KIFFE KIFFE TOMORROW, HELLO LIFE, MAGIC LESSONS
It's Bach Festival time! That means less reading and more musicking. Or something like that. Yum, Mozart! Yum, Bach! Yum, Beethoven! But what happened to the hott cellist from two years ago? Hrm.
Coupla books that are written from a YA POV but aren't, strictly speaking, YA books. Well, they could be, I suppose, if they sort of ended differently.
First one is Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow by Faiza Guene. She's French, child of Algerian parents, and young, and her protagonist Doria--French, with Morrocan immigrant parents--lives in one of those forgotten suburbs of Paris that exploded into riots not so long ago. The short novel reads well, with explosive, world-weary slang and attitude combining with the sweet core of a young girl trying to figure out how to make her way in a very, very hostile world. Her mom's illiteracy, her dad's alcoholic abandonment and remarriage in Morocco so he could have a son, her teachers' lack of understanding, the goofiness of the social workers...all of it comes together to make a fascinating, if thin, novel that hints at redemption by the end although Doria's stuck in hairdressing school and her mom's barely got a decent job. Definitely good for YAs to read--fast and present-tense and interesting.
Next is Hello Life by Andrea Koenig. In this novel, Gwen's mom dies before the book begins, and she's living with the ex-girlfriend of her mom's boyfriend, along with another girl from her class, a girl who's recovering from leukemia. They live in a small town along the Columbia, and going to Portland is like the bright lights, big city thing for them (reminds me bizarrely of Twilight, actually, though that's Seattle), not that they escape the claustrophobic small town with crazy class divisions and weird, hard-bitten characters all over the place. Gwen is also pregnant when the novel begins, and smokes ALL THE WAY THROUGH her pregnancy, which isn't the main point of course, but really got to me. Again, it's not a YA novel, or not marketed as such, but it has the feel of one. And the story line--dead mom, pregnant by friend of father-who-ran-away-before-even-seeing-you-as-a-baby, working-class, a "scrapper," blah dee blah--surely feels YA. I didn't like this one much because I didn't like any of the characters, from bitchy Gwen to asshole roommate Lila to buttheaded pseudo parents Mrs. Parker and Miz Hurdy to...well...ANYONE. On the other hand, it definitely has the atmosphere of the icked-out rainy winters that made Twin Peaks so atmospheric, if you know what I mean.
Finally, Justine Larbalestier's Magic Lessons. Did I review this already? Hm. I read it a few weeks ago. It's all right, I guess. I like having our protagonist so clueless about the world that she doesn't know what New York is, and I like how she reveals that bit to the Love Interest. In this one, there's lots of drama, from the untrustworthiness of the grandmother to the near-death of Jay-Tee to Tom's abrupt and various realizations about Life, Death, and How Adults Can Get Desperate And Use You Even If You Like Them A Lot. Oh, and there's a weird freaky stinky golem, a discussion of synesthesia, sex, and more. Not as well-paced as Magic and Madness but still fine. And me, I can't imagine why anyone would get weirded out by the Australian slang, even the characters. I don't know why they're so hostile to each other about the way they talk. But then, I find languages and slang fascinating, not "better" or "worse" than. After all, if kids can read the Angus, Thongs books (and they do), they can DEFINITELY read this much more transparent slang.
And today, it's not only Bach Festival, but also off to the Oregon Country Fair for my very first time. We'll see how THAT goes!
Coupla books that are written from a YA POV but aren't, strictly speaking, YA books. Well, they could be, I suppose, if they sort of ended differently.
First one is Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow by Faiza Guene. She's French, child of Algerian parents, and young, and her protagonist Doria--French, with Morrocan immigrant parents--lives in one of those forgotten suburbs of Paris that exploded into riots not so long ago. The short novel reads well, with explosive, world-weary slang and attitude combining with the sweet core of a young girl trying to figure out how to make her way in a very, very hostile world. Her mom's illiteracy, her dad's alcoholic abandonment and remarriage in Morocco so he could have a son, her teachers' lack of understanding, the goofiness of the social workers...all of it comes together to make a fascinating, if thin, novel that hints at redemption by the end although Doria's stuck in hairdressing school and her mom's barely got a decent job. Definitely good for YAs to read--fast and present-tense and interesting.
Next is Hello Life by Andrea Koenig. In this novel, Gwen's mom dies before the book begins, and she's living with the ex-girlfriend of her mom's boyfriend, along with another girl from her class, a girl who's recovering from leukemia. They live in a small town along the Columbia, and going to Portland is like the bright lights, big city thing for them (reminds me bizarrely of Twilight, actually, though that's Seattle), not that they escape the claustrophobic small town with crazy class divisions and weird, hard-bitten characters all over the place. Gwen is also pregnant when the novel begins, and smokes ALL THE WAY THROUGH her pregnancy, which isn't the main point of course, but really got to me. Again, it's not a YA novel, or not marketed as such, but it has the feel of one. And the story line--dead mom, pregnant by friend of father-who-ran-away-before-even-seeing-you-as-a-baby, working-class, a "scrapper," blah dee blah--surely feels YA. I didn't like this one much because I didn't like any of the characters, from bitchy Gwen to asshole roommate Lila to buttheaded pseudo parents Mrs. Parker and Miz Hurdy to...well...ANYONE. On the other hand, it definitely has the atmosphere of the icked-out rainy winters that made Twin Peaks so atmospheric, if you know what I mean.
Finally, Justine Larbalestier's Magic Lessons. Did I review this already? Hm. I read it a few weeks ago. It's all right, I guess. I like having our protagonist so clueless about the world that she doesn't know what New York is, and I like how she reveals that bit to the Love Interest. In this one, there's lots of drama, from the untrustworthiness of the grandmother to the near-death of Jay-Tee to Tom's abrupt and various realizations about Life, Death, and How Adults Can Get Desperate And Use You Even If You Like Them A Lot. Oh, and there's a weird freaky stinky golem, a discussion of synesthesia, sex, and more. Not as well-paced as Magic and Madness but still fine. And me, I can't imagine why anyone would get weirded out by the Australian slang, even the characters. I don't know why they're so hostile to each other about the way they talk. But then, I find languages and slang fascinating, not "better" or "worse" than. After all, if kids can read the Angus, Thongs books (and they do), they can DEFINITELY read this much more transparent slang.
And today, it's not only Bach Festival, but also off to the Oregon Country Fair for my very first time. We'll see how THAT goes!