Just read another young adult novel by Naomi Shihab Nye, going going. That’s right, no caps, no comma. Makes the editor in me nuts, but what are you going to do? I told you she’s a poet.
It’s about a 16-year-old girl who lives in San Antonio and has been slowly watching all of the local establishments being run out of business by big chains and franchise stores. She begins a small movement in her circle of family and friends to boycott big businesses and to only support the small, locally owned operations that make her city unique. It’s refreshing that it’s about activism in young people today. It’s refreshing that the book is about a family like many I know, kind of crunchy-granola, kinda funky. The kids in the book are not blasting the typical MTV junk or being hateful, sullen teens. And Florrie, the main character, is motivated by something outside of herself, something beyond worrying about clothes and hair and parties and boys, although there is a realistic love situation that comes up.
The only problem I had with the book is that Florrie is almost unbelievably focused on her cause. She bursts into tears when reading in the paper one day that another local place will be closing its doors. That she cares, even cares a lot, I can handle, but that she reacts to this news like a friend has just died I found a little heavy-handed. Perhaps making her a little more balanced and believable would have made the message more effective.
Overall, a sweet, refreshing book that fills a much-needed gap between the innocent younger elementary books and the heavier territory of most Young Adult novels.
One reader's thoughts as she steps from book to book.
Books I've Finished
- "A Christmas Memory"
- by Truman Capote 12/8/12
- "Child's Christmas in Wales"
- by Dylan Thomas 12/7/12
- "One Christmas"
- by Truman Capote 11/29/12
- "The Thanksgiving Visitor"
- by Truman Capote 11/29/12
- Inside Mrs. B's Classroom
- by Leslie Baldacci 11/28/12
- The Bee Eater
- by Richard Whitmire 11/15/12
- There Are No Shortcuts
- by Rafe Esquith 10/28/12
- I'd Like to Apologize to
- Every Teacher I Ever Had
- by Tony Danza 10/21/12
- Corked
- by Kathryn Borel 10/15/12
- Year of Learning Dangerously
- by Quinn Cummings 9/30/12
- A Hologram for the King
- by Dave Eggers 8/23/12
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- by Harper Lee 7/18/12
About Me
- Christine
- I often have a few books with bookmarks in them at once. I enjoy classics more than contemporary works of fiction, often read historical fiction, and love to get glimpses into other people's lives by reading memoirs and biographies.
2 comments:
I have to ask: Does this book paint big corporations as the evil monopolistic devil incarnate? Or does it explain how supply and demand have led to the existence of such entities? Does it dwell totally on the idealogical pipe-dream or does it deal with the practicalities and problems associated with small businesses?
I'm all for encouraging children to be practical activists but so many advocacies do not deal with the realities: in this case, product cost, storage and stocking limitations, transportation cost, facility overheads etc. It's one thing to want small businesses to exist but whether it is feasible to do so is another. Sometimes I think it is like expecting us to all return to subsistence farming - it's not going to happen. For better or worse, "progress" has passed beyond those days.
So, I'm curious as to whether the book gives any real solutions.
Great questions. Only a couple of fringe characters represent anythying other than Big Is Bad, Small Is Good.
In my town, an historic post office was torn down some years ago. It had been privately owned for a while. The building was an icon in our small city and was handsome on the outside but falling apart structurally. Many angry protestors demonstrated publically, "Save Our Post Office!" and demanded that it not be torn down. Well, who was supposed to pay for its gutting and rehabbing? And what purpose would the building serve there after? And where would the money come from to keep it going?
Yes, in a perfect world, that post office would still be standing strong and shining and serving in its original function. Things change, and there are only more and more humans every day. Unfortunately, sometimes doing the "nice" thing isn't affordable or practical, and making bad guys out of those who choose not to give everything away is too easy for the rest of us.
Anyone know of another teen book about these issues?
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