BOOK REVIEW: Whistling Past The Graveyard

At first glance, Susan Crandall’s WHISTLING PAST THE GRAVEYARD reminds the reader of other coming of age books that take place in the South during the 1960’s. The Secret Life of Bees came to mind with touches of The Help and To Kill a Mockingbird. WHISTLING PAST THE GRAVEYARD deserves to be included with these excellent books, but it is definitely an original piece of literature.

Starla Claudelle is nine years old and lives in her exacting grandmother’s home in Mississippi. Starla’s mother left when Starla was three years old to become famous in Nashville as a country singer. Her father works on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico and rarely gets home.

Mamie has never approved of Starla’s white-trash mother and has been working very hard to turn the young girl into a respectable lady, but Starla’s natural tendencies to speak her mind and to get into fights put the two of them at constant odds.

Mamie forbids Starla from going to the town’s big Fourth of July parade and celebration, but she sneaks out only to be caught by Jimmy Sellers’ angry mother. (Starla had caused Jimmy’s bloody nose, but he had deserved it.) Mrs. Sellers’s threat to have Starla sent to a reform school, a threat that she has heard from her grandma many times, causes Starla to just start walking out of town. Her idea is to get to Nashville where her famous mother will take care of her. That way she, her mother and her daddy will all live happily together.

After walking far enough to realize that she should have thought this trip out a little better--no food or water, her feet hurt, and she had no idea which way to Nashville-- she is picked up by Eula. Eula is a black woman driving a truck that is falling apart and has a white baby with her.

This trip will change Starla’s life forever. The nine-year-old will face  dangerous racial bias, deal with attempts on her own life, and be a witness to murder. Along the way she will also experience unconditional love and learn that meanness or kindness know no color lines.

The story is told by Starla herself and we easily fall into her innocent dreams for the future. After awhile, we start to read between the lines and decide that the world is a grittier place than a nine-year-old realizes. The author, Susan Crandell leads us along, slowly helping us to decide who is good and who is really bad.

Starla is a well drawn character. She will stay with you for a long time. I also liked how well the author captured other characters in the book. The racial tension of the 1960’s has been written about a lot lately, but it seemed fresh and even more tense when seen through the innocent eyes of Starla. Starla’s observations on human nature are also worth the read.  She has enough pluck and humor to keep the book moving to a very satisfying conclusion.

BOOK REVIEW: The Accidental Mother

THE ACCIDENTAL MOTHER by Rowan Coleman is a good piece of “chick lit”. I was looking for a light read, so thought that I would try an author who was new but who sounded not too deep. THE ACCIDENTAL MOTHER fit the bill perfectly.

Sophie has her eye on a great promotion; her life has been centered on getting her boss’s job. The office talk is that the job will soon be available and that she and one other woman are in contention for the promotion. In the middle of her biggest project and knowing that she can not make the slightest mistake, she receives word that her childhood friend Carrie has been killed in an automobile accident.

Carrie had married and was the mother of two young children. Several years earlier Carrie had asked Sophie to care for her children if anything ever happened to her. After several glasses of wine Sophie had said yes, knowing that they were both young and such an event was certainly not going to happen.

Sophie has had no time for any type of personal life. She had a promising career, a small, chic apartment, and a great shoe collection. Now she has six year old Bella and Izzy, age three. The children’s grandmother is moving to an assisted living facility and their father is nowhere to be found. The only person to care for the children is Sophie...and she had promised Carrie.

The results of course are humorous and genuinely heartwarming. Sophie is terribly under-equipped to care for two grieving girls and some of her ways of coping are inventive to say the least.  

The cold, career woman who is suddenly thrown into motherhood is an oft used one in women’s  literature, but THE ACCIDENTAL MOTHER is set apart by good characters:  a little girl who will only wear her lilac fairy costume and definitely will not ride in a car, a too mature six year old who can be won through a mutual love of shoes, a very gay assistant, and a wealthy, handsome suitor who does not interest Sophie. Sophie’s growth as she learns to open to a world outside of her job is well done. There is humor in her inability even to feed two little girls, but from the beginning it is easy to see that she will make it all alright for the three of them. And if the ending left the reader hanging a bit, well, that was OK, too.

