Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Saffy's Angel
Hilary McKay.
One of four in a series about the artsy Casson family, all four children named after colours. They are popular, but frankly, I didn't love this. it had moments, but mostly, I found it a bit too precious, a bit too focused on how very artsy they were (you know, scatty mother, messy house, and so on). On top of that, while I think it's nice that the siblings are so supportive and get each other so much, I really didn't like the dad, who clearly didn't like his family very much and wished they were something totally different and escaped every chance he got. Nice, hey? Can't say I'm going to read the other three books.
One of four in a series about the artsy Casson family, all four children named after colours. They are popular, but frankly, I didn't love this. it had moments, but mostly, I found it a bit too precious, a bit too focused on how very artsy they were (you know, scatty mother, messy house, and so on). On top of that, while I think it's nice that the siblings are so supportive and get each other so much, I really didn't like the dad, who clearly didn't like his family very much and wished they were something totally different and escaped every chance he got. Nice, hey? Can't say I'm going to read the other three books.
Labels: 2001, enh, middle grades
Sunday, April 01, 2007
When She Hollers
Cynthia Voigt.
Tish's stepfather has been raping her for some time when something starts to push back inside her. One piece, not curled up and dying, decides to fight back, to act out, to stop it. And over the course of one day, she tells him she hs a knife and will keep it with her, prompting a huge fight, runs out of school to keep herself from losing that one piece of hope and protection, and finds an ally in her friend's father, a lawyer who she unexpectedly trusts and who helps her in the ways that she will allow. And when she returns home at the end of the day, she is ready to take him on, for now she has the protection of both a knife and a statement in evidence with a lawyer, and she is ready.
Powerful, it reads as if it would be true in emotion and feeling - Tish is conflicted and scared and ashamed and hateful and more. It avoids the simplistic solution, it shows why she doesn't feel she can take that road, it shows her testing it out a bit and finding it unsafe. The only thing that made me disliek this was that it ends as she returns home, and we have no idea how it works out. Perhaps that works, because the focus is really her struggle to come to terms and get to a place where she can take on her abuser, but I hate to get invested in a character and not be able to see it through. Because now I'm worried about her, and I'll never know. Definitely well-done, but unsatisfactory for me at the end.
Tish's stepfather has been raping her for some time when something starts to push back inside her. One piece, not curled up and dying, decides to fight back, to act out, to stop it. And over the course of one day, she tells him she hs a knife and will keep it with her, prompting a huge fight, runs out of school to keep herself from losing that one piece of hope and protection, and finds an ally in her friend's father, a lawyer who she unexpectedly trusts and who helps her in the ways that she will allow. And when she returns home at the end of the day, she is ready to take him on, for now she has the protection of both a knife and a statement in evidence with a lawyer, and she is ready.
Powerful, it reads as if it would be true in emotion and feeling - Tish is conflicted and scared and ashamed and hateful and more. It avoids the simplistic solution, it shows why she doesn't feel she can take that road, it shows her testing it out a bit and finding it unsafe. The only thing that made me disliek this was that it ends as she returns home, and we have no idea how it works out. Perhaps that works, because the focus is really her struggle to come to terms and get to a place where she can take on her abuser, but I hate to get invested in a character and not be able to see it through. Because now I'm worried about her, and I'll never know. Definitely well-done, but unsatisfactory for me at the end.
Labels: issues, lukewarm, teen
