Teen Review: Maddie & Sayara

Promotional copy provided by Netgalley in return for a review.




Maddie & Sayara
Sanjyot P. Dunung
Expected publication date: September 7th, 2017

Rating: 2/5
Plot: 3/5
Characters: 1/5
Writing: 2/5

Maddie and Sayara are two regular 13-year-olds who meet at a spring break vacation in the Bahamas. They become fast friends and slowly, Maddie comes to understand the differences between her own country's laws regarding women and the "kingdom" where Sayara lives. When Sayara's cousin is arrested for daring to drive while female, Maddie makes a whirlwind decision: she is going to the kingdom to talk some sense into that stupid government.

I feel like I say this a lot, but I really wanted to like this story. It seemed like it had real potential for expanding the genre of politically-motivated stories in the tween/teen area. What I found was a painfully frustrating account of a "normal family" which is obviously very much not the normalcy of American middle class that I know, as her mother can afford to not work and hires a nanny for the three children so she can spent weeks on end in the spa and thinly veiled (no pun intended) references to a Middle Eastern country which requires all women to wear a "tent."

I was also appalled at Maddie's characterization. She steals her mother's login and frequent flyer miles to book a plane to a foreign country, so she can "find someone who can fix the driving ban." I have known a lot of naive teens and tweens, but none of them would even think about trying to go to a foreign country alone. None of them would assume that changing nation-wide laws can be done by one individual, especially a girl in a country that marginalizes women to the degree that the kingdom does. Naivety is one thing; reckless self-endangerment is something entirely different.

Also disturbing was the characterization of Maddie's mother: a supposedly middle class mother who neglects her children, spends lavish amounts of money to pamper herself and to make sure someone else raises her kids, and seems to emotionally abuse her daughter through unreasonable demands and silent treatment tactics. She also has intensely old-fashioned views about what women's roles in society should be, without a corresponding religious or social class basis for her opinions. It is stated that "that's how she was brought up to be" but the abusive effects of her behavior with Maddie are never addressed.

The writing also frustrated me. It seems that the author didn't expect that her readers would retain key plot points between chapters, so insisted on repeating--often in exactly the same words--those plot points throughout their relevant chapters. And while I appreciate Maddie's stream-of-consciousness approach to narrating, sometimes it is distracting from the story that is actually happening.

As a whole, I was disappointed by this tween/teen novel. Perhaps there are parents who care more about preaching the evils of overbearing faith institutions than a believable and relatable story. As an informational parable, it works relatively well and the pacing of information does keep you wanting to turn the page to find out what happens next. The information dumping is heavy-handed though, especially when it comes from a tween who doesn't seem particularly bright or able to make logical jumps on her own. The inconsistencies in writing and character development put this book very low on my recommended reads list.

Non-fiction Review: Women Who Work

Women Who Work
Ivanka Trump

Rating: 2/5

I want to preface this review with a note. I dislike Donald Trump. Intensely. But I'm also a professional and this review is as fair and balanced as I can make it. I will not attack, only review the book as it is.

Ivanka Trump aims to provide support and fresh ideas to the business-oriented woman. She covers several subjects including how best to organize one's life to maximize efficiency, recognizing the joy in the little moments rather than striving always for a perfect balance, and the importance of communication. Ivanka's first-person narrative style is engaging and the book itself is excellently readable. Concepts are well organized and presented, developed with Ivanka's personal touches and references back to her website community.

The ultimate failing of this book is that, like so many other books about being successful, it is aimed at a very narrow target audience: women with privilege. It assumes a level of pre-existing success to which the average reader has not had access. Many of her tips and tricks are sound and can be traced back to realistic business practices, but there is very little original material here, not to mention a complete blind spot regarding the working poor, women of color, and professional issues of the middle and lower classes. This book was written for white women who are educated and have been supported throughout their lives to a standard far about the average. This book was written to the self-purchasing women who buy clothing for the name and jewelry from collections. There may be some tips to be found here that might aid those women in their journey, but for most people, there really is very little to recommend.

Adult Review: Manhattan 1609

Manhattan 1609 (Book one in the Manhattan series)
Harald Johnson
Paper omnibus expected release date: Oct-Nov

Final Score: 5/5
Plot: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Writing: 4.8/5

This is one of those books where I need to preface it a little. The author is a patron at my library and we struck up a conversation at the desk recently about books and reviews. When I asked if he was writing one, he told me that he'd written three and was putting out a paper omnibus edition of the series sometime in October or November. I offered to read the first one and review it for this blog and my YouTube channel. So, yeah, I have a slightly personal stake in this.

That said, Manhattan 1609 blew me away. From what Harald had said about his subject matter, I had expected an interesting story with lots of history and, because I'm skeptical of the quality of self-published books in general, a mediocre writing style.

This is not your average self-published book.

The story begins with Henry Hudson's trip across the Atlantic, exploring the explorer and his crew as they travel. It shifts then to the perspective of Dancing Fish, a native of the Lanape tribe living on the island of Mannahatta. The introduction of Dancing Fish blew the story wide open for me and I became completely invested in the storyline, his history and his future, and where he might be going. As a teenaged character, he's accessible to younger readers as well as adult readers who may commiserate with his new parents.

