GRACEFULLY GRAYSON

Gracefully Grayson by Ami Polonski

 

Pages: 208

Date: 08/11/2014

Grade: 5

Details: Juvenile Fiction ages 10+

  Received from Hyperion

            Through Net Galley

Kindle

The blurb:

“Grayson Sender has been holding onto a secret for what seems like forever: """"he"""" is a girl on the inside, stuck in the wrong gender's body. The weight of this secret is crushing, but sharing it would mean facing ridicule, scorn, rejection or worse. Despite the risks, Grayson's true self itches to break free. Will new strength from an unexpected friendship and a caring teacher's wisdom be enough to help Grayson step into the spotlight she was born to inhabit?”

My thoughts:

In this review I will be referring to Grayson as ‘they’ because neither he nor she feels 100% appropriate. This is my personal interpretation and not meant to offend or confuse anybody. This gender issue doesn’t surface in the book itself since the story is told in the first person from Grayson’s perspective.

Up until recently twelve year old Grayson had been able to look in the mirror and see who they should be rather than who they were. Lately the strategy hasn’t been working anymore. No matter how hard they imagine and pretend all Grayson sees is the reflection of a boy rather than the image of the girl they really are.

Having lost their parents at a very young age, Grayson lives with his Aunt, Uncle and two cousins. Because Grayson holds the secret of their identity close, they haven’t been interacting with other kids their age for years. The happiness when it seems that Grayson may have found a new friend after four years without, broke my heart.

“(...) until I feel up to explaining to Aunt Sally and Uncle Evan that I have plans with a friend for the first time since second grade”.

When Grayson auditions for the female lead in a school play and gets the role it appears to be a dream come true at first glance. It isn’t long before reality comes crashing in. That reality is very well dealt with in the book. It’s not all pain and soul searching. Grayson’s life is far from easy but it isn’t unbearably heard all the time either. It would have been easy to turn this story into a tear jerking drama; easy but lazy and unsatisfactory for the reader. The way the story is told I got a wonderful appreciation of the shifts taking place in Grayson as they balance between the joy of being allowed to portray a girl and the fear of making themselves the focus of ridicule and bullying.

“Everything keeps flip-flopping back and forth, from bad to good, over and over again. Sometimes everything is light. Other times, everything is dark.”

It would have been very easy to dislike, if not hate Aunt Sally but a lot of her reasons for wanting to stop Grayson from taking the female lead in the play have to do with her worrying about them (and his cousins) getting bullied in school. Having said that, it got a bit harder to feel sympathy for her once she reflected on how Grayson’s choice would reflect on her parenting skills. Still, all those fears on Sally’s part are undoubtedly worries every parent of a transgender child would have. What did bother me though was the fact that especially the adults in this book were a bit one dimensional; either understanding and supportive or the opposite. While that may work very well for the age group this book is aimed at (and I’m not even sure about that, it’s easy to underestimate kids), it left me rolling my eyes once or twice.

I really appreciated that this book ended on a positive but not miraculous note. Grayson has come a long way but the author doesn’t suggest and the reader doesn’t walk away with, the illusion that all Grayson’s problems have been solved. This is the (very difficult) start of a complicated journey. Grayson has taken the first steps and, we are led to believe, found the inner strength to be true to their real identity. Nothing else is promised.

It was hard to read this book without comparing it to ‘Wonder’ by R.J. Palacio and I don’t mean that in a bad or derogatory wayl. Like ‘Wonder’ this book deals with a youngster who doesn’t quite fit in because they don’t conform to the norm. In both books the main character has to face their otherness in relation to the rest of the world and both characters manage to come out on the other side maybe not so much victorious but definitely intact and empowered.

“(...) when I look at myself in the giant floor-to-ceiling mirrors, I finally see myself the way I’m supposed to be - my inside self match up with my outside self. And now, everyone else will finally see it too.”

Overall this was a wonderful book I’d recommend to any reader aged 10 or over. Understanding otherness is something we can’t teach our kids or ourselves early enough.

