Pride: The Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag (Sanders)

This is a good historical book about how the pride flag came to be. It isn't a topic that comes up in my classroom very often, but I have seen attitudes change over time and can imagine that in time it will become a matter of fact topic. For now, it's one I don't tread into very often just because I'm afraid of the blacklash from parents. If it does though, this is one well worth having, for sure.


Goodreads says:

The very first picture book about the remarkable and inspiring story of the Gay Pride Flag!

In this deeply moving and empowering true story, young readers will trace the life of the Gay Pride Flag, from its beginnings in 1978 with social activist Harvey Milk and designer Gilbert Baker to its spanning of the globe and its role in today’s world. Award-winning author Rob Sanders’s stirring text, and acclaimed illustrator Steven Salerno’s evocative images, combine to tell this remarkable - and undertold - story. A story of love, hope, equality, and pride.

The Secrets of My Life (Caitlyn Jenner)

In my conservative social circles, this is an explosive topic. That is one reason I read this book. I felt like I had very little understanding of people who transition from one gender to another. I'm not a Kardashian fan. I've never watched the show actually and I can't keep the names of the Kardashian children straight, nor do I really care to. I was well aware of Bruce Jenner as an Olympian. I'm a fan of all things Olympics. When I first heard of it, his story really surprised me. I suppose that is one thing that compelled me to read this book.

A lot of people say this is a scourge of our day. They say that people are only doing these kinds of things because it's trendy right now. That wasn't the case for Bruce Jenner. This wasn't something he came up with just recently. It was a struggle his entire life. It is only now that it is really "safe" to even attempt to live as he felt most comfortable.

I am not part of the crowd that condemns people who choose to transition. I don't know why God makes people like this. I just hope that we can all be a little kinder. I"m glad to have a little more understanding of what life was like for Bruce and then late, Caitlyn Jenner. I appreciated the honesty found in the book.

Goodreads says:

The book will cover Caitlyn Jenner's childhood as Bruce Jenner and rise to fame as a gold-medal-winning Olympic decathlete; her marriages and her relationships with her children; her transition; and her experience as the world's most famous transgender woman.

Moonlight Over Paris (Jennifer Robson)

I loved this book. You can't tell by how long it took me - but I found myself wanting to just immerse myself in Paris life as I read. It is report card season right now so I had less time to read - but when I did I found myself reading for an hour and not even realizing I had been immersed in the book that long.

I loved how Helena followed her dreams, messing up along the way, but persisting. I found myself wondering if it was a true reflection of what life was like in Paris back then and, given Jennifer Robson's great historian skills, I tend to think it was pretty spot on. I marvelled at people wanting to separate themselves from family fortunes. Really?! What harm is there in having a big pile of money?! :)

This is a book (series!) I'll definitely read again.

Goodreads summary:

USA Today and internationally bestselling author Jennifer Robson takes readers to 1920s Paris in an enthralling new historical novel that tells the riveting story of an English lady who trades in her staid aristocratic life for the mesmerizing salons and the heady world of the Lost Generation.

It’s the spring of 1924, and Lady Helena Montagu-Douglas-Parr has just arrived in France. On the mend after a near-fatal illness, she is ready to embrace the restless, heady allure of the City of Lights. Her parents have given her one year to live with her eccentric aunt in Paris and Helena means to make the most of her time. She’s quickly drawn into the world of the Lost Generation and its circle of American expatriates, and with their encouragement, she finds the courage to pursue her dream of becoming an artist.

One of those expats is Sam Howard, a journalist working for the Chicago Tribune. Irascible, plain-spoken, and scarred by his experiences during the war, Sam is simply the most fascinating man she has ever met. He’s also entirely unsuitable.

As Paris is born anew, rising phoenix-like from the ashes of the Great War, Helena realizes that she, too, is changing. The good girl she once was, so dutiful and obedient, so aware of her place in the world, is gone forever. Yet now that she has shed her old self, who will she become, and where, and with whom, does she belong…? 

