Crazy Review

Crazy by Linda Vigen Phillips

Title: Crazy

Author: Linda Vigen Phillips

Series: None

Publisher: Eerdmans Books for Young Readers

Publication Date: October 20, 2014

Genre: Fiction; Historical Fiction; Poetry; Disorders; Young Adult

Pages: 320

Format: Paperback

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Laura is a typical fifteen-year-old growing up in the 1960's, navigating her way through classes, friendships, and even a new romance. But she's carrying around a secret: her mother is suffering from a mental illness.

No one in Laura's family will talk about her mother's past hospitalizations or increasingly erratic behavior, and Laura is confused and frightened. She finds some solace in art, but when her mother, also an artist, suffers a breakdown, Laura fears that she will follow in her mother's footsteps. Left without a refuge, can she find the courage to face what scares her most?

Identity is an enigma for any normal fifteen-year-old. For Laura, she struggles with defining herself as she witnesses her mother being possessed by her mental illness. She fears her destiny has already been defined for her, and she sees it playing it out before her eyes as her mother is reduced to hysterics and erratic outbursts. Fear threatens to smother Laura, and she must find the courage to defy it.

Stories written as a series of poems are a strange thing. The poems themselves cannot stand alone, but when combined with others, it just works. Verse was a fitting choice for this book. Some things in life you cannot explain coherently in complete sentences; some things are just too messed up, and they don’t have a clear subject and verb and prepositional phrases. Verse gives the readers the opportunity to fully understand the turmoil going on inside of Laura’s head, the doubt, guilt, and fear she feels.

While Crazy is set in a time period when mental illness was all but taboo, the book is painfully honest on the hardships of suffering from a mental disorder and living with someone inflicted with this invisible illness. Laura is trapped in more way than one, not being able to talk about her fears or the way she feels towards her mom. The effort Phillips put into this book was visible in everything she wrote, and the readers could understand how important these topics were.

Crazy was an easy read with something important to say, and I’m glad I got the opportunity to hear it. 

A Time To Dance Review

A Time to Dance by Padma Venkatraman

Title: A Time to Dance

Author: Padma Venkatraman

Series: None

Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books

Publication Date: May 1, 2014

Genre: Poetry; Realistic Fiction; Contemporary; Culture; Romance

Pages: 320

Format: Hardcover

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Padma Venkatraman’s inspiring story of a young girl’s struggle to regain her passion and find a new peace is told lyrically through verse that captures the beauty and mystery of India and the ancientbharatanatyam dance form. This is a stunning novel about spiritual awakening, the power of art, and above all, the courage and resilience of the human spirit.
 
Veda, a classical dance prodigy in India, lives and breathes dance—so when an accident leaves her a below-knee amputee, her dreams are shattered. For a girl who’s grown used to receiving applause for her dance prowess and flexibility, adjusting to a prosthetic leg is painful and humbling. But Veda refuses to let her disability rob her of her dreams, and she starts all over again, taking beginner classes with the youngest dancers. Then Veda meets Govinda, a young man who approaches dance as a spiritual pursuit. As their relationship deepens, Veda reconnects with the world around her, and begins to discover who she is and what dance truly means to her.

Written in beautiful verse, Padma Venkatraman tells a story of a classical bharantanatyam (I dare you to say that three times fast) dancer who, after a tragic accident, becomes a below-knee amputee. She must learn how to accept who she and how her life has changed, and rediscover the dance she fell in love with. Inspired by the brave survivors of the Boston bombing, Venkatraman wrote this wonderfully creative and inspiring tale about a girl who must conquer obstacles to return to what she loves to do more than anything.

I picked this book up for two reasons: The first was the amazing cover. I mean, look at it! It’s gorgeous! The second was the obvious Indian culture involved in this story, which is something I rarely get the chance to read, and know almost nothing about. I knew nothing about bharantanatyam (bah…bahran…bahrantatanatatn?), not to mention having no idea how to say it!

