Tag Archives: Forgiveness

Review: The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

Book Review and Content, Fantasy, Middle Grade 8-12, , , , , , ,
The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo cover shows a small mouse with large ears and a red thread tied around his neck carrying a needle at his side like a sword as he runs.

The Tale of Despereaux
Kate DiCamillo
Candlewick Press
Published September 9, 2008

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About The Tale of Despereaux

A brave mouse, a covetous rat, a wishful serving girl, and a princess named Pea come together in Kate DiCamillo’s Newbery Medal–winning tale.

Welcome to the story of Despereaux Tilling, a mouse who is in love with music, stories, and a princess named Pea. It is also the story of a rat called Roscuro, who lives in the darkness and covets a world filled with light. And it is the story of Miggery Sow, a slow-witted serving girl who harbors a simple, impossible wish.

These three characters are about to embark on a journey that will lead them down into a horrible dungeon, up into a glittering castle, and, ultimately, into each other’s lives. What happens then? As Kate DiCamillo would say: Reader, it is your destiny to find out.

My Review

This one is a hard one for me to review. Let me start by saying that I’ve read several other books by Kate DiCamillo, and I loved all of them so far. I think FLORA & ULYSSES is my favorite. So I went into this book expecting to absolutely love it.

Which is maybe part of my problem.

I think there are a lot of really cool elements to this story. There are some interesting themes about light versus darkness, and what happens to people who are forced to live in darkness, separated from any light. I liked the whimsical elements, like the king with his bizarre proclamations, such as making soup illegal. I liked that Despereaux and his love for the princess drove the story forward, too. And I liked the way all the individual stories of the characters, including Miggery Sow and Roscuro came together.

But. The story was a lot darker than I was expecting. The dungeon was so creepy. And the fact that Despereaux’s own family essentially sentences him to death. Miggery Sow endures some pretty awful abuse, and those experiences are related to us in a pretty frank way. I think that can sometimes be an effective way to tell the reader something shocking, and it works here. I couldn’t help feeling shocked and horrified for this girl (who has a terrible name on top of everything else).

But then I felt like there was no sympathy from the author later when Mig finally does get free and begins living at the castle as a servant. I guess that was supposed to set up how we feel about her going into the main conflict in the story, but I had a hard time with that.

On the whole, though, I did like some of the characters and the way the pieces of the story fit together. I did find myself wishing it wasn’t such a dark story. If I were to opt for a read-aloud from the books I’ve read by DiCamillo, I think I would still choose FLORA & ULYSSES.

Content Notes for The Tale of Despereaux

Recommended for Ages 10 to 12.

Representation
Human characters are white. Miggery Sow has some deafness as the result of abuse.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
When Despereaux meets Princess Pea, he falls hopelessly in love with her and vows to serve her as her knight.

Spiritual Content
A couple characters experience moments of decision where they may choose to forgive someone who harmed them or continue on the path toward revenge. They recognize that forgiveness will give them one kind of result internally and revenge a different one.

Violent Content
A mouse gives birth, but only one of her babies survive. A mouse is sentenced to death and thrown into the dungeon, where the rats who live there are predicted to eat him. A man wallows in guilt after having sold his daughter to another man. A man beats a girl so terribly that her ears become deformed and she can barely hear. She’s later described as having become fat and lazy, which seems like a pretty harsh thing to say about someone who’s endured the trauma this girl has. Additionally, I didn’t even notice her being lazy.

Some scenes reference prisoners in the dungeon being lost and teased or tortured by the rats who live there.

Drug Content
None.

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Review: Every Time You Go Away by

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , ,

Every Time You Go Away
Abigail Johnson
Inkyard Press
Published December 5, 2023

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

About Every Time You Go Away

Perfect for fans of Jennifer Niven, Abigail Johnson draws a searing and lyrical portrait of grief, forgiveness, and the kind of love that blooms in the aftermath.

Eight years ago, Ethan and Rebecca met, two trouble-making kids sharing secrets and first kisses in a treehouse, until Ethan’s mom returned to take him away. Each and every visit, his only goodbye was a flower on Rebecca’s windowsill.

