when I saw them. Otherwise, the story is really cute. I just was sad that he didn’t go his usual route with those darned whales: they looked like cartoons, not like keen observation of a creature.

Buying all of McCloskey’s library won’t set you back much, and I definitely recommend his books for your children’s library. In fact, they’re not the be missed, all the way from Homer Price to Time of Wonder, but maybe not Burt Dow. It’s up to you.

Writing Prompted: Therapy for a Modern Soul

The following is impromptu flash fiction based on a writing prompt. I found the prompt at thinkwritten.com. The idea was to write about the weather outside my window.

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There is something I don’t like about this house: you can’t hear anything. I can look out the windows right now, at the impossibly tall and slim loblollies swaying in a hot-and-cool breeze against a gray wash of sky, and all I can hear is the tapping of my keyboard and the hum of the bathroom vent fan in the next room. Then the air conditioner comes on, and I hear the rush of filtered and chemically cooled air. I have to have it. I have allergies almost all year round, and especially now. Those same loblollies, the ones I long to hear rustling their leaves and creaking in their extremities: they make me so miserable and tired when they throw their pollen to the skies that I have fantasized about laying down on the dusty, linoleum floors of various supermarkets through a number of springs.

It took a long time to notice it. I can’t hear the outdoors. I thought that the storms were just more mild here, on the south side of town, in a brand new townhouse. There are added layers and things like firewalls between us and the neighbors. Our façade, front and back, is tall and slender, like the trees across the cul de sac. But that didn’t quite explain it, how I never heard a good, hard rain like applause for a thirst quenched, never heard thunder rolling up from over the freeway that sometimes sounds like thunder under the wheels of tractor-trailers, never heard any birds chirping or squirrels screaming or man’s foot on the pine straw as he walks from the brightness of neighborhood to the cool, dimness of forested abatement.

It’s the windows, I think. The windows in our old house were half a century old. More. They were just a pane of glass between you and the world outside. Just the bare minimum, one toddler’s fist away from shattering, one slim clearness between the palm of your hand and the trickle of rain. Sometimes they even rattled. These windows: look at them. They can’t be rattled. We’re double-thick, they say. We have firm, tight casements, sealed into place with so much rubber. We have screens so that you can open us. But the screen is just a blur, another few inches between me and the world. As if I could open the windows! Damn these allergies. Damn them.

 I have had migraines—the bad ones—since I was five years old. I have a genetically bad disk in my back and have thrown it out completely a few times. I have high arches that cause almost constant tendonitis and I haven’t stepped down out of bed in the morning, without pain, in many years. In fact, my bunions are getting worse, too. And yet, despite searing, excruciating pain, knock-down and drag-out crippling of my body, nausea, vomiting, blindness, and the occasional need to be in a the deepest, darkest, most quiet hole I can find, you know what I think? I think that if God said to me, “Would you like to be healed?” and my face spread with a smile in anticipation, and He said, “Which will it be? Pick one thorn and I’ll remove it,” it would be the allergies. Because between times, between the fear and the despair, between the blasting pain and the worst of humanity, I want to be able to walk out the door and slip into leaves and river water and wind. I want to be able to hear the world in its birthday clothes.