An Alphabet in Bloom

An Alphabet in Bloom

by Nathalie Trovato



Today, the typical ABC book is universally accepted as an introductory book for preschoolers to learn the letters of the alphabet. However, they can be much more than just a tool for letter recognition and sequencing.

Centered around refreshing themes, offering visual enrichment, even rhyming or alliterative text (Dr.Seuss!) of ABC books offer a range of stimulating experience for the preschoolers.

Illustrations play a big role in ABC books, they cannot overwhelm or confuse the young reader, and must be easily recognizable and clearly laid out.

Ms. Trovato's Alphabet in Bloom is rather unique in that, it is a Wordless ABC book of sorts, that has no text showcasing the letters. Absolutely no letter on any page to indicate the abecedary. Instead, there are large cut-paper collages on every page with easily recognizable things around the garden, that start with the letter of the alphabet in question.

Back of the book has a list of things to find/identify in the wordless pages of the book: "What can you see from a to z?"

[Disclosure: I received a review copy of the book, but the opinions shared here are my own.]

[image source: Home Grown Books]

El Deafo

This review is a guest post from Anupama Chandrasekaran. Anupama Chandrasekaran loves teaching, learning and working fewer hours. She has previously written for Indian and international news organisations from Mumbai, New York, Hong Kong and Chennai. This is her first review for Saffron Tree. A pleasure to add El Deafo to the disability-themed books of CROCUS 2016.

Book Title: El Deafo
Author: Cece Bell
Published: 2014
Publisher: Abrams Books
Genres: Children's literature, Graphic novel, Autobiography
Awards: John Newbery Medal
Image Source: Google Books

“You won’t feel like putting it down, amma” said my precocious 9-year-old as I picked up El Deafo – a self-deprecating and poignant, autobiographical, children’s graphic-novel by hearing-impaired American author and illustrator Cece Bell (short for Cecelia Carolina Bell.)

As predicted by my in-house reviewer, I was riveted to 233-pager, guffawing, gasping and sighing as Bell’s tribulations unraveled. The 36-year-old Bell’s Newbery award winning story takes readers through the rough and tumble of middle-school friendships and the unforeseen superpowers of Bell’s hearing aid, making her conjure the name El Deafo – a phonic-eared superhuman -- for herself.

El Deafo’s azure book jacket with a rabbit-eared, humanoid caricature snagged my attention this autumn as I zig-zagged through the narrow aisles of Singapore’s Kinokuniya book store -- stocked floor-to-ceiling with fantasy, nature, anime, and you-name-it literature. I was looking for a funny yet soul-searching, non potty-humoured, children’s graphic novel that could zap the sight of my second-born being curled under yet another Captain Underpants comic book.

Bell, who long maintained a blog on her hearing-impaired experiences, was hugely inspired by fellow-American Raina Telgemeier’s autobiographical comic book about a sixth grader titled, Smile.

The Virginia-based children’s book author and illustrator, who works out of a studio she calls ‘The Hermitage’, found speech balloons a precise fit to explain the aches and pains of her disability. In the 2014-published El Deafo she goes on to using it to its hilt.

There’s the instance where words from the speech balloons start fading as the battery of hearing aid goes low and then another point when her dialogue box is empty as she decides to switch off her hearing aid during a sleepover with an overly-chatty friend.

My 10-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son thoroughly appreciated this clever usage of word-balloons to illustrate the author’s hearing problem – an issue that had never crossed their mind. The plot of lost friendships, forging of new ones and the restringing of broken relationships, also struck a chord with them.

A few weeks ago, I bumped into a parent of a child who suffered from hearing loss. The mother agonised about a certain cacophonous classroom situation and how unsettling it was for her child. While I couldn’t completely comprehend what she meant then, I think I understand it slightly better now, after reading El Deafo. It’s a book that could be an eye opener for teachers and other caregivers.

Of course, as Bell herself admits, her book may merely be scratching the surface.

El Deafo may be about deafness, but it is “in no way a representation of what all deaf people might experience....I am an expert on no one’s deafness but my own.”

