The Smile

What is the most famous smile in the world?  Only one comes to mind–the Mona Lisa.  I think it’s reasonably fair to assume that most people know what this painting looks like, but no one really knows the story behind it.  Leonardo da Vinci never put a date or name on this painting, so much of what we know about the piece is pure speculation.  In Donna Jo Napoli’s The Smile, speculation goes a step further.  Napoli takes what she knows about the history of Florence, Italy, and interweaves these events into an entirely plausible story about the girl who was the inspiration/model for one of the most renowned paintings the world has ever seen.

Elisabetta is a young girl of noble birth growing up in Florence, Italy.  She knows that she will one day be betrothed to one of the nobles in the city.  Her greatest hope is to marry a young man she truly loves.  One day, a friend of her father’s, local artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci, introduces Elisabetta to young Giuliano de Medici, a son of the most powerful family in Florence, and she feels that she has at last found the love of her life.  Giuliano calls her Monna Lisa and professes his love for her.  Fate, though, can be cruel, and a series of events take place that seem to conspire to keep these two young people apart.  The Medici family is soon reviled in Florence and is exiled. 

Elisabetta does not know how to cope in this new and terrifying world.  War threatens constantly.  She rarely hears from Giuliano, and she does not where to turn.  Is their love doomed before it even has a chance to begin?  How can she keep her smile, the thing Giuliano first loved about her, when the life she knew seems to be crumbling before her eyes?  Read Donna Jo Napoli’s The Smile to find out what could have happened to the girl behind the world’s most famous smile.

I truly enjoyed this book, especially since I was able to see the da Vinci exhibit at the High Museum in Atlanta just last week.  As I was reading, I was able to say to myself, “I’ve seen those pieces,” when the characters were talking about da Vinci’s sketches of horses or other figures.  Although I’ve never actually seen the Mona Lisa, I would love to someday.   I would also like to visit Florence to really experience the city in which most of this book’s events take place. 

I think The Smile would be an excellent book for any reader interested in art and the possible stories behind the masterpieces.

Marcelo in the Real World

Marcelo Sandoval is being taken out of his comfort zone this summer.  Instead of working with ponies at Paterson school, he will be working in the mailroom at this father’s law firm.  This may not seem like a big deal, but it’s huge for Marcelo.  Marcelo is on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum.  (His “cognitive disorder” is most closely likened to Asperger’s syndrome.)  He is not comfortable in new and unpredictable situations, he likes to have every detail planned, and he often does not understand figures of speech that others take for granted.  His father thinks Marcelo needs to learn what it’s like to live in the “real world.”  Although he may be right, Marcelo is not happy with the decision.

Marcelo eventually learns to accept his role at the law firm.  He must if he wishes to go to school at Paterson next year.  He enjoys working with Jasmine, his supervisor in the mailroom.  She is patient with him, and they become friends with each other. 

One day, while working with a file for an upcoming case, Marcelo discovers a picture of a girl with half her face destroyed.  He and Jasmine work to find the story of this girl and what it has to do with his father’s law firm.  Marcelo’s world is rocked to the core when he learns the truth and how his father played a part in this girl’s suffering.  What will Marcelo do with this information?  Will he help this girl even though it may hurt his father?  He knows he must do what is right, but he’s not sure what “right” really means.  Is it even possible for Marcelo to step so far out of his comfort zone to help a girl he doesn’t even know?  I’ll leave that for you to discover…

In this post, I’ve tried to give a little glimpse of Francisco X. Stork’s Marcelo in the Real World, and I feel like I’ve failed to paint a picture of what this book is really like.  It is an engrossing novel that allows readers to see the thought processes of someone who may not think in the ways we consider “normal.”  I found Marcelo to be a fascinating character, and I loved seeing how he developed throughout the course of this book.  At some points, I thought that more people could stand to think like Marcelo.  Oftentimes, we make life too complicated.  If we just stop and think before we speak or act, there may be far fewer problems in the world.  Marcelo is definitely a character to be admired, and I highly recommend this book to any and all readers.

Flygirl

In Sherri L. Smith’s Flygirl, readers are introduced to the Women Airforce Service Pilots, a group of female pilots that served during World War II.  Ida Mae Jones is determined to become one of these pilots.  Only when she’s in the air does she feel truly free.  There’s one major problem, though.  WASP doesn’t accept African American pilots.  Ida Mae is determined that this will not stop her, and she decides to “pass” as a white woman in her quest to become a pilot.