Pedro and Me (Judd Winnick)

I learned about this book from a Nerdy Book Club blog post.

This is a true story. It's about a man who is HIV +. The author meets him when they make it through the auditions for an MTV series and become roommates in the house where the show is filmed. The story talks about prejudisms and misunderstandings around the disease.

My best friend's brother died of HIV/AIDs about the same time. When I think of the sadness and the shame around that time, it breaks my heart. No one was really willing to talk about it. Frankly, they still have a hard time talking about it. I'm glad there are some people making efforts to make those kinds of things change.

I'm coming a bigger fan of graphic novels all the time. They express a story in a way that is different than just print. The pictures mixed with the words can be very moving.

This picture of them all surrounding his bed when he died.....makes me stop and feel the moment. Powerful.

Some of the pictures were hilarious. Again, they captured the feelings from the moment so perfectly.

The author captured the process of grieving so beautifully with this poem:

Awake and Dreaming (Kit Pearson)

I asked the folks at the place where I buy books for my Grade 3 book club books for recommendations the other day, and this book was one of their recommendations. I hadn't read it so decided to find it.

I'm not sure it is right for my Grade 3 book club, but what a fabulous book! The edition I read had an introduction by Kenneth Oppel that was amazing as well.

Here is the Goodreads Summary:

Theo and her young, irresponsible mother seem trapped in their miserable, poverty-stricken life. Theo dreams of belonging to a "real"family with two parents and brothers and sisters, and her dream seems to come true when she is mysteriously adopted by a large, warm family, the Kaldors. For the first time in her life, Theo has brand new clothes and things of her own, security and good friends. But as time passes, the magic of Theo's new life begins - literally - to fade, and soon she finds herself back with her mother. Were the Kaldors real, or just a dream? And who is the shadowy figure who haunts Theo's thoughts?

I love the magic in this book. A ghostly writer haunts the Kaldors house and comforts Theo. I love the hope. Theo rises survives her tough life and even finds ways to grow despite the challenges. I love the connection to reading. Theo loves reading and her ghost friend was also a writer. I'm generally not a fan of finding out a part of a story was just a dream - but in this book it seems to work. I wouldn't say it totally has a happy ending. It has a 'we'll do the best we can' ending. It certainly fits. I love that it is set in BC as well.


Favorite quotes:

P. 224 Cecily:  "I think an open book symbolizes imagination. Only imagination will save people from their narrow, cramped expectations of life-like those my parents had." She chuckled. "But enough of my philosophizing. When you've done nothing but think for forty years you get pretty pedantic. 

P. 244 "Oh, Theo, forgive me - I keep forgetting how young you are. Material is what a writer calls the - the stuff, the ingredients for a good story. Your life may have been awful and it may become awful again. But it makes for a much better story than the Kaldor's easy life. Do you understand?

Theo's head was spinning. "No I don't."

"You will one day. But for now just keep observing the richness you have - Vancouver and Victoria, your mother and your aunt, the Kaldors, ....Watch it, use it. The bad times and the good times, too. If you watch carefully, there are always what I call shining moments, even in hard times - moments of sheer joy, when you're just glad to be alive.

...."Here's what I think Theo. writers are both awake and dreaming. They have to pay attention - to be mindful of all the small things in life, the details, whether ordinary or wonderful or terrible. Then they dream of what they can turn those details into. And if your life gets really difficult, Theo, there are two things you can do. You can force yourself to see people at a distance, like someone in a story. Then they'll lose their power over you, or yiu can make up something better and escape to it."