This book could certainly be your first step to understanding these real-life superhumans.

Farewell CROCUS 2016

And we reach the end of our most thought-provoking CROCUS (Celebrating Reading Culturally Unique Stories) by far. 

Earlier this year, the ST team began with ‘disability’ as the theme but expanded it into various dimensions to be more inclusive. We decided to celebrate books on difference - physical/cognitive challenges, sexual orientation, adoption, divorce, abuse, suicide and more. 

Over the last four days, we brought you many books and an author interview. We tried to capture books across the age spectrum as always. Some of the book choices may seem controversial, disturbing, dark, too ‘adult’ even… but we need to encourage dialogue and discussion with our children.

Lavanya did a splendid job with the flyer and Sheela, our most consistent contributor, was instrumental in ensuring CROCUS goes live. Sandhya and Arundhati ably backed the endeavor and got us some gems. You may have missed some of our reviewers at CROCUS this year, but they have been ardent champions of the theme in the past and their reviews are captured in the round up post. We have stepped up our presence on Facebook and thank you fellow book lovers, for the shares.

  

Each one of us deserves a good life. Acceptance. Happiness. Opportunity. Hope. Health.

Let us read all kinds of books, with all sorts of characters, to and with our children.  We will keep sharing our finds so that we grow as a community. Keep visiting, keep reading, and keep sharing.

A Round Up of Past Reviews with Inclusive Narratives

While we deep dive into the chosen theme each CROCUS, Saffron Tree reviewers have covered a number of books on the subject, over the years. We would like to summarise some of them, for you, here:

  
Giraffes can't dance, Chuskit goes to school and Little Vinayak are gentle ways to help young minds celebrate differences.

Margrit learns to cope with stares and questions in her own way in My feet are my wheel chair.

Helping Hand  Why are you afraid to hold my hand sensitively bring out how we can be compassionate and get over the discomfort / awkwardness that we may feel around those who are differently able.

In James Patterson's  I funny series  Jamie is just a regular kid with a great sense of humor. And he happens to be in a wheelchair and is an orphan. Peter Nimble is refreshing YA fiction about the adventures of Pete the blind thief.

Duckbill's Hole Books  have 'different' heros- a Vampire boy who dislikes blood and Timmi, who does not fit into the 'good  girl' mold and comes from an atypical family.

Rules is about growing up, acceptance and having a sibling with autism. The Reinvention of Edison Thomas is about a bright autistic boy who has to deal with a best friend turned bully and a rather low social life.

Emmanuel's Dream is an inspiring biographical tale of a boy who cycles cross country, a great achievement in itself and more so since he is lame.

Save me a seat speaks of APD in the context of a regular school story.

A blessing from above  and Elephants never forget subtly make a case for adoption for both the adopter and the adopted.

Jobless, Clueless, Reckless and Daddy come lately , in the YA genre, are more than a nod to the changing family structures we see now in India.

One Green Apple is among many other books on immigrants gingerly trying to fit in while holding on to some of their roots and Wanting Mor is about the conflicted world of an orphan who lives in post war Afghanistan.

Aging is intriguing to children Mr. Putter and his ilk  help the young ones understand seniors- grandparents and other grand ones.

We are all born free is a non fictional book which with the help of pictures helps children understand the need for acceptance and co-existence.

None of the Above

None of the Above
by I.W. Gregorio



[Note: Recommended for 18+ due to physically intimate situations; also included are biological and physiological information regarding reproductive anatomy and disorders of sexual development.]


A practicing surgeon by day and a YA writer by night, Ms. Gregorio is also a founding member of We Need Diverse Books ™ dedicated to advocating changes to the publishing industry in order to help create and promote inclusive literature that honors the lives of all young people.

The book is about Kristin Lattimer, a high school senior voted homecoming queen, who finds out that she is Intersex in a rather painful and unexpected way: Krissy is a female, grows up to be a female, thinks and feels like a female, identifies as a female, is heterosexual, has external female characteristics, and yet, she has internal male reproductive organs, not the female uterus.

