Tag Archives: Amulet Books

Review: Mary Underwater by Shannon Doleski

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Mary Underwater by Shannon Doleski

Mary Underwater
Shannon Doleski
Amulet
Published April 7, 2020

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About Mary Underwater

Mary Murphy feels like she’s drowning. Her violent father is home from prison, and the social worker is suspicious of her new bruises. An aunt she’s never met keeps calling. And if she can’t get a good grade on her science project, she’ll fail her favorite class.

But Mary doesn’t want to be a victim anymore. She has a plan: build a real submarine, like the model she’s been making with Kip Dwyer, the secretly sweet class clown.

Gaining courage from her heroine, Joan of Arc, Mary vows to pilot a sub across the Chesapeake Bay, risking her life in a modern crusade to save herself.

Mary Underwater is an empowering tale of persistence, heroism, and hope from a luminous new voice in middle-grade fiction.

My Review

Special thanks to Dahlia Adler from LGBTQReads for inviting authors to list their debut novels in a thread on her Twitter account, which I think is how I learned about this book.

The cover and description of MARY UNDERWATER totally had me hooked. I am super interested in stories that show young women and STEM, and a girl building a submarine seemed too cool to pass up.

This book has so many things I love. I love Mary’s character. The way her timidity blossoms into confidence. The celebration of St. Joan of Arc both in her narrative and in biographical snippets between chapters. I love the relationships between Mary and her teachers, Sister Eu and Mr. Fen, and her mentor, Ford. I love the way her aunt steps into her life, building a safe relationship, and encouraging Mary, but also talking straight.

I read MARY UNDERWATER in one sitting because I couldn’t stop. Without meaning to, I pretty much one-more-chaptered myself all the way to the end and I have zero regrets about that. It’s a heartwarming, inspiring story, with a strong, positive representation of both women and faith. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that combination done so well before, and I really, truly loved it.

I think readers who enjoyed THE QUEEN BEE AND ME by Gillian McDunn or CHIRP by Kate Messner absolutely need to read this one.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 10 to 14.

Representation
Mary’s aunt has a female partner.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
References to cursing.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
Mary attends a Catholic school and makes lots of references to the nuns praying. She also takes courage from the story of St. Joan of Arc and imagines herself being brave as she was. Mary prays the Hail Mary prayer while distressed.

Violent Content – Possible trigger warning for domestic violence
Mary and her mother have bruises from her father abusing them. The abuse happens off-scene. Her father also breaks something important to Mary and attacks one of her friends. (Both these incidents happen off-scene.)

Drug Content
Mary’s dad drinks a lot of alcohol.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support running this blog.

Review: Puritan Girl, Mohawk Girl by John Putnam Demos

Book Review and Content, Clean Fiction, Historical, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , ,

Puritan Girl, Mohawk Girl
John Putnam Demos
Amulet Books
Published on October 31, 2017

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About Puritan Girl, Mohawk Girl
Inspired by Demos’s award-winning novel The Unredeemed Captive, Puritan Girl, Mohawk Girl will captivate a young audience, providing a Native American perspective rather than the Western one typically taught in the classroom.

As the armed conflicts between the English colonies in North America and the French settlements raged in the 1700s, a young Puritan girl, Eunice Williams, is kidnapped by Mohawk people and taken to Canada. She is adopted into a new family, a new culture, and a new set of traditions that will define her life. As Eunice spends her days learning the Mohawk language and the roles of women and girls in the community, she gains a deeper understanding of her Mohawk family.  Although her father and brother try to persuade Eunice to return to Massachusetts, she ultimately chooses to remain with her Mohawk family and settlement.

My Review
Though this book is classified as historical fiction, I thought the style of the writing was much more like a biography or nonfiction narrative. The story follows a much more bird’s-eye view of Eunice’s life and sometimes jumps away to catalogue her family’s reactions to various news and moments. That said, I found the story captivating as it followed a girl so young and the transformation of her ideas and identity as she grew up. I liked that the author clarifies in a note at the end of the book which parts were based on true historical documentation and which were filled in using traditions of the English or Mohawk at the time the events took place.

I think Puritan Girl, Mohawk Girl would make a great supplement to a U.S. History curriculum for fourth or fifth grade readers. It focuses on some interesting relationships—not only the English versus the French, but Protestants versus Catholics and settlers versus Native American ways or beliefs.

Recommended for Ages 10 to 12.

Cultural Elements
Eunice is an English girl. A Mohawk family adopts her. She marries a Mohawk man. Though the story follows much of her time in a Mohawk settlement, the story remains from Eunice or her biological family’s perspectives.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Brief, mild profanity used very infrequently to reference someone being cursed by God.

Romance/Sexual Content
Eunice feels attracted to a young Mohawk man.

Spiritual Content
Eunice was raised by a Protestant minister who values preserving her faith. At that time, Protestants and Catholics were at war (the English were at war with the French) and there was a massive campaign to convert any prisoners captured as part of the war. Eunice’s father worries terribly about her becoming a Catholic and that such a conversion would damn her soul.