Three years ago, Ethan left for the last time to take care of his mother, who’s struggled with addiction his whole life.

Two years ago, Rebecca was in a car accident that killed her father. She’s been learning to navigate life as a wheelchair user ever since.

Now, they discover if their hardships have torn them apart…or will bring them closer than ever.

My Review

The story alternates points of view between Ethan and Rebecca, with some chapters taking place in the present (labeled now) and some in the past (labeled before). While the timeline is never as clearly laid out in the narrative as it is in the book’s cover copy, I didn’t have any trouble putting things in some kind of order. I’m not sure I was always completely right about how I assembled the events together, but I think it was close enough that everything still made sense.

I loved the scenes in which Rebecca describes making jewelry. It was easy to feel her love for her craft and to picture some of the pieces she worked on. I thought it was cool the way her work played into the story with the different pieces creating or representing connections to other people.

Ethan’s interest in plants was cool, too. It didn’t really ever become as central a thing as Rebecca’s jewelry-making did, but it was still a cool, not often explored area of interest.

Rebecca is a wheelchair user and has been since the car accident that killed her dad. Because of the straightforwardness of the narrative, I found it easy to picture moments like transferring to a car or what it was like when someone touched her leg, and she couldn’t feel it. Her paralysis was present in the story, but it isn’t a story about paralysis, if that makes sense. I felt like the author did a perfect job crafting the balance between helping readers picture Rebecca and her environment and the impact it would have on her experience without making it seem intrusive or artificial.

I also really appreciated that there was more than one wheelchair user in the story. Amelia, Rebecca’s friend, mentor, and employer, also uses a wheelchair. This created moments in which two people could talk about their lives and experiences and offer two different perspectives. I loved that.

All of that is kind of background to the central story here, which is the romance between Rebecca and Ethan. While they both came to the relationship with barriers of trauma, it was cool watching them figure out how to navigate those things. I loved watching their feelings blossom and rooting for them to find their way to each other through the miasma of hurt and grief around them.

Conclusion

All in all, this is absolutely the kind of book I would have loved myself in high school. It’s sweet but pretty real about the fact that life deals hardships to teens just as much as anyone else. I really enjoyed this one, and I think fans of THE GEOGRAPHY OF YOU AND ME by Jennifer E. Smith or LOVE AND OLIVES by Jenna Evans Welch will want to check it out.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
I think the main characters are white. Rebecca and another character are wheelchair users. Ethan’s mom has alcohol/drug use disorder. Ethan is a neglect and abuse survivor.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used somewhat frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between a boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Brief references to neglect and abuse of a child. Two boys get into a fight and fall into the mud.

Drug Content
A teenager drinks alcohol in a couple of scenes. An adult gives alcohol to a child in one scene, and that behavior is also referenced in other scenes. References to a boy witnessing drug use and even being given drugs himself by an adult (doesn’t happen on scene). An adult smokes cigarettes.

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

Review: For Such a Time as This by Sharon Risher with Sherri Wood Emmons

Book Review and Content, Christian World-View, Nonfiction, , , , , , , , ,

For Such a Time as This
Sharon Risher with Sherri Wood Emmons
Chalice Press
Published June 11, 2019

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Goodreads

The instant her phone rang, Reverend Sharon Risher sensed something was horribly wrong. Something had happened at Emanuel AME Church, the church of her youth in Charleston, South Carolina, and she knew her mother was likely in the church at Bible study. Even before she heard the news, her chaplain’s instinct told her the awful truth: her mother was dead, along with two cousins. What she couldn’t imagine was that they had been murdered by a white supremacist.

Plunged into the depths of mourning and anger and shock, Sharon could have wallowed in the pain. Instead, she chose the path of forgiveness and hope – eventually forgiving the convicted killer for his crime. In this powerful memoir of faith, family, and loss, Sharon begins the story with her mother, Ethel Lee Lance, seeking refuge in the church from poverty and scorn and raising her family despite unfathomable violence that rattled Sharon to her core years later; how Sharon overcame her own struggles and answered the call to ministry; and how, in the loss of her dear mother,

Sharon has become a nationally known speaker as she shares her raw, riveting, story of losing loved ones to gun violence and racism. Sharon’s story is a story of transformation: How an anonymous hospital chaplain was thrust into the national spotlight, joining survivors of other gun-related horrors as reluctant speakers for a heartbroken social-justice movement. As she recounts her grief and the struggle to forgive the killer, Risher learns to trust God’s timing and lean on God’s loving presence to guide her steps.