And, without her permission, this information is leaked to the school, which spins out of control. Her struggles in school, in life, to come to terms with this and to do what is surgically possible for "normalizing" makes up a good chunk of the book, with the associated drama and complications in relationships and friendships and heartbreaks.

Author Gregorio has done a brilliant job of explaining the medical and biological facts, while very gently yet firmly showing the emotional turmoil that people with AIS (Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome) go through, and the adjustments they have to make in their lives to accommodate this constraint. At times, the kids sounds pedagogical with the medial information conveyed to the reader, but, their interactions and relationships are very much in tune with what is expected from teenagers overall.

It is impossible not to root for Kristin and jump in to defend her against the insensitive bullies. What was heartbreaking for me was when she is removed from the track team because there was an issue of her gender - she cannot compete in the girls' track events as she is not 100% a girl - after training hard and being the best, it was all I could do from crying out loud. And when she was teased about which bathroom she could use, I was just about ready to burst.

Through it all, she has a steadfast friend, and there is a sweet budding romance that comes from shared experience and a deeper understanding of herself.

Why are humans obsessed with highlighting the differences and excluding fellow humans on that count? Is there any hope for a gender-neutral society in our future? Why do humans feel the need to identify one gender as "superior" and thereby put down the others as inferior? Can embracing our differences be independent of establishing any sort of hierarchy based on it?

[image source: www.amazon.com]

George

George

by Alex Gino



Some people are born into a body they don't identify with. George is a girl who is born in a boy's body. Throughout the book she refers to herself as "she", identifies as a girl, but is looked upon as a boy since she was born with the boy body parts.

When people look at George, they see a boy. But George knows she’s a girl.

George thinks she’ll have to keep this a secret forever. 

Cliched single mom and macho older brother fade into the background, but, George's best friend Kelly stays tight through and through. Kelly is fine with George identifying as a girl. When auditions for class presentation of Charlott'e Web is announced, George immediately wants to play Charlotte, the female spider, and not Wilbur, the male pig.

The books is a quick read, but the message will linger long after the last page is read and the book is put away.

Theater as a backdrop for this story is fitting as where else can George pretend to be who she really is.

When George's brother and mother finally realize and accept it, there is not much brouhaha over George's gender identity. George is who she is. Except, she wants to go by Melissa, that is her name, that is what she wants to be called.

The ending is perfect, where Kelly lets George/Melissa try on her girly clothes and they both go out into the world (to the Zoo with Kelly's uncle, to be precise) and for the first time George is comfortable with being true to herself.

[image source: http://www.alexgino.com/george/]

What's Up With Jody Barton?

What's Up With Jody Barton?

Written by: Hayley Long

Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books

Ages: YA

It is difficult to review this book without giving away the surprising plot twist waiting about midway through the book. So let me begin by saying that this book is about sexual identity and friendship. It also addresses the issue of high school bullying.

Jody and Jolene are sixteen year old twins, but unlike each other in every way. Jody is the quiet one, unashamed of liking math , hanging out with geeks and adoring The Doors and River Phoenix. Jolene is loud and self-centred, and  has raised flirting with boys to a fine art. They live above their parents’ diner and help out with cooking and service after school. When both of them fall for dashing Liam, Jody steps back – after all, who stands a chance against Jolene’s charms, right?  But then Liam starts hanging out with Jody, and Jody instinctively responds .. with disastrous consequences. Liam, in the time honored tradition of golden-haired boys in  teen lit, turns out to be a mean and small-minded bully , and soon Jody is victimized by pretty much everyone at school.