THE LETTER FOR THE KING

TITLE: THE LETTER FOR THE KING

AUTHOR: TONKE DRAGT

Pages: 453

Date: 06/12/2013

Grade: 4.5

Details: Juvenile Fiction ages 10-12

              Received from Pushkin Children’s Books

             Through Nudge

Own

It is the night before 16 year old Tiuri is to be knighted. He finds himself locked in a chapel in silent contemplation of the honour and duty that will be bestowed on him the following day. When he hears a noise and a voice calling for help he knows he should ignore it. If he wants to become a knight the following day he can’t talk to anyone or allow anything to distract him from his prayers. But the voice sounds desperate and is very persistent. Unable to ignore the pleas Tiuri opens the door to the chapel and finds himself face to face with an old man, begging him to go and find his master who is in desperate need of help. Although Tiuri is torn about leaving his vigil so close to the hour of his knighting, he also knows that if he already was a knight it would be his duty to offer his assistance. With reluctance and in the hope that he’ll be back in time for the ceremony, Tiuri leaves the chapel.

When he finds the knight who is the old man’s master, he is close to death. With his last breath he implores Tiuri to deliver a very important letter to the King of a far away country. It is a mission Tiuri won’t be able to talk about with anybody and a journey he’ll have to undertake alone.

Tiuri’s journey will bring him to places he’s never seen before, from dark forests to treacherous rivers, through dangerous towns and to imposing castles. Pursued by enemies who won’t think twice about killing him and unsure of whom, if anybody, he can trust, Tiuri faces an adventure that will teach him about honour and treachery. But in the face of danger he also discovers loyalty and friendship as well as the knowledge that while doing the right thing may not always be easy, it is the only course to take.

I first read this book when I was a child in Holland and loved it at the time. While most of the story-line had long since slipped my mind I did remember the opening scenes and, more importantly, how much I had enjoyed the book back then. When I discovered that this book had, at last, been translated into English I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it, read it again and spread the word.

First published in 1962 ‘The Letter for the King’ won the Children’s Book of the Year Award in Holland, has been translated into sixteen languages and was made into a movie in 2008. Anybody reading this book will immediately understand why Tonke Dragt is considered the greatest Dutch female writer for children. This author combines a recognisable and endearing main character with a great adventure that is sure to keep youngsters engrossed in the story. More than that though, the author also manages to share some valuable life-lessons about loyalty, honesty and friendship without ever being blatant about it.

At times this story and the words used in it felt very simple and almost too innocent, even for the age group it is aimed at. But then occasionally I stumbled across little gems like the following:

“We may never see each other again, but each of us owes his life to the other, and that includes all that we might do in the future.” - Tiuri to the Jaro, the man who failed to kill him.

 There is a reason this book was chosen as the best Dutch Children’s book of the 20^th Century and now, at last, the English speaking world has the opportunity to discover the beauty of this story as well. My advice is to grab that opportunity with both hands and enjoy the experience.

THE STORY OF DON JUAN

TITLE: THE STORY OF DON JUAN

AUTHOR: ALESSANDRO BARICCO

Illustrated by Alessandro Maria Nacar

Pages: 91

Date: 23/10/2013

Grade: 5

Details: Part of the Save the Story Series

            Received from Pushkin

  Children’s Books through

  Nudge

Own

Don Juan, the man who loved women. Who loved all women and had to be with as many of them as he possibly could. Because Don Juan is also the man who is only afraid of being bored.

“Don Juan isn’t an imbecile, he’s just a man who loves women, and he loves them so much that it’s impossible for him to love one alone.”

The story starts with a man entering the bedroom of a beautiful young woman who is engaged to be married. Thinking the intruder is her fiancé, the woman allows the man to kiss her only to realise that he isn’t who she thought he was. When the intruder tries to leave the woman’s house he encounters her father, the Commendatore, who he kills in a sword-fight.

The same evening, Don Juan – because that is who the intruder was – encounters a woman he married in the past, only to leave her the very next day and learns that her brothers are looking for him, determined to restore their sister’s honour and kill him.