Where her faith journey leads her is surprising and inspiring, as she finds a renewed purpose to her life in the company of other survivors. Risher has been interviewed by Time Magazine, Marie-Claire, Essence, Guardian-BCC Radio, CNN, and other media sources. She regularly shares her story on American college campuses and racial-reconciliation events. “To Forgive a Killer,” her essay as told to Abigail Pesta published in Notre Dame Magazine, won the 2018 Front Page Award for Essay published in a Magazine, awarded by the Newswomen’s Club of New York .

My Review

When I heard about FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS, I knew I needed to read it. I remember hearing about the shooting in Charleston and feeling deeply disturbed at the boldness and actions of the killer. Rev. Risher tells the story of her family and her journey through grief toward healing with courage and very straight talk. This isn’t a flowery, feel-good story. It’s raw and real, full of struggle, humanity, and faith.

Risher wades into political waters as she describes her personal evolution into an advocate for sensible gun laws and for racial equality in the United States. Hearing her perspective on why she travels the country speaking and how she developed her message moved me, too. It made me think about the way I have conversations with people.

She suggests beginning with a common ground. What is something that both parties agree on? Find that common ground and then build on it. I’m hoping to put this into practice in my own life as I have conversations about social issues with people I care about.

Risher’s frank discussion of racism in America left me with chills. Her calls to action to learn to have difficult conversations, to keep talking about racial issues even when we’re uncomfortable, stick with me even after the pages of the book are closed. I agree with her, and I want to find appropriate ways to be part of those conversations, too.

All in all, I think FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS is a must-read for anyone in America. This shooting happened here, perpetrated by a man with abhorrent ideas, ones shared by too many other people. After an event like that, I find myself wondering what to do, or how to respond. I think this book does a lot toward equipping people to do those very things.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Sharon Risher’s mother, two cousins, and a childhood friend, who are all black, were killed by a white supremacist at their church in Charleston.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Strong profanity used near a dozen times throughout the book.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief recollection of falling in love and getting married.

Spiritual Content
Risher herself is a chaplain and calls on her faith to help herself and others through deep grief and anger.

Violent Content
Some brief descriptions of the mass shooting at the AME church in Charleston.

Drug Content
Simon and his friends drink alcohol, which is legal at eighteen in Australia.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog. I received a free copy of FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS in exchange for my honest review.

Review: The Baker’s Daughter by D. P. Cornelius

Book Review and Content, Christian World-View, Historical, , , , , ,

The Baker’s Daughter
D. P. Cornelius
Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas
Published February 1, 2017

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About The Baker’s Daughter
While chaos reigns over WW II Berlin, seventeen-year-old Liddy returns to her family’s bakery only to be confronted by a new customer — Keppler, a Nazi officer. Marek, a young man with a secretive past, labors just a few paces away in the kitchen, but where do his loyalties lie? With the Nazis? With Liddy?

Liddy’s father, Klaus, secures a night job as a prison guard where anti-Nazi dissident, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, is being held. Klaus smuggles out the pastor’s letters, but tensions rise as Keppler establishes a tenuous relationship with Liddy’s young brother, Willy. Does the Nazi officer wish to recruit Willy, or is Keppler there to spy on Liddy’s family?

From air raids to the Hitler Youth, Liddy becomes enmeshed in a world of spies intent on betrayal. When Liddy makes a critical mistake that endangers a loved one, she faces a decision that puts her own faith on the line and her family’s safety in jeopardy.

My Review
I generally love World War II stories, possibly because when I was little, my mom read The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom aloud to us, and then in my early teens I discovered the Zion Covenant by Bodie and Brock Thoene.

