This month's book reviews

A long way from Chicago

Joey Dowdel and his sister, Mary Alice, lived with their parents in Chicago. Every August, from 1929 until the end of the 1930’s, the two spent a week or more with their grandmother, who lived in a small town between Chicago and St. Louis. Grandma Dowdel lived at the edge of the town, which was cut in two by the railroad tracks running through it. Of course, Grandma’s house didn’t have indoor plumbing and nobody had air conditioning in those days.

The two kids weren’t very thrilled about spending time away from the city, especially Mary Alice. She griped that they were being “dumped” on their grandma so that dad and mom could go fishing for a week up in Wisconsin. She really hated having to go outside to use the “privy”. There was a big old tomcat out there that would jump at you as you came out the door.

Each chapter in the book tells a story from one of the years that the kids spent with Grandma. These were depression years, which meant the country’s economy was in bad shape. Lots of people were losing their jobs and nearly everyone was poor. Grandma gardened and canned much of her food, so the kids saw a life quite different from their life in the big city.

The kids found out that their Grandma was very independent. Everybody in the small town knew Grandma Dowdel and tried to stay out of her way. She had a sharp tongue and didn’t like people who “put on airs.” It took Joey and Mary Alice more than one visit to realize that Grandma really was good-hearted and went out of her way to help those in need. Although she had a hard time showing it, she really loved her grandchildren and was protective of them.

Each story or chapter in the book focuses on one incident of what appears to be outlandish behavior on Grandma’s part. In many cases, however, Grandma is turning the tables on somebody who is trying to take advantage of her or of her grandchildren. Gradually, the two kids, especially Joey, come to appreciate Grandma and look forward to their visits with her.

If you are looking for a book that makes vivid what it was like during the depression and gives you a glimpse into small town life during that era, this is the book for you. Author Richard Peck knows how to keep you laughing as he tells a serious story.

 

Life for a young girl in Afghanistan under the Taliban

Parvana was just in sixth grade when the Taliban took over in her home country of Afghanistan. As religious extremists, the Taliban had ordered all girls and women to stay inside their homes. Girls were no longer allowed to go to school. Women were not allowed to work outside their homes. So Parvana lived with her mother, an older sister of high school age, a five-year-old younger sister, and a two-year-old baby brother. Their father had also lived with them until he was seized and thrown into prison by the Taliban.

All of the family lived in one room on the third floor of a bomb-damaged building. Their home had been destroyed in the war many months earlier. They lived in Kabul, the capitol city of Afghanistan. Much of the population had either been killed or had escaped into neighboring Pakistan. Parvana’s parents, because they were university educated, had wanted to stay and help rebuild their war torn country.

When Parvana’s father had been arrested, Parvana had to disguise herself as a boy and go out into the city and try to make enough money for food to keep her family alive. She had tried to take over her father’s little business. He had set up a spot in the marketplace where he offered to read and write letters for people, since most of the population was illiterate. He had also displayed for sale what few possessions the family had salvaged from their former home. Parvana found out that she could make more money by trying some other jobs. One of the most gruesome was when she joined a group of boys who sold the bones from the bodies of people who had been killed earlier in the war.

The author of this book, Deborah Ellis, had been to Afghan refugee camps and heard many true stories like the one she relates in her book. A reader comes away from “The Breadwinner” with a deep feeling for what it was like to live in Afghanistan under the Taliban. Any young reader should be aware that American soldiers are still in Afghanistan today trying to help out families like Parvana’s.

 

Real life becomes as dangerous as
the adventures in made-up stories

Archie Jones is eleven and his kid brother, Oggie, is just six. Their dad had moved out of their house about a year before. So their mom and dad were in the process of getting a divorce. Mom had sold their nice home in Ansley Park and the three were living in an apartment in a not-so-good neighborhood. The boys spent Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday at their dad’s apartment. Tuesday through Thursdays were spent with their mother in her apartment.

Little Oggie was pretty stressed out over the changes in their lives. Archie knew how to help calm Oggie down by telling him stories that helped keep his mind off of things that were bothering him. During one of the more troublesome periods, Archie started a series of stories about the Mysterious Mole People who lived underground. Archie got so fascinated with his own stories that he intended at some future time to write all of them in book form and try to get them published.

There was a gang called the “Night Riders” that hung out around the neighborhood. Archie did everything that he could to stay out of their way. Poor little Oggie was frightened to death of the mean looking gang members. Unfortunately, gang members caught little Oggie alone one afternoon when he was counting money that he carried in an old billfold. Naturally, they jumped him and stole his billfold and all the money he had carefully saved over the months. To calm him down, Archie had to promise Oggie that he would get his billfold back from the gang members.

How Archie gets involved with the Night Riders and his attempts to reclaim Oggie’s billfold and money makes up a big part of the rest of the story. Of course, we keep finding out more and more about the Mysterious Mole People as well, since Archie can’t tell his little brother about all the real trouble he is getting into with the gang members and Cat Man, their vicious leader. Archie doesn’t really want to be a hero. He just wants to write stories about heroes that he makes up. Can he do both?

 

Lizzie, age 9, finds mother’s old typewriter
and decides to become a writer

Lizzie at nine is between her brother Norman, who’s twelve, and sister Ellie, who’s just two. Winston, the dog, is six, but that’s pretty old in dog years. Lizzie feels kind of left out in the family. Norman, because he is older, gets to do more things than she does. Ellie, because she is so little, demands a lot of attention.

In December, just after her ninth birthday, while looking for some winter boots, Lizzie finds her mother’s old portable typewriter. Its battered case is covered with stickers from places like France, Greece, Brazil, and Australia. It seems Lizzie mother, on graduating from college, took a trip around the world. She helped pay her way by writing stories about her travels for the hometown newspaper. Today, she has a job working for that same newspaper. The father of the kids is divorced from their mom and lives in another nearby state.

Since Lizzie had already learned how to type on a computer, she found that she could type on the old typewriter with no problem. She liked the click, clack noise that it made. With the typewriter set up on a card table, Lizzie decided to write about her life and the family’s activities for each month of the next year. And that’s what the book “By Lizzie” is - each chapter is Lizzie’s account of what went on in each month from February to the following December.

In the last chapter we find out that Lizzie changed some of the details to make the writing more interesting than by simply telling what actually happened. But, as Lizzie points out, that’s what all good writers do. And for us, as readers, we get quite a few laughs from reading about her life as Lizzie “jazzes” it up.