review: The knife and the butterfly

“An unflinching portrait with an ending that begs for another reading.” ~Kirkus

title: The knife and the butterfy

author: Ashley Hope Perez

date: 2012, Carolrhoda Lab Books

main character: Martin Azael Arevalo

The plot seems simple: where is Azael? He walks us through his own memories of how he got wherever he is, what his life has been like and some of his most recent memories with quite vivid descriptions of the places and people that surround him. As a tagger, Azeal is used to paying attention to visual details.

Azael spends his time observing Lexi, a girl he’s certain he doesn’t know. Yet, she holds the key to knowing where he is.

Azael and his brother raised themselves after their mother died and father was deported. They took to the streets and joined MS-13, a notorious gang. Alexi and her mother have lived in 19 homes in 10 years. She, like Azael turns to the streets for some stability. They both live lives that are easier to judge than to understand. Rather than describing the world to us, author Ashley Perez carries us into it. I know Perez doesn’t believe in glossaries but,  non Spanish speakers would benefit from one with this book that doesn’t always provide context for clear meaning.

Perez recreates the past through Azael’s flashbacks and Lexi’s observation sessions. Azael uses his street smarts to provide an immediate evaluation of Lexi but he doesn’t totally discount her based upon his findings; he want’s, needs to know more. Perez manages to develop two very strong characters in this process even though she’s giving us Lexi through Azeael’s perceptions. She gives us a message there on judging people without really knowing them and this message in pronounced in what we find out about Theo.

Throughout the story there is a light-handed presence of faith. From the use of names to the religious imagery, Perez seems to say we’re more than our emotions and our humanity. In her Author’s Note, she states “…The Knife and the Butterfly is not a story of courtroom drama; the trials that interest me most take place in the human heart.”

I couldn’t help but wonder about the names in the story, and particularly what they mean. I think they mean Perez layers story and meaning quite well.

Azael: “whom God strengthens”

Lexi: “defender of men”

Gab, Gabriel: “God is my might”

Rebecca: “to tie”

Jason: “a healing”

Shauna: God is gracious

Theo: “gift of God”

Martin: from the God Mars (God of War)

As for the meaning of the knife and the butterfly, you’ll have to read the book.

Additional reviews

Bibliophilia

Stacked

Kirkus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

book review: The whole story of half a girl

title: The whole story of half a girl

author: Veera Hiranandani

date:Delacorte Press; 2012

main character: Sonia Nadhamuni

reading level: 4.2

Being ‘half a girl’ doesn’t matter much until Sonia has to change schools. She was accepted by everyone in her small private school, but she has to find new friends in her new school and this requires her to fit in somewhere. Will she hang with the Blacks or Whites? Cheerleaders or nerds? Why can’t these people all hang together?! She has to explain her name and that she’s not half American Indian, but half Indian from India.

Sonia makes friends with Alisha, a black girl who is bussed to the school. She also makes friends with Kate, a very popular white girl who develops a very controlling friendship with Kate. It’s really hard to determine Kate’s motives and whether she’s being a true friend to Sonia or not, just as it would be in real life. I wanted Sonia to be a stronger character and to better assert herself but the truth of the matter is, kids have to learn how to maneuver the world around them just as Sonia was doing in the story.

Sonya’s parents wanted her to change schools both because of their concern for her education and because her dad lost his job. As with many MG books, Sonia’s characters are not fully developed, so I found it difficult to even care when her father suddenly has a rather severe episode. This is probably the only fault I found in the book that gives an otherwise believable portrayal of a young girl who just wants to fit in.

book review: DJ Rising

"Meet Marley, an unassuming high school junior who breathes in music like oxygen." ~Serious Insanity Blogspot

title: D J Rising

author: Love Maia

date: Little Brown and Company, February 2012

main character: Marley Johnnywas Diego-Dylan aka DJ Ice

  “…Try not to get into too much trouble with the ladies. Any questions? I hate questions by the way.”

 “No question,” I tell him, even though I didn’t understand hardly anything he said.

 “Great. You’ll do great, guy. I gotta go and you’ve got everything. There’s nothing to it. Go make something of yourself out there.” Donnie flashes a set of super-white teeth before turning and slipping away towards the back of the club.

 Go make something of yourself. It’s the only thing he said that sticks. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. Make something of yourself, Marly. You can do this.

