Mothers and Daughters

I try not to be too political in my blogs, and so I won't be. Instead, I want to write about mothers and daughters. There is a special bond between them that lasts forever, a different kind of marriage. Mothers can help shape, inspire and motivate their girls.  Chelsea Clinton was an inspiration when she introduced her mother; clearly Hillary's strength, poise and intellect has been passed down to her daughter. I admire that strength, and I love strong women, which is why I always write my female protagonists as strong women.  Though the relationship between mothers and daughters can be complicated, at the end of the day, the bond and love-with good parenting-is hopefully strong. My favorite quote from Chelsea about her mother: "That feeling of being valued and loved-that's what my Mom wants for every child. It's the calling of her life." 

A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy by Sue Klebold
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Just finished reading A MOTHER'S RECKONING by Sue Klebold, the mother of Dylan Klebold, one of the shooters at Columbine high school. It has been sixteen years since that mass shooting, and in this wonderful work of non-fiction, his mother contemplates how she could possibly have a son who committed such atrocities. She loved her young boy so much; he was so promising. There were indeed small signs of distress, but nothing too major, yet inside his mind was a calamity of anguish, depression and rage, none of which she was privy too.

As a parent and also as a writer of YA literature, I understand the demons that lurk inside of a teenager. I also understand it is possible to wholly love your child, raise that child with the highest of moral standards, and still not understand the deeper darkness inside of him. I empathize with this mother, and I also know-now that my children are older-that I escaped the dangerous possibilities, but those terrible things could have happened to me-they can happen to anyone. "There by the grace of God!"

View all my reviews

Writing as a Form of Social Justice

Writing is a form of social justice-if you want it to be. When I first started writing poetry, it was as a means to help me deal with personal issues. I suppose, in the mode of Sylvia Plath or Anne Sexton, you can say my poetry was "confessional poetry." I continued in this mode for a long while, and when my children were younger, I wrote about my FEELINGS about them-the wonder and the challenges, too! Now that I am older, I find it incumbent upon myself to write about all that is wrong with the world, as a means to hopefully change the direction of injustice. I hunger for meaningful books that send strong messages, ones that focus on important and challenging issues. It's not that I still don't enjoy reading some fluff, but books that tackle difficult and significant SOCIAL themes speak to me much LOUDER and CLEARER!!! RONIT AND JAMIL-here we come!

Idealism

When I was a teenager, I was intensely idealistic; I thought I would change the world. I wanted to do something important where I could make this happen, and teaching became my profession of choice. People always said, when you get older you will lose some of that "youthful idealism." During my middle years, I did lose some of it. I understood the demands of the teaching profession and also understood the challenges of the terrible bureaucracy. I also got "busy" with my life-my family, mostly my children, and work became the means to help pay the bills, nothing more. And I wrote; I always wrote. I wrote mostly about myself.

Now, as I get older, I find that my idealism has returned, only it is much stronger now. I recognize I am one of the "haves" and there are way too many "have nots." How did this terrible disparity grow bigger, stronger? I have become a very committed teacher, one whom understands if I can change the life of one or two students, I have helped-in some way-to shape the world. And I can not stand the ugly politics of today; I want someone to lead our country who  is decent, humane, has integrity. And I never stopped writing, but when I do it is about IMPORTANT issues: peace in the Middle East and the world; social injustices; the terrible caste system in this country and the world. I pay much more attention to the news, and I write found poems which address the inequalities, the unfairness. I have become the citizen of the world I always admired.

Could I do more? Of course; I thought, perhaps, I should be more involved in this year's election, 2016, but time always becomes an issue, so I place my small marker in the universe, hoping I can fill it-even with my books-with good deeds.

Review of THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES by Mindy McGinnis

The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Just finished THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES by Mindy McGinnis, a thoroughly disturbing, mostly engaging book, though often the disturbing is the kind that crawls through your skin and is important. This is another Katherine Tegen, Harper Collins selection for 2016 to watch out for. It challenges our notions of what is good and what is evil, following the lives of three characters from a small-town community-Alex Craft, Jack Fisher and Peekay. Alex Craft, the main protagonist, is "different" from other girls her age because she lives with the unbridled rage in the aftermath of her sister's murder. Alex's anger fuels her passion to seek justice in a world where violence-particularly against women-is always unwarranted and sometimes not punished sufficiently.

But is it really alright to act out on this "closeted" rage? Does Alex want to live the life of other teens her age? How is justice best served? Does this angry strength need to be reigned in? Is love possible in all of this? And finally, what are the "challenges" of living in such a small-knit community?

