Book Reviews

Daniel Matheson, 18 years old, visits Madrid with his oil baron father and Spanish born mother in 1957. Generalissimo Franco, the fascist dictator, has been in power since 1936 and will continue to rule until his death in 1975. Ruta Sepetys, the author of “The Fountains of Silence” (Philomel 2019) does deep research and writes historical fiction set within little-known historical events. Sepetys is considered a cross-over author meaning her books are meant for both young adults and adults.

The Matheson family is staying at the posh Madrid Castellano Hilton, once a castle. The hotel is filled with interesting characters, including Shep Van Dorn a lecherous diplomat, his reckless son Nick, the mysterious Paco Lobo and the journalist Ben. The wait staff includes the cheerful Buttons, the mean-spirited Lorenza, and the lovely Ana.

The streets are filled with Franco’s police force, called “Crows.” Any Spaniard who opposes Franco walks on thin ice. That includes Ana and her family. Her parents had been teachers and were executed by the regime for their views of education. Ana lives with her sister Julia, her brother-in-law Antonio, their infant child Lali, and her brother Rafa in the slum of Valleca. Nick Van Dorn tricks our main character, Daniel, who is a serious photographer, to visit Ana in the slum.

Not only is Ana embarrassed, it is dangerous for everyone to have Daniel’s big sleek rented Buick parked on the dirt roads along the sewage ditch of Valleca. Living on the street is Rafa’s companion, a fellow orphan, and aspiring matador, Fuga. Naïve, sweet Daniel wins over some members of the family and photographs Fuga wearing his “suit of light.” Julia is a seamstress, sewing layers of glitter and glass into the jackets and trousers of the great matadors and has borrowed this hand-me-down costume for the orphan matador. As a seamstress, “Julia’s fingers are silent narrators, embroidered with scars.”

Daniel photographs portraits of the family and arranges to give them prints. He also gets shots of the “Crows” which is terribly dangerous, a close-up of a terrified nun running with a dead baby, and eventually a shot of Franco himself. Daniel needs a great portfolio to get a scholarship to a photography school to keep him out of business school which is the only education his father will fund.

Ana and Daniel are drawn to each other, but women in Spain in 1957 cannot go on dates without a chaperone, cannot go to a restaurant or theater alone—and her family is under observation for their parents’ past. Ana says: “What similarities could he possibly see between them? Daniel can travel anywhere in the world. He is heir to an oil dynasty, lives a life of privilege, and enjoys every freedom imaginable. He can vote in an election, pray to any God of his choosing, and speak his personal feelings aloud in public.” Ana calls off the romance.

So much is amiss, including life in the orphanage where Ana’s cousin Purification works. And then Daniel’s parents adopt an infant. The Mathesons return to Texas and the story jumps to eighteen years later for its surprise ending which brings all the characters together. This reading journey is a page turner—and so informative.

 

Patricia Hruby Powell is the author of the award-winning Josephine; Loving vs Virginia; and Struttin’ With Some Barbecue among others.  She teaches community classes at Parkland.         talesforallages.com

Artemisia’s mother died when she was twelve years old, in 1605. Artemisia could have joined a convent as a nun. Instead, she chose to grind pigment for her father’s art in “Blood Water Paint” (Dutton 2018) by Joy McCullough. Artemisia is now seventeen and paints most of her father’s paintings for which he takes credit ,in this passionate verse-story based on the life of the artist, Artemisia Gentileschi.

A handsome and famous artist, Agostino Tassi, visits her home and soon becomes her tutor. Artemisia falls in love with him and thinks he might be a way out of her father’s house—and into a world where she’ll be able to paint under her own name in a marriage with another talented artist. Unfortunately, Tassi cannot wait—and cannot take no for an answer. He rapes her. In this world where men take what they want, Artemisia must decide if she will be silent or tell the truth to the world. She says:

 

Why, though, does it take/a mother, daughter, sister/

for men to take/a woman at her word?

I wish men/would decide/if women are heavenly/angels on high,/

or earthbound sculptures/for their gardens/
But either way we’re beauty/for consumption.

This certainly puts one in mind of the contemporary #Metoo movement.

Artemisia is buoyed by the memory of the biblical stories her mother had told her years before. Susanna (in the Book of Daniel) was a strong woman who was accosted by two elders while bathing in her secluded garden. The elders threaten her—if she does not have sex with them, they will accuse her of meeting a young lover. Susanna will not be blackmailed. She speaks her truth and is nearly executed for it. But Daniel steps in and questions both the elders. A discrepancy is discovered in their stories. Susanna is absolved of guilt.

Artemisia cannot stay silent. With the help of her somewhat reluctant father, Artemisia accuses Tassi of rape. In court, Artemisia is accused of fornication and subjected to torture to verify her claims. For her sanity, Artemisia conjures the biblical story until the lines between herself and Susanna are blurred. She will not give up.

Artemesia thinks back to another story told by her mother—about the heroine Judith, who, with her maid, beheads the oppressing Assyrian general Holofernes to save the Jewish people.

Eventually, Artemisia will paint each of these biblical heroines, from the point of view of a woman, rather than that of a man. They will make her famous. As told in McCullough’s story, Artemisia is understandably angry, bitter, and tenacious. Young readers need to know it’s okay—it’s even good—to feel anger—and to demand justice.