Marley says the first thing he heard when he was born was music and music is always the first thing that he hears. After his father died some years before, his mother took to drugs. She brings a steady stream of low life boyfriends through their home while Marley watches and waits for her to be the mother she once was. Marley, at 15, works a full time job and attends a local private school on a scholarship where he is made to feel like an outsider because of his lower economic status. He has two of the best friends ever written in YA but they have absolutely no clue what their friend’s life is really like.  Of course he has eyes for one of the most attractive girls in the school. As if this isn’t enough for him, he accepts a weekly gig working as a DJ at an over 21 club and this is where Marley’s passion truly lies. He wants to be a DJ, like his dad.

Maia gives us a story of a young man who is essentially making it on his own, but she fails to develop his struggle. Everything comes just too easy with little to no conflict. I couldn’t understand why Marley made the effort to attend this private school when college was not on his agenda.

While I could definitely feel Marley’s love for music when he described his DJ sessions, I found the author to be uncomfortable in describing technical details relating to the craft. I can’t say I was sold on her writing in a male voice, either.

I read an advanced copy of the book and hope that several issues in grammar were corrected before final release.

You may want to also read these reviews.

Kirkus

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review: Panther Baby A Life of Rebellion and Reinvention

"This spirited, well-honed account of cutting his teeth as a member of the Black Panthers brings Joseph back to his youth, a painful time in late-1960s America." Publishers Weekly

title: Panther Baby

author: Jamal Joseph

date: Algonquin Books; February, 2012

non-fiction/autobiography

reading level: 6.0

Honestly, I didn’t want to read Panther Baby when Doret first suggest it. However,since I trust her judgment of books, I read the book and I’m so glad I did! I’ve wanted to put Panther Baby into the hands of every young man and every teacher of young men that I’ve seen since finishing it.

In Panther Baby, Jamal Joseph (born Eddie Joseph) relates personal and historic reason that brought him to join the Black Panther Party. Quickly tracing developments from the Jim Crow era to the Civil Rights movement through the history of the family with whom he is living, we see how revolutionaries of the sixties were almost a natural development from previous generations. Joseph was an intelligent, keenly aware and angry  young Black man who through a series of circumstances decided to join the Black Panther Party.  In his anger, he sees the Panthers as a militant organization that will allow him to fight any and every person who crosses his purposeful path. He quickly learned  however, that the Panthers were more about doing right than being right; that their struggle was more a class struggle than a race struggle and that their aim was to overthrow the capitalist system that perpetuated inequality and injustice. Readers soon learn that Panthers were not anti-White. They were anti-establishment and anti-government.

Joseph details many community programs run by the Panthers as well as their training with firearms. When he ends up in prison the first time, I think I as a reader began to really see Jamal’s deep commitment to the organization. He never seemed to question how he was betrayed. Rather, he took what he had learned from the Panthers and used it to empower his fellow prisoners. He learned the ways of prison life just as he learned the ways of the street and the ways of the Panthers, all of this being a code of decency which when maneuvered correctly allowed one to give and receive respect through proper treatment of others. While interactions with women were somewhat limited in the book, Joseph even learned how to give proper respect to women through both implicit and explicit lessons.

Joseph managed to write a complex story in a voice that rings clear and true. Make no mistake: Joseph’s story is a controversial piece of history told from one perspective. While part of me wondered what the story would look like told from another perspective, this is Joseph’s story and as a biography, its merit is on the author’s ability to express his life’s story with honesty and integrity to that others will want

I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not so desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. ~Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience, 1849

to read it.  I wanted to finish this book because of the story Joseph was telling about fighting for humanity.

Part of me wants to excuse myself for not knowing about this piece of history because I was in elementary school when much of it happened. However, Jamal Joseph was all of 15 when he first joined the Black Panthers. His activism began early and did nothing but grow from that point. I think Doret wanted me to read this book because much of it occurs during Joseph’s young adult years and we’re with him as he acquires important life lessons.

Although released as an adult book, Panther Baby belongs in every high school and public library collection.

I would suggest reading Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience prior to reading Panther Baby. I think reading this credible American Revolutionary will accentuate the Panther’s cause and enhance the message.

“Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.” Joseph could have said this as easily as Thoreau.

 American Libraries interview with Jamal Joseph