Category Archives: Historical

Review: In the Neighborhood of True by Susan Kaplan Carlton

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In the Neighborhood of True

In the Neighborhood of True
Susan Kaplan Carlton
Algonquin Young Readers
Available April 9, 2019

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About IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF TRUE

After her father’s death, Ruth Robb and her family transplant themselves in the summer of 1958 from New York City to Atlanta—the land of debutantes, sweet tea, and the Ku Klux Klan. In her new hometown, Ruth quickly figures out she can be Jewish or she can be popular, but she can’t be both. Eager to fit in with the blond girls in the “pastel posse,” Ruth decides to hide her religion. Before she knows it, she is falling for the handsome and charming Davis and sipping Cokes with him and his friends at the all-white, all-Christian Club.

Does it matter that Ruth’s mother makes her attend services at the local synagogue every week? Not as long as nobody outside her family knows the truth. At temple Ruth meets Max, who is serious and intense about the fight for social justice, and now she is caught between two worlds, two religions, and two boys. But when a violent hate crime brings the different parts of Ruth’s life into sharp conflict, she will have to choose between all she’s come to love about her new life and standing up for what she believes.

My Review

I found IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF TRUE to be utterly addicting to read. I’d sneak a few more pages in while microwaving the baby’s lunch. Or while waiting for my older daughter to finish brushing her teeth before bed. Anytime I had more than 30 seconds free, I jumped right back into the book.

I loved Ruth’s voice. She’s frank, pragmatic and constantly caught me off guard (in a great way) with colorful descriptions of things. At first she doesn’t seem bothered by hiding her identity. She values fitting in so much more than her faith, which feels especially far away after her father’s death. She knows she’s being shallow about it. But as things happen and she begins to form connections within her faith community, the racism in her debutante community only becomes more stark and uncomfortable to Ruth. I thought that progression felt very real, raw, and powerful.

The only thing I didn’t love about IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF TRUE was an element of the ending. I don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll add a spoiler section at the end of this post to talk about that. Over all, though, I really enjoyed the book. Check out the content section below for notes on those topics.

Recommended for ages 16 up.

Representation
Ruth, her sisters, and her mother are Jewish. Other characters are white. Many of the upscale clubs and community events are still closed to Jews and other races at the time the story happens. The story condemns those attitudes.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
15-20 instances of mild to strong profanity.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kissing between boy and girl. Ruth undresses with a boyfriend. She and her sister discuss sex– which her sister, who’s in college, seems to have a lot of. Her sister sends her a box of condoms. Ruth makes plans to have sex with her boyfriend on prom night. The scene describes the lead into the event but not much of the event itself.

Spiritual Content
Ruth attends synagogue services with her mom and sister. Most of the sermon that’s related to us has to do with social justice issues.

Violent Content
Ruth’s mother tells her about a young black man who was lynched. One of the boys in Ruth’s friend circle makes some ugly racist comments. See spoiler section for more.

Drug Content
Ruth’s friends offer her Southern Comfort, which gets her very drunk the first time she has it. She drinks some again another time.

Note: I received a free copy of IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF TRUE in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links, which don’t cost the reader anything, but when used, help support my blog.

About Susan Kaplan Carlton

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Carlton currently teaches writing at Boston University. She is the author of the YA novels Love & Haight and Lobsterland. Her writing has also appeared in Self,Elle, Mademoiselle, and Seventeen. She lived for a time with her family in Atlanta, where her daughters learned the finer points of etiquette from a little pink book and the power of social justice from their synagogue.

SPOILER
A bomb destroys a building. No one is hurt, but it’s a building dear to many people, and clearly awful and traumatic.

So here’s my issue with the end of the book: I liked the ending as a whole. Ruth does the right thing, stands up for herself and her community, makes a place for herself– her real self. I loved that. But I felt like she ultimately chose sides.

One of her debutante friends continued to reach out to her after the trial and after Ruth goes public with her faith. But instead of acknowledging that reach across the gap, Ruth sort of retreated to her side and said she was too busy for this friendship. It’s a pretty realistic ending, so I get it.

