Family, ambition, and culture clash in YA: some thoughts

I am sick and tired of writing. I'm back to working on a novel project and set the crazy unattainable goal of 2k today. I AM SICK AND TIRED OF WRITING. Therefore, a review just isn't going to happen. However, this post that's been knocking around in my head for a long time now is, because I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority here and would like some alternate opinions.

I just finished the truly excellent What Can't Wait by Ashley Hope Perez. You all should read it. As I said, it's truly excellent. But it raised a question that's been bugging me for awhile: Why is family in YA almost always portrayed as something to escape from?

Here's the summary:

Seventeen-year-old Marisa's mother has been saying this for as long as Marisa can remember. Her parents came to Houston from Mexico. They work hard, and they expect Marisa to help her familia. And they expect her to marry a boy from the neighborhood, to settle down, and to have grandbabies. If she wants a job, she could always be an assistant manager at the local grocery store.
At school, it's another story. Marisa's calc teacher expects her to ace the AP test and to get into an engineering program in Austin—a city that seems unimaginably far away. When her home life becomes unbearable, Marisa seeks comfort elsewhere—and suddenly neither her best friend nor boyfriend can get through to her. Caught between the expectations of two different worlds, Marisa isn't sure what she wants—other than a life where she doesn't end each day thanking God it's over.
What Can't Wait—the gripping debut novel from Ashley Hope Pérez—tells the story of one girl's survival in a world in which family needs trump individual success, and self-reliance the only key that can unlock the door to the future.

Okay, so I should clarify this now. In the book, Marisa has a really sucky home life that anyone would want to escape from. I'm not taking issue with that character or storyline at all. It's just that line - the one about "surviving" a world where family comes before the individual - that's getting under my skin, because it's the same thing that's used to sell every YA "issue" book, especially a multicultural "issue" book, that gets any kind of promotional push whatsoever. Think Wait for Me by An Na. Think Koyal Dark, Mango Sweet by Kashmira Sheth. To some extent, think Secret Keeper by Mitali Perkins. I could go on.

To be fair, Ashley Hope Perez seems to be very aware of the "family" issue in this interview I read with her. And honestly, she did a fantastic job with it. But - and I'm going to pull out all my fancy sociology and intercultural communication terms now - doesn't it seem a little ethnocentric to assume that the children of immigrant or traditional parents will always want to escape into the newer, "better," Western individualistic culture?

/nerdspeak.

I guess this is a little personal for me because I love my family. Not that we're multicultural or anything - though my stepdad hails from across the pond, and we're barefoot filthy hippie farm people, which is kind of a culture - but we're tight knit, and family does come before the individual. I sacrifice things for them. But, and this is the key difference between my family and Marisa's, they also sacrifice things for me. We support each other's pipe dreams, even when we disagree. We're also a blended family. And I've hardly ever seen a kind of family in YA, unless they're Cullen-esque wish fulfillment.

And that's where I'd love some input, folks, and/or recommendation of good "family" YA. Please leave 'em in the comments, you know the drill!

Review: Outspoken

Outspoken by James Vachowski
Available for $0.99 on Amazon.com, or direct from Vagabondage Press

• Why I read it: Humor, novellas, Viva la Revolution
• Disclosure: Received an e-galley from the publisher. Thanks!

Abraham Lincoln Jenkins is a teenage vandal, social activist, and aspiring revolutionary, but with only four months left until his high school graduation Abraham’s lifelong dream of attending Harvard College is put in jeopardy when he learns that he is still in need of two core credit hours in Physical Education. Unfortunately for Abraham, the only available spaces in a P.E. class are as a cadet in the Army’s JROTC program!
Told almost exclusively through Abraham’s one-sided complaint letters, OUTSPOKEN is the natural result when the War on Terror collides with the War on Christmas.

I have decided on a new policy here at Maggie's Bookshelf, and I am rather proud of it: I will no longer have high expectations for any book, ever, thereby guaranteeing that I will be pleasantly surprised EVERY TIME. Feel free to congratulate me on my brilliance, because I have gotten rather jaded with my YA of late and I'm sure you all are tired of reading my bitter, bitter reviews of books that disappointed me. Well, NO LONGER, thanks to Outspoken, which reminded me of the joys of being...well, not disappointed.

Don't get me wrong, I like it when YA experiments with different formats. I've barely started TTYL by Lauren Myracle, for example, and already I am in love. Ditto both parts The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson. But, and I discussed this in my Right Side Talking review, I'm ashamed to admit that I still struggle to raise my expectations for any self- and small press-published title, no matter how imaginative the format. As many excellent ones as I've read, there are simply too many God-awful-terrible ones. Once again, I couldn't make myself open that first page...until, of course, I could, and promptly LOL'd and snorted milk through my nose.