As narrator, and occasional illustrator, of this story, Jody had my attention at once.  Jody is smart, funny and knowing , as well as genially tolerant of what could well be the world’s ‘uncoolest’ parentsand a truly obnoxious sister. Hayley Long’s writing is fresh and funny, and her characters realistic. I enjoyed the way she slyly plays with reader perception, drawing us along what we immediately assume is a story about two sisters warring over a boy,  before dropping that plot twist on us. I found myself immediately drawn into Jody’s world and angst, and the dilemma of ‘coming out’ in a world unwilling to accept any behavior outside of set social norms.  Like much British fiction these days, this book has its share of mean, self centred girls, roving the town in loud, under-dressed packs, and obsessing over little besides boys and make up. In fact, that pretty much sums up every significant female character in the book, though Jolene does redeem herself a tad towards the end, when she finally stands up for Jody against Liam.  But it also gives us lovely characters like quiet math-head Chatty Chong, who sticks by Jody when no one else will, and Jody’s football-crazy Dad.  I also liked the believable, and decidedly unromantic path the plot took at the end – it emphasized the importance of friendship , acceptance and a child’s right to freely be him/herself without fear of social prejudice.

Image Courtesy: Macmillan

Talking of Muskaan

Talking of Muskaan

Image courtesy Duckbill 

By Himanjali Sankar

Duckbill Books

YA

The blurb tells you that Muskaan tried to kill herself - a topic that many parents felt was not appropriate for teenagers a couple of years ago. Since then, we’ve all heard of precious young lives being lost. Here’s hoping suicide isn’t a taboo subject anymore. These are difficult conversations, but we do need to have them.

The book cuts to the chase, opening with the chilling sentence - “Muskaan hadn’t come to school.” Very effective.

The first chapter introduces the reader to the cast (Muskaan’s friends - Aaliya, Subhojoy, Rashika, Srinjini, Divya and Prateek) and raises perturbing questions - Why did Aaliya think she was responsible for Muskaan attempting suicide? What did Subhojoy know? - compelling you to read on.

Before it gets any bleaker, the author deftly manoeuvres a flashback - the next chapter, written in Aaliya’s voice is a hilarious waxing episode from five months ago. Aaliya’s wry sense of humour makes it impossible to remain morose. Again, there are the questions and clues that keep you reading - why is Muskaan so mutinous about doing anything typically girly?

The narrative progresses in Prateek’s voice who is rich, hot and seems like a spoilt brat. We get to know that he asked Muskaan out but got rejected outright.

The baton is then handed over to Subhojoy, who, in stark contrast to Prateek, lives in a one-room chawl and is extremely conscientious. He has to be; for him, the scholarship is everything.   

An excellent decision to tell the story through these three alternating voices - the narrative does not get monotonous, and it gets us into the heads of very different characters in terms of gender, backgrounds, motivations. It’s difficult to flit in and out of these distinct voices, but Himanjali Sankar does it admirably. Subhojoy in particular, with his earnestness and underdog status, will have readers rooting for him. Muskaan becomes close to Subhojoy, and through him we get to know what she is brooding over. Aaliya has an uncanny knack of reading people, and from her we get to know about all the others too. Not knowing Muskaan or Aaliya entirely gets the reader thinking; it's good to have questions one doesn't know the answers to, problems one can ponder over and in the process unravel some knotty issues of one's own.

The narrative proceeds at a comfortable pace. Once the homosexuality part comes out in the open, one sort of knows where the story is going, but being so invested in the characters, you can’t help but keep turning the pages. There are funny bits at just the right places, yet not once does the humour appear forced or self-conscious. Neither does the talk of sexuality sound out of place. Prateek’s relationship with Rashika and his troubles with the mysterious hacker, Subhojoy’s focus on academics and his interest in Rashika, Aaliya’s obsession with her dance performance and her insecurities about her own sexuality - the subplots keep the reader engaged.

Apart from heavy-duty stuff like class differences, homosexuality, suicide, the book reflects the everyday situations and anxieties today’s teens face. As a parent who has been dreading the adolescent years, and who has observed the current lot of teenagers from afar wondering which planet they’re from, it was reassuring to see that deep down they’re not very different from what we ourselves were as teens. 

The thoughtfully designed cover, chapter heads and the quotes at the beginning of each — all lovely touches. 