I guess I just wanted those girls to be bigger than the moment they were in, if that makes sense. I wanted them to be able to reach across lines of race and faith and say those things didn’t matter, and I didn’t feel like that was the message there. Seriously, though, I loved the book other than that and of course, some of the content.

Review: Within These Lines by Stephanie Morrill

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Within These Lines
Stephanie Morrill
Blink YA
Publishes March 5, 2019

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About WITHIN THESE LINES

Evalina Cassano’s life in an Italian-American family in 1941 is everything it “should be” until she falls in love with Taichi Hamasaki, the son of Japanese immigrants. Despite the scandal it would cause and that inter-racial marriage is illegal in California, Evalina and Taichi vow they will find a way to be together. But anti-Japanese feelings erupt across the country after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and Taichi and his family are forced to give up their farm and move to an internment camp.

Degrading treatment makes life at Manzanar Relocation Center difficult. Taichi’s only connection to the outside world are treasured letters from Evalina. Feeling that the only action she can take to help Taichi is to speak out on behalf of all Japanese Americans, Evalina becomes increasingly vocal at school and at home. Meanwhile, inside Manzanar, fighting between different Japanese-American factions arises. Taichi begins to doubt he will ever leave the camp alive.

With tensions running high and their freedom on the line, Evalina and Taichi must hold true to their values and believe in their love to make a way back to each other against unbelievable odds.

My Review

It’s probably no secret that I love Stephanie Morrill’s storytelling. Her characters always have this deep core of integrity and courage, and yet they’re relatable and funny. WITHIN THESE LINES has all the thing I love about her other books, and it focuses on a historical moment that we need to remember.

WITHIN THESE LINES isn’t the first book about the Japanese internment camps that I’ve read before, but it’s the first one I’ve seen where the political atmosphere around the camps is so overtly described. I loved that the story followed Taichi’s perspective as a Japanese American and a prisoner of the Manzanar camp. But I thought it was also cool to show how difficult it would be to speak out against the camps, and to love across racial lines at a time when not only was it viewed as wrong, but was illegal. It’s easy for us to look back at history and say, “I would never have stood by silently while that happened. I totally would have spoken out.” WITHIN THESE LINES gives us a chance to walk in those shoes and see how difficult that might have been. (Obviously Evalina’s experience was nothing compared to Taichi’s.)

In terms of the characters, I loved both Evalina and Taichi. I spent a couple of months in Tokyo a few years ago, and some of the language and the way Taichi relates to his family and camp members made me think back to that trip and really miss it. I’m no expert by any stretch of the imagination, but there were a lot of references to and snapshot moments of Japanese language and culture throughout WITHIN THESE LINES. Taichi’s sister was probably my favorite character. She added a lot to the story with her fierceness and strong emotions.

At its core, WITHIN THESE LINES is a love story. If you love forbidden romance and/or liked Morrill’s other historical novel, THE LOST GIRL OF ASTOR STREET, then you definitely want to check this one out. (Also, if you haven’t read LOST GIRL, go check it out!)

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Cultural Elements
Evalina is an Italian American and considered white. She is ashamed of her family’s earlier connection to the mafia. Taichi and his family are Japanese American and end up imprisoned in an internment camp.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kissing.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Some racist comments and situations. Signs prohibit Japanese from entering some places of business. A man spits at the feet of people on their way to internment camps. A group within the camp vows to overthrow the system and align themselves with Japan, threatening to harm or kill others, including any fellow prisoners who don’t support their efforts.

Drug Content
None.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links.

Review: The Noble Servant by Melanie Dickerson

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The Noble Servant (Medieval Fairytales #3)
Melanie Dickerson
Thomas Nelson
Published on May 9, 2017

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About The Noble Servant
She lost everything to the scheme of an evil servant. But she might just gain what she’s always wanted…if she makes it in time.

The impossible was happening. She, Magdalen of Mallin, was to marry the Duke of Wolfberg. Magdalen had dreamed about receiving a proposal ever since she met the duke two years ago. Such a marriage was the only way she could save her people from starvation. But why would a handsome, wealthy duke want to marry her, a poor baron’s daughter? It seemed too good to be true.