I liked that The Baker’s Daughter referenced some real life people. Dietrich Bonhoeffer makes a brief appearance, and Liddy’s family discusses some of the principles he teaches. Also, Betsie Ten Boom, Corrie’s sister speaks with Marek’s mother in a scene set in a concentration camp. It was cool to see them in the pages of this story.

One of the other things I liked was the tenuous friendship between Liddy and the Nazi officer Keppler. I liked that he wasn’t portrayed as simply an evil man. When Liddy looks past his cold exterior, she finds he nurses some wounds that have festered into deep bitterness, and she continues to reach out to him and to challenge him to love others and to question his actions from the perspective of what God would want him to do.

While I enjoyed some things about the story, I struggled with other elements. Adults make up most of the viewpoints in the story– Herr Keppler, Liddy’s mother, Marek’s mother. Some of the pivotal scenes happen in these adult points-of-view. I would classify this as general or adult fiction, not young adult fiction. Even the younger viewpoints don’t really read like YA.

Another thing I found frustrating was the fact that so many of the most interesting parts of the story happen off-scene. What does Marek’s role in the resistance look like? What dangers does he face on a regular basis? Why was his heritage and the danger it placed him in revealed so late in the story? It seemed to me a missed opportunity for tension. At one point, the story jumps ahead a year, and Liddy recaps some of the missed events in a letter to her grandmother. Some of those sounded exciting. In particular, the arrest of some of Marek’s resistance compatriots. Were the Nazis closing in on him? Was he worried?

The ending of the story left a lot of things vague. It also has more of a recap tone, which missed any strong sense of emotions on how Liddy felt about the events that took place just before.

On the whole, I thought there were some cool elements to the story. I liked that The Baker’s Daughter followed a typical German family in Berlin in Nazi Germany, and I liked the cameo appearances by well-known real-life heroes. The Christian world-view and themes are strong and well-represented. Readers looking for overtly Christian books will like the clear message of God’s redemptive love and forgiveness.

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Cultural Elements
German and Jewish characters.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Liddy and Marek seem to feel some attraction for each other, but their relationship doesn’t develop physically.

Spiritual Content
Marek spent a lot of time in a Catholic church. Liddy and her family are Christians and pray together as well as talk about spiritual precepts. Liddy begins to challenge the Nazi soldier who frequents her family’s bakery, asking him why he’s so critical and encouraging him to show love and kindness toward others. Later, she speaks to him about forgiveness and how God’s love is unconditional.

Violent Content
A bomb injures a boy and young woman.

Drug Content
None.

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

 

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Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers: Review and Thoughts on Book Banning

Book Review and Content, Contemporary, Parenting, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , ,

Some Girls Are
Courtney Summers
St. Martin’s Griffin

Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads

Climbing to the top of the social ladder is hard—falling from it is even harder.  Regina Afton used to be a member of the Fearsome Fivesome, an all-girl clique both feared and revered by the students at Hallowell High… until vicious rumors about her—and her best friend’s boyfriend—start going around.  Now Regina’s been frozen out, and her ex-best friends are out for revenge. 

If Regina were guilty, it would be one thing, but the rumors are far from the terrifying truth, and the bullying is getting more intense by the day.  She takes solace in the company of Michael Hayden, a misfit with a tragic past whom she herself used to bully.  Friendship doesn’t come easily for these onetime enemies, and as Regina works hard to make amends for her past, she realizes Michael could be more than just a friend…if threats from the Fearsome Foursome don’t break them both first.

Tensions grow and the abuse worsens, as the final days of senior year march toward an explosive conclusion in this dark new tale from the author of CRACKED UP TO BE.

My Review

It’s hard for me not to compare this book to ALL THE RAGE, a more recently published novel by Courtney Summers which deals with some of the same issues (see content warning). I think I liked ALL THE RAGE better because it dealt more with the way the town as a whole responded to a rape allegation and some brutal high school bullying. I also connected more with Romy, the protagonist in ALL THE RAGE.

In SOME GIRLS ARE, Regina comes to regret her role in bullying other students, but in some ways, it still feels like that’s all she knows. She retaliates against her former friends in an effort to bring them down low enough that they’ll leave her alone. Instead, it continues the vicious cycle, only adding more fuel to the fires of revenge.