Valuable because it opens up conversations on poverty, sexuality and suicide in an imaginative way; exposes sheltered teens to different ways of living and gets readers to examine their own prejudices. The conversations with the parents are telling and will get adults to introspect too; Prateek gets his attitude from his parents, and Aaliya is influenced by hers. Don’t our children absorb our best and our worst?

Talking of Muskaan is on the Crossword Book Award shortlist.

[Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book but the opinions shared here are entirely mine.]

Hello Darkness

Hello Darkness

Written by: Anthony McGowan

Publisher: Walker Books

Ages: Young Adult

Anthony McGowan is the master of the unexpected  in YA fiction – his books are dark and disturbing, his protagonists often  unreliable, his plot arcs always surprising.   Hello Darkness  ticks every one of those boxes. It is also one of the few YA books in recent times to  talk  about mental health, as it looks at one troubled week in the life of a child struggling with a deteriorating grasp on reality.

In the Universe according to McGowan, high school is a nightmarish gulag, teeming with gangs and pubescent overlords fighting for control, autocratic teachers – there is even a Chinatown.  Out on the fringes of this underworld is Johnny Middleton, our protagonist and narrator who, in his own words, ‘has problems’. We are fleetingly told  that he has had some sort of nervous breakdown in school  a while ago, may have been institutionalised and needs to take medication of some kind on  a regular basis. Johnny is a social outcast, steering clear of the politics, cliques and daily intrigue of school. But then someone starts slaughtering the school pets and Johnny finds himself being blamed.  It doesn’t help that his parents have chosen that week to leave him on his own, expecting him to take his medication and stay out of trouble. But Johnny is fourteen – it is a given that he will do neither.

Fighting to prove his innocence before he is expelled, Johnny  finds himself caught in the war between the Deputy Head of the school and his henchmen ‘prefects’, and rival gangs, the Drama Queens and the Lardies.  As reality and fantasy converge in his tortured mind, Johnny struggles to join the dots between clues, find allies, prove his innocence and, most of all, stay sane.

Hello Darkness reads like a Noir novel from the ‘50s – you are never quite sure how much of it is real, and how much of it the product of our increasingly unreliable narrator's feverish imagination. Yet, even as we worry for  his crumbling hold on sanity,  Johnny makes for a believable, and likeable, Marlowe. His wry humour and incisive eye  reveal  an intelligence far beyond his years;  his deft negotiation of the shifting alliances  of the shadow world that is his school suggest a maturity that no one else seems to have noticed.  And most of all, you notice his compassion - for animals, for the talking cat that may or may not be real, for his baby sister.

Don't expect a satisfying ending - McGowan leaves you with just a hint of a happy ending, but no real clue as to what will happen to Johnny.  What he does give you, however, is a powerful examination of living with mental illness. 

Books About Adoption And Foster care

Image source: goodreads

The Book Thief
Written by Markus Zusak
Published by Black Swan books
Ages 12+

Liesel Meminger is a young non-Jew girl in Nazi Germany, but her parents are communists, and have been taken to a concentration camp. She comes to live with foster parents on Himmel Street - Hans and Rosa Hubermann, a wonderful couple, even if Rosa has a mouth like a pig-sty: her heart is in the right place, though.

Liesel steals books. Even nicking one from the bonfire of books made by the Nazis. She wishes she could read them, though.

Every night, she would have a nightmare about her mother, and the death of her brother on the train. Each night, Hans Hubermann, her foster father, would come to her bedroom, wake her from the nightmare and comfort her. He would play the accordion for her, and no one could play the accordion like Hans Hubermann could. Then one night, when he came to her room, he found the first stolen book under the sheets. Liesel is illiterate, and so he teaches her to read.

One evening, a young man turns up at their door. Max Vandenburg is a Jew, the son of one of Hans' old friends. He begins living in the basement of the Hubermann house to hide from the Nazis, and Max and Liesel soon become friends.