On the journey to Wolfberg Castle, Magdalen’s servant forces her to trade places and become her servant, threatening not only Magdalen’s life, but the lives of those she holds dear. Stripped of her identity and title in Wolfberg, where no one knows her, Magdalen is sentenced to tend geese while she watches her former handmaiden gain all Magdalen had ever dreamed of.

When a handsome shepherd befriends her, Magdalen begins to suspect he carries secrets of his own. Together, Magdalen and the shepherd uncover a sinister plot against Wolfberg and the duke. But with no resources, will they be able to find the answers, the hiding places, and the forces they need in time to save both Mallin and Wolfberg?

My Review
My daughter LOVES these fairytale stories by Melanie Dickerson. They’re sweet, straightforward tales with that classic fairytale happily ever after moment. Very clean, very safe, which is what she often prefers. Sometimes you need a story where everything works out all right and justice is perfectly served, you know? If that resonates with you, The Noble Servant is probably the kind of book you’re looking for.

I enjoyed reading this retelling of the Grimm’s fairytale Goose Girl, though it took me a while to get into it. The writing is a little bit stilted at times, but the characters are interesting. I liked the way Magdalen and the shepherd had to work together, and the secrets they kept made things interesting.

The books in the Medieval Fairytale series and Dickerson’s Hagenheim series are great for readers in that zone where they’re transitioning to stories about older characters but not quite ready for the mature content in some young adult books.

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Cultural Elements
Major characters are white or not physically described.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kissing.

Spiritual Content
A couple of times characters pray together during a crisis and quote scripture.

Violent Content
Physical fights between some of the male characters. Some peril and limited details about inuries.

Drug Content
None.

Review: Dancer, Daughter, Traitor, Spy by Elizabeth Kiem

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Dancer, Daughter, Traitor, Spy (The Bolshoi Saga #1)
Elizabeth Kiem
Soho Teen
Published on August 13, 2013

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About Dancer, Daughter, Traitor, Spy
Marya is a ballet dancer born of privilege; her mother, Sveta, is the most popular ballet dancer in the Soviet Union and its glamorous face to the West.

When Sveta disappears, Marya and her father suspect their own lives are in danger and arrange a harrowing defection. Marya is certain that her father is doomed to be murdered at their new home in Brighton Beach, where his closest friends are unapologetic criminals . . . she’s “seen” him die.

Soon she’s drawn into web of intrigue that ultimately reveals the truth about her gift of foresight, her mother’s disappearance, and a boy she cannot bring herself to trust.

My Review
Things that drew me to this book: the 80s setting, the ballet elements, the Russian characters, and the intrigue/mystery about her mom. Reading about the 80s was super fun. I loved the conversations Marya has with Ben about music and some of the descriptions of fashion. That part of the story was a lot of fun to read. As a former ballet dancer myself, I love reading books that feature ballerina characters. It definitely makes me miss dancing but also gives me a chance to celebrate that part of my life again.

Truthfully, I was a little nervous once I read the author’s note about characters being referred to by multiple names as they would be in Russian culture because I have a harder time keeping track of a lot of names in a novel anyway. But actually, I had no trouble. There are only a few characters with multiple names, and most often it’s Marya who’s referred to by different names, and even those were easy to keep track of.

Solving the mystery of her mother’s disappearance drives Marya’s story forward. Just like Marya, her mother has a supernatural gift that gets her into trouble. In Sveta’s case, it’s the ability to see past events which she has no personal knowledge of. Things like a secret government experiment. While I really enjoyed the mysterious, suspenseful feel of the story, I felt like the supernatural gifts didn’t really fit. It seemed to me like they were really shortcuts so things could happen in the plot without needing realistic explanation. Marya could discover something via her gift rather than uncovering clues leading her to the conclusion.

The plot of the story focused more on the relationships between characters than on the mystery/suspense elements. I didn’t mind this as a reader, but it wasn’t what I was expecting based on the title of the book, which sounded like a reference to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. All in all, I enjoyed reading it. Not sure the series is really for me, though. 80s fans or readers interested in Russian culture will definitely want to get a copy of this one, though.

