Book Review: Out of Darkness by Ashley Ashley Hope Pérez

Out of Darkness by Ashley Ashley Hope Pérez

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Series: No
Release date: September 1st 2015
Rating: I cannot even

Out of Darkness by Ashley Ashley Hope Pérez is not an easy book.  There is no comfort in it.  It tells the story of Naomi Vargas and weaves it together with the aftermath of the 1937 New London school explosion.

Naomi is a Hispanic girl who moves with her half brother and sister into her stepfather’s home after the death of her mother.  Her transition to New London is not smooth.   She encounters racism on all sides and because she is the only obviously Mexican girl around she becomes very isolated.

The way that Ashley Ashley Hope Pérez writes this historical novel feels very modern.  Naomi feels like a real girl who is out of her elements and unsure about how to handle her life.  It also explored the frustration and isolation that come from not being able or not being allowed to speak your first language. 

The historical detail is very well done.  You really feel the richness of the world without being hit over the head with the authors research.  It is balanced with the overarching big picture tragedy.  There is an authenticity to the way that the characters speak and act.

It is easy to forget how recently our country was segregated and how that segregation was upheld by intense vigilante violence. It is something that I am aware of and yet every time that I read a book on the subject I am again shocked.  There is no sugarcoating of history here.  I like that it is shining a light on a time in history that is usually whitewashed.  America has never been lily white and too often in books we are not shown that. 

The love story was slow to develop and realistic.  It was also terrifying.  I love Naomi and Wash as a couple.  I was hoping that the world would sort of rearrange itself and they would be okay at the same time I was afraid that taking this risk of love was going to lead to disaster.

I found her stepfather’s character to be particularly horrifying and creepy.  And can we take a moment to be properly horrified that he is actually advised at one point by his preacher to marry his stepdaughter because he lusts after he.  Let me remind you that she is fifteen and has in no way indicated that this would be something that she would want.  Also, gross.  Even thinking about it is making me shudder. 

This is a book that makes you feel. It hurt to read.  The aftermath of the disaster will break your heart.  I am going to be thinking about this book for a long time to come.

Book review: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever 

by Barbara Robinson

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Series: The Herdman’s #1
Release date: January 1, 1972
Rating: Nostalgia

“The Herdmans were absolutely the worst kids in the history of the world.”

I don’t remember the first time that I read this book.  It is highly likely that my mother read it to me before I would have been able to read it to myself.  We had a cassette tape (I swear to God I am old.  In my defense the cassette and the player were both older than me) of it in with the Christmas music that was brought out every year with the decorations.  The story describes the circumstances through which the family of “bad” kids somehow stars in a church Christmas pageant.   This book was written in 1972 but I think it is more realistic to see it as set it in the late 1950’s.  It also in a very Midwest small town.  None of the characters are physically described at all expect for the Herdmens having “stringy hair” and “black and blue” places. 

One thing that I found particularly interesting was that fact that the narrator has no name. Or much of an identity at all.  She (and it is only implicitly stated that she is a girl because she gets a break when the boys sing) calls herself a “sort of medium kid”.  I wonder if this was a deliberate choice?  If it was I certainly found it effective because it is almost a way of introducing a 3^rd person narration with a child’s perspective. 

I kind of love the Herdmans.  Imogene especially. I love how fierce and protective she gets about the baby Jesus.   They seem to be the only interesting people in a town that is probably painfully boring. I love how bad that they are.  Well, bad to the level that little kids can understand. Reading this again, I had so much sympathy for the teacher whose class Ollie accidentally on purpose sets an attack cat lose in.

This book is funny but it is the kind of funny that is almost an in joke.  You have to be familiar with the kind of town and upbringing being described or much of it will go over your head and the book will be much less enjoyable.  It reminds me of Beverly Cleary’s Ramona Quimby books in that way.  But there are also parts that are just laugh out loud hilarious.  The entirely of the dress rehearsal in particular.  Just thinking about it is making me snicker.

There is religion in this book.  It is a church Christmas pageant after all. But I feel as if the religion in the book is actually pretty authentic.  The narrator has some fairly interesting revelations about the difference between what she has always imagined as the Christmas Story and what it was actually more probably like.  She also reaffirms parts of her faith that she has taken for granted.   I wouldn’t read this in the classroom but I would read it with children growing up in Christian or secular households.  The religion aspect isn’t hardline or judgmental but in the books world there are no people of other faiths.  Inclusive, this book is not.

I reread this book every year.  I enjoy the writing, I like the sense of humor, and it gets me in the mood for Christmas every time.

What are your favorite holiday books?

From Gooreads:

Book Review: Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by by Rachel Cohn and  David Levithan

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Series: There is a second book OMG
Release date: October 26th 2010 
Rating: le cute

Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by by Rachel Cohn and  David Levithan is the story of Dash and Lily as they fall in love by exchanging a red notebook back and forth.  I have read this in December for the last three years and I think that I am going to continue with that tradition.  Chapter alternate between being told from Dash and Lily’s perspective.  Each character was written by one of the authors which gives them voice very distant voices and personalities.  Sometimes their voices clashed.  You could tell that two different people were writing this book and it worked perfectly. 

Dash is crabby, too smart for his own good, and I love him. He needs a hug from Lily. I love Lily’s zest for life.  I love that she is quirky and living her life her own way. Lily struggles to make friends with kids her own age.   

“Sorry to be so cynical, but this is New York” 

I love how New York centered this story is.  I love it when a book really explores it’s setting.  Where you are in the world makes a huge difference to how you experience the world.  This would have been a much different story if it had been set in Berlin, Jakarta, or Lima.  Or even just in suburbia.  This book is a love letter to New York at Christmas. 

“I feel like you may be a special and kind person. And I would like to make it my business to know special and kind people. Especially if they are boys my age.” 

It is amazing how hard I ship these two even though they are NEVER together.  Their completely opposite worldviews cause both sparks and personal growth in one another.  This makes me think that they will bring out great things in one another as a couple.  There is a whole discussion about the idea of someone vs. the reality of someone that I absolutely loved.  I am a sucker that sort of thing. 

“I gotta go. The gingerbread men are on fire.” 

I love their different feelings about Christmas.  I think that in some ways most of North America is either a Lily or a Dash.  I am definitely a Lily.  I LOVE me some Christmas.  Maybe it is because I only go “home” for Christmas every four years but it is definitely my favorite holiday. It may also have to do with the fact that I live abroad and so do not have any expectations or stress (aside from travel) associated with it.  One thing that I liked was how their feelings about Christmas sort of met in the middle.  Lily’s enthusiasm for the glitter shine of the holiday is tamped down and Dash starts to accept that Christmas might not be the worst thing ever.

I noticed that the plot was sometimes laggy.  I think that the authors were sending the book back and forth between them and making things up as they went rather than having the novel plotted out.  I like it because it helps the book feel spontaneous and disliked it because it leads to some of the more over the top moments of the book.

This is a sweet, funny, Christmassy tale. Read bay the tree while drinking hot coco. You know you want to.

PS: There is a sequel!