As usual, I was surprised to find that this book was written in poetry. I don’t think I have ever read a poetry book that I knew was poetry before reading the first page. But, like always, it was a happy sort of surprise, and by the end of the novel I was so in love with it, it was like I wasn’t reading poetry at all!

One of my favorite things about A Time to Dance is that the spirituality aspect is not one that preaches a certain religion to you. It explains how something, like dance, can bring you closer to something so big and encompassing, you know you’ll never fully understand it. And yet, you can still connect with it someway, and be as close to it as you possibly can. It was beautiful how the author explained the main character’s connection with dance and how it helped her discover who she really is. This book is unlike anything I have read before, with its amazing Indian culture and magnificent prose.

This book was lovely and poetic. The author entranced me into a hypnotic story about acceptance and passion, and I didn’t want it to end. I can’t wait to read something else by Padma Venkatraman, because if it is even remotely as good as A Time to Dance was, I know that it will be fantastic. 

Caminar Review

Caminar by Skila Brown

Title: Caminar

Author: Skila Brown

Series: None

Publisher: Candlewick Press

Publication Date: March 25, 2014

Genre: Poetry; Historical Fiction; Young Adult

Pages: 208

Format: Hardback

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Carlos knows that when the soldiers arrive with warnings about the Communist rebels, it is time to be a man and defend the village, keep everyone safe. But Mama tells him not yet — he’s still her quiet moonfaced boy. The soldiers laugh at the villagers, and before they move on, a neighbor is found dangling from a tree, a sign on his neck: Communist. Mama tells Carlos to run and hide, then try to find her. . . . Numb and alone, he must join a band of guerillas as they trek to the top of the mountain where Carlos’s abuela lives. Will he be in time, and brave enough, to warn them about the soldiers? What will he do then? A novel in verse inspired by actual events during Guatemala’s civil war, Caminar is the moving story of a boy who loses nearly everything before discovering who he really is.

“Forest sounds/all around/but on the ground/ the sound/ of Me/ grew. Echoed, / I heard a path I could not see.”

I have wanted to read this book for a very long time. I was even more excited to read it when I opened the first page and found a poem staring at me. I hadn't known until that moment that this book was written entirely in free verse poetry. The only other book that I have ever read in free verse poetry is Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse about the Great Depression. And, just like Out of the Dust, I thought this book was fantastic.

Poetry, to me, is more than written words on a page telling a story. It is an art form, really. It weaves words into beautiful lyrical songs and forms intricate art with the placement of the black ink on the page. While sentences in story books are coherent and structured, a poem’s verses mostly resemble the thoughts that run through our minds. They are ambiguous and hard to understand and difficult to interpret. They mean different things to different people with different minds. They are a stream of consciousness that transports you not just into the world of the book but also into the minds of characters. Poetry done right is a beautiful, wonderful thing.

“I could not see/ up. Could not see/ down. I/ could only see/ what was right in front of me.”

Caminar, which mean “to walk” in Spanish, is about a young boy yearning to become a man, when disaster strikes in his village in Guatemala. This story is not only about the horrible war in Guatemala, but also about a boy struggling to walk the path into manhood. Brown uses intriguing styles of writing to ensnare the reader into a story both breathless and surreal.

This book inspired me on so many levels. I knew little about the civil war in Guatemala until I read this book. It was mind-opening to read about it from a young boy’s point of view. While I was reading Caminar, I was not just reading Carlos’s thoughts, I was thinking them, living them. In a way the book ended too soon. It left me wanting more.

I enjoyed this book immensely. Caminar is an excellent short read that taught me many things. I loved the poetry in it, and the way the words created art on the pages. I enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone willing to read a short poetic story about the horrible and terrific happenings in Guatemala. This book is officially being shelved as one of the greats.

“When you open the door to hate, you will find/ it swallows you whole/ and there is no/ life left inside.”