Liesel also befriends the next-door boy, Rudy Steiner, a care-free boy with hair the colour of lemons. His main interest in life is to play football, run races, and steal fruits from farmers. He also accompanies Liesel in her many book thefts, and is always annoyed that she doesn't steal some food too.

And then the bombs are dropped on Himmel Street...

A book worth reading.

Image source: goodreads

Finding Miracles
Written by Julia Alvarez
Published by Laurel leaf, an imprint of  Random House Children's books
Ages: YA

Milly is a teenager growing up in Vermont. She knows she is an adopted child. Born in a Latin American country in the throes of a civil war, her parents get killed, causing her to be in an orphanage, when an American family finds her and adopts her. They have always told her about her past, and keep her in touch with her roots, making sure she knows her language of origin.

Where we find her in the story, she is just a typical American teenager, with all the trappings that come with that. There's a new boy at school, who is also from the country of her birth. Belonging to a family that has fled their country and living in the US as refugees, he recognizes her as being from the same community that he is from. And asks her about it.

The revelations that he brings to her opens a whole new can of worms, making her want to know more about it. She had until now hidden away the details of her origins, no one knowing the truth about her. But this encounter forces her to face it. For the first time in her life, she actually tries to find out more about what exactly what happened to her parents, and who she really is.

A heartwarming story of a teenager's quest for herself, and finding a miraculous whole.

Image source: abebooks

Anne Of Green Gables
Written by L. M. Montgomery
Published by Puffin Books
Ages 12+

Anne comes to live with her adoptive parents, Marilla Cuthbert and her brother Matthew. They wanted a boy who could help with the farm and other chores, but were sent Anne instead. Initially disappointed, they soon grow to deeply love the chirpy redhead, who also loves them deeply in return, making it difficult to believe that they were ever not together.

The first in a series of Anne books, this one introduces us to a wonderful heroine in children's literature. a feisty, funny, and honest individual, who can be very fierce if she thinks any of her loved ones might be in trouble.

A classic, that had this beautiful, hardcover edition (you may follow the link to the edition by clicking on the image source) published in honour of completing 100 years of its publication in 2008. As refreshingly evergreen even today.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian

Here is a book that shakes you up and makes you think. A growing up tale about Arnold aka Junior from the Indian reservation, who decides to  move to an all white non reservation school. He is viewed a traitor among his native group for stepping out  and is an outsider to the whites in his new school. It only adds to the pathos that he was born with hydrocephalus and is small for his age with a big head & feet, suffers from poor vision and stutters, making him a bullies' delight.

As if this was not enough, there is the death of loved ones, alcoholic and impoverished parents, the loss of a dear and possibly only friendship, attraction, finding new friends, validating one's choice, chasing dreams. Junior the budding cartoonist laughs at himself, cries too but takes on what life throws at him, making the reader empathize with him, rooting for him to win.

The story and the writing are raw and powerful. Being the diary of a cartoonist, there are Junior's drawings ( superbly rendered by Ellen Forney) which offer comic relief without always being funny, but they consistently help the plot, giving us insights into Junior's thoughts.

There are a lot of uncomfortable issues- masturbation, poverty, alcoholism, abuse, discrimination- with use of discomfiting language. So schools and parents need to self assess the book before encouraging their younger teens to read this. As a parent,  I have book marked it for my children to certainly read once they turn 14.

Finding a Voice: Friendship is a Two Way Street

Finding a Voice: Friendship is a Two Way Street

Written by: Kim Hood

Publisher: O'Brien Press

Ages : 10+

Thirteen year old Jo is struggling to deal with school and the demands of a mentally unstable mother. As main carer for an adult who resists medication and outside help, Jo finds herself stretched thin, trying to ignore schoolyard gossip about her and keeping her mother calm.  Fifteen year old Chris is a ward of the state, and severely disabled due to cerebral palsy. Confined to a wheelchair and prone to seizures, he attends the Special Education unit of Jo’s school. The two children meet when Jo volunteers to help out with him during school hours.  What starts out for Jo as a means to avoid contact with her classmates and earn academic credits, soon blossoms into friendship, as she begins opening up to him about her life.