During her life with the Mohawks, Eunice learns both Catholic ways and the traditional beliefs of the Mohawk people. She listens to stories about how the world was made and the afterlife from an elder of the tribe.

Violent Content
Eunice and her family are captured initially as part of a battle between the English and French, with whom the Mohawk have allied themselves. She witnesses the dead body of her servant and a baby—killed by Mohawk warriors. Later, Mohawk take her mother into the woods to kill her when it’s clear she is unable to keep up with the party as they travel. They return alone, and Eunice understands what has happened and grieves.

Drug Content
None.

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

 

Review: Every Falling Star by Sungju Lee and Susan Elizabeth McClelland

Book Review and Content, Memoir, Nonfiction, , , , ,

Every Falling Star: The True Story of How I Survived and Escaped North Korea
Sunju Lee and Susan Elizabeth McClelland
Amulet Books
Published September 13, 2016

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About Every Falling Star

EVERY FALLING STAR, the first book to portray contemporary North Korea to a young audience, is the intense memoir of a North Korean boy named Sungju who is forced at age twelve to live on the streets and fend for himself. To survive, Sungju creates a gang and lives by thieving, fighting, begging, and stealing rides on cargo trains. Sungju richly re-creates his scabrous story, depicting what it was like for a boy alone to create a new family with his gang, his “brothers”; to be hungry and to fear arrest, imprisonment, and even execution. This riveting memoir allows young readers to learn about other cultures where freedoms they take for granted do not exist.

My Review

Intense is a great word for this book. I’ve seen a couple of documentaries about North Korea, but nothing is more personal and moving than the story of someone who lived there. Sungju describes his early life in Pyongyang and the fierce national pride he felt for his country. His beliefs are challenged when his family is forced to leave the capital for a small impoverished city where food shortages cause many people to risk trips into China—an offense punishable by execution if they’re caught.

While EVERY FALLING STAR is a difficult story, Sungju shares so much hope. Ultimately it’s a story about the bonds of love, both within family and between close friends, and redemption. To read the end of the tale and learn what the author has accomplished can’t help but be inspiring, and to make us grateful for the freedoms we have, and the ability to share them with others.

I highly recommend this book. EVERY FALLING STAR was so good, would read it again. It would make a great resource for a current events class or a world cultures class.

Cultural Elements
Most characters are North Korean.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
At one point, the boys work as runners for a brothel, helping recruit customers.

Spiritual Content
A few references to Chilseong, a deity and shan-shin-ryong-nim, good spirits thought to live in rocks and mountains. Sungju’s family shared these beliefs with him and they bring him comfort during his life as a street boy.

Violent Content
Sungju and his schoolmates have to attend public executions. Sungju describes them briefly. Later, his gang must battle other street boys for the right to stay in a particular city.

Drug Content
The boys in the street gang drink alcohol and smoke.

Note: This post contains affiliate links which do not cost you anything to use but which help support my blog. I received a free copy of EVERY FALLING STAR in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate

Contemporary, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , ,

Seven Ways We Lie
Riley Redgate
ABRAMS Kids/Amulet Books

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Everyone has a secret to hide. Olivia seems like a girl who has it together. She knows what she wants, and she’s not afraid to say so. At home, she watches her father and sister sink deeper into isolation following her mom’s disappearance, and for once, there’s nothing Olivia can do to fix it. Matt’s parents never stop fighting, and his little brother too often ends up caught in the cross-fire. After months of tuning out his parents’ battles in a haze of pot smoke, is it too late for Matt to confront them? Claire can’t let go of the last words her now ex-boyfriend said to her: you can’t compare—to what? To whom? Haunted by what he could have meant, Claire spirals into ever-growing bitterness and envy of her best friends, Olivia and Juniper. Everyone thinks Lucas is the smiley, happy guy he appears. But underneath the shiny grin, he’s cracking in two. When he accidentally reveals his secret to a boy from school, he’s sure it won’t be long until everyone else knows.

When rumors of a teacher/student affair circulate at the high school, it becomes clear that someone has an even bigger secret. When Olivia and her friends discover who it is, they’ll have to decide: do they go to administration and expose the lovers, or do they have a responsibility to handle it differently? After all, everyone has secrets.

The dialogue in this book was extremely realistic. It felt as though I were reading a transcript of high schoolers talking to one another. I liked the complex characters. From the get-go, there were certain ones I didn’t think I would like (Lucas and Matt because of the drug issues), and Redgate really won me over, made me see past the behavioral issues I disagreed with. (I still am not a fan of those choices, but I grew to see them as more than a stoner and a pot supplier.)

I thought it was interesting that she explored a lot of different approaches to relationships and sexuality within the novel. One girl has a relationship in which she doesn’t have sex with her boyfriend. Another girl doesn’t do relationships, just casual sex (more on this in a minute.) One boy wrestles with his identity as a pansexual. Another seems to have no feelings of attraction for anyone of any gender. So it definitely communicated the idea that everyone is different and should be respected regardless of those differences.