Once both sides are introduced, it's time for worlds to collide as Hudson continues to search for the elusive India passage. He comes into contact with the natives and Dancing Fish's tribe, eventually taking the young boy onto his ship as translator, away from everything he's known and the people he cares about to see a wider world off the island.

It's not very often I get to finish a book and immediately write to the author, but that is exactly what I did. I wrote to tell him that I was ecstatic about this book and that I would be recommending the omnibus purchase to my collection manager as soon as I'm back at work. I want everyone to read this and I want to be able to hand people a copy, look at them seriously and say, "You're gonna love it."

The only element of the writing that bothered me and decreased my overall score was a stiltedness early on with the crew of Hudson's expedition. The Hudson chapters before he meets Dancing Fish read like a paraphrasing of someone's journals rather than the development of a unique character. This fades immediately upon his arrival and contact with the local people, but it did make the first few chapters a little sluggish to read.

All in all, though I loved this novella. As soon as there's money in my budget for it, I'm buying the rest of the Kindle editions so I can see where he goes. An excellent historical fiction that gives you all the sense and feel of living in Manhattan back when it was still Mannahatta, still just as full of culture, beauty, artwork, and conflict as it is today.

Childrens Review: Unraveling Rose

Reader copy provided by Edelweiss+ in return for a review.



Unraveling Rose
Brian Wray
Illustrated by Shiloh Penfield

Rating: 4.7/5
Story: 4/5
Characters: 5/5
Illustrations: 5/5

Unraveling Rose is the sweet story of a stuffed bunny who likes everything just perfect who develops a loose thread. Eventually, that loose thread drives her to distraction and eventually to picking at it all the time, pulling out her own stuffing. She decides to make a change, restuffs herself and stitches it up, then through time and patience and practice, learns that not everything has to be perfect. The end of the book includes questions and answers about OCD and resources for parents and teachers.

Rose herself is utterly charming, sympathetic and adorable, as is the boy who snuggles her and reads books with her. The illustrations do an excellent job of portraying Rose's increasing distress over her loose thread and the relief afterwards of finally having a direction to go that may help.

I feel very strongly that more children's material needs to exist to address compassionate ways to recognized and approach mental illness. It's a very personal passion, since I lived most of my life with an anxiety disorder that went undiagnosed until my early 30s. Putting this kind of material into the hands of children, parents, and teachers is so important.

While I acknowledge the lack of material currently circulating, I had some concerns about this title. The author makes direct suggestions of what parents and teachers should do, rather than directing each question to an authority. The author, while very well-informed and certainly well-intentioned, makes it seem easy for a child to make the changes needed to accommodate OCD and anxiety; this is far from the truth. It takes a long time, proper medical and potentially pharmacological interventions and a lot of trial and error. The steps presented can alleviate problems, but will not fix the root of the compulsions and anxiety. Ideally, I would like more emphasis placed on discussing problems and compulsions with a trained professional rather than hinting to parents that they can handle this kind of thing on their own.

Vlog Posting: Joshilyn Jackson Makes Me Cry

Hey, guys! I just wanted to let you know that there's a YouTube-exclusive book review video up right now on my channel. I would love it if you could check it out and give it a thumbs-up or a comment!

Adult Review: Dayworld

Reader copy provided by Netgalley in return for a review.



Dayworld (reissue; originally published in 1985)
Philip Jose Farmer

Rating: 5/5
Plot: 5/5
Characters: 5/5
Writing: 5/5

In Dayworld, human immortality had been unlocked. With an application of energy, humans can be "stoned," a process which suspends the animation of their cells, rendering them immune to damage or age. To accommodate the skyrocketing population of Earth, the government had instituted a time-sharing arrangement. Each person is un-stoned for one 24-hour period and allowed to live their life normally. At the end of the day, they return to their cylinders to be stoned again and someone else wakes up to take their place for the next day. This essentially allows one house or apartment to have seven different families living in it.

Of course, something like this has to be carefully monitored and organized at all times, which is handled by the government. Not everyone is happy with the government's oppressive hand in their lives and an underground of spies, rebels, and informants has developed. Jeff Caird, the protagonist is one of these, known as immers. He lives every day, juggling seven different personas, seven different lives in an effort to gather information for the immers. But when an immer goes rogue and starts daybreaking, Jeff and all his personas are in danger and it's a stop-and-go roller coaster of a chase.

I love this book. I'm a little embarrassed that I just found out that it isn't a new book (the Netgalley book appears to be a reissue/rebranding of the original), but that does help sort out my reaction. As I was reading Dayworld, I couldn't help but think of some of the original masters of science fiction and dystopian fiction: Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, E. E. Doc Smith. I was swept up in the world, integrated into the story so quickly that it was almost impossible to put it down again. Dayworld is fantastic. I am so glad they're reprinting it so it can catch the imaginations of another generation.