In full honesty, I believe it was only last year when I read Freedom Walkers, The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Russell Freedman that I realized that there were others before Rosa Park who were arrested after refusing to give up their bus seat.   I know that civil rights leaders were looking for the perfect person to give voice to the injustices that they faced.  And although Claudette Colvin was one such person who fought against injustice it was Rosa Parks who rose to visibility while Claudette Colvin not only faded into obscurity but was often shunned and seen as an unfit role model.  And this was in despite of the fact that it was the lawsuit and testimony in court that Claudette and others brought against the city of Montgomery that ultimately desegregated the bus system.

In this biography of Claudette Colvin, Phillip Hoose has spent countless hours researching and interviewing Claudette and her family to bring us her story.  This is the most complete story and direct quotes that we have from Claudette Colvin and is well worth checking out.

Claudette Colvin was only 15 when she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white woman.  A great reminder that is ordinary people doing extraordinary things who make all the difference.And while her name may have almost been lost in history, it was her actions that had a direct effect on the civil rights movement that changed the south for everybody forever.

Hear from Claudette herself in this video and then check out this informative book which will have you questioning whether or not you would have had her courage:

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice is part of my themed reading for the month of February which celebrates Black History Month.  Join me this month as I explore books that celebrate the history of African-Americans.
>Links of interest: Phillip Hoose website, book blogger reviews.
Genre: Young Adult Non-Fiction
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.  January 20, 2009.
Hardcover, 144 pages. ISBN 0374313229
Claudette Colvin Twice Towards Justice is available from your favorite independent bookstore, Powell’s, and Amazon.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

Fiction

• Bonnie Jo Campbell, American Salvage (Wayne State University Press)
• Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin (Random House)
• Daniyal Mueenuddin, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders (W. W. Norton & Co.)
• Jayne Anne Phillips, Lark and Termite (Alfred A. Knopf)
• Marcel Theroux, Far North (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Non-Fiction

• David M. Carroll, Following the Water: A Hydromancer’s Notebook
• (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Sean B. Carroll, Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
• Greg Grandin, Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City (Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt)
• Adrienne Mayor, The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome’s Deadliest Enemy (Princeton University Press)
• T. J. Stiles, The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (Alfred A. Knopf)

Poetry

• Rae Armantrout, Versed (Wesleyan University Press)
• Ann Lauterbach, Or to Begin Again (Viking Penguin)
• Carl Phillips, Speak Low (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon, Open Interval (University of Pittsburgh Press)
• Keith Waldrop, Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy (University of California Press)

Young People’s Literature

• Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith (Henry Holt)
• Phillip Hoose, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• David Small, Stitches (W. W. Norton & Co.)
• Laini Taylor, Lips Touch: Three Times (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic)
• Rita Williams-Garcia, Jumped (HarperTeen/HarperCollins)

Distinguished Contribution To American Letters

• Gore Vidal

Literarian Award

• Dave Eggers

The Winner in each of the four categories – Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry and People’s Literature – will be announced at the 60th National Book Awards Benefit Dinner and Ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City on Wednesday, November 18.  You may see all the details at the National Book Awards website.

Sadly, I have not read any of these.  Particularly in the Young People’s Literature.  Glad to see Dave Eggers get the Literarian Award though.  I’ve read his book What is the What (my review) which is fantastic.  Have you read any of these books?  Do you have any that you’d like to see win in November?

(book covers to be edited in – I wanted to get this info up for you)

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

When I interviewed Sara Zarr, author of Sweethearts and Story of a Girl, I, as always, asked Sara to share a favorite recipe with us. Sara responded by saying, “I’m a breakfast lover and advocate, and think the world would be a happier, healthier place if everyone had a good breakfast.”  And so she gave us her favorite smoothie.  You can find the full recipe on my author interview (towards the end), but it really can’t get any easier.

You’ve seen this photo plenty, but what the heck, it’s always worth posting again!

Blend and enjoy!

So, if you’re participating in the 24 Hour Read-a-thon (or not) I encourage you to go make your own smoothie right now.  They are fast, easy, and a healthy choice to keep you refreshed and ready to face the fact that you are crazy enough to stay awake for 24 hours and read together with all the other crazies.

Seriously.  Now.  Go.  Make.

