In My Humble Opinion

Rita Williams-Garcia is going to go down as one of the finest writers for young people of all time.  Her talent is incredible.  The Gaither Sisters are among the best characters in children's literature.   If, after reading this awesome historical/period fiction series, you need anymore proof of that, Clayton Byrd Goes Underground is sure to make you see that I am right.  I count her right up there with the greats for being able to take a reader back in time, and/or into a character's mind and world, all of that which makes a book a magical trip, you know?  Like Christopher Paul Curtis, like Katherine Paterson, like Gary Paulsen, like Madeleine L'Engle.
I don't know much about the Blues.  I wish I did.  This novel and my recent trip to New Orleans were I heard some great street blues bands, makes me want to know more.  Here is a great website that helped me understand the difference between blues and jazz music!  The novel begins in Washington Square Park where Clayton is playing blues with his grandfather, Cool Papa Byrd and Papa Byrd's friends in a blues band called the Bluesmen.  A lot of the book takes place in the subway system of NYC.  Just a great, great book.

Third One, Still Fantastic

First came One Crazy Summer then P.S.:  Be Eleven and now Gone Crazy in Alabama and the third was just as "I want to read this all now!" as the first and the second.  Delphine and her sisters Fern and Vonetta are spending the summer in Alabama with their grandma, Big Ma and their great-grandma, Ma Charles.  This is so insightful.  There is a lot about sisters here,.  Delphine and hers and also Ma Charles and her sister.  There is a lot about racial identity and civil rights and there is a lot of love.  Wonderful, wonderful addition.  It was a Coretta Scott King winner, to me, it should have also been a Newbery Honor.  But that's 1954 for you.  Should be read by all ages, it's another one of those kind.  And it would be enjoyed by all ages as well.

One Death, Many Stories

Maya Angelou

Walter Dean Myers

and now, Joan Rivers.
I had just written about Joan Rivers after reading Diary of a Mad Diva. I have said before, September is cruelest month.
A lot of people didn't like Joan Rivers.  And even I wrote some cruel stuff about her, as I reread my review of Diary of a Mad Diva.  I am angry at myself for quoting some web comment somewhere that "Joan River's day has come and gone."  As I think back, I was copping out, just trying to be "hip" and "now" and well, the truth is, I didn't even know about River's In Bed with Joan, and I had never watched Melissa and Joan:  Joan Knows Best?  Because I am not hip, now or anything of the sort.  Come on, I am a librarian.  That should tell you everything.  I was kidding myself.
I knew the old Joan Rivers.  I had read The Life and Times and Heidi Ambromovitz and Enter Talking when I was in junior high and high school and Still Talking in college.  But I didn't know anything about the glorious later years of Ms. River's career.  I only knew that she was part of growing up, an influence during my formative years.  In these days following her death, I have read everything I can about her.  My dear friend, Mrs. Pintar and I have been mourning together.  Jane Velez-Mitchell said this, "You know, she spoke these truths that other people preferred to sugar coat. One of a kind. She did so much for all women who are in-front of the camera. I probably benefited myself from the fact that she was a trail blazer. All women who are in any way shape of form performers benefited from this woman breaking the glass ceiling with her -- ovaries. She had the ovaries to tell the truth."
Of course I will never be a famous performer.  And sermons are CERTAINLY not performances.  I am not saying that at all.  But at the same time, they are done in front of a group of people and it is a very, very humbling and daunting task.  To take the most important, precious words in the history of the world and try to convey to a group of people what God has led you to say...well it is hard to describe.
And in the other things that I do, storytime or storytelling or stand up. Those are performances in their own way.  So yeah, I benefited greatly from Joan Rivers.
When she died I wondered how the world would react.  She was always under fire for many of her comments.  I wondered if that would be her legacy.  As far as I can tell, she wasn't.  I am sure if I looked, I could find articles dwelling on the controversial aspects of her life, but you know, I won't.  I did look to see if Westboro Baptist had anything to say and they did, so I figure she was pretty effective in doing the right and good things while she was here on earth.
Does this have anything to do with One Death, Nine Stories?  Yes I think so.  Any time a person leaves this earthly life, it is going to impact more than just that one person.  I hope anyway.  Here was have a young man, Kevin, a recent high school graduate who kills himself.   The book consists of different people, a sister, a good friend, a former friend, a total stranger.
The book is a collection of short stories, popular authors taking a different chapter and a different POV.  I listened to the book, so I couldn't easily go back and know who was writing what, but now that I have looked at who wrote what, and I am not surprised that the stories I enjoyed the most are by authors I really enjoy.  Marina Budhos and Rita Williams-Garcia had stories that were five star worthy, but I didn't enjoy the other stories as much.
It just seemed a little chopped up to me.  But hey...look at how much the book made me think? So...that is a good thing.