I have learned that there is a sequel to THE ACCIDENTAL MOTHER titled The Accidental Family. It is fairly obvious what the story line will be but it would be nice to see what happens to Sophie, Bella and Izzy.

THEATER REVIEW: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged

If the recent production of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE ABRIDGED is any indication of what Millbrook Playhouse has in store for us, this summer should be another winner. The Playhouse gets moved to the Lock Haven Elks for winter productions, so the shows are simple in sets, cast size, etc.  

THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE ABRIDGED has a cast of three who play all of the parts from the 37 plays (plus some assorted sonnets, sort of). This of course calls for fast costume and prop changes making the evening hectic and lots of fun - a true burlesque comedy.

The actors, Matt Harris, Chris Kateff, and Lawrence Lesher, never stopped. Remember that in Shakespeare’s day there were no women actors; all of the parts were played by male actors. Matt was assigned the female roles and that did serious damage to our belief that Cleopatra and Juliet were known for their beauty. He is a natural for slapstick comedy.

Chris had moments during the silliness that showed his training and talent in classical theatre. He also looks very good in tights, ladies.

Lawrence, who also directed the show, is familiar to Millbrook audiences, but this gave us a new view of his talents. I associate him with the King of Siam or Daddy Warbucks or the farce Lend Me a Tenor. It is good to know that he can show no fear in broad comedy as well.

Watching the fast pace and seemingly impromptu nature of the show, we forget to give credit to the backstage people. Keeping props and costume pieces straight must have been a Herculean task. Dressers Kristen Wettstein and Gavin D’Ulisee deserved their special curtain call.   

The simple, but effective set was designed by Ethan Shutika. The “Iron Lady” Ruth Ann Yannarella coordinated the costumes. Tricky lighting was overseen by Ethan Vail and stage manager was Alisha Tyler-Lohr. Kristen Wettstein can take extra credit for the laughter created by her  creative props.

I tried to find out if we would be seeing any of these talents during the summer season, but everyone was fairly quiet on the subject. The only thing that was admitted was that Lawrence Lesher would be directing one of the shows in the Cabaret. I am already smelling the scent of new farce.

Check out their schedule at www.millbrookplayhouse.org. It looks interesting. Remember there is a reason that they are starting their fifty-first year of summer stock theatre. For a theatre to be around for fifty-one years shows that they are doing something right.

BOOK REVIEW: When You Reach Me

NOTE:  This book is sort-of an homage to A Wrinkle In Time, which was reviewed in January.  

Time travel books can be tricky. Since, obviously, the rules for traveling through time are rather vague, an author is more or less free to invent his or her own rules. The only restriction may be to stay consistent within the story.This brings me to Rebecca Stead’s WHEN YOU REACH ME. Although advertised as a time travel story, it is much more.

Miranda is a twelve year old “latch key kid” with a single mom who works as a para-legal. Her lifelong best friend has stopped walking home from school with her, and even talking to her, after he is punched by one of the boys hanging out on the street. Mira now has to walk home, past that gang of boys as well as the weird homeless man who sleeps with his head under the mailbox.

Around this time she starts to find notes from an unidentified person. A person who knows that her mom will win a chance to be on The $20,000  Pyramid and other things that have not happened. Among the warnings is that this person will save one of Mira’s friends as well as himself.

The author says that she wrote this book for her young sons, to show them what it was like to grow up in New York City when she was young. This was a time when children had more freedom to roam and play on the streets. Rebecca Stead has done an excellent job of portraying the life of twelve year olds. The loss of the dependency of her friendship with Sal forces Mira to make other friends and new worlds open to her.

For me the book was rich in relationships and characters...two important elements of a book. The interplay among the students, as told through Mira’s words rang true. She had to deal with getting beneath the surface of her fellow classmates. This was an important part of her growth. Mira’s solution for the girl who was too shy to ask to go to the bathroom showed her maturing and starting to think outside of herself.