Sara Zarr’s website (and while you’re there check out the book cover for her upcoming novel, Once Was Lost.)

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

From the book jacket (sorry, trying to get these reviews in before the end of the year):

If an entire nation could seek its freedom, why not a girl?  As the Revolutionary War begins, thirteen-year old Isabel wages her own fight . . . for freedom.  Promised freedom upon the death of their owner, she and her sister, Ruth, in a cruel twist of fate become the property of a malicious New York City couple, the Locktons, who have no sympathy for the American Revolution and even less for  Ruth and Isabel.  when Isabel meets Curzon, a slave with ties to te Patriots, he encourages her to spy on her owners, who know details of British plans for invasion.  she is reluctant at first, but when the unthinkable happens to Ruth, Isabel realizes her loyalty is available to the bidder who can provide her with freedom.

From acclaimed author Laurie Halse Anderson comes this compelling, impeccable researched novel that shows the lengths we can go to cast off our chains, both physical and spiritual.

Chains does start out a little slow and takes a while to get things going, but wow, once it does, I couldn’t stop reading.  Isabel is great.  I loved her voice, her sense of hopelessness but yet taking matters into her own hands to improve her situation.  Laurie Halse Anderson is a gifted writer.

Melancholy held me hostage, and the bees built a hive of sadness in my soul.  Dark honey and the bees built a hive of sadness in my soul.  Dark honey filled up inside me, drowning my thoughts and making it hard to move my eyes and hands.  I worked as a puppet trained to scrub and carry, curtsy and nod.

Just beautiful.  Highly recommended.

Copyright 2010. Maw Books Blog

Maw Books has an affiliate relationship with several bookstores, including Indiebound, Powell’s, and Amazon . When you buy a product (not just books – any product), via one of my links, Maw Books earns income from the sale and as always, it’s much appreciated as all affiliate income is used to support the blog. There is no cost to you.

Fiction

Winner:
Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen

Finalists:
The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon
Telex from Cuba by Rachel Kushner
Home by Marilynne Robinson
The End by Savatore Scibona

Non-Fiction

WINNER:
The Hemingses of Monticello:  An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed

Finalists:
This Republic of Suffering:  Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust
The Dark Side:  The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals by Jane Mayer
Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives by Jim Sheeler
The Suicide Index:  Putting my Father’s Death in Order by Joan Wickersham

Poetry

WINNER:
Fire to Fire: New and Collected Poems by Mark Doty

Finalists:
Watching the Spring Festival by Frank Bidart
Creatures of a Day by Reginald Gibbons
Without Saying by Richard Howard
Blood Dazzler by Patricia Smith

Young People’s Literature

WINNER:
What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell

Finalists:
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
The Underneath by Kathi Appelt
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp

Congratulations to all the winners and finalists! You may see all the details at the National Book Awards website. Have you read any of these books? I have The Disreputable History of Frankie Launda-Banks in my review pile. I enjoyed it. I have Chains ready to be picked up from the library and I’m really excited for that one, as well as The Underneath in the house, ready to read.

A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck is a 1999 Newbery Honor book (see entire Newbery list here).  The book spans the time between 1929 and 1934 where Joey and his sister Mary Alice from Chicago are sent to visit with their “crazy old” grandma for a week each summer.  The novel loosely connects each summer as a different story.  At first, Joey and Mary Alice are apprehensive but as each summer arrives they are more and more eager to visit.  And why wouldn’t they?  Grandma gives them one crazy adventure after another.

There’s the time Grandma fires  a twelve-gauge Winchester out their living room window during a casket-side vigil, the time she put mice into their delivered milk, she also cheats in order to win the pie baking contest, and trys unsuccessfully to gain altitude in a two-seater airplane.  Joey and Mary Alice never know what their Grandma is going to do next.  And neither is the reader, which is what makes this such a fun read.

Richard Peck knows how to tell a story and keep the reader engaged.  I loved Grandma.    She’s strict, sassy, clever, bold and has the whole town scared of her.   She’s the type of Grandma you almost wish you had but thank your lucky stars that you don’t.  The only thing counting against this book is the cover which I don’t think gets kids begging to pick it up.  If you can get past that, there’s a great story inside that will keep you wanting more.  Luckily there is.  My review of the sequel, A Year Down Yonder, coming up next.