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Cultural Elements
Major characters are Russian and several are referred to by more than one name (the author explains this is the way they’d be used in Russian culture.). I thought that would be really confusing, but actually I had no problem keeping the characters straight. The story contains some phrases and words in Russian, too.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used fairly infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between boy and girl. Rumors about Sveta and the ballet director, who’s said to be in love with her.

Spiritual Content
Marya and her mother have unusual gifts. Marya’s mother can see the past and has visions of things she has no real way to know. Marya has visions that foretell the future.

Violent Content
Marya worries that her mother may be tortured or killed. She has a vision of a person with a gun preparing to shoot her friends. She sees some members of the Russian mafia and hears some rumors about how they operate. She stumbles into a crime scene in which a man has been shot.

Drug Content
Some scenes show characters drinking alcohol or getting drunk. (Mostly these are adults.) At one point, Marya pours out a bottle of vodka because she doesn’t want her dad and uncle to drink it.

Review: Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi

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The Gilded Wolves
Roshani Chokshi
Wednesday Books
Published on January 15, 2019

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About The Gilded Wolves
Set in a darkly glamorous world, The Gilded Wolves is full of mystery, decadence, and dangerous but thrilling adventure.

Paris, 1889: The world is on the cusp of industry and power, and the Exposition Universelle has breathed new life into the streets and dredged up ancient secrets. In this city, no one keeps tabs on secrets better than treasure-hunter and wealthy hotelier, Séverin Montagnet-Alarie. But when the all-powerful society, the Order of Babel, seeks him out for help, Séverin is offered a treasure that he never imagined: his true inheritance.

To find the ancient artifact the Order seeks, Séverin will need help from a band of experts: An engineer with a debt to pay. A historian who can’t yet go home. A dancer with a sinister past. And a brother in all but blood, who might care too much.

Together, they’ll have to use their wits and knowledge to hunt the artifact through the dark and glittering heart of Paris. What they find might change the world, but only if they can stay alive.

My Review
If you’ve read other books written by Roshani Chokshi, you remember the lush magical settings and rich, Indian culture. The unforgettable characters main characters with quirky companions and delicious banter between them.

Gilded Wolves is a whole different kind of story. From the setting in late nineteenth century France to the complex alternate history and magic system, Gilded Wolves took some getting used to for me.

I really enjoyed the characters. There’s something incredible about creating a cast of six with relationships as close and complex and realistic as this group had. I loved the Ocean’s Eleven style heist the group sets up. It created a lot of tension and danger, which kept me turning page after page.

The magic system and politics between the houses of power were a little hard for me to keep track of at first. The prologue and opening chapter felt a bit heavy with history and setting details, but once the real story begins and we meet Séverin and his crew, I found it really easy to connect with them. If you loved the close character relationships and the high stakes of the heist in Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, you want to check out Gilded Wolves.

Recommended for Ages 15 up.

Cultural Elements
Séverin and Hypnos have one white parent and one black parent. (They aren’t related.) Laila is from India. Enrique is Spanish and Filipino. Zofia is Jewish and probably on the Autism spectrum, though Gilded Wolves doesn’t label her. The cast includes openly gay and bisexual characters.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used very infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to sex. Descriptions of kissing between two boys and a boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Gilded Wolves includes some references to the biblical story of the tower of Babel. It’s not a strict biblical interpretation of the story, though. In Gilded Wolves, when the tower falls, pieces of it remain which contain powerful, civilization-ending magic.

Additionally, four families rule houses of power. Some people have abilities to change the characteristics of objects with magic. Like creating a desk which traps the hands of anyone who touches it besides the owner. One character has the ability to sense the history of an item which hasn’t been magically altered.

One character states that his goal is to become a god and remake the world. He believes that if we are made in God’s image, that makes us gods also.

Another character has an unusual origin and was created using bits of bone and the spirit of a child who’d died.

