To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

I know everyone in all likelihood knows what this book is about, and has probably read it.  I however, had not.  I will post a quick bit from goodreads on here: Lawyer Atticus Finch defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic, Puliter Prize-winning novella, a black man charged with the rape of a white woman. Through the eyes of Atticus's children, Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with rich humor and unanswering honesty the irrationality of adult attitudes toward race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s.

My Take
Please do not send me hate mail.  That's all I ask.  While I loved the overall message behind this book, I personally wasn't thrilled with the book as a whole.  I became mired in extreme descriptive nature of everything.  I kept waiting for something to happen to really draw me in to this story. 

Once the trial came about, that really solidified it for me.  That pulled me in and I was cruising along through it.  But, that was a fair amount of the way through the book.  The railing out against the hideousness of racism and learning that the world is not always a fair and just place.  That in itself is a tough lesson.  I appreciated the deeply steeped principles that Atticus lived and raised his children with.  The fact that you can never really know someone until you can place yourself in their skin.  Tolerance and understanding, two virtues that in many places, have remained unknown.  In this day and age, that is a sad statement indeed.

I like the characters.  Miss Maudie Atkinson, Atticus, Calpernia, Jem, Scout and Dill.  I thought they were endearing and loveable.  I could almost see each one of them.  It's been forever since I've seen the movie too, so I really didn't have that to go by. 

Since this book was written, I believe writing has changed drastically.  There's much more action in novels now.  The writing is tight and sparse on descriptors.  I cringe because I know I've set quite a few people's teeth on edge saying all of this.  I'll just stop now and say I'm giving this one 3 kisses!

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Here's a brief blurb from Ms. Anderson's website: Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. Now her old friends won’t talk to her, and people she doesn’t even know hate her from a distance. The safest place to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that’s not safe. Because there’s something she’s trying not to think about, something about the night of the party that, if she let it in, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens. And then she would have to speak the truth. This extraordinary first novel has captured the imaginations of teenagers and adults across the country.

My Take

I felt that it was important for me to review this book during Banned Books Week.  It's unfortunate that there are people (Wesley Scroggins) trying to ban this book.  It's the story of Melinda who is raped by an older boy.  She can't bring herself to tell anyone about it.  I can say from personal experience, the price of silence is a steep, costly one. 

This book was powerful and moving.  As the reader you can feel Melinda's quiet desperation.  The fear mounting as time goes on.  The changes in Melinda are profound though.  Over time she grows stronger and more sure of herself.  This is a beautiful book that should be a must read for girls everywhere, and maybe even boys too.  It was beautiful and profound.  Mr. Freeman the art teacher was my favorite adult character.  He was so encouraging and helped Melinda see that what she had to say was important.  That she could express it through the vehicle of her art as well.  I definitely recommend this book and am giving it four gentle kisses!

SPEAK Out and Banned Books Week

I knew on the outset that this was going to be one of the more difficult posts I’ve ever written. Please bear with me if I begin to ramble. I have been reading a lot about banned books and more specifically about Speak and the whole Wesley Scroggins debacle. I wanted to post this during banned books week which runs from September 25, 2010 to October 2, 2010. I know I lag behind the posts in support of Speak, but just felt like the time was now, so here we are.

I started thinking about Speak and Wesley Scroggins talking about his views of rape being soft porn, which incidentally makes me want to vomit. It makes me sad to think there are people out in the world who would say such a thing. It breaks my heart that these people have any kind of influence at all. It’s horrible to think that the voice of a few can dictate the actions of many. I’m so proud of the literary community coming together and shouting “NO, this is not okay!”

I joined the #SpeakLoudly movement on twitter. I kept thinking about it, Speak Loudly. I felt a little like a hypocrite. Whew, here goes. You see, I am a survivor of sexual abuse. There are very few people who actually know that, as a matter fact, only one member of my family knows and only because I recently told them. So here I am going on about Speak Loudly and I was carrying around this secret. People like Wesley Scroggins feed into the mentality that what happened to me was dirty or my fault somehow. And that, well that’s a bunch a freakin’ crap! Thinking back to when I was a kid, reading some of the books with characters going through similar things (there probably weren’t many because I’m getting towards old), really did help me. I didn’t feel like such a freak. And now maybe it’s about time I do a little speaking out of my own.

To say that wonderful works of fiction such as To Kill a Mockingbird, The Scarlet Letter, or The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are somehow harmful to our children, well frankly that insults me and my child. We all have to live in this world together and not simply within the confines of one’s own small, closed mind. I encourage my son to broaden his horizons, put himself in another person’s shoes, and view life from their vantage point. I would think doing this through a work of fiction would be one of the safer vehicles.

I did warn you all that I may ramble, right? My son has challenges. He has been diagnosed with ADHD, OCD and Tourette ’s syndrome. This country, not all that long ago, used to practice eugenics. Can you imagine being told that because you have some kind of disability or difference deemed ‘unacceptable’ in your familial line, that you were NOT going to be allowed to re-produce! Someone actually performing sterlization procedures on you.  Wonderful children like my son might not be here today!  Letting someone else determine what’s acceptable for us to read is akin to that very same thing. NO ONE decides what’s acceptable for me and mine, other than me and mine. Okay, I’m stepping down off my soapbox and stopping my rambling rant now.

Sneak Peek: However, I also wanted to say that on October 26th I’m interviewing Beth Fehlbaum on my blog. Beth is the author of two novels, Courage In Patience and Hope In Patience. They are the story of 15 year old Ashley Asher, abuse survivor, who not only survives, but goes on to thrive. Hope In Patience will be released October 27th 2010. I’m very excited to be able to interview Beth on my blog. I hope you’ll stop by and check it out.