What Jamie Saw is about the fear a family lives through when they no longer feel safe.  Jamie doesn’t always understand his feelings or why he acts the way he does, but he does understand that they need to go through the motions of life.

What Jamie Saw is a quick read and well worth the few minutes to read it.

On a sidenote, this is the 21st Newbery book that I’ve read this year in a”life goal” to read all of them. See my progress on my challenge blog. I thought I would list the others in case you would like to do some browsing (and since I’m donating ten cents a comment left anywhere on my blog this month, I’m hoping you might do some clicking on some titles that interest you).

And guess what you can expect this month?  Interviews with Shannon Hale, Cynthia Lord, and Kirby Larson!  Um yes, that would be three Newbery authors right here visiting the Maw Books Blog!  How cool is that?!  I’m way excited!

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medievel Village by Laura Amy Schlitz
Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis
The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson
The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron
Penny from Heaven by Jennifer L. Holm
Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson
Rules by Cynthia Lord
Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins
Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
The Tale of Despereaux: by Kate DiCamillo
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Missing May by Cynthia Rylant
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard & Florence Atwater

Speak

In Speak, it’s the first day of high school and Melinda has seven new notebooks, a skirt she hates and a stomachache.  This school year is going to be nothing like last year because Melinda has lost all of her friends due to the fact that she called the cops at a end of the summer party.  People hate this girl.  Due to the trauma of what happened to her at the party, Melinda becomes withdrawn, quiet, a poor student and a bafflement to her parents.  We slowly discover exactly what happened to cause Melinda to call the cops at the party.  You have a general idea of what happened and really feel sorry for Melinda, but once it’s revealed, man, you feel even more sorry for her.  I really wanted to get inside the story and kick some sense into all of the high schoolers who treated Melinda so awful.  You think you have friends, and then, bam!, they turn on you in just a second.  It’s amazing how age gives you a new perspective on the time you spent in high school.  People can be so mean to each other.  I realize that Melinda was dealing with trauma, but I really wanted her to speak up for herself!

This story was dark and serious.  I loved an author who can take a serious subject and present it so perfectly.  Highly recommended for young adults and adults alike.

Visit Laurie Halse Anderson’s website.

Maw Books:  Welcome Sara!  It’s been a treat to discover both of your books this year.  Let’s see if I can ask any questions that you haven’t already answered more than a billion times.

Why did you decide to become an author?  Did you know that’s what you always wanted to do?  And what was it like when you finally realized that you’d made it big time?

Sara Zarr:  It’s almost impossible for me to pinpoint an exact moment I decided that I wanted to be an author.  It was a dream that evolved over years and years of loving books and reading and stories.  I do know that I was about twenty-five when I completed my first novel – then I spent the next ten years writing a few more before I sold Story of a Girl.  Honestly, I don’t feel “big time.  I’m aware and grateful that I have a career.  Even that is hard to really believe sometimes.  But I don’t feel like I’ve crossed a finish line in any way.  If anything, I feel like I’ve just started!

Maw Books:   How did you come up with the ideas of both Sweethearts and Story of a Girl?  In other words, how did the stories evolve for you?

Sara Zarr:  Both stories started with characters.  That’s usually the beginning of inspiration for me – people in my head who interest me. Deanna in Story of a Girl was a side character in an earlier, unpublished book, and she just intrigued me and I wanted to find out, and then tell, her story.  Sweethearts was a bit more personal, and is based on a friendship I have with a childhood friend. Nothing that happens to Jenna and Cameron in that book actually happened to me or my friend, but the story started with our friendship and grew from the “what if?” questions that anyone with an imagination asks herself when she sees something in life that grabs her attention—a new story, a relationship, a person on the street, etc. That’s how all stories begin, I think.  What if?

Maw Books:  What has been the best thing about doing what you love the most?

Sara Zarr:  The interaction that I get to have with readers and other writers, and all of the people who make up the children’s literature community — teachers, librarians, editors, and adult fans of YA.  All those folks are supportive and genuinely enthusiastic about what we do.  From what I gather, it’s not like any other community of people in the publishing world.

Maw Books:  Who is your favorite author that you’ve been able to meet and what was it like?