Violent Content
Séverin describes experiences with his foster parents. One tormented him and his foster brother, even torturing them by using a magic helmet to replay their nightmares. One of his foster fathers died by suicide. One died during a robbery.

Drug Content
Séverin’s foster father drinks wine. Characters drink wine and champagne at parties. Hypnos drinks wine while the team tries to solve a puzzle. He jokes about needing it to help him think.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Christy by Catherine Marshall

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Christy
Catherine Marshall
Turtleback Books
Published June 27th 2006 (first published January 1st 1967

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About Christy
At nineteen, Christy Huddleston left home to teach school in the Smokies — coming to know and care for the wild mountain people, with their fierce pride, terrible poverty, dark superstitions…and their yearning for beauty and truth. But in these primitive surroundings, Christy’s faith would be severely tested by the unique strengths and needs of two remarkable young men — and challenged by a heart torn between desire…and love.

My Review
Christy is one of those books I’ve read probably almost a dozen times. I think I first read it at thirteen or fourteen years old. Most recently I listened to the audiobook version, which I enjoyed, too. I’ve been meaning to actually post a review of it for years, though, since I still talk about it pretty regularly. I’ve mentioned it in several list posts.
So what makes it so special? Wow. Well, I love the spiritual journey. Christy relates her faith in this unassuming, humble way, and it comes across so genuinely. I feel like you could argue that the whole young protégé learning from an older, wiser woman has been done lots before, but for some reason, it never bothered me in this book. I think because it just feels so organic to me. Every time I read the book I get lost in Christy’s journey, and it makes me want to love others more and open myself to a deeper spiritual life.
I love the colorful cast of characters, especially the people of Cutter Gap. Fairlight Spencer, Christy’s best friend in the Cove, and Ruby Mae, with her chattering and adoration for Christy. I always catch myself grinning in the scene about Creed Allen and his raccoon and when the doctor gives Christy a hard time about her overly keen sense of smell.

For me, listening to the story gave me a little more distance, so for the first time I feel like I was able to step back and see the story as a whole a bit more. Usually I’m so caught up in each moment and each relationship that I feel like I don’t get to see the Cove as a whole and the arch of Christy’s journey that first year as a teacher. I still wish there was more to the story. I still cry every time the typhoid epidemic begins. I still get all teary at the end. Every. Time. Can’t help it, I guess.

Maybe because of the age that I was when I first read Christy but I feel like this is a great book for kids in seventh and eighth grade. Certainly it’s a great read for teens and adults alike, but there’s something about those early teen days that make me feel like this story is a great fit for the age. I guess it’s because Christy is very much on the journey toward understanding who she is and how she fits into her larger community, and that journey seems to begin for a lot of people in their early teens.

I absolutely recommend this book. As I’ve said, it’s one of my favorites, and has been for years (let’s not say how many). I love it so much. If you’ve read it and want to chat about it, YES! Let’s. If you haven’t read it, then go read it. And then let’s chat about it! Haha. But yes, read it.

Recommended for Ages 13 up.

Cultural Elements
Major characters are white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Some brief kissing. Christy attends a Cove wedding at which the bride and groom celebrate with a couple of more crude traditions – descriptions are brief and very vague.

Christy learns about one woman’s past in which she was sexually abused and assaulted by a family friend. Details are vague, but sensitive readers may still find this triggering.

Spiritual Content
Christy volunteers to teach school in Cutter Gap after hearing a missionary speak at her church. She believes she’s been moved by God to be part of the mission school, but learns through her experience at Cutter Gap how little real love and selflessness she possesses on her own. Through mentorship with Alice Henderson, another mission worker, and her experience with the mountain people, she begins to develop a deeper faith and spiritual life which overflows into the way she loves and serves others.

Violent Content
Christy witnesses and deals with some schoolyard fighting in which children get injured, sometimes by bigger kids. A couple of people get shot, one fatally so.

Drug Content
Men create a moonshine still in the Cove, which is against the law. A few scenes show people drinking alcohol or drunk. In one scene, a teen bride and groom drink alcohol with their friends. Christy feels very negatively about this and does not drink alcohol herself except at one point when the doctor offers her brandy “medicinally.”