The Glad Game

Published:  February 1st, 2002 (First published 1913)
Pollyanna (Pollyanna #1)
By: Eleanor H. Porter
Aladdin
ISBN-13:  9780689849107

When orphaned 11-year-old Pollyanna comes to live with austere and wealthy Aunt Polly, her philosophy of gladness brings happiness to her aunt and other members of the community, somewhat to their surprise.

Review

     I love reading classic children's books, for the simple fact of them drawing me into their stories in a way that adult, or even teen books can't seem to manage quite as well.  I can lose myself in my childhood again when I pick up an old friend, or a new one that is centered on the story of a child.  Children's books from a hundred or more years ago, like Pollyanna, are no exception to this particular feeling of enjoyment.  I never read this one as a child, but did see the Disney movie of the same name starring a young Hayley Mills (I found it a little saccharine to be honest).  The book isn't exactly the same as the film, thankfully.  It actually reminds me quite a bit of Anne of Green Gables, as it's the same style of writing.  The book is made up of what is could almost be classified as vignettes, but not quite since they are a coherent story thread with and obvious timeline.

     The plot is centered around young Pollyanna, whose minister father has just died and now that she's an orphan, she's being sent to live with her rich Aunt Polly across the country.  Polly of course is absolutely miserable, and lives by herself in a big house on the hill.  Polly likes things neat, orderly and quiet.  So of course young Pollyanna's presence, with her "glad game" and constant cheerfulness is a thorn in her side.  Pollyanna plays a game every day that she calls the "glad game," which she started with her father.  In everything that happens in her life, good or bad, she looks for something to be glad about.  Before she knows it, Pollyanna's encounters with the townsfolk while playing her game, have managed to transform the lives of a great many people.  But then tragedy strikes Pollyanna - can she find something to be glad about, even in her darkest hour?  I highly recommend this to adults and children alike.  It has a great moral to it, the individual stories are all rather funny (especially the one about young Jimmy Bean trying to be the "India boy" for Pollyanna's Ladies Aide back west), and the conclusion had me on the verge of tears.  I think fans of Anne will especially enjoy it, because as I said before it's definitely in the same literary vein.

VERDICT:  5/5  Stars

**No money or favors were exchanged for this review.  This book is now available in stores, online, or maybe even at your local library.**

Hold My Hand

Expected Publication:  July 1st, 2014

Copper Magic

By: Julia Mary Gibson

Starscape/Tor

ISBN-13:  9780765332110

Can an unearthed talisman found on the shores of Lake Michigan save 12-year-old Violet's fractured family?  Exploring themes of Native American culture, ecology, and conservation, this historical fiction novel comes brilliantly to life.

The year is 1906, and twelve-year-old Violet Blake unearths an ancient talisman --a copper hand-- beside the stream where her mother used to harvest medicine.  Violet's touch warms the copper hand and it begins to reveal glimpses of another time.  Violet is certain that the copper hand is magic -- and if anyone is in need of its powers, it's Violet.  Her mother and adored baby brother are gone, perhaps never to return.  Her heartbroken father can't seem to sustain the failing farm on the outskirts of Pigeon Harbor, on the shores of Lake Michigan.

Surely the magic of the copper hand can make things right for Violet and restore her fractured family.  Violet makes a wish.  But her ignorant carelessness unleashes formiddable powers -- and her attempts to control them jeopardizes not only herself, but the entire town of Pigeon Harbor.

In Copper Magic, land and waters are alive with memories, intentions, and impulses.  Magic alters Violet and brings her gifts -- but not always the kind she thinks she needs.  First-time author Julia May Gibson brings Violet and her community to life in this impressive and assured debut.

Review

     Violet Blake has been living with just her father on their farm for months now, ever since her mother took her baby brother Francis (aka Fry) and left.  Violet doesn't know why she left, when she's coming back and is actually starting to believe that both her Mom and her brother are actually dead.  Twelve year old Violet is stuck between a child and a teenager, outgrowing her shabby clothes and trying to stay a kid, but being forced into responsibility be her meddling Aunt.  The property down by the lake has been "bought" by church people, who are setting up camp for the summer.  Violet makes friends with a preacher's kid and one day by the lake she finds a copper hand, that she thinks is magical.  Maybe the hand can bring back her family and put her life back to normal.  But when the copper hand unleashes powers that Violet can't control and that could cause a lot of harm, and it is taken away by priveleged people who don't understand it, it's up to Violet to save the hand and return it to where it belongs before it's too late.