All his life, Chris has been treated as practically invisible- his carers assume he cannot communicate or comprehend things said to him, and carelessly  talk about him in his presence. They feed, bathe and care for him automatically without ever stopping to consider his choices. A routine feeding becomes an eye opener for Jo when she realises Chris is deliberately kicking her and not having a seizure. She discovers he doesn’t like the food she is spooning into his mouth. Pretty soon, she is bringing him not just food from home but books to read as well – turns out Chris taught himself to read in all those hours in primary school. Jo then moves on to figure out a way for Chris to communicate with the world. But just when you think things are looking up, a series of misunderstandings leads to Jo smuggling Chris out of school, a move that seriously endangers his life.

I found this story moving, with well developed, believable characters. Surrounded by harsh , uncaring or just plain unreliable adults, Jo and Chris have only each other to depend on , and I found myself rooting for Jo, the narrator of this story, from the start.  She is smart and perceptive, and the first person to treat Chris with dignity, and as an individual. Chris, in turn, reveals his strengths, surprising us in the end with his empathy for Jo. I liked the fact that the author steered clear of romance, keeping  this a story about two friends trying to help each other.  The book also draws attention to a little-mentioned topic - that of mental health, the stigma revolving around it and the need to seek help with its treatment.

My Left Foot

I worked as a volunteer at a special needs school for a few years, and one of my students was a child who suffered from cerebral palsy. He could not control any part of his body, and even his head was not completely under his control, especially so when he was agitated or excited.

But he had a fine mind, and was the brightest of my students. He could speak with a lot of effort, in spasmodic words, but he could make himself understood - certainly to those who were with him regularly. A sharp, incisive mind, especially for maths - and that was one of the subjects I taught him.

Christy Brown here reminded me so much of him.

Image source: goodreads

My Left Foot
Written by Christy Brown
Published by Vintage books
Ages YA

"We need confidence and friendliness as well, if not more than, medical treatment. It is not only our muscles and limbs which bother us -- sometimes it is our minds as well, our inner selves that require more attention than our twisted arms and legs."

These are the words of well known Irish writer Christy Brown, born in 1932, and who had cerebral palsy from a very difficult birth.

These were still the dark ages as far as awareness of disability and the way to help children like him was concerned.

It was his mother, who wouldn't write him off. She played with him, kept him comfortable, read to him, did everything she could for him, despite her large and growing family. (Chris was the 10th of a total of 22 children born. Only 13 of these lived beyond infancy.)

His mother was rewarded in her efforts when one day Chris reached out for the chalk in his older sister's hand with his left foot, attempting to write on her slate. Recognizing this as a deliberate action, his mother taught him to write an A. And it went all up from there - discovering an extermely bright mind below the physicality of his extreme physical challenges,

Chris learnt to use his left foot for writing, and learnt that he had the makings of a writer during a particularly agonizing time in early adolescence, when he became keenly aware of his challenges, and how he might appear to others, shutting himself off at home, and shunning all those outside family with whom he had spent a very happy childhood, like any other boy of his times.

The biography speaks of a childhood that triumphed over these challenges, including the emotional and social ones that were inevitable. Add to that the angst of adolescence that says loud and clear - that 'normal' is a relative term, and hinges completely upon the worldview of a given person. We are also introduced to the workings of society, its taboos, and the kind of medical and therapeutic care that was available all those years ago.

Christy Brown's book has been since adapted into a movie starring Daniel Day Lewis in the main role.

Three Little Words

Three Little Words

A Memoir
by Ashley Rhodes-Courter


[Note: Some explicit references to abuse and pedophilia can be disturbing for younger readers. Recommended for 18+]


Ashley Rhodes-Courter is a phenomenon, an inspiration, and a powerhouse of progress and change in the child services. This book started out as an essay titled, "Three Little Words", for NYT - an essay about her adoption day, which won a grand prize in June 2003. People expected the three little words to be "I love you", but readers find out that it is actually, "I guess so" - the three words which sealed the deal to make her adoption official.