Next thing Don Juan knows he has the police, the brothers and their swordsmen as well as the ghost of the Commendatore out to kill him. Inviting all his adversaries to his house on the same night can never lead to a happy ending.

Don Juan is a tale about morals and asks a rather interesting and – as the book says in the epilogue – hard to answer question:

“Are we guilty when fulfilling our desires means others are hurt? Or are our desires always innocent, and is it our right to try and fulfil them?”

This is the third title in the “Save the Story” series I have read in recent days and I have to say this one impressed me as much as the previous two – “The Story of Gulliver” and “The story of Antigone” – did.

As I explained in those earlier reviews “Save the Story” is an initiative to ensure that great stories from the past are not forgotten through retelling them for a new generation of readers. The way in which this goal is achieved is rather clever. While nothing about the original story is lost, the retelling is done in such a way that the stories are truly accessible for younger, modern readers. In these books we find subtle hints to remind the young reader that the story is set in the past, such as:

“They went off like rockets – rockets didn’t exist at the time, of course, but just so you understand.”

And while these books are aimed at readers from age five upwards (although I do feel that readers that young would need to have the stories read to them), they do not talk down to the reader. Quite the opposite in fact. I love that these books serve a dual purpose; they introduce (young) readers to wonderful and time-defying stories which can be enjoyed in and of themselves as well as be used as a springboard for a discussion about important and even philosophical questions.  

I know I’ve said it before but I can’t help saying it again; these are gorgeous books. The quality of these editions is a lot better than you normally come across when reading books aimed at children. The books look and feel luxurious and with both beautiful fonts and wonderful illustrations – not to mention the classical stories – these books would be a proud addition to anyone’s bookshelf.

Alessandro Baricco is of course the author who first came up with the idea for this series. As far as I’m concerned that was a strike of genius. In these days when it can be a hard struggle to get children to abandon all the electronical temptations surrounding them in favour of a good book it can only be helpful to have books this attractive to help us tempt them.

THE STORY OF ANTIGONE

TITLE: THE STORY OF ANTIGONE

AUTHOR: ALI SMITH

              Illustrated by Laura Paoletti

Pages: 100

Date: 21/10/2013

Grade: 5

Details: Part of the Save the Story Series

             Received from Pushkin

             Children’s Books through

             Nudge

Own

In this retelling of Antigone’s story, originally written as a drama by Sophocles around 422 BC, Ali Smith takes the surprising and original decision of having a crow as the narrator. It is the crow who observes young Antigone while she decides to go and bury one of her brothers after a terrible battle which left both her brothers dead – one a hero and one deemed a traitor. The king of Thebes may have decided that his nephew Polynices was a traitor at the time of his death and as such doesn’t deserve a burial, twelve year old Antigone can’t bear to leave her brother’s body out in the open to be eaten by animals and slowly rot away. Fully aware that the penalty for honouring her brother’s remains will be her own death, Antigone still goes out of the city to find his body and bury it.

Antigone’s act of defiance doesn’t go unpunished but since this is a Greek tragedy in the truest sense of the word, it comes as no surprise that the King’s cruel treatment of young Antigone results in devastating consequences for him and his family. Because this is of course a story about power and those who would abuse it as much as it is a story about love and loyalty. Maybe Ali Smith explains it best when she explains her reasons for writing this story to the crow in the last chapter of this book:

“…that the story of Antigone, a story about a girl who wants to honour the body of her dead brother, and why she does, keeps being told suggests that we do need this story, that it might be one of the ways that we make life and death meaningful, that it might be a way to help us understand life and death, and that there’s something nourishing in it, even though it is full of terrible and difficult things, a very dark story full of sadness.”

Having the crow as the narrator of this story is a stroke of genius on Ali Smith’s part. The crow can describe the horrors of what happens to a body left in the open, without burial, in rather gruesome detail much easier than a human voice ever could. We expect some cruelty from animals like crows, and it will be much easier to accept the facts shared in this story – especially for young readers – when they come from this rather dispassionate point of view.