Ida Mae, or Jonesy as her new friends call her, does just what she set out to do.  She becomes a pilot in the service of the U.S. Army.  She feels like she’s really doing something to help the war effort, but she is torn because she must hide her true self in order to do what she loves.  She can never tell anyone that she’s just pretending to be white.  If anyone finds out, her entire future is over, and her very life could be in jeopardy.  Will she ever get to really be herself, or will she spend the rest of her life hiding?  Can she ever be free outside of an airplane?  Read Flygirl to find out.

I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed Flygirl.  I’m not usually a fan of historical fiction, but this book captivated me from the very beginning.  (I am a feminist, so that might help to explain it.)  I didn’t know much about the female pilots during WWII, so this story enlightened me a bit.  While reading, I was mad at the injustices that Ida Mae endured, both as a woman and as an African American, just so she could do what she was born to do.  I can almost understand pretending to be someone you’re not so that you can do what you love.  Almost.  I honestly don’t know if I could give up my family or my identity for anything, but I’ve never been put in that situation, so I don’t really know what I would do. 

I think Flygirl would be excellent supplemental reading for social studies classes studying World War II.  This would be an excellent resource to introduce students to the role of women in the war effort.  Most people have heard of Rosie the Riveter, but this book may give them another glimpse of how women sacrificed and made military contributions during World War II.

North of Beautiful

What is true beauty?  That is something that Terra Rose Cooper would like to know.  Born with a port-wine stain on her cheek, Terra has always considered herself to be ugly.  The comments from her verbally abusive father don’t help matters.  She’s undergone many surgeries to “fix her face,” but none have worked.  She just wants a way out of the stifling path she seems to be on.

In the blink of an eye, Terra (almost literally) runs into someone who will change the course of her life.  Jacob is a Goth kid with his own issues, but he helps Terra to see that she is responsible for traveling her own path in the world, and, if she’ll only look, true beauty is all around her.  Through this eye-opening relationship, Terra begins to see the value in being unique and learning to really express herself, and her relationships with those around her begin to evolve in some surprising ways.

Initially, North of Beautiful was hard for me to get into.  As soon as Terra met Jacob, however, the story really picked up.  I thoroughly enjoyed the relationship between these two characters.  I also liked seeing how the relationship between Terra and her mother changed throughout this book.  I think North of Beautiful is a great book for those who are tired of magazines and other media trying to tell us what beauty should be.  This book may help some readers to see that true beauty can be in everything and everyone around us.  We just have to take the time to really look.

Princess Ben

Although I love fairy tales, I’ve always had a problem with some of them:  Why does the beautiful princess need to be rescued by the handsome prince?  Additionally, why does the princess have to be beautiful, and why can’t she save herself?  (If you haven’t figured it out by now, yes, I am a feminist.)  I like seeing a strong, smart heroine who solves her own problems.  I got what I wanted in Princess Ben by Catherine Gilbert Murdock.  (The whole title is Princess Ben:  Being a Wholly Truthful Account of Her Various Discoveries and Midsadventures, Recounted to the Best of Her Recollection, in Four Parts.  Great title.)  At times, Ben is irreverent, brash, and a bit immature, but she grows into a woman who thinks for herself and can save herself and those she loves.

Princess Benevolence of Montagne has just lost her uncle, King Ferdinand, her mother, and her father.  She is the sole heir to the throne, but Ben has almost no desire to learn the seemingly trivial things that her aunt, Queen Sophia, thinks she should learn.  Ben isn’t interested in pointless conversations, fashion, needlework, or starving herself so that she can be the slim princess who will attract a husband.  When Sophia becomes fed up with Ben’s apathy and locks her in a tower cell, Ben thinks her misery will surely be a permanent condition.  That changes, however, when Ben stumbles upon an enchanted room and secret, magical passageways throughout the castle.  Ben begins to explore magic and learn things that are definitely not boring and may, in fact, have some use for her in the future.

When neighboring Drachensbett begins to threaten the kingdom of Montagne, Ben sets off on a perilous journey that threatens her very life.  She comes to painful and eye-opening realizations about herself and those around her.  What will become of her?  Will she ever make peace with Queen Sophia?  Will Drachensbett attack Montagne?  And what is she to do about her tumultuous feelings about Prince Florian, heir to the throne of Drachensbett and Ben’s own nemesis?  Princess Ben is definitely not your typical princess, and her story is not your average fairy tale.  Read Ben’s account of her life and discover what it’s really like when a princess grows up and learns the lessons that will make her a strong woman and queen.

