Esau Have I Hated

The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia, the movie, not the song or the remake of the song, has a scene in it, with a line in it, that I have often quoted and always loved.

Travis: And I asked the Lord, "Lord, why have you forsaken me?". But there was silence. So , I asked again, "Lord, WHY have you forsaken me?", and there was silence. So I asked again, "LORD, WHY have you forsaken me?"... and this great booming voice said "Geez, I don't know Travis, I guess something about you just chaps at my ass."

I am thinking that Louise feels that way.  Jacob Have I Loved is a book I read a long time ago by the most amazing, Katherine Paterson.

Having a sister must be very hard.  It is really hard for Louise who always feels out shined by her twin.  There were so many times in this book that I spoke aloud, "What?!" or "No way!"

I was just thinking, I wonder what the book would have been like if told from the POV of Caroline. I bet someone has asked Paterson that.  I have to investigate!

I investigated, but I didn't find anything.  But I didn't look too hard.  I just think that would be a neat thing to find out.

The book takes place on the fictional island of Rass in the Chesapeake Bay.  Louise and Caroline are 14 when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, that's about when the story begins, and the story finishes when both are grown women.  Though the main details are mostly about their growing up years.

This is a good, good, beautiful story.  But can anything else be expected from Paterson, who is just magic with words.

Once Again

I was totally creeped out by another Mary Downing Hahn book!  Wait Till Helen Comes is a great ghost story and the ghost is an evil child.  There is nothing scarier than an evil child.  I think back to the time I was chased mercilessly through Freddy's Haunts by a child with a chainsaw.  And then there was the pretty tasteless but truly frightening room at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum full of children.  I still have nightmares. This book was published in 1987 but it isn't dated at all and all of Hahn's books are worth reading and wonderful! 

The Hurdles

As my final project for my class I read the book Blindsided. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. Review it, talk about the main character, Natalie, came to deal with losing her eyesight in a sighted world, maybe. In any case, I am really glad that I read it and it gave me a new insight into those who are blind.

Natalie lives in a small town in Garrett County, Maryland. She has Juvenile Glaucoma and has been gradually losing her sight since the age of eight. I couldn't help but think of the nut job I know, the one about whom I posted in this post. She was from Garrett County, too. And she always thought she was going to lose her eyesight. Oh she went to the eye doctor all the time, I guess hoping that someone would tell her that she was going to lose her eyesight. When one doctor wouldn't tell her that something was wrong, she'd just go on to another, and then another and then another. She was that way with her feet, too of all things! Oh my feet hurt! Something is really wrong with my feet! First doctor couldn't find anything. Oh. I'll go to another! Second doctor couldn't find anything. Oh. I'll try another! How do I know this? I had to drive her everywhere! What a nut ball. Why would anyone LOOK for something to be wrong with them? Why? Oh well, it is just weird. One of her many big non-existant illnesses was self-diagnosed glaucoma. She should read this book. Or talk to someone who actually is or did lose their sight. Maybe then she wouldn't be so anxious to have a doctor tell her that something is wrong with her eyeballs!

If she would read this book she would realize that it's no picnic to lose your eyesight. It's not an easy thing to do, be blind in a sighted world. Natalie has a very hard time first accepting that she will lose sight. She doesn't want to learn Braille or learn to use a cane. And when she does become completely blind, she thinks she may just want to give up and hide back on her parent's farm.

I don't want to sound pithy, but I have to just say, this is the story of a girl with great courage, truly. It is inspirational and well done.