Tags:

Abuse - there isn't a lot of abuse in this story. Theo's mom, Rae does hit her though and Theo learns to stand up to her and lets her mom know it is not okay to hit kids.
Addictions - Theo's mom smokes
Canadian Authors - Kit Pearson is a Western Canadian
Chasing Dreams - Theo wants nothing more than to be in a real family
Children - There are many children in this story
Family - Rae separates herself from her family and tries unsuccessfully to be a family for Theo. Her sister helps out. The Kaldor family is a "real" family to Theo.
Friendship - Theo has difficulty making friends sometimes because of the transient life they've led
Ghosts - Cecily, a dead author, becomes a friend to Theo
Homelessness - Theo and her mom move a lot and have times where they're homeless
Imagination - Theo deals with her life by sometimes escaping it into her imagination
LGBQ - Theo has a friend who has two moms
Personal Growth - Theo does a lot of learning and growing as does her mother
Realistic Fiction - A lot of kids live lives like this!
School - Theo attends many different schools due to moving so much

Moon At Nine (Deborah Ellis)

Deborah Ellis is an author I really admire. She seems to easily write about difficult topics. She seems to have a particular interest in the middle east. I have loved many of her other books like The Breadwinner (about the war in Afghanistan), as well as the rest of the books in that series, No Ordinary Day , Three Wishes, The Heaven Shop (about aids in Africa)

In this book, Moon at Nine, Deborah Ellis tackles another difficult topic: LGBQ issues. She handles it with ease. Although, the story broke my heart.


Here is the Goodreads Summary:

Fifteen-year-old Farrin has many secrets. Although she goes to a school for gifted girls in Tehran, as the daughter of an aristocratic mother and wealthy father, Farrin must keep a low profile. It is 1988; ever since the Shah was overthrown, the deeply conservative and religious government controls every facet of life in Iran. If the Revolutionary Guard finds out about her mother’s Bring Back the Shah activities, her family could be thrown in jail, or worse.

The day she meets Sadira, Farrin’s life changes forever. Sadira is funny, wise, and outgoing; the two girls become inseparable. But as their friendship deepens into romance, the relationship takes a dangerous turn. It is against the law to be gay in Iran; the punishment is death. Despite their efforts to keep their love secret, the girls are discovered and arrested. Separated from Sadira, Farrin can only pray as she awaits execution. Will her family find a way to save them both?

Based on real-life events, multi-award winning author Deborah Ellis’s new book is a tense and riveting story about a world where homosexuality is considered so abhorrent that it is punishable by death.

The story is called Moon at Nine because the two girls, when banned from being together, decide that they will each look at the moon at 9 and think of each other. If this book doesn't cause you to want to do something about human rights, I'm not sure what will. Astounding story. Well worth the read. When I was reading this book I wondered if perhaps Deborah Ellis could also be gay. Sure enough!

Better Nate Than Ever (Tim Federle)

I

I read a lot of J books hoping to find great books to recommend to my students.

While I enjoyed this book, I won't be recommending it to students anytime soon. I actually turned to the spine of the book a couple times when I was reading to double check that it was a J book. It is. I am not entirely sure that is the intended audience.

The main character, Nick, is sharp-witted. However, I didn't really find it a laugh a minute. Instead I found myself sometimes skimming over sentences because I couldn't take it anymore - kind of like how sometimes I tune out someone who is always trying to crack jokes. It just gets old. However, in short spurts, I think it would be okay. I read this book in one sitting - too much corny humour for one stretch, I guess.

This book might work in middle school, as long as I was sure parents wouldn't get upset about reading/discussing LGBT issues, running away, addiction, and family fights. All the off handed slang references to faggots are also not really something I would want to seemingly condone by reading it in school. Then again, maybe that is how middle school kids talk.

I would totally read this with my own kid - I just wouldn't open myself to the inevitable criticism if I read it with or to a class of someone else's kids.

This book truly is funny. I did enjoy the references to broadway musicals, and I love reading about kids chasing their dreams. However, I am not sure all that is enough to out weigh the cons of this book.

One thing I wondered about was his use of parenthesis. Some pages were full of them! Odd!

......but just because I'm curious, I think I will read the next one.

Update: I tried reading the second book (Five, Six, Seven, Nate!). Knowing it won't fit for my students, I just couldn't get into it. Maybe one day, if I move to middle school though, this might become one to read.