The Devil’s Paintbox

As I believe I’ve mentioned before, I hate westerns.  I find the vast majority of them to be boring and retellings of the exact same story.  That being said, I did enjoy my latest read, Victoria McKernan’s The Devil’s Paintbox.  This story follows Aiden along his journey on the Oregon Trail and into his new “life” as a logger.  This was not a happy book by any stretch of the imagination, but I thought it portrayed Aiden’s struggles in a very real way.

Aiden and his little sister, Maddy, are the last surviving members of their family.  They live in the remains of their family’s Kansas farm which has been ravaged by drought.  Aiden knows they are close to death unless help arrives soon.  Well, help arrives in the form of Jefferson J. Jackson, a man organizing a wagon trail to Oregon.  Jackson is wary of taking on Aiden and Maddy, but he is eventually convinced, and the two young people earn their keep along the trail.

The trail is not without its troubles.  Wagons break, tempers flare, people die.  Aiden’s journey is fraught with danger, but Aiden does make friends with an Indian community along the way.  When smallpox, or “the devil’s paint,” threatens Aiden’s friends in the Nez Perce tribe, Aiden risks the new life he has carved for himself to save the tribe from certain annihilation. 

The Devil’s Paintbox is a heartbreaking look at one teen’s life as he tries to find some semblance of hope in a world that no longer makes sense.  I would definitely recommend this book to those interested in what the Oregon Trail was really like and what happened to the people who made it to the end of the journey.  The trail was just the beginning.

Audrey, Wait!

Greetings, dear readers!  (Please note the cheerful tone of this post.  I’ve been a good mood for an entire week, which I’m sure is some kind of record for me.)  My latest read in Robin Benway’s Audrey, Wait!  This is a great book, especially if you follow “indie” music at all.  Each chapter begins with a line from a song that most people my age have never heard of.  (Thankfully, I am not like most people my age.)  Some of the bands mentioned include:  Cowboy Junkies, The Velvet Underground, Radiohead (Yay!), R.E.M., Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and many, many others.  This alone gave me an inkling that I would like this book.

Audrey’s life has just been turned upside down.  She broke up with her musician boyfriend Evan, and he decided to write a song about it.  The next thing she knows, the song, Audrey, Wait!, is a hit, and her life will never be the same.  She’s being hounded by the press and the paparazzi, people she’s never met want to be her friend, and her name is known worldwide.  At school, she has to do all of her work in the office because her new–and unwanted–fame has caused all kinds of distractions.  Other bands think of her as a muse, and want to use her to jumpstart their own careers.  It’s a mess. 

Audrey doesn’t really know what to do about this new stuff in her life.  She never asked for any of it.  Some people, like her best friend Victoria, think she should take advantage of all this fame while she can.  Others, like her new boyfriend James and her parents, just want life to return to normal.  But normal may be a thing of the past in Audrey’s world.

Read Audrey, Wait! to see what one music-obsessed, sarcastic-to-the-core, sixteen-year-old girl will do about the fame she never wanted.  Will she embrace it like so many others before her?  Or will she find a way to be normal again?  Is normal even possible?  I’ll leave it for you to figure out.  Enjoy!

The Year My Sister Got Lucky

As many people know, relationships between sisters are complicated.  Yes, there is love, but there is also anger, joy, jealousy, happiness, disappointment, pride, bitterness, and loyalty.  I know I have experienced all of these emotions at some point in my relationship with my own sister.   In Aimee Friedman’s The Year My Sister Got Lucky, the relationship between sisters Katie and Michaela comes into focus.  These sisters experience the ups and downs that come with sisterhood, and they take the reader along for the ride.

Katie has just discovered that her family is moving from her beloved Manhattan to a small town in Upstate New York.  She is less than thrilled.  She’s even more upset when she learns that she was the last to know about this move.  She doesn’t want to give up her ballet school, her friends, and her wonderful New York City life.  She’s also a little shocked that her sister, who is being groomed for the ballet program at Juilliard, is taking news of the move so easily.

When the family finally arrives in Fir Lake, their new home, Michaela, the perfect older sister, begins to adjust almost immediately.  Katie, however, doesn’t want to let go of her old life.  She misses the noise of the city, her friends, her routine, and her closeness with her sister.  See, while Katie is having a hard time in Fir Lake, Michaela is thriving and seems to be drifting farther and farther away from Katie. 