A Surprise Sequel...Surely Was....

I never expected a sequel to One Crazy Summer!  I bought the audio as soon as I saw it.  Especially after I saw that Sisi Aisha Johnson was the reader.  She is amazing.  And so was OCS and so is P.S. Be Eleven.  OCS should have won the Newbery but of course, it didn't.  Another 1954.  PS begins right where OCS left off.  The girls are back from visiting their Black Panther mother in California and facing some new challenges and changes back home in Bed-Stuy.  Pa has a new lady friend, Uncle Darnell is back from Vietnam, the Jackson Five debute on the Hollywood Palace.   This is a great historical fiction book and just a great book overall.

Jumpy

When I read Jumped I admit that I wasn't in a good frame of mind for reading. I think that I would have enjoyed and appreciated it more if I had been. I was in the ER and writing and answering texts and talking to my dad and medical people and wondering why everyone was so super nice except for the one mean nurse and then I was off on wondering why she was in nursing. And then I was trying to read Jumped on the BlackBerry Kindle app it just wasn't sticking with me. I loved, loved, loved, One Crazy Summer, also by Rita Williams-Garcia. It is one of my all-time favorite books and should have won the Newbery two years ago, but it was too good. So I bet anything if I had read Jumped at a different time, I would have loved, loved, loved it as well! I will reread it again in a few months and I bet that's just what will happen.

Jumped is told from the POV of three high school girls: Leticia, a girl who doesn't want to get involved in other people's business and who calls her cell phone Celina (which I LOVE...totally going to call my BB Celina from now on), Dominique, who is a basketball player and currently benched because of her grades and Trina, who is a bouncy, artsy girl with lots of love for everyone and a lot going on in her head. It takes place one day at school when Trina ticks off Dominique without realizing it. Dominique is going to beat her up after school, but Trina has no clue. Leticia knows it is going to happen, but doesn't want to get involved. Throughout the day we learn more about each of the girls as they share their feels. The jumping POVS, I usually love, but given my state of mind, I just felt jumpy.

I look forward to rereading this.

One Amazing Book

One Crazy Summer has nothing to do with One Crazy Summer.  I haven't seen the movie, but it sounds really horrible.  Regardless, the two are not related at all.
I have the sinking feeling that this is 1954 all over again.   OCS was a Newbery Honor book, you see.  An HONOR book, which means that it didn't win the Newbery.  However I haven't read the Newbery, Moon Over Manifest, but I can't imagine it is better than OCS.  This book is fantastic.  Unreal fantastic.  Hilarious.  Heart-breaking at times.  Real.  Amazing. 
I knew very little about the Black Panthers, I am ashamed to admit.  I do know some about Malcolm X and how his ideals helped to shape those of the Panthers.  This is one of the best books that I read during my seminary education and, sadly, pretty much all I know about Malcolm X.  If that's all I know about Malcolm X, and I know more about him than the Black Panthers, then you know the serious limits of my knowledge.  I read articles and little things here and there, the World Book entries, the wikipedia, that kind of thing, but I haven't studied the Civil Rights Movement in depth and I am truly sorry that I haven't done that yet. 
OCS isn't an in-your-face history lesson, though.  Yes, it is about the Black Panthers, primarily set in Oakland, CA and the main characters attend the Free Breakfast Program.  We learn about what happened to Lil Bobby Hutton.  But it's not text book and it isn't the story of OCS.  The story belongs to Delphine.  Twelve years old, she and her little sisters are sent to Oakland for twenty-eight days, to stay with their mother, a poet with marginal ties to the Panthers, who left them when the littlest girl, Fern was just a baby in her arms.  The sisters' father and grandmother are back home in NYC.   This is a beautiful story of family and love.  Delphine is the kind of daughter you would love to have, sadly, her mom really needs to learn more about being a mother, but you get the sense that she may be trying.  There is a lot of hope in this book.  Fantastic.