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The Island by Gary Paulsen

Jun19

Book #1 for the 48-hour Book Challenge
202 pages, 2.5 hours

I’ve never read Gary Paulsen’s Newbery Honor young adult novel, Hatchet, although I have read a lot about it and seen it recommended frequently. It’s a survival story, about a boy who grows into manhood by surviving in a harsh natural environment. According to Wikipedia this “coming of age by surviving in the wilderness” theme is a frequently repeated one in Paulsen’s more than 200 novels:

“Much of Paulsen’s work features the outdoors and highlights the importance of nature. He often uses “coming of age” themes in his novels, where a character masters the art of survival in isolation as a rite of passage to manhood and maturity.”

The Island tells the story of Wil, a teen who, with his parents, moves to a rural area of northern Wisconsin near a lake, Sucker Lake, with an unnamed island in the center of the lake. Wil sees the island while riding his bike, and he also finds a small rowboat conveniently abandoned on the shore so that he is able to row out to the island by himself. On the island, Wil discovers something about himself and about the world that he tries to put into writing, or into drawings of wildlife on the island, or into words of explanation for his parents and for his new friend, Susan. He is somewhat successful in his writing and drawing, less so in his verbal explanations.

The Island is an odd little book. I can see myself recommending it to teens who are adventure and nature lovers and also quite thoughtful, even philosophical. I’m not sure how often that combination of characteristics coincides. Not much happens in the novel; there’s a lot of description of the natural environment and quite a bit of philosophical musing. I would think the pace of the story would be a bit slow for many young adult readers. There’s a hint of romance, but it’s not really developed. The characters themselves, Wil and Susan, nip any budding of romance, in the bud so to speak, since Wil is on a quest of sorts to know and understand the natural world and himself. He doesn’t really have time for romance.

I enjoyed reading about Wil and his search for understanding and enlightenment. The spirituality or philosophy in the book felt rather like Buddhism or nature worship, even though religion is never mentioned nor is any deity invoked. I wouldn’t recommend it to just anyone, but for discerning readers there might even be some nuggets of truth. The natural world is given to us to point us to the Creator. Wil doesn’t have any experience of God, but he does begin to understand himself and his place in the world of The Island. Perhaps that’s a start.

Footnote: My mass market paperback copy of The Island is autographed by Gary Paulsen “for Kelli”, and the book itself is dedicated to Mike Printz, the librarian whose name adorns the Printz Award for Young Adult Literature.

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Christmas in New Jersey, c. 1988

Dec15

From Ten Kids, No Pets by Ann M. Martin:

“Jan was sure she wouldn’t be able to sleep at all on Christmas Eve. The day had already been exciting, and so many more exciting things would happen while she was in bed. The tree had been trimmed several days earlier, but on Christmas Eve Mr. Rosso had turned on its lights for the first time. Jan had looked at her little tree standing in the corner of the living room in a haze of soft, glowing color and thought she’d never seen anything so beautiful.

Then Jan the rest had brought al of their presents out of secret hiding places and arranged them under the tree. They’d sung Christmas carols and had eggnog (Jan had spit hers out), and then Jan had set out a plate of cookies for Santa Claus.

Finally, Mrs. Rosso had said, ‘Time for bed, kids!’ and Jan hadn’t objected Santa would come only after she’d gone to sleep. Then he’d slide down the chimney and fill the twelve stockings and pile more presents under the tree. Before he left he’d stop to eat Jan’s snack. Oh, it was so exciting! How could Jan possibly fall asleep?”

I snagged a copy of this book, featuring a family with ten children, at the library book sale on Saturday afternoon. The children are very happy with their large family, but they long for a pet. I have a special affinity and understanding for this story since my eight children begged for a puppy or a kitten for years before we finally got one of each in one year when my resistance was especially low.

So much for “no pets.”

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Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger

Apr11

I grew up in West Texas, San Angelo, not Odessa, but definitely football country, the era and culture of Friday Night Lights. I learned football sitting in the flute section of the Edison Junior High School band as my band director explained to me first downs and safeties and extra points. I never learned it well, but I knew enough by the time I got to high school that I could get my flute in place to play the fight song when our team made a touchdown.

Friday Night Lights has become a movie and a TV series. I’ve never seen either one. However, I can vouch that the culture and the obsession depicted in the book did exist, and probably still does. I graduated from Central High School in San Angelo in the mid-seventies, and football was a Big Deal. We saw Permian, the school featured in the book, as the school to beat. We detested “Mojo” and all their black and gold trappings. They probably saw us as not so much of a threat since the San Angelo Bobcats have only won two state championships in their history, in 1943 and again in 1966. I think Mr. Bissinger, who is a Yankee from Philadelphia, probably got a a narrow but accurate picture of the place and influence of high school football in a West Texas town, as he spent a year following the fortunes of the Odessa Permian Panthers.