And that's what Outspoken made me realize: that, emo kid that I am, I can't even remember the last time I read a book that was straight humor. And that they're actually pretty awesome, and that I should read them more. Between, you know, listening to Bright Eyes 'n stuff. While it was occasionally too painfully (and realistically) earnest for comfort, the silly and wonderful voice of Abraham Lincoln Jenkins was a welcome change from the tortured protagonists that populate most of YA at the moment. For that alone, I say drop the 99 cents now, and you won't regret it.

In a brief aside about Abraham's voice, I was quite stunned at the end of the novella to find out that the author was white. I was very impressed with the casual-yet-not-too-casual way the issue of race was handled here. Yes, Abraham's black, and yes, it occasionally comes up in his complaint letters. But we're not hit over the head with his "blackness." It's just part of who he is, exactly as it should be. Indie authors, THIS. And that's all I got to say 'bout that.

I knew going in that this was a novella, and so I wasn't surprised when it ended far earlier than most YAs. I was surprised, however, by how upset that made me. All in all, it's sweet, funny, fresh, and unusual; poignant in all the right places. YA could use more like it, and I'll certainly be keeping an eye on Mr. Vachowski in the future. Four and a half out of five stars.

P.S. Comp teachers, if you're reading this, I am aware that there were no logical transitions between paragraphs at all. Blah. I'm very sorry, if it's any excuse I'm EXHAUSTED, and next time I will do you proud I PROMISE.

Some fabulous bookworm art for a fabulous bookworm cause

I'm currently stuck in PLANT. PLANT ALL THE THINGS mode here on the farm, meaning I am A, horrifically sunburned like the pasty white chick I am, and B, unable to sit and focus on writing a review to save my life. It may, may be coming this evening. No guarantees.

But since I am a newly minted Responsible Book Blogger who feels obligated to post double-time to make up for the madness that was finals, I give you the bookwormy pretties that showed up in my inbox last week: the online auction of original artwork to benefit Scholastic's Global Literacy Campaign.

Some pictures that were sent to me from the May 5th launch event:

Norman Bridwell, better known as Norman-freaking-Bridwell-the-man-who-wrote-and-illustrated-half-my-childhood.

Mary GrandPré, illustrator of the Harry Potter books, a.k.a. the other half of my childhood. 

 Everyone else who illustrated the OTHER half of my childhood. I suck at fractions, okay?

Seriously, guys, I wanna be filthy rich. Or at least like $1000 richer. The artwork is gorgeous, especially the Mary GrandPré piece, and the money is going to a really awesome cause. Go forth and bid so that I may live vicariously through you, minions.

Uh, please.

Middle Grade Monday: What I Learned from Being a Cheerleader

Middle Grade Monday is a weekly feature here at Maggie's Bookshelf, written by none other than my real life 11-year-old middle grade sister, Ellie, reviewing what all of the cool kids - read, not teenagers - are reading. Take it away, Ellie!

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What I Learned From Being a Cheerleader by Adrianne Ambrose

Eleven-year-old Elaine Rewitzer is funny, smart and happy being a geek, but when she wins a spot on the Cross Creek Middle School Buccaneers cheerleading squad, she gets totally into her new life. Her mega-brain best friend Bethany warns that Elaine will just become "part of the herd," and her best geek-guy-pal, Tim, (who’s struggling with nose polyps) feels forgotten. Will Elaine survive the roller coaster of pre-teen cheerleader fame? Will she win the heart of the cutest boy on the basketball team? Will she confess her "uncool" love for comic books? Will she lose Bethany and Tim’s friendship forever? AND WHEN WILL SHE GET HER POM POMS???

I personally LOVED this book. Ambrose does a good job of keeping this book interesting and is able to keep the “tweenness”; a combination I think is hard to find. I have tried to read tween books but I find them BORING and uninteresting. This book is good for girls that do not even care about boys, but the guy she crushes on was also good for ones that do. (Even though he was a jerk!) What I am trying to say is that it had a story unlike other tween books I have read. All and all I would give this book five out of five stars.


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Thanks, Ellie, and we'll see you next week!

Bidding farewell to In My Mailbox...

...or at least taking a long break. It served its purpose during the semester to keep me motivated and to keep track of what I was receiving and wanted to read, but now that we're starting the summer it just seems silly and pointless to post about books I'll be reviewing only a few days after I get them. (Of course, considering the Evil Review Lag that currently exists between what I'm reviewing and what I'm reading, this may be wishful thinking.) Our host Kristi at The Story Siren is still awesome and you should go follow her right now if you aren't already, but you will no longer be seeing IMMs or any other meme here at the Bookshelf over the summer.

Though they may return in time for fall semester.

I felt the need to blog this.

There will may be a review tomorrow.

Over and out.

*static crackles*