     The main draw for me was the fact that this book is set in Michigan, near Lake Michigan.  It also didn't hurt that this was a historical fiction book set in my home state.  I love me some decent historical fiction.  The tone was very reminiscent of To Kill a Mockingbird, but without the stately wisdom that seems to assert itself in that novel (even with the main characters being children).  Violet Blake is our protagonist in this one, and while I get that kids were a hell of a lot more innocent/naieve/less jaded in the early 1900s for the most part, I just did NOT feel like I was reading something from the point of view of a twelve year old.  I honestly couldn't think of Violet as any older than nine or so years old.  Especially since most of this book centers around her unwavering belief in the magical powers of a hand made out of copper!

      Probably my favorite thing in this book as I was reading, ended up being the usage of Native American mysticism and culture to bring home the power of belief to make things change.  Also, I really loved the way Gibson portrayed the Native American people in this novel (Violet is actually the product of a half N.A. mother and a white father).  She doesn't ignore the racism and demeaning cultural attitudes of the time period, but still manages to make the characters rich and very developed.  They are never just convenient stereotypes.  There is also some beautiful imagery to do with the beaches, the Hotel that draws in the tourists every summer and the general natural beauties of Michigan.  The biggest complaint on my part would probably be the lack of personal change of Violet's part.  She spends the whole summer apprenticed to a famous lady photographer, trying to make wishes on a magical artifact and trying to retrieve the hand once it's been stolen.  Not to mention her issues with her father and her Aunt, who wants to make Violet into something she's not (and doesn't want to be) - a proper young lady.  Yet for all the heartache and trouble that the hand and her naievte bring into her life, Violet never seems to change all that much during the ensuing drama and tragedy.  Even the aftermath doesn't seem to affect her all that much.  I did appreciate the unresolved nature of the situation with Violet's Mom.  I liked that things were nowhere near as simple as she had made them, and that Violet and her Dad went in search of her Mom, instead of just taking the easy out, and having her return.  Overall, it's a very well written, historical fiction novel worth reading if you like a good mystical mystery.  I just feel like it belongs more in the middle grade catergorization than in the YA pool of novels.

VERDICT:  3/5  Stars

*I received this book as part of Around the World ARC Tours, run by the lovely Princess Bookie.  No favors or money were exchanged for this review.  This book's expected publication date is July 1st, 2014.*

Patty Goes to College and All Hell Breaks Loose

Published:  1903

When Patty Went to College (Patty #1)

By: Jean Webster

Grosset and Dunlap

ISBN-13:  9781402162893

When Patty Went To College is Jean Webster's first novel, published in 1903.  It is a humourous look at life in an all girls college at the turn of the twentieth century.  Patty Wyatt, the protagonist of this story is a bright, fun loving, imperturbable girl who does not like to conform.  The book describes her many escapades on campus during her senior year at college.  Patty enjoys life on campus and uses her energies in playing pranks and for the entertainment of herself and her friends.  An intelligent girl, she uses creative methods to study only as much as she feels necessary.  Patty is, however, a believer in causes and a champion of the weak.  She goes out of her way to help a homesick freshman Olivia Copeland who believes she will be sent home when she fails four subjects in the examination.

The end of the book sees Patty reflecting on what her life after college might be like.  She plays hooky from chapel and meets a bishop.  In a chat with the Bishop, Patty realizes that being irresponsible and evasive at a young age could adversely affect her character as an adult and decides to try to be a more responsible person.

My Thoughts

     Patty Wyatt is still the same mischievous, somewhat lazy, inherently good girl and truly loyal friend in college as she was in her days at St. Ursula's boarding school.  This book was actually written before Just Patty and was Webster's first novel.  It is made up of a series of vignettes just as the other Patty book happens to be, chronicling a year in the life of Patty and her friends - with stories of all the mischief they get up to.  There are some particularly amusing stories in this one, such as the time Patty tries to put on tea for the other girls and botches the whole thing, trying to get everyone else to do everything for her clandestinely.  Or the one where Patty hosts an older English gentleman, Mr. Toddhunter, and goes out of her way to mess with his mind by acting very young for her age.  Possibly my favorite is when the head of the college receives a telegram for Patty that "Robert" is dead, thinking he's a brother or a lover possibly.  In reality, he's Patty's brother Thomas' dog whom everyone hates, as he was the terror of the family!  

