Hey, Kiddo

I got a copy of Hey, Kiddo: How I Lost My Mother, Found My Father, and Dealt with Family Addiction by Jarrett J. Krosoczka that someone was giving away and decided to give it a read. It's a graphic novel format memoir of author/illustrator Jarrett Krosoczka. The book description reads, "In kindergarten, Jarrett Krosoczka's teacher asks him to draw his family, with a mommy and a daddy. But Jarrett's family is much more complicated than that. His mom is an addict, in and out of rehab, and in and out of Jarrett's life. His father is a mystery -- Jarrett doesn't know where to find him, or even what his name is. Jarrett lives with his grandparents -- two very loud, very loving, very opinionated people who had thought they were through with raising children until Jarrett came along.Jarrett goes through his childhood trying to make his non-normal life as normal as possible, finding a way to express himself through drawing even as so little is being said to him about what's going on. Only as a teenager can Jarrett begin to piece together the truth of his family, reckoning with his mother and tracking down his father."

This was a good read. I was really amazed by all that Jarrett went through as a kid and how he sorted through a lot of difficulties to make the life he has now. I originally read it to see if it'd be a good book for my daughter to read (since she loves graphic novels), but it has quite a bit of bad language, so I don't think I'll recommend it to her at this point. But I thought it was an engaging, meaningful book, and I liked the lesson of the power of adults who love and believe in you even when you don't have that in your birth parents.

Rating: * * (2/3 = Liked it)

Becoming Free Indeed

I saw Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear by Jinger Duggar Vuolo advertised somewhere and was intrigued so got it on audiobook from Libby. It is a memoir about Jinger's faith journey as she separated herself from the beliefs of Bill Gothard (the religious leader who guided her family's beliefs when she was growing up) and centered her life based on the Christianity of the Bible.

This was an interesting read. It made me sad to read about how much of her childhood and teenager years were founded in fear (being scared of God punishing her for various things that really weren't a big deal). I found it interesting to follow her thought process as she disentangled her faith and figured out what she truly believed as an adult. The book was a good reminder about focusing on what truly matters in Christian faith (following Jesus Christ) and teaching your children about God in a way that is not based in fear.

Rating: * * (2/3 = Liked it)

Good Different

I found Good Different by Meg Eden Kuyatt on display at the library with new books and thought it looked like one I'd enjoy. The book description says, "Selah knows her rules for being normal. She always, always sticks to them. This means keeping her feelings locked tightly inside, despite the way they build up inside her as each school day goes on, so that she has to run to the bathroom and hide in the stall until she can calm down. So that she has to tear off her normal-person mask the second she gets home from school, and listen to her favorite pop song on repeat, trying to recharge. Selah feels like a dragon stuck in a world of humans, but she knows how to hide it. Until the day she explodes and hits a fellow student. Selah's friends pull away from her, her school threatens expulsion, and her comfortable, familiar world starts to crumble. But as Selah starts to figure out more about who she is, she comes to understand that different doesn’t mean damaged. Can she get her school to understand that, too, before it’s too late?"

This was a nice read. I thought it gave a great glimpse into the mind of a young person on the autism spectrum, and I really liked the part of the book where she went to FantasyCon and met people like her or who understood her. At first I thought the book seemed unrealistic, like that Selah and her mom didn't realize that she had autism. But after reading the author's note, I came to understand that a lot of people struggle with certain things but don't discover till later in life that it actually falls under the autism spectrum. I thought this book could be really meaningful to kids who are neurodivergent, and I really liked following Selah's journey of self-discovery.

Rating: * * (2/3 = Liked it)

Just Jerry

I read Just Jerry by Jerry Pinkney after seeing it on the new-book shelf at the library. It is a memoir by Jerry Pinkney (well-known children's book illustrator) written for a young audience. The book description says, "Jerry Pinkney—creator of Caldecott Medal-winning The Lion & the Mouse and The Little Mermaid—drew everywhere, all the time. Since childhood, it was how he made sense of the world—how he coped with the stress of being a sensitive child growing up in crowded spaces, struggling with a learning disability, in a time when the segregation of Black Americans was the norm. Only drawing could offer him a sense of calm, control, and confidence. When friends and siblings teased him about having the nickname “Jerry” as his only name, his mother always said, “Just ‘Jerry’ is enough. He’ll make something of that name someday.” And so he did, eventually becoming one of the most celebrated children’s book illustrators of all time and paving the way for countless other Black artists." 