I think choosing to tell SOME GIRLS ARE from Regina’s perspective and bringing her passion for revenge to the forefront were really bold decisions and carried an important message. Regina isn’t the stereotypical novel victim, and I loved that. Unfortunately, I think I just didn’t really believe in her transformation at the end. I needed to see like three chapters more showing that she’d really changed and that she and Michael (whom I absolutely LOVED!!!) could work out together.

In YA, resolving an issue with any kind of adult involvement gets really tricky. Having a grown-up soar in and rescue the protagonist is a storytelling no-no. So I both appreciate and understand why that wasn’t the direction Summers took with the resolution of SOME GIRLS ARE. With a situation involving this kind of brutal bullying, it’s hard for me as a parent not to want adults involved. I believe we want kids to know they can and should bring adults into the equation when they reach a point where they can no longer attend school and feel safe.

I do want to acknowledge that sometimes kids are in situations where there isn’t a safe adult for them to go to, so I know that isn’t always a viable solution in real life, either.

SOME GIRLS ARE left me wishing for at least a nod to some adult figure who made at least some responsible call somewhere. Instead, I felt like the message was that if you can get good enough blackmail on a bully, you might just be able to stop the whole cycle.

Update: Since reading this book, I’ve discovered that I tend not to enjoy revenge stories. So probably at least part of my feelings for this one relate to that preference.

Content Notes

Content warning for mentions of rape, bullying, physical violence, mentions of suicide, death of a parent, drug use, drinking alcohol.

Language Content
Extreme and frequent use of profanity.

Sexual Content
At a party, a boy tries to rape a girl. He tears her skirt and leaves her arms bruised. Regina and her boyfriend Josh have had sex before. A boy taunts Regina about it, repeatedly asking if she only likes it in the dark. He also makes a crude comment about oral sex. Kissing between a boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violence
See sexual content. A group of girls surround Regina and repeatedly punch and kick her. A boy elbows another boy in the face, giving him a bloody nose. A dodgeball hits a boy in the face, giving him a bloody nose. A girl trips another girl, sending her tumbling down the stairs.

Girls use social media to bully Regina. They spread rumors about her and say cruel things to her and to one another. It’s not the first time this group has bullied someone. A previous target tried to commit suicide.

Brief reference to a woman killed when an overpass collapsed on her car. No real description of the accident.

Drug Content
One boy supplies students with pharmaceutical drugs. Teens gather at parties to drink alcohol. Mentions of smoking pot. Regina is the designated driver at both parties, but mentions that she drinks heavily at other times and winds up sick at the end of the night. She drinks alcohol in a couple of other scenes.

On Some Girls Are Being Removed from a Charleston Summer Reading List

I bought this book last summer (2015) when I heard about the decision by West Ashley High in Charleston to remove the book from their ninth grade summer reading list after receiving complaints from a parent about the content of the novel. The messages the books tackles are really important to us as a culture. I really admire this author’s unflinching look at some of the darker moments of high school. But, I see why it concerned this parent that a very limited required reading list included this option.

I have really mixed feelings about banning books. The short answer is I’m generally not a fan of book-banning. Largely because one vocal minority makes a decision that no one should have the option to read a particular book. I do not want to give the power to a select group to decide what we’re allowed to read.

I love that this particular parent made the choice to read the book with her daughter. Her ninth grade daughter had the choice between this book and another one and would be tested on comprehension once school started. As a parent, I’d certainly be uncomfortable with the amount of explicit content included in the book. I’d be uncomfortable that it’s on a reading list like this, where there are such limited options.

Banning a book, though, means one parent or a few make a decision for many kids beyond their own. I’m not sure that the book was banned in the school district as a whole, however. The article I read only mentions removing it from the reading list and adding another alternative selection for the class.

Courtney Summers received a ton of support from her fans and the YA community after the whole incident. Fans donated several hundred copies of the book, and public libraries in Charleston distributed them to the community. I think it’s really great that she received so much support. I do really believe in the importance of the kinds of issues she tackles in her writing.

Note: Post updated July 4, 2022. This post contains affiliate links which don’t cost anything to use but which help generate support for this blog.