Olivia’s casual sex mantra is one of the themes I’ve seen often in YA novels. She makes all the usual arguments for her choices—she’s master of her body, boys get to sleep around without anyone villainizing them, she should get to do what she wants without anyone treating her poorly for it.

I agree that she deserves respect regardless of her decisions and that no one has a right to bully or slander her. I found it interesting that despite the very feminist song she sings, as we follow Olivia’s story, we discover that it’s not really feminist principles motivating her behavior. She’s avoiding relationships in the wake of her mother’s abandoning the family. One-night stands avoid the emotional entanglements that Olivia feels will leave her vulnerable to additional hurt. As she begins to heal and grieve the loss of her mother, Olivia finds herself ready to enter a relationship and risk the hurt which might result from a longer-term encounter with a boy. I found that transition interesting.

Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Sexual Content
Olivia chooses to have casual, one-night experiences with boys at her school. A lot of kids make fun of her and call her rude names in response. She remains unrepentant about her choices and angry that some boys treat her poorly. Boys, she reasons, don’t get treated poorly because they sleep around. Why should girls?

There aren’t any scenes describing her escapades. We know about them and we hear some of the slurs students fling at Olivia. In one instance, a boy sends her a picture of his penis via text message. She is disgusted with his uninvited photo.

Another student wrestles with coming out to his friends at school, including his ex-girlfriend, who might not appreciate finding out that he’s pansexual, can have feelings for a person of any gender.

Two boys kiss at one point.

A teacher is accused of having a sexual relationship with a student. See below for more details…

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
None.

Drug Content
Matt spends a great deal of his time smoking pot. Lucas sells pot and beer to kids at school. Juniper drinks alcohol pretty heavily. One girl ends up with alcohol poisoning at a party. There are no real consequences to the pot smoking and selling in the story.

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

SPOILER ALERT

A teacher is accused of having a relationship with a student. The two have not had sex, and met under circumstances in which the teacher thought the student was an adult. In one scene, they kiss and fall asleep in each other’s arms. Eventually the teacher comes forward and admits to having the relationship and the breach of responsibility and judgment that allowed the relationship to occur. The student’s parents are furious and demand the teacher sever contact, which the teacher agrees to. The student hopes that after graduation, the two will be in contact again.

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

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Review: In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters

Book Review and Content, Historical, Paranormal, , , , , ,

In the Shadow of Blackbirds
Cat Winters
Amulet Books
Published April 2, 2013

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After Mary Shelley’s father’s arrest as a traitor, Mary Shelley flees to her aunt’s home in southern California. There she hopes to find safety from the ugliness of war and the Spanish Influenza epidemic. When Mary Shelley arrives, she learns the flu epidemic is as alive and dangerous as it was in her Oregon hometown. She also discovers her childhood sweetheart, now a US soldier, apparently missing.

With so many families grieving loved ones lost to war or disease, many people turn to Spiritualism, seeking help from famed photographer who claims to capture spirits of dearly departed in his portraits of the living. Mary Shelley’s aunt presses her into sitting for a portrait. The foggy image of Stephen, her love and missing soldier appears with her in the photograph, shocking Mary Shelley. Soon after, Stephen’s ghost visits her, clearly frightened and disturbed. Refusing to accept the public story of his death, Mary Shelley vows to uncover the truth about Stephen’s death and find some way to help him rest in peace.

While the story brings to life an important period in American history, capturing the desperation of World War I and the fear of the flu epidemic, some of the other elements seems almost at war with themselves. Mary Shelley feels devoted to science and scientific understanding. She staunchly believes that the spiritualism craze is bogus and full of dishonest vendors taking advantage of families of war and flu victims.

She decries both the séance and the photographs of her with spirits, yet firmly believes in the encounters she has with Stephen’s ghost, and never really explores why she believes one and not the others, or whether other people may be able to contact spirits. Some of the scenes in which Stephen’s ghost visits Mary Shelley leave her longing for him and yet I found them creepy. I found it difficult to understand her fascination and longing for him, though her desire to see him at peace seemed noble.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild and infrequent.

Sexual Content
Mary Shelley experiences a visit from her lost love at night. The two grieve that they never had the opportunity to consummate their affection for one another, and begin to make out. No clothes are removed, but it’s a pretty intense scene.

Spiritual Content
During the early 1900s, many people were fascinated with contacting spirits of the dead. Mary Shelley participates in a séance, which she believes a hoax, until the ghost of her former lover contacts her. She sits for a photographer who claims to reveal spirits in his photographs. She does not believe in the authenticity of his practice. Still, she remains convinced that the ghost of Stephen will not be at rest until she understands how he died.

Violence
Brief references to a young man beating his brother. Many references to flu victims and their symptoms. Mary Shelley visits a veterans’ hospital and speaks with soldiers there. Various injuries are briefly described.

Drug Content
Mary Shelley hears rumors that Stephen’s brother is an opium addict.

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

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