The best part for me was the fact that we saw little revealing pieces of what should have been minor characters. The school secretary, the shop owner across the street, the dentist, the shop owner who “hired” the three friends to help at his store over their lunch break. these all became three dimensional.

It is a story involving time travel. The notes are from somebody from the future, but somebody that Mira knows as a young girl. Naturally to tell you more would be what my kids call “dudeing it”. In other words ruin the ending for you. I will say that the the revealing scene is very touching and adds another layer to the story.

 Oh, and pay attention to the chapter titles. Very clever.

WHEN YOU REACH ME is recipient of the Newbery Medal which tells us that this is one more great book that adults should not miss. Rebecca Stead will be re-visited.

BOOK REVIEW: Changes

My favorite, and only, grandson received a book for Christmas that he had already read so he re-gifted it to me. Now, I am rather fond of my one and only grandson, but I KNOW not to start a series twelve books into the story. This means that I have to go back through eleven books to catch up.

Jim Butcher has been on my list of authors to try, but for some reason I had not read anything by him except some short stories in various anthologies. I wish I had started with the first book featuring Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden.

CHANGES picks up Harry as an established professional wizard in Chicago. He has a tentative relationship with the police department, but has been useful in tracking demons, vampires, werewolves, and other baddies from the realm of the supernatural. He is no stranger to the horrors that lie beyond the mortal world.

The battle changes one morning when he receives word that he has a daughter with his ex-lover Susan Rodriguez and that the young girl has been kidnapped by the Red Court, the strong power that rules the world of vampires.

Arianna Ortega, Dutchess of the Red Court blames Harry for the death of her husband and Susan’s long kept secret is the perfect vehicle for revenge. Harry, Susan, and an odd assortment of characters, from the mortal world of Chicago and the not so mortal realms,find themselves in a bloody battle to save a frightened little girl.

Butcher did an excellent job of subtly identifying the people in Harry’s life. I never was confused about relationships and the explanations never slowed the story. It did make me want to know more about some of them and since some were killed off in this book, I will have to “back-read”.

What I most enjoyed about CHANGES was how well Butcher developed his characters. Harry is very human, even taking into account his powers as a wizard. His moral code, his sense of humor, his loyalty, are all what moves the story. Any wizard who loves his dog and cat as much as Harry cared for Mouse and Mister has to be all right. ( Mouse is a big shaggy dog with some interesting traits of his own; Mister is his seldom seen cat).  

Sometimes Harry’s humor borders on the sophomoric; I can see why he is popular with young men. Instead of quietly laughing, I found myself groaning at the jokes. It also helps to have at least a slight grasp of mythology and world religions to appreciate parts of Harry’s world.

Fantasy has always been a genre that I enjoy. Thanks to Harry Potter, wizards have  become more mainstream. It might be tempting to compare Harry Dresden with Harry Potter, but Dresden is more a cross between Merlin and Magnum. P.I.

If you like stories about vampires, wizards, good detectives and do not mind a little gore, try a Jim Butcher book. You might want to start with an earlier one like Storm Front. I understand that an omnibus titled Wizard for Hire contains the first three novels.

BOOK REVIEW: The Art of Fielding

My interest in baseball is minimal at best. Any knowledge that I have on the subject has been picked up through osmosis from a sports fanatic family. Therefor the fact that I enjoyed THE ART OF FIELDING by Chad Harback came as a surprise to me. Of course saying that THE ART OF FIELDING is about baseball would be like saying that The Old Man and the Sea is about fishing.

THE ART OF FIELDING revolves around Henry Skrimshander whose talent as a shortstop is almost supernatural. Thanks to Mike Schwartz, captain of the Westish College baseball team, Henry receives a full scholarship to the college. Mike and Henry devote all of their time and energies into perfecting their skills and that of their fellow players  and for the first time in the history of the college, there is a chance for a division championship.

In a crucial game, one of Henry’s routine throws goes wild with disastrous results causing Henry to lose his self confidence. Not only is Henry’s future likely to be ruined, but the ramifications go beyond the baseball field into the lives of other college residents.

