Review: A First Time for Everything

A First Time for Everything, by Dan Santat (First Second 2023)

First line: “I grew up in a small town just outside of Los Angeles.”

This National Book Award winner from last year is a charming middle grade graphic memoir, of which there are many great ones. What sets this one apart, I think, is that most middle grade memoirs are not also travelogues, because, let’s face it, middle schoolers aren’t traveling the world that much. But acclaimed picture-book author and illustrator Santat took one amazing trip to Europe the summer after his eighth grade year, which he documents here.

As a very introverted kid, Santat was not excited by the prospect of spending weeks in Europe with people he only considered acquaintances, but being the dutiful son he was, he went along with the plan his mother set out for him. As the days go by, and Santat faces new experiences, new challenges, and new people, we see him coming more into himself in a way that I think would be incredibly relatable to his intended audience. I found the story to be approachable, lovely, and sweetly romantic. I also loved using Google Lens to hover over the dialogue that was in French or German to automatically see the English translations! Do you guys know about this?? So easy!

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I’m not sure I would necessarily give it the NBA, but I think many readers will happily spend time among these pages.

Review: Dandelion Wine

Dandelion Wine, by Ray Bradbury (William Morrow 2006, 1957)

First line: “It was a quiet morning, the town covered over with darkness and at ease in bed.”

For years I’ve heard about this book from one of my good friends. It’s her very favorite, and she’s read it more than a dozen times. This June, when she brought it up again as she kicked off her summer reading season with it, her description of it as little interconnected vignettes of one boy’s summer in small town Illinois, the nostalgia factor caught my attention and I decided I would give it a try.

Wow, I loved this.

I’ll confess, that initially, I wasn’t sure. Published in 1957 and reminiscing about the summer of 1928, the language is understandably different than that of modern fiction. Bradbury has a unique style, one that is as abrupt as it is meandering, and his use of ellipses borders on extreme. But when my 4 year old asked me to read it aloud (as he often does when he finds me reading), I discovered that hearing it helped immensely and got me settled right in.

While the book’s protagonists are 12 year old Douglas and his younger brother Tom, the vignettes oscillate between their points of view and the stories of many other townspeople, with the cast of characters including some of the most bizarre and charming people I’ve read about in a long, long time. There’s the nearly ancient Colonel Freeleigh, who the boys discover is basically a human time machine as he tells them stories of his past; there’s Clara Goodwater, the president of the Honeysuckle Ladies Lodge, whose nemesis is convinced is a witch; there’s Bill Forrester and Helen Loomis, who recognize each other as soulmates despite being separated by decades… This is the story of an entire community, framed through the eyes of two growing boys, which was just a delightful experience. And what’s more, I found myself traveling through all emotions while reading this — it’s hilarious, heartbreaking, heartwarming, thrilling, downright scary, and nostalgic all at once. I can certainly understand why my friend returns to this one again and again. It’s well-deserving of the habit.

Review: The Star Side of Bird Hill

The Star Side of Bird Hill, by Naomi Jackson (Penguin Books 2015)

First line: “The people on the hill liked to say that God’s smile was the sun shining down on them.”

I was digging through my TBR shelves looking for a paperback to bring on a recent cross-country flight (not trying to drag a giant hardcover in my personal item), and came across this one that is set in summertime Barbados in 1989. After reading the first paragraph, I thought, Yep, this will do just fine.

Phaedra (age 10) and her sister Dionne (age 16) are spending the summer in Barbados with their grandmother as their mother attempts to get back on her feet after struggling through a mental health crisis. Though they’ve heard about the island and the Hill all their lives, they have never been back to their mother’s homeland, and it is nothing like the Brooklyn they’re used to.

This story reminded me so much of last summer’s What the Fireflies Knew, by Kai Harris (struggling mother sends two daughters to live with their estranged grandparent for the summer right around 1990). The major difference (besides the setting — Barbados versus Michigan) was the narrative voice. While 10 year old KB narrates Fireflies, lending it an innocent, Scout-like perspective, Star Side maintained a third person narrative, which allowed some gorgeous prose from Jackson. The writing on a sentence level is lovely and complex, while still dialing into the various perspectives of the girls and their grandmother, Hyacinth. I found the first half of this novel incredibly gripping, flying through it as I flew over the continental U.S. The middle dragged a bit, but all three of our main characters, Phaedra, Dionne, and Hyacinth, have such dynamic roles, and watching their arc was well worth it. I also loved learning about Barbados through the context of the novel (Jackson doesn’t spend a lot of exposition time describing it, just infuses details throughout the story), and it definitely made me want to visit!

