Fun for All Ages - Honest! Peter Pan reimagined

October 3rd, 2009

Peter and the Shadow Thieves

by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

ddd

One of the things about getting books at the BEA is sometimes you enter a series in the middle. This is obviously not the first book in this series, which is based on the children’s classic, Peter Pan. This is like the “real story” the original might be based on, and has more of an explanation of things like why Peter can fly, and how Tinkerbell - who prefers to be called a ‘bird-person,” not a fairy, came to be. I am just guessing the prior book(s) go over the same ground as the original James Barrie story does, but it’s okay to start here,
enough is covered that you understand the lay of the land.



A good, rollicking story, with plenty of action, pirates, mystery, and science fiction via a substance called “starstuff” and the “Others” who covet it, though it does not feel at all sci-fi. The story moves along at a good clip, and the other boys of Neverneverland get more character development, as they cope with Cap’n Hook and his crew while Peter and Tinkerbell are off to the foggy, grimy streets of Victorian London to save his friend Molly and her family from the Others. It is 541 pages, but moves along at a good, satisfying clip, so don’t let the size fool you. Probably written with boys as the target audience, but enough in it for girls - and grown-ups - too.



And it wasn’t until the end that I realized that it is “that” Dave Barry - the guys from Miami who writes the hysterical, wry newspaper columns - who is one of the authors. And that’s why I have a signed copy, I didn’t know what the book was, but I chuckle aloud at Dave Barry’s columns, so stood in line to get a signed copy. But in retrospect, it makes perfect sense. It is a fun and worthwhile read, no matter your age or gender. And there’s nothing in it that’s too scary for younger kids who are avid readers.


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Good Boston Story

September 5th, 2009

Run by Ann Patchett
ddd



Excellent book, set in nearby Boston, and aside from one instance of Mount Auburn Street being called Mount Auburn Drive, it’s accurate in descriptions of places, names and neighborhoods. The heart of story takes place over just a 24-hour span, though there are years of history in the making of that day. It is set around the story of two broken families, one rich, and one poor, and how their lives suddenly intersect.


The first of the families, the wealthier one, consists of a father, a Boston politician, and a good Irish Catholic man. His wife, Bernadette, was from one of those large, sprawling Irish-Catholic families for which Boston is known, and the story begins with her tale of the statue of the Virgin Mary that she was given by her mother, which has been passed, mother to daughter, for generations. She and Bernard has always planned on a big family, but after their first boy, Sullivan, she was not able to carry another baby full term. Determined, they started the process of adoption, and ended up, eventually with not one baby, but his 18-month-old brother as well. That they were African-American did not matter to the Doyles, and Tip and Teddy were instantly loved. Sadly, Bernadette was only able to enjoy her family for four years, before getting diagnosed with and succumbing to cancer. The story takes place 20 years later, when the “little boys” are grown, and college students at Harvard and Northeastern, respectively.


The second family is even smaller, just a devoted, some would say overprotective single mother, Tennessee and her daughter, Kenya. They are also black, and live in just down the street from the Doyles, but across the line into Roxbury, in one of “the Projects.” Kenya, who is eleven, cares only about running, and learning well in school to please her mother. The families lives intersect when Teddy, whose forte in life is memorizing political speeches but who has little direction in life, and Tip, the “serious” one who wants to be an ichthyologist, accompany their father, and Kenya goes with her mother, to a Jesse Jackson speech being given at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.


The night turns into a snowy one - as anyone who has lived here knows can happen, especially in January in Boston, and as everyone leaves the lecture, the accident happens, and the two families meet and lives are intertwined in tragic, joyful and unexpected ways.


An excellent book, and a quick, absorbing read, I heartily recommend it. Unless it happens to be January, and you’re enduring your first New England winter … And if you happen to enjoy running, politics, or biology - especially of the fishie sort, you’ll likely enjoy it even more.

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Medicine Amongst War

August 1st, 2009

The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire
by Khassan Baiev

with Ruth and Nicholas Daniloff

ddd


I read this book back in 2004, not knowing what I was in for. I live in Newton, Massachusetts, with a large enough Russian population that the local weekly paper prints a section in Russian once a month. But most of the Russians I meet here are Russian Jews. Newton also has a large Jewish population, so that makes sense.


Though I hear of Russia, and Russian accents fairly often, I do not hear about Chechnya, except on the news. And that is a rare event, even back when The events of this book were taking place, you rarely heard anything about Chechnya, except mentions of Chechyn separatists, and violence. I didn’t even know why they wanted to separate, the religious or political reasons or any other reason being the war, I knew nothing. And if you had told me there were Russian Muslims, I would have believed you, but assumed they were a tiny minority - Russia is a huge place, there’s probably some of every religion in there somewhere. And I couldn’t have told you where Chechnya was on a map - you only see Russia as one big piece, no states or zone within it.


The book taught me a lot about Chechnya, but that wasn’t hard to do, as ignorant as I was. But its main goal was to tell the story of a doctor caught in the middle of a war, and the danger he faced every day. A moral person, he takes his oath as a doctor seriously, and was determined to treat all the injured, regardless of their ethnicity or religion. Just that decision nearly cost him his life, many time. The horrors are compounded by his compassion, his love for his family and his grief at the injustice and oppression that was tearing apart his homeland.


Can you even imagine having your life in danger daily, being told you are a traitor for saving lives just because the person you are helping is of a different religion than your own? Can you imagine your family being in danger, but knowing you have to keep doing your job, as lives are at stake? How hard, when we just take life, and the access to medical care, pretty much for granted.
I know I am spoiled, being an American, living in a major metropolitan area - I could expect to receive care at any number of facilities a short distance from my house, and no one
is going to check my religious affiliation before deciding whether to save my life.


You still don’t hear much about Chechnya on Western news, nothing much has changed. But this book will teach you far more than you think, and I recommend it to anyone who cares about his or her fellow human beings. It’s amazing, heartbreaking, horrifying, informative and absorbing all at once. And it was so burned into my brain that I have just written this without even opening the cover, having read in over four years ago.

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