Read the powerful THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES and see what you think!

View all my reviews

Peace in the Middle East

I am Director of The Poetry Outreach Center, where I get to see many fabulous poems by public school students all throughout NYC. Today, while I was proofing the book, I came across this fabulous poem by Gordon Ensign, an eighth grader at Middle School 51 in Park Slope, Brooklyn:

In The Middle East

The skies are aflame

Weapons of the great powers,

splitting the sky.

They spit death upon their enemy

Not caring who is in between.

Always trapped in the Middle

of the East.

So the war rages on

and the machines still fly.

So the bombs fall

and the people die.

Pray for peace. Ronit and Jamil do!

Review of THE CAT KING OF HAVANA by Tom Crosshill

The Cat King of Havana by Tom Crosshill
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Just finished an amazing YA book, THE CAT KING OF HAVANA by Tom Crosshill, Katherine Tegen Books, my publisher. Its main protagonist, Rick Gutierrez, is awkward and geeky and spends his time in his room on his computer with his website, CatoTrope.com. His Mom has died, his first girlfriend has dumped him and the room is so much easier than being out in the world-that is, until he meets Ana Cabrera and salsa dancing. He invites Ana to his mother's native Cuba for the summer with the hopes of impressing her and learning to dance, but his adventure proves much more dangerous and daring. This is Rick's coming of age story-learning about women, family (why his mother had to escape Cuba) and the ambiguity of politics and love. The book is a nuanced vision of the perils of growing up in such a complex world. And the writing is dynamite. A must read!

View all my reviews

Horses

The July 14th NYT reported that in a town scattered with stones left from clashes between Palestinian residents and Israeli soldiers emerged a sight to behold: a  pair of exquisitely groomed Arabian horses. The horses pranced toward the center of town with their riders, Alaa Mustafa and his cousin Oday Muheisan. Behind them revealed a lot for exercising the horses and a stable.

This goes to prove that even amidst conflict there is beauty and passion, and this is the symbol of hope one must hold onto in the Middle East: HORSES!

Malala Yousafzai

Did you know Malala Yousafzai is now 19 years old? And that she won the Nobel Peace prize?

Can you imagine, a young girl who gets shot in the face by men in Afghanistan, those who believe a girl has no right to an education, has not stopped speaking about injustices in the world. And what does she continue to say? "I raise my voice not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard."

Let your voice ring out throughout the world, Malala!!!

Everyone Has A Story

From the Firoozeh Dumas book: "We all came from somewhere else. Everyone has a story!"

The Dumas book elaborates on the idea that we are all friends and neighbors, that we all came from somewhere else, that "It's easy to forget that we all came to this country from somewhere else," and we were given the opportunity to make a living to give back. You can live next to someone for years and years without knowing what makes them tick. The upshot is you need to know what makes someone else tick! We should all bother to discover this!

Book Giveaway!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

It's All About Shoes

by Pamela Laskin

Giveaway ends August 12, 2016.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Girls and Education

My favorite line from the Dumas book is, "If I had a son and a daughter, and I could only educate one of them, I would educate my daughter. You know why? A girl without an education has no power. She is always at the mercy of others."

 In Iran, girls were considered second class citizens, and in the wonderfully evocative book, IT AIN'T SO AWFUL, FALAFEL, the Iranian father has just one child, a daughter, and he understands how important it is that she get educated. He knows that education is power, and that a young girl must be able to take care of herself!

It Ain't So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas

It Ain't So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Just finished Firoozeh Dumas's wonderfully bold, poignant, funny middle-grade novel, IT AIN'T SO AWFUL, FALAFEL, which takes place in the early 1980(s) when Iran was in the forefront of the news due to the Iranian hostage crisis. Young Zomorod yearns to fit in like an "American" in Newport Beach, California, but this is a challenge since her parents are distinctly Iranian-from their accents, to her dad's desire to talk about the oil and Khomeini and the Shah, to the foods they eat. She changes her name to Cindy, finds the right foods, tries to make friends (which she does), but the elephant in the room is that everyone knows they are "different", which becomes a bigger challenge when the 52 diplomats are taken hostage at the embassy in Tehran, and her Dad loses his job as a consequence. "Cindy" has a voice which will charm as she struggles to navigate the slippery slope of living in both worlds, and learning how to love and trust those who are truly friends. A must read!

View all my reviews

An Eye for an Eye

Mahatma Gandhi said, "An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind." Gandhi believed in passive resistance as a means to combat the violence in his native India, but also in the world, a movement which gained momentum with Martin Luther King. If we look at the history of world violence, we can see that WAR has never been a solution to injustice, and mostly serves to accomplish nothing.