Sara Zarr:  Oh, I’ve been able to meet so many writers I admire, it would be impossible to name one.  I think the best part has been meeting the authors I didn’t know about before, and discovering their work and how great they are as people.  Also I love getting to know writers who are up and coming.  It’s in those friendships I feel like my ten years of struggling to get published might actually be of some use!

Maw Books:  Do you have any favorite books that you’ve read this year that you could recommend?

Sara Zarr:  In YA, Tara Altebrando’s What Happens Here is great. I’m also very excited about a book coming out this fall by debut author Emily Wing Smith. It’s called The Way He Lived; I think it’s really special.

Maw books:  I see The Way He Lived is by a Utah author.  I’m going to check that one out for sure!  I’ve begun to ask authors to share a favorite recipe with us.  Would you care to share? 

Sara Zarr:  This isn’t a recipe, exactly, but it’s one third of what I have for breakfast nearly every morning. The other two thirds are whole grain toast with natural peanut butter, and coffee! I’m a breakfast lover and advocate, and think the world would be a happier, healthier place if everyone had a good breakfast. And so:

Favorite Smoothie
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/3-1/2 cup frozen unsweetened blueberries, or some other fresh or frozen fruit. (Peaches and strawberries are a nice combo.)
1/4 medium banana
1/2 cup cranberry-pomegranate juice
 
Put all in a blender and…blend! Drink, and have a fabulous day.

Maw Books:  Yummy!  I love the cranberry-pomegranate juice.  We always have frozen fruit stocked in the fridge.  I love smoothies!  What are you currently working on now? 

Sara Zarr:  I’m about to embark on revisions of my third book for Little, Brown. It doesn’t have a title yet, but it should be out in late 2009 or early 2010.

Maw Books:  I’ll be first in line to read it.  Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule for this great interview, especially as you were packing up to return back home to Utah after a summer away.

Sara Zarr:  Thanks for having me!

And because I can (again):

So, while you are reading this, I’ll actually be chatting to Sara in person, again!  I hope to bring you some great photos and commentary.

Visit Sara Zarr’s website here.  KUTV, one of our local new stations just published a lengthy review with Sara yesterday.  Check it out.

Things aren’t much better at home because her dad is the worst offender on slapping the label on her.  He can’t even look her in the eye.   Deanna’s father doesn’t have much hope for her.

A quote that I like to illustrate that point:

One of the things Darren [her older brother] and me have in common is that we both let Mom and Dad down . . . And me because, well, no one wants the school slut for a daughter.  Technically, I’m not a slut, because there was only Tommy, but it’s hard to defend myself on a technicality when things happened the way they did.  It’s not like I could get on the school PA system and issue a rebuttal.

The way her father treated her made me think of the quote along the lines of  if you treat someone as they are, then that’s how they’ll be.  If you treat someone like how they could be, then they will aspire to it.  (Do you know how long I searched the internet for the exact quote?  I can’t seem to find the right words to express what I’m going after.  After an hour of thinking it will come to me, I’m giving up.   Help!)

Deanna does have several people rooting for her though.  Her mom tries.  Deanna dreams that one day her, her older brother, his wife and baby will all move out together, and she has her two best friends, Lee and Jason.  The only problem is that she has a major crush on Jason, but he’s dating Lee.  Deanna ends up being the third wheel.

But what happens when Deanna gets her first job only to find out that she’ll have to work alongside Tommy?   Can she break through the label that she’s lived with for years?  Can she come to terms with her past indiscretions?

Man, I really felt for this girl.  It’s hard enough to make mistakes when you’re a teenager but it’s far worse when that mistake is held up high for everybody to see.  I’ve certainly made my fair share of mistakes in life, especially when I was a teenager, and I have no idea how I would react if those mistakes were as public as Deanna’s was.  As an adult, I still don’t want people to know that stuff.  What would they think of me?   Unfortunately, for Deanna that thought is a reality, and she lives with it every day.

Story of a Girl was a National Book Award finalist and deservedly so.  I eagerly await Sara Zarr’s next book.  I’ll be reading it for sure.  Oh, and did I mention that I’m seeing her tomorrow?  With Shannon Hale?  Again?  Yeah, I might have mentioned it.  Come back tomorrow for an author interview with Sara Zarr that she was so gracious to give us.  You won’t want to miss it.