My Name is Not Easy

My Name Is Not Easy Debby Dahl Edwardson

It starts with Luke and his younger brothers Bunna and Isaac leaving their Inupiaq village to go to Sacred Heart boarding school. Isaac is deemed too young to be there and taken to live with a "good Catholic family." His brothers (and mother) don't know where and have no way to get in touch with him or to bring him home.

Despite the bleak start, it's not nearly as dark or depressing as I thought it would be. There are multiple narrators.* In addition to Luke, there's Chickie, the white girl who lives in an Arctic village. Donna, an Indian raised by nuns, Sonny, the head of the Indian students, Amiq, the head of the Eskimo students, and Junior, an overlooked boy who makes a difference in the end.

The book covers four years of schooling and with the multiple points of view, it dips in and out of time, offering snippets of life. This gives the reader a bit of distance from some of the bleakness present in the school. The book focuses most of its attention on the relationships between the students, which is another reason it doesn't get as dark as it easily could.

There are some big historical events incorporated into the text-- military testing on Arctic students, plans to nuke Cape Hope to build a bigger harbor, the Duck-In protests, the Seward earthquake and tsunami.** There's a great author not explaining about what's true and what isn't. Most of the storyline involving Luke and his brothers comes from the life of Edwardsons's husband and his brothers and their time at a Catholic boarding school.

One thing that comes up often in the text and isn't covered in the author's note that I would like to know more about is the animosity between the Indian and Eskimo students. They sit on opposite sides of the cafeteria, have different leaders, and don't get along. There are a few hints as to why (conflicts going back generations) but I don't have the background to understand it completely and it's something I want to seek out a bit more information on.

Overall, it's a very powerful book, but one that readers will still enjoy. I liked the wide cast of characters and the how gently Edwardson treats her subject without shying away from it. I think this is one that teens will really enjoy, but it's going to take some slick handselling to get them to pick it up.



*Although some characters get to narrate and some are told in limited third person

**Although I didn't know about ANY of those historical events except the earthquake.


Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Cybils Nominee!

Before Columbus: The Americas of 1491 Charles C. Mann

This is a young reader's version of Mann's 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus.

It's visually stunning and completely changes everything I had ever been taught about what life was like in the Americas before Columbus. I appreciated how it handles some controversies between experts. It gives both sides of the issue in a way that's completely understandable, but still respects the reader's intelligence. Did I mention visually stunning? Really excellent book design. And the content just blew my mind, I can't even begin to get into all of it here without just summarizing the entire book.

My only fault with it lies in the back matter-- or rather, the lack of it. There is no bibliography or source notes (except for illustrations. Lots of source notes for illustration.) I see this a lot with young reader versions of adult nonfiction. The author knows all this, because he/she's essentially condensing and argument already made, a story already told. If we want sources, we can go to the "real" version. They don't want to cite it all over again. Grrrrrrrrrrr. That's not something that really holds with me. Young Readers need sources, too. Also, the "further reading" list has only 13 titles, many of with are written for adults, not Young Readers.

It's too bad, because with better back matter, this could have been an outstanding example of what nonfiction for kids should be like.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Historical Fiction

Ok, I try not to gloat too much but I have two things to say that I can't hold in:

I just finished reading Perfect Fifths by Megan McCafferty, the very last Jessica Darling book. It was perfect. I feel like doing a little dance. I'll write a full review later this week. Just be sure to look out for it when it comes out next month!

And, for another book that's not supposed to come out until next month, my local Barnes and Noble had Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance - Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem! on display already (I've noticed they often have books available early. I wonder if that's where Dan scored my early copy of Deathly Hallows?) How could I not pick it up?

Ok, gloating done.

This week's Weekly Geeks is all about Historical Fiction. I haven't answered the questions yet-- I'm still thinking about the answers, but here are 2 reviews of historical fiction.

The Porcupine Year Louise Erdich

In the follow up to Birchbark House and The Game of Silence, this is the year of travel as Omakayas and her family move from Madeline Island to the North West, facing weather, disaster, and moving into hostile territory. This is almost more episodic than the previous two, due to the ever-changing location. There is great tragedy and heartbreak in this book, but parts of very funny, and Erdich carries through the richness, closeness, and importance of family and sticking together, no matter what. I recommend starting with the other two to get a sense of everything they had to leave behind, but this is my favorite of the series so far and I think it would stand alone, just carry less impact.