 

 

Patricia Hruby Powell is the author of the award-winning Josephine; Loving vs Virginia; and Struttin’ With Some Barbecue among others.  She teaches community classes at Parkland.         talesforallages.com

Eighth grader, Claire, did not pass into the next level of dance classes—and her classmates did. She might lose her second chair alto sax position and first chair Riley does nothing but insult her. There’s no way she can live up to her big brother Matthew’s reputation in school. Everyone is doing fine—except Claire—in “Falling Over Sideways” (Scholastic 2016) by Jordan Sonnenbrink.

Claire is Claire-centric. She’s hyper sarcastic—but funny. Jordan Sonnenbrink is always laugh-out-loud funny. When it seems that nothing could get worse—the unspeakable happens. While home alone with her lively author father, she witnesses him fall over sideways, unable to speak. Claire calls 9-1-1. She rides with her disabled father in the ambulance to the hospital. Her mother doesn’t even answer her phone. Claire is scared. Will her father die?

When Dad, who was once so funny and fun, finally arrives home—well, he’s just not her father anymore. Was it better if he’d just died rather than have a stroke? Claire wonders. When he finally does speak he calls her “Piggie,” a childhood nickname. Claire is mortified. He manages to call her brother by his real name: Matthew.

Everyone at school—her friends, their parents, teachers, the counselor—says she’s depressed, which makes her angry, because she insists that what she is, is mad. She’s really mad at everyone including her father. And Riley never stops being mean and snarky to her

Matthew is spending a lot of time with their father, rather than going to soccer practice and studying, but Claire doesn’t see the point. I mean, he’s not himself. Claire’s sweet mother is exhausted. Eventually Matthew shames Claire into helping to care for their father so he can get his homework done.

She hasn’t practiced her sax in weeks, but her dad isn’t talking, so she figures at least maybe she can get some practicing in. Dad who had seemed so dull becomes enlivened at the sound of the horn. Claire discovers that a left hemisphere stroke victim can be helped by listening to music. She keeps playing for him.

Time passes and her father doesn’t seem to be improving. Claire won’t invite her

friends over because she’s embarrassed by her once life-of-the-party father who is now drooling and doesn’t even seem to want to improve his speech and motor abilities.

Her mother tells her that she is her father’s favorite—that “Piggie” is such an affectionate name. Claire starts spending more time with her father. She keeps playing her sax. She cajoles him into working harder on regaining speech, coordination, mobility. The reader learns a lot about stroke and stroke rehabilitation.

I borrowed this book from my library and listened to it via Overdrive, read by Miriam Volle. What a great reader. How can an adult sound this much like a sweet young girl. I’m sure the recording made me like the book even more than if I’d read it off the page.

 

Patricia Hruby Powell is the author of the award-winning Josephine; Loving vs Virginia; and Struttin’ With Some Barbecue among others.  She teaches community classes at Parkland College in Champaign, IL.         talesforallages.com

“The Downstairs Girl” (Putnam 2019) by Stacey Lee is set in 1890 Atlanta, thirteen years after Reconstruction has ended. Chinese American Jo Kuan, an orphan, lives in a basement cave that was once part of the Underground Railroad system, unbeknownst to its owners, the Bell family. By means of a long forgotten listening tube—a holdover from runaway slave days—Jo listens to the Bells discuss the news as they print their newspaper, The Focus. She acquires a pretty hefty education as well as vocabulary.

Raised by Old Gin who has a way with horses and is employed by a rich white plantation owner, Jo has gained Chinese wisdom in the form of aphorisms—such as “the Chinese believe coincidence is just destiny unfolding.”

Jo is fired from her job as a milliner because the clients are made uneasy by being served by a woman of color. Never mind that she is an extremely talented hat maker and the owner uses all of Jo’s designs. Now she is forced to take a job as the servant to a spoiled young woman, Caroline, daughter of the plantation owner where Old Gin works in the stable. Caroline’s older brother pursues Jo, which of course is nothing but trouble for the beautiful heroine of color. In fact the cover of the book depicts a lovely flower of a girl, who doesn’t convey to me the scrappy girl of the story, but it will have young readers pulling the book off the shelf, which is a good thing.

I love learning history by way of well-researched stories such as this. When black slaves were freed, Chinese people were brought in to work Southern plantations and were barely more than slaves—being poorly paid, and not accorded the rights of a white man. There is big prejudice afoot. Yet, it’s worse for the African Americans in the story.

A rumor has circulated for years of a Chinese man with “rabid eyes” having assaulted a white woman and was run out of town. Jo says, “Chinese men everywhere tried their best not to look rabid.” Jo has a way with words and uses some great similes, such as, “Caroline’s scornful expression has set in her face like a fly in the aspic. Digging it out would only make it worse.”

Jo needs to move freely about town, and if she covers her eyes with a bonnet, she could pass as white. But, “passing as white is a punishable offense whose severity depends on who is duped and to what degree.” And “We have been born with a defect . . . of not being white.”

In her despair, Jo anonymously pens an “agony aunt” columnfor The Focus, under the name of “Miss Sweetie” in order to convey her view of women’s confining fashions, suffragettes (including their exclusion of women of color), and who can sit where on the bus. The clever and controversial column sells subscriptions to the failing Focus. But everyone wants to know the identity of “Miss Sweetie.”

Another newspaper deems Miss Sweetie a rabble-rouser and spreads lies. Jo says, “Where false light falls, a monster grows.”

Along with her research, Jo discovers information about her own past. This is an important read and a page-turner.

 

Patricia Hruby Powell is the author of the award winning Josephine; Loving vs Virginia; and Struttin’ With Some Barbecue among others. She teaches community classes at Parkland.       talesforallages.com