     Some of the more serious stories include Patty trying to help a foreign scholarship student from Italy who's homesick, failing her classes and dreadfully lonely.  Olivia also happens to be extremely brilliant and it's up to Patty to set things right before Olivia is kicked out of school.  If only Patty can get the lonely, stern Miss Prescott to let her retake the Geometry examinations.  I guess the story at the end of the book with Patty playing hooky from church and being lectured by a Bishop that she happens upon can also be considered as serious.  To be honest though, it's the most jagged of the puzzle pieces that make up the stories in this book, as a whole.  It's too moralizing and preachy to really fit in with the others and it kind of feels like it was slapped in at the last minute to add some sort of lesson to the book and Patty's 'bad' behavior.  That said, it's like the Widow adopting Huck Finn and putting him in a suit.  There are good intentions behind it, but you can't put a wild thing in a box and expect it to stay there of it's own accord.  Overall, I did enjoy reading more about Patty and Priscilla (who ended up going to college with her friend), but it wasn't quite as good as Just Patty.  A great first novel just the same though, better than many I've read before.

VERDICT:  3.5/5  Stars

**No money or favors were exchanged for this review.  This book is now available mostly  in used bookstores, online, or maybe even at your local library.**

American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee

Published: March 13th, 2012 (Paperback)
American Rose: A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee
By: Karen Abbott
Random House
ISBN-13:  9781400066919

America in the Roaring Twenties. Vaudeville was king. Talking pictures were only a distant flicker. Speakeasies beckoned beyond dimly lit doorways; money flowed fast and free. But then, almost overnight, the Great Depression leveled everything. When the dust settled, Americans were primed for a star who could distract them from grim reality and excite them in new, unexpected ways. Enter Gypsy Rose Lee, a strutting, bawdy, erudite stripper who possessed a preternatural gift for delivering exactly what America needed.

With her superb narrative skills and eye for compelling detail, Karen Abbott brings to vivid life an era of ambition, glamour, struggle, and survival. Using exclusive interviews and never-before-published material, she vividly delves into Gypsy’s world, including her intensely dramatic triangle relationship with her sister, actress June Havoc, and their formidable mother, Rose, a petite but ferocious woman who seduced men and women alike and literally killed to get her daughters on the stage.

American Rose chronicles their story, as well as the story of the four scrappy and savvy showbiz brothers from New York City who would pave the way for Gypsy Rose Lee’s brand of burlesque. Modeling their shows after the glitzy, daring reviews staged in the theaters of Paris, the Minsky brothers relied on grit, determination, and a few tricks that fell just outside the law—and they would shape, and ultimately transform, the landscape of American entertainment.

With a supporting cast of such Jazz- and Depression-era heavyweights as Lucky Luciano, Harry Houdini, FDR, and Fanny Brice, Karen Abbott weaves a rich narrative of a woman who defied all odds to become a legend—and whose sensational tale of tragedy and triumph embodies the American Dream.

Review

   Gypsy Rose Lee was a stripper, a burlesque dancer during a time that alcohol was outlawed, underground speakeasies were King and flappers ran wild with gangsters.  She was able to distract the public from their weariness and the troubles the Great Depression had brought them.  A great deal of this biography is spent in Gypsy's complex relationships with her mother Rose and her sister June.  This was not my usual read by any stretch of the imagination.  I do love to learn more about history and biographies/memoirs are wonderful things to read if they're well done.  I did feel like the book was far more about the myth of Gypsy Rose Lee than the realities of her.  I enjoyed all of the ancedotes and the detail the author goes into.  I love the time period that was focused on, the Roaring Twenties onward through the wartorn Forties.  I loved the glamour and harshness of Prohibition and the unimaginable way it coexisted with the Great Depression.  It was easy to imagine being taken in by the beauty and mystery of a burlesque dancer and very big personality like Gypsy Rose Lee.  The book relies largely on imformation already in the public consiousness, interviews with Gypsy's sister June that give sometimes vague information, the words of actress June Havoc, and the recollections of her son Erik Preminger.  Who knows if we as curiosity seekers will ever get the truth behind the curtains?  Either way, it was a truly intriguing and fun book to read for one such as myself who had only heard Gypsy's name in passing and didn't really know anything about her.  Maybe not recommendable to true enthusiasts looking for new info, but for new readers who are meeting Gypsy for the first time.

VERDICT:  3/5  Stars

* I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book was published in paperback on March 13th, 2012.*