This was a great read. It's a little bit shorter of a book than I usually include on this blog, but I thought it was worth including. I really liked learning about how Jerry struggled with dyslexia and the people in his life who believed in him and helped him become all that he did. The book was engaging and inspiring, and I think anyone who has read any of Jerry Pinkney's books would enjoy this memoir.

Rating: * * (2/3 = Liked it)

Life with Father

I read Life with Father by Clarence Day for my book club. It was written in 1935 and is an autobiographical book of short stories. Wikipedia describes the book this way: "Clarence Day wrote humorously about his family and life. The stories of his father Clarence 'Clare' Day were first printed in The New Yorker. They portray a rambunctious, overburdened Wall Street broker who demands that everything from his family should be just so. The more he rails against his staff, his cook, his wife, his horse, salesmen, holidays, his children and the inability of the world to live up to his impossible standards, the more comical and lovable he becomes to his own family who love him despite it all."

This was another one of those books that I would have never read if it weren't for book club, but the stories were engaging enough and made me chuckle at times. I was also just appalled by the lifestyle/dynamic that existed back in the day (like the wife not having access to money or things like that). I wouldn't say I super enjoyed the book or anything, but it was interesting enough that I was tempted to continue reading his other book, Life with Mother, just to see stories from the mother's side, since she seemed likable and entertaining.

Rating: * (1/3 = It was okay)

Wildoak

I read Wildoak by C.C. Harrington after seeing it won the Schneider Family Book Award this year. The book description says, "In 1963 London, Maggie Stephens’s stutter makes school especially hard. She will do almost anything to avoid speaking in class or calling attention to herself. So when her unsympathetic father threatens to send her away for so-called “treatment,” she reluctantly agrees to her mother’s intervention plan: a few weeks in the fresh air of Wildoak Forest, visiting a grandfather she hardly knows. It is there, in an extraordinary twist of fate, that she encounters an abandoned snow leopard cub, an exotic gift to a wealthy Londoner that proved too wild to domesticate. But once the cub’s presence is discovered by others, danger follows, and Maggie soon realizes that time is running out, not only for the leopard, but for herself and the forest as well."

This was a nice read, and I got through the book very quickly. I really liked Maggie as a character, and based on my limited experience with stutters, I feel like the book did a good job describing what it would be like to live with that difficulty. (My 6-year-old has a mild stutter, and his speech therapist has given advice like to give him time to finish and not finish words/phrases for him, which Maggie had someone doing to her and it really bugged her.) I was kind of hoping at the end to find an author's note saying the author struggled with stuttering, but she didn't. But I did enjoy the story and seeing Maggie find herself throughout the book and also watching her dad change. I really liked the character of Maggie's grandpa as well. My daughter loves snow leopards, so I think she'd enjoy this book.

Rating: * * (2/3 = Liked it)

Hummingbird

I saw Hummingbird by Natalie Lloyd received a Schneider Family Book Award this year (which honors an author for a book that embodies an artistic expression of the disability experience for child and adolescent audiences). The book description says, "Twelve-year-old homeschooled Olive is tired of being seen as 'fragile' just because she has osteogenesis imperfecta (otherwise known as brittle bone disease) so she's thrilled when she finally convinces her parents to let her attend Macklemore Elementary. Olive can't wait to go to a traditional school and make the friends she's always longed for, until a disastrous first day dashes her hopes of ever fitting in. Then Olive hears whispers about a magical, wish-granting hummingbird that supposedly lives near Macklemore. It'll be the solution to all her problems! If she can find the bird and prove herself worthy, the creature will make her most desperate, secret wish come true. When it becomes clear that she can't solve the mystery on her own, Olive teams up with some unlikely allies who help her learn the truth about the bird. And on the way, she just might learn that our fragile places lead us to the most wonderful magic of all . . ."

This was a good read. It was a little slow for me until closer to the end, and I found myself a little confused by the genre (was it realistic fiction or fantasy?), which was distracting. (But by the end I figured out it was a little bit of both--magical realism.) But I loved Olive from the start and thought she was just a wonderful character. I thought the author did a great job with so making so many of the characters so likeable, including Olive's parents, Grace, and Hatch. I really loved the ending of the book and how things fell together; I may have shed a tear or two. I also loved reading the author's note at the end and learning that the author has OI just like Olive. I really loved the author's description of her journey of creating Olive's character in the book. I think I'll recommend this book to my 12-year-old daughter.

Rating: * * (2/3 = Liked it)