Owen Dunne, Henry’s gay, mulatto roommate, becomes involved in a dangerous affair. Mike Schwartz as a senior discovers that he has nowhere to go. His last years of college have been devoted to getting Henry a spot as a first draft with a major league team.

Guert Affenlight, president of Westish College, a renown Melville scholar and lifelong bachelor, has fallen unexpectedly in love. The circumstances of which could threaten his career. Pella Affenlight, President Affenlight’s  daughter, escaping a bad marriage  has come to Westish to make amends with her father. Starting as the most needy of all of the characters in the book, she becomes the saving “glue” as others fall apart around her.

This is a book of fantastic characters. Each one has more layers than could be summed up in a paragraph or two. Usually there is one person to cheer for in a story; in this case, here were at least five.

 The author makes many references to Herman Melville’s  Moby Dick.  In THE ART OF FIELDING, we can see how each character has a fatal obsession much like Captain Ahab had with the white whale---Mike with Henry, Henry with playing shortstop, Guert with his new love, etc.

 I am so glad that this book was recommended to me. It was a good read and reminded me that there is a reason that sports stories are often an allegory/ metaphor about the big things in life. Although I have never played shortstop, there have been mistakes that have changed my life. This is an universal theme for good reason;  we can all relate

THEATER REVIEW: James and The Giant Peach

Bald Eagle Area High School Drama Department recently produced their version of Roald Dahl’s JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH. The cast was primarily middle school students and the production crews were manned by the more experienced upperclassmen. The show was under the supervision of faculty advisors Eric M. Brinser  and Lindsey Allison. I have to say that my friends and I were impressed.

The plot is typically a Roald Dahl fantasy. A  young, mistreated boy, James, finds himself inside a VERY large peach where he meets some  strange insects, some angry cloud men, and some threatening sharks. James is a creative thinker and is able to save himself and his new friends with the help of a flock of seagulls. (I did tell you that it was based on a Dahl story).

The narrators, Katherine Haagen and Ireland Hackman, were a big help in explaining the scenes that happened “off stage”. They also were the first to execute their lines clearly and distinctly throughout the evening.

When I complimented the student director Cody Mandell on how well the actors spoke, he told me that it was something that he really nagged about. He reminded them that he wanted “the little old ladies to hear every word”. This little old lady was very appreciative.

The lighting, which to me is one of the hardest aspects of a play, also was a big help for a play based on fantasy. The large orange peach grew right in front of our eyes and we watched as it rolled across the stage to take care of the evil aunts. Thank you, Stone Woodring and Luke Wilson.

On what I suppose was a tight budget, the costumes and sets were original and appropriate. Kate Snyder’s costume crew outfitted the actors so that each character was defined. I am not sure who was responsible for the sets, but as simple as they were, they worked. I loved the “sea”.

The cast showed more stage presence than would be expected in a middle school production. I did not read the biographies of the actors until after the show and was really surprised how many were in their first production. It was very easy to forget that they were 6th, 7th and 8th graders.

I wish that there was space to mentioned each person who appeared on stage, but it was a large cast. So I offer my apologies and a promise that I will be watching for some talents in the next show.

James was played by Kody Chandler and he deserves so much credit for carrying such a large part. He had so many lines and I was not aware of one flub. The insects living in the giant peach were all delightful: Alice Statham as the Old-Green-Grasshopper, Emily Shields as the hard working Spider, Dale Dyke as the charming Ladybug, Charlee Harris as the pessimistic Earthworm, and Tanisha Myers as the incandescent Glow-worm. Michael Bailey as the verbose Centipede almost stole the show. He definitely had some great lines--- and I heard everyone.

Space is running out but I have to mention Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker played by Lacee Barnhart and Sammy Arens. These parts required that the audience feel how evil they were; both girls were up to the job. It can be fun to play the mean person.

If JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH is an example of the talent coming up in the Bald Eagle Drama Department, we can look for a good future in local theatre.

Save the date information:

Shrek, The Musical  playing April 24 - 26 at 7:30 in the Bald Eagle High School Auditorium.