Like I said in my review of “The Story of Gulliver” these books are part of the “Save the Story” series which aims to bring classic stories to a new generation of readers because these stories should never be lost. All the stories in these books have a message to share; a message that was important at the time the story was written and has lost none of its importance in the years, decades or centuries that have passed since. These books give young readers the opportunity to become acquainted with important stories that have stood the test of time while at the same time giving them the opportunity to think about some big issues. And all of this is achieved without the books ever feeling preachy or educational.

This book is once again a work of beauty, and I am not only referring to the story. This is a high quality hardback with the words printed in a beautiful font in two different colours and accompanied by wonderful illustrations. This is the sort of book you will love to own, will be proud to have on your shelves and will want to keep even long after your young reader has moved on to other books and genres. In fact, even if you do not have a young reader in your life you could do a lot worse than getting the books in this series for yourself; especially if, like me, you’re only vaguely familiar at best with the classics being retold here.

THE STORY OF GULLIVER

TITLE: THE STORY OF GULLIVER

AUTHOR: JONATHAN COE

               Illustrated by Sara Oddi

Pages: 90

Date: 18/10/2013

Grade: 5

Details: Part of the Save the Story 
           Series

           Received from Pushkin 
           Children's Books through
           Nudge

Own

The Story of Gulliver is a modern retelling of Gulliver’s Travels and because most, if not all, of us are familiar with that story I won’t go into too much detail about those travels here.

No, in this review I want to sing the praises of a beautiful looking book, an inspired idea and a wonderful retelling.

First of, lets have a look at the book. This book, and the other titles in the “Save the Story” series are published in wonderful and very well made hard cover editions measuring about 20 by 25 cm (approximately 8” by 10” for those not thinking in metric measurements) with high quality paper, a wonderful lay-out, gorgeous illustrations and a beautiful font. These are books that were made to last, like the stories they retell are; books to be treasured and read time and again. In fact, when I requested this and two other titles in this series for review I had every intention of reading them, writing the reviews and then donating the copies to the library where I work. While I love books and have a hard time parting from them I don’t have an audience for juvenile fiction in my house anymore and donating them seemed a far better idea than trying to find a place on my already bulging shelves. Now that I’ve seen the books I’m not so sure I’ll be able hand them over though. Books this beautiful are rare and I’ve got a feeling that those shelves will just have to accommodate them.

As for the idea behind the Save the Story series, I think I love that even more than I do the appearance of these books. As it says on the books:

“Save the Story is a mission in book form: saving great stories from oblivion by retelling them for a new, younger generation.”

The idea for this series sprang from Alessandro Baricco’s mind working in close collaboration with Scuola Holden in Turin; a school dedicated to the art of storytelling in all its wonderful forms. The stories in this series cover a wide range of cultures (from ancient Greece to nineteenth century Russia), times and genres, offering young readers a wonderful opportunity to get acquainted with the wealth of fiction available to them in a language and style that will appeal to them.

As far as the “Story of Gulliver” is concerned, I don’t think there is any need for me to go into all the details since everybody will be familiar with it. And it is all here. We join Gulliver as he finds himself visiting Lilliput, Brobdingnag, the Flying Island and the land inhabited by Houyhnhnms (intelligent horses) and Yahoos (primitive human like creatures). And with Gulliver we discover that although we may think that as humans we are advanced, intelligent and good we do actually have sides to our culture that are nothing to be proud of. With Gulliver being forced to re-think everything he thought was wonderful about being human, the (young) reader is softly pushed into critical thinking as well, without the story ever becoming preachy.

The book ends on a short chapter about Jonathan Swift and his reasons for writing this book back in 1726. Since Swift wrote this book “in order to vex the world rather than divert it”, I imagine he would be delighted that this modern version of his classic will make a whole new generation think about the world and society they live in.

And finally, as far as that “whole new generation” is concerned; I’ve been trying to put an appropriate age-group to this book and series and have come to the following conclusion. I feel this book would be perfectly suited for children from about the age of five – provided it is being read to them – to about twelve. However, neither the way in which this story is told nor the contents of it has been simplified to such an extent that older readers, including adults, won’t get a wonderful reading experience out of it.