Ten Cents a Dance Christine Fletcher

After her mother loses her job, Ruby drops out of school to take support the family. Like everyone in her Polish neighborhood in Chicago, Ruby takes a job at one of the packing houses. After a night dancing, Ruby runs into local bad by Paulie, who tells her that she can make a lot more money by being a dance instructor at the Starlight Academy. The Starlight, however, is a taxi-dance hall where lonely men pay tent cents a dance to hold a pretty girl close until the song ends. Not a respectable job, Ruby tells her mother she’s working as a telephone operator. Between her new job and her relationship with Paulie, she soon finds herself over her head.

Through Ruby’s eyes, the reader travels from Chicago’s white slums, to after hours clubs and all-night chop suey joints, to the fringes of the city’s underbelly in the early days of WWII. Fletcher explores Chicago’s race and class tensions with a sensitive hand, never making them the focus of her story, but using them to paint the world that Ruby inhabits. Ruby’s voice is peppered with period slang and references, but just enough to give her authenticity, but not to the point of overwhelming the text. Readers will sympathize with Ruby’s drive to help her family coupled with her desire for excitement and freedom.

Nonfiction Monday

First, a few announcements

My Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing with Fire contest was won by Miss Erin. (It's in the mail!)

Also, the Minx title Burnout , which I reviewed this spring is now out and available for purchase.

Anyway, it's Nonfiction Monday. I will be honest and say that this review draws heavily from the review I wrote for class.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West Dee Brown

A little background-- I had to read 2 non-fiction YA books for class. This title really is an adult title, but it was on the YA shelves at work because it is used a lot in classrooms. I've been meaning to read this for awhile, so I picked it up. Because when I have to read a bunch of books for school, I don't take the easy way, no siree bob. Let me pick a book with 400 pages! GO ME!

In this impressive work, Brown chronicles the Indian Wars of nineteenth century, from the Native American point of view. Each chapter chronicles the sufferings of a different tribe as the work moves through time. Meticulously researched (although only direct quotations are sourced), Brown relies on the voices of the time period. Each chapter opens with significant events in world history as the century progresses, and relevant quotations from the players in that chapter’s narrative. The style of the chapters changes, as they are told in what assumes is the traditional narrative style of the tribe or nation being discussed. Photographs, often posed portraits, are sprinkled throughout, as well as traditional Native American chants, complete with musical notation.

Due to the changing geographic nature of the story, the book would benefit greatly from the inclusion of at least one map. (Although this one is really helpful if you want to read next to your computer. I know it looks small, but if you click on it, it enlarges.) Also, due to the overlapping nature of many of the stories told, a comprehensive timeline would also be helpful. A list of people mentioned in the book would also be helpful. Sometimes players emerge chapters later, sometimes players have multiple names. This multiple naming is especially true of the white generals and administrators who were given different names in different languages.

Despite its flaws, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is an important work to balance out the historical record. The narrative’s story-telling style adds to the power of the work, as well as making this often over-looked side of history gut-wrenching and accessible to high school readers. Contains table of contents, bibliography, and full index. Photo credits included in captions. Recommended for collections catering to a high school audience or older.

Round up is at Picture Book of the Day!

On Wisconsin!

First off, Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson by Louise Rennison just survived a challenge in middle school libraries in Menasha, Wisconsin.

This is the first book in the Georgia Nicolson series, is completely appropriate for junior high, and is hilarious. Also, Menasha is right next to my hometown. You knew you had crossed the magic land from Appleton to Menasha because the street signs had changed color.

More Wisconsin:

My family used to sometimes vacation in Bayfield, Wisconsin, up on the shores of Lake Superior. One cool thing is that this is the mainland point for the Apostle Islands, including Madeline Island which has a small town called La Pointe.

In all of my fantasies about running away and becoming a hermit, I run away to La Pointe. Even if my dad did tell me they had a blizzard last weekend, while last night we had tiki torches and spent the evening in the backyard and the peonies are almost out...

Anyway, yeah... La Pointe...

I bring this up, because it is the setting for 2 amazing books,

The Birchbark House Louise Erdrich

In Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder (which also takes place in Wisconsin) Wilder starts her chronicle of settlers moving west and the pioneer spirit.

In The Birchbark House, Erdrich starts her series of response--telling the story of the people who already lived on that land and were dispossessed and pushed further and further west to make room for the white man.