This past week, two terrible murders by police officers of Black men resulted in one lone gunman pulling out his gun in Dallas, Texas and killing five policemen. Israel and Palestine, unfortunately, have engaged in the same methodology-stabbings by Palestinians have resulted in gunfire from Israelis. I sincerely believe this warfare is NOT a solution, that there has to be some way, somehow that peaceful negotiation is a possibility. This is the dream behind RONIT AND JAMIL.

WHY NO BHINE

In my second YA novel, WHY NO BHINE, I follow the story of Jubair, a young boy who is left behind by his mother, who escaped to Malaysia with three other children and had to leave one child behind. In the July NYT article, it is one year later and the Rohinya family's lot has not improved much in Malaysia. But what is worse is that Jubair, who was left at thirteen, is now fourteen and has grown increasingly angrier at his Mom and his family. This is not just a story of abandonment, but it is a significant human right's story, which the world needs to pay attention to.

An Act of Kindness

From the NYT, July 6th: A Palestinian doctor was on his way to Jerusalem for morning prayers when he came upon a car that had flipped over on its roof. There were many children inside, and clearly the father, Rabbi Michael Mark, was dead, after a Palestinian gunman had fired on the car. It did not matter to this man; he immediately came to the help of the family. His response was an act of kindness in a conflict that is often bereft of it, and the past nine months have been sometimes brutal. But there are always good people on both sides. What is unfortunate is that there have to be sides at all!

Review for "George" by Alex Gino

George by Alex Gino
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Just completed reading GEORGE by Alex Gino (Scholastic), a wonderfully evocative story with the same theme as JAZZ, only for an older readership, in much the same way my BE-A (GIRL) is, and because GEORGE is for an older audience, it is also more nuanced and riddled with the conflict that goes with an older audience. George's voice is smart and sassy, and what makes me ADORE this book is George's insistence that he/she must play CHARLOTTE in CHARLOTTE'S web. E.B. White's classic has always been one of my favorites and the emotional openness in the character and the book makes this a new, personal favorite in the middle-school category. Fabulous diction!

This book also gives me hope for my picture book-BE-A!

View all my reviews

Review for "I am Jazz"

I Am Jazz by Jessica Herthel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Based on true story with precious illustrations by Shelagh McNicholas, JAZZ is the story about a girl who knows she is a boy, and has known this since she was two. She loves sparkles, beads and everything "girlish," so it is up to Jazz to convince friends and family that this is okay. The doctor shares with the family that Jazz in transgender, and she was born this way; now the world has to see her this way, too. I love this book, though-at times-I felt it was too simplistic.

I am most interested in this book, since I, too, have written a book about a transgender boy who wants to be a girl, but unlike JAZZ'S simplistic style and voice, I see the readership for BE-A (Girl) as older. It is so important that children's picture books explore diverse subject matter.

View all my reviews

Poetry Never Lies

The Poet Nikki Giovanni shares that "Poetry never lies." Poetry, in its truthfulness, has the ability to unmask feelings, and in doing so, build bridges between the inner and outer world. I would like to think of Ronit an Jamil as a real bridge builder.

Fourth of July

In the spirit of July 4th, the spirit in which I wrote my book, I am compelled to review the words of the Declaration of Independence:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness-That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men deriving their powers from the consent of the governed."

The words used in this declaration (which, of course, pertain American independence) include words such as JUSTICE and EQUALITY.

Too bad that tyranny has sometimes taken over the world-amongst individuals and within governments. I would like to imagine we live in a world where Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness reign supreme, for now and forever, not just for us, but for our children and our children's children, so the world may become a more decent and humane place.

Happy July 4th!

Elie Wiesel

RIP Elie Wiesel who said:

          "No human race is superior

           No religious faith is inferior

           All collective judgments are wrong

           Only racists make them"

You believed in humanity, despite what you had been through. May your spirit live on in the words of Ronit and Jamil.

My Own Voice

I love language. I consider myself primarily a poet and revel in wonderful poetry. When I am reading a novel, I can tell when the writer's work is grounded in a love of verse. RONIT AND JAMIL is the perfect combination of my dual passions-poetry and young adult literature.

I have just started a new YA novel, and I am finding that I can not READ as much as I have been reading, since the language in a good book lingers in my mind. What I end up hearing is the author's voice (whomever I am reading), instead of my own. 

What is most important for me now is to get back to my own voice.