Ashley's teen mom lost custody of her by age 3, and since then Ashley was shunted from foster home to foster home in the Florida foster care system for the next 9 years. Some of the stay was brief, some longer; some were tolerable, some were outright abusive; yet, she endured, and tried to thrive. Knowing that nobody can take away her education, she excelled in the school system no matter which foster home or which public school she went to. Sometimes she never got to spend a full year in the same school, and that did not make her withdraw into herself. Instead, she found ways to stand out through her achievement - be it essay writing, or public speaking, or acing the tests and being a straight-As student.

The book is a memoir, recounting her experiences upto and including her adoption by the Courters and her successes thereafter, including being invited to the White House as President Clinton's guest, winning an essay to spend time with her favorite author J.K.Rowling even as a teen. Her life has been one painful event after another until she found herself surrounded by so much love and care with the Courters that she was able to give back, and give back generously.

I could not put this book down, and had to finish reading it in one long sitting, one recent weekend. To think that the childcare services are so steeped in bureaucracy and neglect that many children fall through the cracks never to resurface is infuriating.

Being a gifted writer, Ashley's words cut deep without being bitter or resentful. Her honesty and her unique perspective on the traumatic events in her life are not paraded for pity but shared with clear insight into the  breakdown in the system which allowed this to happen, not just to her, but the thousands of other kids with no families.

Her question still remains unanswered probably: Why do states pay a fortune to foster parents rather than helping the biological parents out? If her own mother was given the financial support that the vile Mrs. Moss was given, wouldn't their lives together been a lot less painful? Why are the likes of abusive foster parents like Mrs. Moss allowed to get away with cruelty time and time again while the biological parents are penalized at the first hint of failure as a parent?

Her other book Three More Words tries to answer all the questions we have from her first book, plus shares her journey as a foster parent.

[image source: http://rhodes-courter.com/three-little-words/]

Wonder and Auggie & Me

 Adults rate the school years as among the best, but growing up is bitter sweet and even terrifying in part- the need to belong, fit it, be loved, grow. 

It is the first year of schooling for a hitherto home-schooled and isolated ten year old boy -Auggie, with a severely disfigured face. He is courageous and humorous, with an immensely supportive family and a couple of very good friends. Understandably, Auggie suffers from occasional self doubt/ pity despite all of this.

The narrative moves as we see his journey -from home schooling to school, from being protected to facing the world, from revulsion and rejection to acceptance- through six different points of view- Auggie's own, Via’s (his older sister), Justin’s (Via’s boyfriend), Jack (Auggie’s BFF), Summer ( Auggie’s good friend) and Miranda (Via’s friend). Among the most thought provoking characters we meet is Mr Browne, Auggie's teacher who offers life gems through precepts.Via, his sister's take is the most gripping as she is full of sisterly love and generosity but also feels a growing resentment about being the sibling who always has to give in/ make way.

The only minor flaws-  the award to Auggie was unnecessary drama, the use of 'Dude' could have been controlled. I found the end too simplistic and patronizing even, but the resident 10 year old loved the book and would not hear any of my complaints against it.

Wonder 'continues' in this sequel/ companion book- Auggie & me- with three perspectives. Auggie is not given as much space as the three narrators.

You learn what triggers Auggie's enemy/bully Julian's actions. Though well unraveled, Julian's change of heart is too quick and far fetched in what is otherwise a plausible series.

The story with Charlotte, Auggie’s welcome buddy, showcases tween girls in a realistic manner, with the background of a dance performance and how friendships form and loyalty grows, even through the twists that come along. 

Christopher’s chapter is about him and a music band. There is a tough decision for Chris to make and this character building situation is a good talk point with children. This story has the maximum snippets of Auggie's younger self and how the friendship evolves over time and distance. 

Wonder is humourous, moving and life affirming. Along the way, it emphasizes the need for us to be a bit more considerate and sensitive to make this world kinder place.