Review: Out of the Easy

Out of the Easy, by Ruta Sepetys; narrated by Lauren Fortgang (Penguin Audio 2013)

First line: “My mother’s a prostitute.”

This book was probably one of the first ARCs I ever owned, snagged from an ARC giveaway during library school. As you can see, it’s been sitting on my shelf for more than a decade, and here when I finally read it, I listened to the audiobook instead. Oh, well!

Set in 1950s New Orleans, this story follows Josie, 18 year old daughter of a sex worker who, more than anything, wants to get out of the Big Easy. Since she was 12, Josie’s been living alone in an apartment above the bookstore where she works, where the bookstore owner and Josie’s mother’s madam, Willie, can look out for her. When she meets a girl visiting from New England, Josie sees a new future for herself: one at an Ivy League school in the north. But when a recent bookstore customer ends up murdered, and signs point to a connection to her mother, Josie gets wrapped up in a dangerous mystery that might keep her locked in place.

I think this is my favorite Sepetys novel I’ve read thus far. I loved the found family aspects, and all the side characters were excellent. Despite never knowing her father and having a incredibly damaging mother, Josie has a huge network of people looking out for her and caring for her. Fortgang did a wonderful job narrating, covering a huge swath of accents, filling out the characters beautifully. And even though there were several devastating moments in this story that made me audibly gasp, I thought the resolution was perfect.

Review: Five Tuesdays in Winter

Five Tuesdays in Winter, by Lily King (Grove Press 2021)

First line: “The summer I was fourteen, a few months after my mother had moved us out of my father’s house, I was offered a job on Widow’s Point babysitting this old lady’s grandchildren who had come to visit for two weeks.”

This was my first foray into the writing of Lily King, and I can see why she has loyal fans. Her writing is beautiful while also being ordinary, and elicits so much emotion in the reader, whether that emotion is uncomfortable, tender, heartwarming, or disturbing. This story collection evokes them all. While I certainly didn’t enjoy all the stories featured here, I was drawn into them and felt deeply. That is where King’s talent lies.

The stories protagonists vary significantly, ranging from a teenage babysitter, a single father in love with his bookstore employee, a grandfather sitting beside his comatose granddaughter, a mother struggling to connect with her preteen daughter, a gay man meeting up with his former best friend, and everything else in between. My favorite stories were the first three, including the titular story, “Creature”, and “When in Dordogne.” The latter is easily the most heartwarming story in the collection, which is probably why it’s easy to love, but I still found it to be delicious storytelling. It follows a teenage boy who spends the summer with two college-aged guys, who his parents hired to stay with him in their home while they went to get his father medical treatment elsewhere. My hackles were up after reading a previous story with a not-so-great ending, so I was wary of these two college guys. Instead, what I found was a story of brotherly affection and the sweetness of first love. It was a delight. Not every story had such a nice ending, though, and several were difficult for me to get through. I found “Timeline” and “Hotel Seattle” particularly rough.

I haven’t been drawn to try Lily King’s previous works, but I’m glad to have ventured into her short fiction, and can’t wait to see what she writes next.

Review: Another Brooklyn

Another Brooklyn, by Jacqueline Woodson (Amistad 2016)

First line: “For a long time, my mother wasn’t dead yet.”

I think Jackie Woodson is one of the most gifted writers of our age. Not every book of hers is a five star book for me (although several are), but every book is beautifully written, every sentence carefully crafted, every word preciously chosen. The stories she tells are full of emotion, full of heart and depth, and rarely are they over 200 pages. Another Brooklyn is no different.

August is eight when she and her father and younger brother move from rural Tennessee to Brooklyn. For months, she and her brother aren’t allowed out of the apartment, and learn about their new city environment from the confines of their window out onto the street. But soon enough, they too become Brooklyn, and this slim poetic novel tells about those years for August between childhood and adulthood. It tells about the three other girls that became closer than friends, almost a part of each other, and how their friendship eventually dissolved. It tells of watching your sibling, the other half of you, become their own person. It tells of grief and memory, how they are not straightforward and never simple.

I find it interesting that even Woodson’s adult novels are so anchored in childhood and young adulthood. She is such a master at showing how our young years, those monotonous slushy winter walks to school or bittersweet end-of-summer evenings on the porch steps that feel endless while you’re living them but just nostalgic when you look back, really are meaningful in who we become. That we are who we were back then, and still can be a whole host of other things. That those moments shape us in very real ways. She is just so talented in that way.

I think I might love this novel even more if I were to read it again. While reading, I had a hard time remembering which of the girlfriends was which, and now that I fully know who each is, I think I would get more out of it. At a slim 175 pages, I could very well do just that.