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dichroicHow to Survive Middle School (henceforth HtSMS) and As if Being 12 3/4 Isn't Bad Enough, My Mom is Running for President! (henceforth As If) are middle-grade books whose titles summarize them pretty well.
Having just read Donna Gephardt's two published books back to back, I have a couple of complaints:
Silly complaints aside, these are good books and I'd recommend them. They'd be good for a parent-child read as well, because I think they'd appeal to the target group but they'e not boring for an adult. The short description is that hey're what you'd get if you took a Judy Blume book (specific ones, in fact - respectively, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret) and not only modernized but opened them up to a wider world. The books are light and funny, but David in HtSMS and Vanessa in As If do face with bullies and mustache / boob growth (or not), tests and gymclass, popularity and pimples. But David also has to deal with a mentally ill mother who had to leave, the death of a pet, and sudden internet celebrity; while Vanessa faces getting over her father's death as well as her mother's presidential bid. I can't claim to have known anyone whose parent ran for a major office but despite that, the books feel more realistic because their MCs don't live in such a cozy, insular world.
I wonder if anyone has given As If to Malia and Sasha Obama - or to Arnold Schwarzenegger's kids, since he has a nice cameo. That cameo adds a nice bit of balance to the book., by the way. Vanessa's mom is a Democrat and there's enough information about her views to make the political background believable. She's definitely on the liberal side; at one point she gets into trouble when a personal email referring to the NRA as Nuts Run Amok gets leaked. The book as a whole has a strong gun-control message. And Vanessa is convinced her gym teacher hates her because he's a Republican. (He doesn't ... but he is a bit of a jerk.) On the other hand, the Govinator is presented as a nice guy, friendly to Vanessa and doing bipartisan work with her mother. I wouldn't have trouble with my hypothetical child reading any of the politics in the book. I'd hope that more conservative parents would still give their kid the book, and just use it as the springboard for a conversation, along the lines of "Some people want to outlaw guns because they think that's the best way to make the world safer. A lot of them are good people with good intentions, but we think they're wrong because..."
Disclaimer: I went to school with the author and in fact we were friends at just about her characters' ages, though I haven't seen or talked to her since at least high school. Facebook lets you find out all sorts of surprising things about people you once knew!
One other thing I keep wondering. People write books about girls and boys. People write books about young men and women solving mysteries, falling in love, or having adventures. Where are the books about old men and women? Looking at my bookshelf, I come up with Jane Marple, Granny Weatherwax, Arthur in TH White's Book of Merlin, and that's about it. Oh, and Brother Cafael and Amelia Peabody Emerson's later exploits. In this case I'm thinking that a story about Vanessa's grandmother would be as interesting. What does she want to be doing with the rest of her life? Is playing bingo at the retirement community enough? How does she feel about her daughter running for president, about having to help take care of her grand-daughter while Mom's campaigning, about dealing with reporters? Is it a nice bit of excitement or did she have other plans?
Having just read Donna Gephardt's two published books back to back, I have a couple of complaints:
- The recipe for Jewish Apple Cake in the back of How to Survive Middle School is WRONG. And by "wrong", of course I mean "not the way I learned to make it from my mother". Maybe I could deal with a little powdered sugar on top, maybe I could even live with three layers instead of two, but raisins? That's just anarchy!
On a more serious note, my recipe calls for 5-6 large apples and there are two layers of them. Her recipe calls for 4 apples and has three layers. Since an apple cake that's stingy with the apples is an Abomination Unto Nuggan, or at least unto Jewish mothers everywhere, I'd recommend getting a few extras. If you don't use them all, well, apple sauce is easy to make and freezes well.
That said, I've seen plenty of adult books with recipes in the back but this is the first time I've seen them in a kids' book. (As If has a recipe for lemon squares.) I think it's a great idea, particularly since the apple cake recipe is one I've been making or helping with since I was tall enough to peel apples into the kitchen sink. In fact, I stood on a stool at first. - I can't believe As If has the main character, a sixth grade girl commenting on the boy she used to have a crush on, say "He's got a nice package, but..." or that the publisher let that one slip by. Of course by "package" the author just meant his whole external appearance, but I bet I'm not the only reader who giggled.
Silly complaints aside, these are good books and I'd recommend them. They'd be good for a parent-child read as well, because I think they'd appeal to the target group but they'e not boring for an adult. The short description is that hey're what you'd get if you took a Judy Blume book (specific ones, in fact - respectively, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret) and not only modernized but opened them up to a wider world. The books are light and funny, but David in HtSMS and Vanessa in As If do face with bullies and mustache / boob growth (or not), tests and gymclass, popularity and pimples. But David also has to deal with a mentally ill mother who had to leave, the death of a pet, and sudden internet celebrity; while Vanessa faces getting over her father's death as well as her mother's presidential bid. I can't claim to have known anyone whose parent ran for a major office but despite that, the books feel more realistic because their MCs don't live in such a cozy, insular world.
I wonder if anyone has given As If to Malia and Sasha Obama - or to Arnold Schwarzenegger's kids, since he has a nice cameo. That cameo adds a nice bit of balance to the book., by the way. Vanessa's mom is a Democrat and there's enough information about her views to make the political background believable. She's definitely on the liberal side; at one point she gets into trouble when a personal email referring to the NRA as Nuts Run Amok gets leaked. The book as a whole has a strong gun-control message. And Vanessa is convinced her gym teacher hates her because he's a Republican. (He doesn't ... but he is a bit of a jerk.) On the other hand, the Govinator is presented as a nice guy, friendly to Vanessa and doing bipartisan work with her mother. I wouldn't have trouble with my hypothetical child reading any of the politics in the book. I'd hope that more conservative parents would still give their kid the book, and just use it as the springboard for a conversation, along the lines of "Some people want to outlaw guns because they think that's the best way to make the world safer. A lot of them are good people with good intentions, but we think they're wrong because..."
Disclaimer: I went to school with the author and in fact we were friends at just about her characters' ages, though I haven't seen or talked to her since at least high school. Facebook lets you find out all sorts of surprising things about people you once knew!
One other thing I keep wondering. People write books about girls and boys. People write books about young men and women solving mysteries, falling in love, or having adventures. Where are the books about old men and women? Looking at my bookshelf, I come up with Jane Marple, Granny Weatherwax, Arthur in TH White's Book of Merlin, and that's about it. Oh, and Brother Cafael and Amelia Peabody Emerson's later exploits. In this case I'm thinking that a story about Vanessa's grandmother would be as interesting. What does she want to be doing with the rest of her life? Is playing bingo at the retirement community enough? How does she feel about her daughter running for president, about having to help take care of her grand-daughter while Mom's campaigning, about dealing with reporters? Is it a nice bit of excitement or did she have other plans?
recipes
Date: 2010-06-13 04:25 pm (UTC)