Between Shades of Gray

between shades of grey
ruta sepetys
read: february 2012

recommendation: historically important, so read it! ;)

This book came to be highly recommended - not only was it short listed for a bunch of awards, but it's about a girl being shipped off to Sibera during the Second World War. Right up my alley, I thought. However, I had a difficult time with it. I kept waiting for something MORE.

I think this book would have been much stronger without the little flashbacks.

That said, it would take almost half the book away.

In a sense, I felt like this book was trying to be too much at once - The Diary of Anne Frank, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and something about Russian/Lithuanian history all at once. The story was interesting and strong enough on its own. And really, I wanted to know more about why the north pole! What were they doing up there? I never got a good answer.

The writing is strong and clear, just like Lina, who is a character you can relate to. I liked her relationship with her brother, and her mother, and her drawings. I just wanted more - of those characters, of the relationship, of the time, of the story itself. I felt like we had glimpses, and I am sometimes very greedy. It is a strong story, with heart and sorrow and hope, and that is very reflective of the reality of the time.

I guess also some of it felt heavy handed and scripted (the bald man, anyone? Am I the only one that saw that from his introduction?) but. You also have to remember that I have a very strong stomach for death and violence in writing (reading these things as primary sources will do that to a person) so that didn't hit me in the same way it seems to have hit a lot of people. Sometimes I think you read one book about prisoners on a train and you've read them all. This book had potential to be different though, because of the setting and the different circumstances and Stalin, not Hitler. I do think it lost a little of its specialness by not fully exploring those differences. Also, it's important to remember I studied this stuff for years, so I am once again, biased.

It tells a very important story that a lot of people haven't even thought of before, and for that alone, it deserves its accolades. Read it if you don't know anything about the non-German side of the war, and read it because it exists, and books like this should to be read, even if you find yourself wanting more. It's an easy read in terms of comprehension and the quality of writing, not so easy if you aren't used to reading books about horrible situations, fairly graphic scenes of violence and death, and what war can do to people and families and so called friends. Then again, that IS war, so it's high time we start recognizing it for what it is.

Please Ignore Vera Dietz (2010)

please ignore vera dietz
a.s. king
read: january 2012

recommendation: four out of five. definitely worth your time, and not just because it won a printz.

"Which zen guy said, "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" That's how I feel without Charlie. Like one hand clapping."

I am late the party on this one, but better late than never! (I was possibly a little overdosing on "teens dealing with deaths of loved ones" and needed a break until now.)

I liked Vera. I really did. I liked how Vera never relented that she knew Charlie, the Charlie from before, the Charlie that was her best friend. And I liked Vera's dad. I might possibly love Vera's dad the most.

Most of all I think I loved the almost B plot of the parents - what is okay to talk about and what isn't, and how those messages get relayed to kids. How hard it is to know when a line has been crossed and when you need to say something, how difficult it is to find those words, especially when you don't want to lose your friend.

Maybe this book will encourage more kids to use their voices. To not ignore the Veras and Charlies. To listen to the Pagoda's of the world, and the Georgia's, and maybe adults will learn that kids have an innate ability to tell when something is seriously wrong, and they have not been conditioned by society to ignore or act differently. They simply know, and they want to make it better.

This book was clever, inventive, and oh-so-teenage. These kids talk like kids, and Vera is achingly real - in her grief, her struggles, and her self. She feels like someone you could know.

Circumstances aren't always the best. Ignoring things doesn't mean they go away.

But change is always possible. If even one person walks away from this book truly believing that statement, this book has given us all a fabulous gift by sharing this incredibly hard but real truth.

(Just look at a flow chart. You might go back to the beginning, but you get to start again.)

(And who doesn't love a book with flow charts?! People who despite John Green not included!)