Eventually, Katie does make a friend or two in Fir Lake and begins to see a new, if uncomfortable, relationship emerge with her sister.  She also realizes that this “hick” town might not be so bad after all.  But after Katie discovers that Michaela has been keeping secrets, her world is sent into yet another tailspin.   Katie realizes that she doesn’t really know her sister anymore.  Did she ever? 

Read The Year My Sister Got Lucky by Aimee Friedman to learn how Katie and Michaela deal with their new lives and perspectives and how being friends with your sister is often easier said than done.

Ten Cents a Dance

Christine Fletcher’s novel, Ten Cents a Dance, explores the world of taxi dancing in Chicago around the time of World War II.  The book follows Ruby Jacinski, a poor sixteen-year-old girl, who is sick and tired of working in the slaughterhouse for next to nothing.  Her mother has rheumatoid arthritis and cannot work, so Ruby has to quit school to earn money for the family.  She eventually comes across what she believes is a solution to her financial woes:  taxi dancing at the Starlight Dance Academy.  Men would pay her ten cents a dance.  The Starlight would get half, and she’d take a nickel for every dance.  Add tips in, and Ruby thinks she’s rolling in dough.  Soon, though, the money begins to run out.  It just never seems to be enough.

After a scary run-in with a customer who loaned her some money, Ruby thinks she’s got a handle on things.  Her mother thinks she’s a telephone operator, and her sister doesn’t seem to know what’s going on.  Ruby’s also got a serious boyfriend, local ne’er-do-well, Paulie Suelze.  He’s helped her out of a few jams, and he always seems to know when she needs a little help.  If only he wouldn’t keep pressuring her to do things she’s really not ready for.

Ruby soon realizes that her world is slowly unraveling.  Her new life has lost some of its luster, she’s lying to nearly everyone, Paulie is not the guy she thought he was, and the world is at war.  Can she straighten things out before her life is destroyed completely?  How is it even possible that she’s sunk so far so fast?  Read Ten Cents a Dance to learn what one girl will do to escape a life she’s not sure she ever wanted.

As someone who is fascinated with the WWII era, I really enjoyed Ten Cents a Dance.  I knew a little about taxi dancing, but this book shed new light on it.  I knew this “occupation” began in the speak-easies of the 1920’s and continued through WWII.  I didn’t know, however, that there are still taxi dancers in some major cities today.  Through this novel, it is easy to see how quickly girls could be drawn in by the money and attention and how easily things could also go horribly wrong.  Readers will root for Ruby to clean her life up and become the person she should be.

Alligator Bayou

I’ll be honest.  When I first picked up Alligator Bayou by Donna Jo Napoli, I was less than enthused about reading it.  The cover was boring.  (Yes, I do judge a book by it’s cover.)  Once I began reading, however, I was drawn into the story.  I didn’t know until reading the afterword that the story was based on actual events.  That shed a whole new light on what I had read.

Calogero and his family are Sicilian immigrants living in Tallulah, Louisiana.  The year is 1899.  The South is trying to rebuild from the Civil War, and Jim Crow laws are in full effect.  In Louisiana, like in many other parts of America, Sicilians are viewed as lower than dirt.  They are seen as criminals and are trusted by few.  Calogero, his cousin, and his uncles are grocers in Tallulah, and they deal with these prejudices day after day.  Calo doesn’t really understand why these prejudices exist.  What makes white people better that black people or Italian people?  Why can some people enter the ice cream parlor while others have to be served at the back door?  It just doesn’t make sense.

Calo does, however, make friends in the midst of this turmoil.  He joins a group of black teens in a midnight gator hunt in the swamps.  Although he is terrified the entire time, the hunt actually serves to cement friendships between Calo, his cousin Cirone, and the black teenagers.  Calo is also deeply in love with Patricia, a black girl he met while working at his uncles’ grocery. 

Many white people in Tallulah are noticing that Calo and his family spend a lot of time with the town’s black community, and they don’t like it.  Some of the more powerful men are just looking for a way to wipe Calo and his family out of Tallulah.  Can things ever change?  What will become of Calo and his family?  Read Alligator Bayou to find out.

It is clear when reading this book that author Donna Jo Napoli has done her homework.  She includes a detailed afterword and notes on her research.  These tools may serve as jumping off points to learn about a little known prejudice in Reconstruction America.  Napoli’s research shows that Italian Americans were reviled across the United States, not just the South.  Alligator Bayou is an excellent book to begin discussions on prejudice and how various groups of people have been treated in our nation’s history.