“Save the Story” is an inspired idea that has led to memorable stories being kept alive in gorgeous books written by talented and well known authors. I, for one, am more than impressed.

THE STAR OF KAZAN

TITLE: THE STAR OF KAZAN

AUTHOR: EVA IBBOTSON

Pages: 388

Date: 27/01/2013

Grade: 3.5

Details: Juvenile Fiction 12+

             Book Club read

Library

Annika lives in Vienna, in the household of three professors, where’s she being raised by the two servants who found her in a church when she was just a few days old. Although she is very happy in her life and loves the professors as well as Ellie and Sigrid, the servants who found her, Annika has dreams about her mother coming, arriving at the house in Vienna to reclaim her. Annika just knows that her mother will be beautiful and someone important and that she will be delighted to have found her long lost daughter.

And then one day, Annika’s dreams come true. A rich, aristocratic lady has arrived at the professor’s house looking for the daughter she left in a church years ago. The lady seems to be everything Annika dreamt she would be and the only difficult part about her mother having found her is that Annika now has to leave the only life she has ever known and the people she loves behind to start a new life in Germany.

And life in Germany, on her family’s estate, is nothing like what Annika imagined. But Annika is an optimistic young girl and used to making the best of her circumstances. Besides, she’s made a new friend - Zed the gypsy who is looking after Rocco, an amazing horse – and she is so glad to have found her family at last that nothing, not even the dire circumstances she’s now living in, can spoil her happiness.

But all is not well in Annika’s life. And once all the secrets and lies are being unveiled it will be up to Annika’s friends and those who have loved her all her life to safe her from a horrible and potentially dangerous fate.

This was a decent story. I can’t say I loved it, but I didn’t dislike it either. The story is well written and the historical details about Vienna and Germany are fascinating, but it all fell a bit flat for me. I found the characters to be a bit too black or white, even for a children’s book. I also thought the story took a bit long to get started and got dragged out further than it needed (or even wanted) to be. I also felt that the book tried to be a bit too educational at times. While I have no problems with learning about times and places while reading a book, I want those bits of information to be incorporated in the story. In this book it felt as if I was being lectured to; as if I was being taken out of the story to learn something new before being allowed to get back to Annika and her adventures.

What I did really like were the sections in the book about the Spanish Riding School and the Lipizzaner horses. When I was young my mother had a whole series of books about these horses and I remember loving them. I have no idea what happened to those books and I really regret not having them in my possession anymore. I enjoyed the way in which this book brought back memories of hours of delightful reading.

Overall this isn’t a book I would enthusiastically recommend to anyone, but neither is it a book I would advice anybody against reading. It was an okay read, nothing more and nothing less.

WONDER

TITLE: WONDER

AUTHOR: R.J. PALACIO

Pages: 313

Date: 17/06/2012

Grade: 4+

Details: Young-Adult

Library

“My name is August, by the way. I won’t describe what I look like. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse.”

August Pullman is ten year old and likes the same things every other ten year old boy likes; Star Wars, his X-box, ice-cream and his dog. On the inside, Auggie feels like an ordinary boy too, on the outside though, he anything but ordinary. August was born with an extreme facial abnormality and even though he has had numerous operations to “normalise” his features, he still looks anything but ordinary.

For the first ten years his parents have kept him at home. Initially because of all the operations and other health related issues, but also to protect him from a world that can’t deal with his features. Now that he is ten though his parents decide that it is time for him to start going to school and to enter the world where he will have to deal with how others see him for the rest of his life.

August doesn’t look forward to going to school. He is well aware of how people react to him and fears the worst. Soon, it seems that all his fears are confirmed. All most all the other kids ignore him, treating him as if he has some deadly contagious disease. Although there is one girl, Summer, who, from the very first day, accepts him just as he is, Auggie’s time in school is lonely and painful, especially when Jack, who Auggie thought was his friend, appears to betray him.