He also made a lot of people mad. In the afterword, written in 2008 ten years after the book was written, Bissinger says he received death threats at the time of publication and that many Odessans still resent and argue with the depiction of their town, their attitudes, and their football team in the book. I’m sure the fictional extension and embellishment of the story in movie and television has done nothing to change the perception that Bissinger misquoted, fictionalized, and sensationalized a narrative that was dear to the people of Odessa. I don’t know. Certainly, football is important, even worshipped, in Odessa and in other towns and high schools and colleges in Texas. I’ve seen it myself. Perhaps Mr. Bissinger could have found many people with a more balanced and rational view of the significance of the Permian Panthers football team and its win/loss record had he tried. However, he wasn’t writing about those balanced people with little or no interest in football; he was writing about the Mojo of Permian High School football and about its effect on a group of young men who found their identity in a series of Friday night football games.

Friday Night Lights is a sad book. It asks the question, “If football is your life, what happens when the season is over?” Win or lose, the answer to that question isn’t pretty. I felt sorry for the boys in the book. How could such a system be good for anyone concerned? And why do we continue to perpetuate such intense pressure on young men to succeed at a game that is essentially meaningless in and of itself? When I read about football mania as practiced in Friday Night Lights, I’m glad we homeschool. And it makes me look carefully at my own life and the expectations I have for my children. Is there anything that I have made into an idol that takes the place of God in the lives of my children? I pray not.

The book is excellent. It deals with both the strengths and weaknesses of a community’s having a cause or a team to unite them. Taking pride and inspiration from the accomplishments of a group of athletes or other successful people is a good thing, in moderation. Loading the hopes and dreams of an entire city on the shoulders of a group of seventeen and eighteen year old boys is a mistake and a perversion of true community.

Escaping the Tiger by Laura Manivong

Jun9

Ms. Manivong says that this fictional account of a Laotian family trapped in a refugee camp in Thailand after escaping from the Communist Pathet Lao regime in their native country is based on the true story of her husband and his family.

“My husband, Troy Anousone Manivong, spent eight months in Na Pho refugee camp in 1988, when he was eighteen years old. While Vonlai is a fictional character, many of his experiences are a reflection of stories my husband shared with me over the years. But their experiences also differ in far greater ways.”

Escaping the Tiger is about Vonlai, 12 years old at the beginning of the book, his sister Dalah, and his Meh (Mom) and Pah (Dad). As the story opens Vonlai and his family do manage to escape from Laos, but they find much more hardship and suffering to face in a refugee camp in Thailand, Na Pho. In fact the camp is in some ways worse than life Communist Laos, so the book is about the family’s struggle to hold on to hope of a better life. The wait for an interview and papers and approval to emigrate to France or to the United States is interminable and tedious and sometimes dangerous. SOme of the Thai people want the Laotians to disappear or return to Laos. And Vonlai and his family face the constant fear that the world has forgotten about them and that it will never be their turn to find a new life in a free country.

Manivong’s book is not long, only 210 pages, and the protagonist is a boy when the story begins, although he grows to be a young man of sixteen before the book’s end. Perhaps those two aspects of the book as well as the publisher’s imprint, HarperCollins Childrens Books, explain why the book was classified in the juvenile section of my library. I thought it was wonderful book, evoking my sympathy and desire to do something to help, but it’s definitely more than I would want my eleven year old to read. Vonlai’s sister must face the violence of a lecherous Thai camp guard, and although the scene is not graphic or explicit, the threat of rape is definitely obvious —and of course, very sad and probably true-to-life. I would give this one to young adults, especially those who already know the adversity that life can bring or those who need to know how blessed they are in comparison to many young people in the world.

More fiction set in Laos:
Little Cricket by Jackie Brown. Another story of refugees escaping to a camp in Thailand, and eventually to the U.S. Middle grade fiction.
Tangled Threads: A Hmong Girl’s Story by Pegi Dietz Shea. Middle grade fiction, takes place mostly in the U.S. after this Laotian girl has already immigrated from Laos via Thailand.
The Coroner’s Lunch by Colin Cotterill. Murder mystery featuring a Laotian coroner in the 1970’s. The series is up to six, the latest published in 2009, The Merry Misogynist. Adult fiction.
Carpe Diem by Autumn Cornwell. A sixteen year old American girl goes backpacking through Southeast Asia, including Laos, with her eccentric grandmother. YA fiction.

Additions?