The book tells the story of 1 year in the life of Omakayas, an Ojibwe girl on what is now called Madeline Island. She helps her mother with the daily chores, they move to the birchbark house, the fishing camps, the rice camps, and the winter cabin and back as the year cycles. Her beautiful older sister is sometimes mean, sometimes nice. Her little brother is always a pain.

Small pox visits the island and no one is safe.

A great book about growing up and life on Lake Superior in the mid-19th century.

The Game of Silence Louise Erdrich

This is the next book in the series. In this one, the Ojibwe are told they have to leave the island and move west, where the Bwaang live. The Bwaang are not are warriors and do not welcome visitors. The island receives a band of refugees who were forced west into Bwaang territory and pushed back.

This is another year in the life of Omakayas. She makes friends with the newcomers, she worries for the men who were sent out to find why the people are being forced to leave, she realizes how important home is to her, and she doesn't want to go.

Her dreams continue and there is growing conflict with Two Strike's wild ways.

At the end of the book (so, slight spoiler, but only if you're unacquainted with US History with regards to Native Americans) they have to leave the island. I'm looking forward to the next books in the series, to see what happens once Omakayas has to leave home.

Poetry Friday + a review or two

La la la la la... last week, I was talking about how the daffodils were out along the Potomac. The ones in my yard have certainly gotten taller, and my next door neighbor's are out!

Just yesterday, a friend of mine in Ohio was complaining because her car is still buried under a mountain of snow and ice. I went to the university library in a long sleeved shirt and no coat and everything just smelled green and of spring. I'm also reminded of Daffodil Lament by the cranberries off of No Need to Argue (that's the album that had Zombie on it) I'm going to have that in my head all day now... I have decided to leave you forever, I have decided to take things from here... and the daffodils look lovely today, ay, ay ay, and the daffodils look lovely today, ay, ay, ay...) Anyway, HERE'S A DAFFODIL POEM!



I WANDERED lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
--William Wordsworth

I love how Thursday's grandma gets trapped in this poem during the various Thursday Next books.

Jama Rattigan has the roundup and is asking for our favorite Dylan lyric. I love to refrain from It Ain't Me, Babe

But it ain't me, babe,
No, no, no, it ain't me, babe,
It ain't me you're lookin' for, babe.

I love how sure he is of himself while telling someone, I'm just not what you're looking for and I never will be! I like how the "babe" is pretty sarcastic, especially in the last line. (Also, I like the line telling her to "walk away from my window") Plus, it's just fun to sing, especially the "no no no" bit.

Anyway, for some book reviews because I need to turn these back in...

The Bermudez Triangle Maureen Johnson

Nina, Avery, and Mel have been best friends since forever. Then, the summer before senior year, Nina goes off to pre-college camp and falls in love with Steve. Avery and Mel fall in love too, but with each other. Well, Mel falls in love, Avery might just be... exploring.

When Nina returns, she's suddenly the third wheel whenever she's with her friends, and when things start to break down when Avery realizes that, while she likes Mel, she's not a lesbian, or even bi, Nina gets caught in the middle.

This is an excellent look at what happens when you date your best friend, and how that changes everything around you. Especially if your best friend is the same gender you are.

I loved Johnson's characters and where they drove me up a wall, I think their actions and reactions were spot-on.

Also, it's been banned! Because girls can't make out with each other! (And really, that's all they do. Make out.)

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Sherman Alexie

On his first day of high school, Junior breaks his math teacher's nose. He wasn't mad at his teacher, but when he saw that his textbook was the same one his mother had 30 years ago (the same copy, even) he just gets fed up with everything that sucks about being poor. So he threw the book and it hit the math teacher.

In the aftermath, Junior decides to transfer high schools-- to the one in town, the one outside the reservation. No one from the reservation high school goes to college. They just stay on the reservation and drink to forget how poor they are. Junior needs out.

Now, he's seen as a traitor by his tribe and school's not much better, because no one likes a scrawny little Indian kid.

This is a tragic book-- life on the reservation is hard and Junior loses a lot of important people before the story is done.

That said, it's hysterical. Junior's voice is angry and bitter, but funny. He's a cartoonist, so there is a lot of art included in the short chapters that helps tell the story. Alexie really explores reservation life, as well as outsiders perceptions of it, both good and bad. He has a really good handle on what American poverty entails. In a tale that could be mired down in self-pity, Alexie has a character that knows how hard is life is, but also sees a future that could be different, without going to far to the other side to be overly schmaltzy. Plus, there isn't nearly enough fiction about contemporary Native life.