Have Auggie’s parents made a horrible mistake in sending him to school or will he manage to convince the others that he really is just like everybody else?

I’m not entirely sure what to say about this book, or even how to grade it. On the one hand it is a beautiful and well written story about overcoming differences and discrimination. The story deals with prejudice and bullying, tries to show the reader that a person is more than what you see on the outside and that it is important not to judge a person by their appearance.

And, I think the book almost succeeds in that.

My problem is that the very important message in this book is lost a bit as a result of the too good to be true, Walt Disney like fairy-tale ending. While I love a happy ending as much as the next person I think the anti-bullying and trust your inner strength message would have come across more clearly if the book had ended on a positive but not magically so note.

As much as I would like the world and the people in it to be and react as described in this book, I’m only too aware that just isn’t the case. And that makes me wonder. This book will be read by kids who face their own struggles against prejudice and people who can’t look beyond the obvious. Is it fair to parade a magical but ultimately unrealistic happy ending in front of those real kids facing problems in the real world?

Read this book as the wonderful fairy-tale it is and my grade would be a 5. Because I feel this book could, and maybe should, have been more I’ve settled on a grade 4.

“Here’s what I think: the only reason I’m not ordinary is that no one else sees me that way.”

HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE

TITLE: HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE

AUTHOR: J.K. ROWLING

Date: 18/04/2012

Grade: 5

Details: no. 4 Harry Potter

            Audio Book / 18CD’s / 20 hours, 55 mins / Narrated by Stephen Fry

Library

After his usual miserable summer with the Dursleys Harry is delighted when he’s invited to spend the final days before going back to school with the Weasleys. While time spent with Ron and his family is always a treat, this year it is even more special since the family have tickets to the final of the quidditch world cup between Ireland and Bulgaria.

The match itself is a spectacle to make Harry marvel, especially the stunts the Bulgarian Seeker, Krum, manages to pull off. The night after the match turns into a nightmare though, when someone puts the Dark Mark, Voldemort’s sign, up in the sky leading to panic among the assembled wizards.

After the excitement, fear and confusion resulting from this attack Harry, Ron and Hermione are glad to get back to Hogwarts and normality. They soon discover however, that this year it won't quite be business as usual in their school. After a gap of several years it has been decided that a Triwizard tournament will take place. A tournament which is a contest between students from three different schools for wizards; Hogwarts, Beauxbatons in France and Durmstrang in Bulgaria.

Because the tournament is only open to students in their final years it shouldn’t affect Harry and his friends too much, until that is, to everybody’s surprise, Harry’s name is the fourth one to emerge from the Goblet of Fire. Since Harry didn’t enter himself for the competition and nobody owns up to having put his name forward, it is a mystery how he ended up a contestant, but now that he has been named he has no choice but to compete.

Harry manages to get through the first two tasks with relative ease. The third task however puts him into the enchanted Triwizard maze, and takes him from there to a place and a situation he couldn’t have imagined in his worst nightmares. Harry will need all his strength and magic to get himself out of this deadly situation and safely back to Hogwarts.

This was a wonderful story. I enjoyed catching up with Harry, Ron, Hermione and all the other familiar characters once again.

The adventures in these books are heart-stopping and highly imaginative and ensure that these stories are pure page-turners and/or compulsive listening. What I really like about Rowling’s’ books though is that she also takes the time to tell the story of everyday life in Hogwarts’ school. We witness our three heroes growing up; we are part of their friendship, feel their pain when they fall out, and smile as they discover infatuation for the first time.

J.K. Rowling manages to combine the magical, with the normal then throws in some mysteries and danger for good measure and delivers her readers something which comes very close to the ultimate reading experience.

Finally a word about the narration on this audio book. I can’t praise Stephen Fry enough. He does an absolutely wonderful job telling this story. Apparently without trying, he manages to give every character their separate voice. His voice is capable of evoking every emotion. Between Rowling’s’ writing and Fry’s narration I could almost see what I was listening to before me. Listening to this book was utter joy and I can’t wait until the fifth instalment will be available.