3 Cups for Young Readers - or Not

Three Cups of Tea
for Young Readers (c) 2009 209 pages

We’re all busy, it’s true. In case you’ve been so busy that you haven’t heard Greg Mortenson’s story – the riveting nonfiction Three Cups of Tea – well, OK, I’ll tell you. But I’ll wager you haven’t been quite as busy as Mortenson.

Mortenson served as a US Army medic before surviving years of what most would consider successful mountain climbing. Then, when he failed to reach the summit of K2 (he was about 600 meters short) and got himself badly lost, by the grace of God, or Allah, or Mohammed, or all three, he found himself in very good company, in the village of Korphe, in the Baltisan region of Pakistan.

There ended his climbing adventures and began a much more heroic journey.

Sincerely wishing to repay the kindness of those who nursed him back to health in Korphe – and probably, with a climber’s bravado – Mortenson promised to return to the village and build a school for its children.

How he fulfilled that promise is a great story, and after years on bestseller lists, it is now available in a young reader’s version (Puffin pb 2009). There's also a lovely picture book for the lapsit set. (More on that later.)

Weighing in at 209 pages, the young readers edition about two-thirds as long as the original – so adults who want to read Three Cups but just haven’t made time will have to come up with a new excuse. The Young Reader’s edition is better than a Readers’ Digest Condensed version, but the fact that it is so true to the original story is why, IMHO, it will not resonate with teens the way Three Cups did with adults.

For one reason, by teen standards, it’s a very slow-moving story.

There's little action, aside from some wild drives through Baltistan's Hushe Valley, which is quite dramatic. The rest of the book's drama is social, interpersonal, conversational. It's in the strange and protracted negotiations about concrete and nails. Trust me, it's a lot more exciting than it sounds, but it'll never grip kids like Twilight or (pulling out the obvious here) Harry Potter.

What could be done about it? That's a good question. Three Cups will probably never be a graphic novel. But the writing needs to be a little sharper, a little more pointed to get to kids, I think. It needs to move a little bit faster.

And the conundrum is, well, the book is about slowing down. That's the lesson of the three cups of tea. So a graphic novel or book with more action-packed dialog probably isn't the answer.

I hope I'm wrong in my assessment, and that tweens and teens will pick up and finish Three Cups, because it's an amazing story with an important message that kids - heck, all of us - would do well to grasp.

Click here to read my review in The Cleveland Plain Dealer, which also highlights the picture book, Listen to the Wind.

Great Title!

If I were Thomas E. Ricks, I'd be kicking myself for not having come up with a title like The War in Iraq, Second in a Series. NYT book critic Michiko Kakutani (or her editor) deserves recognition for that, the headline of her review of Ricks's latest work, The Gamble.

You Go, Girl

I've been on something of a kick reading about adolescent girls, Hold Me Close, Let Me Go (by Adair Lara) being the latest. Of the pile I've read so far, it's been the least illuminating but most personal. I found it disappointing, in that I had hoped for a whole book along the lines of Lara's wonderfully clarifying essay referred to in most reprints I've seen as The Cat Years.)

Reviving Ophelia surprised me the most - I didn't want to read it, rather, I thought I should. I had dismissed Mary Pipher's book as "just" the seminal diatribe on adolescent girls and eating disorders, when it is quite a bit more than that, and much more palatable than Queen Bees and Wannabees. (Which scared and scarred me, I'm telling you.)

As the admittedly anxious and confused mother of a teenager, I'm still open to suggestions for reading materials that might make the next few years of my life a little saner and a little safer for us all...

Golf is Bad 4 U, Fixing the Root of the Problem, and Other Interesting Topics

Alas, a new year dawned on my old pile of magazines, finding it nearly as deep as ever. I'm still wading through...and I've learned:

Golfing can make you deaf. (Discover Magazine January 2009)

The hottest treatment for heart attacks is hypothermia. (This link to NYT article dated December 4, 2008; a longer article in Popular Science is quite good.)

The stem cell answer may lie within. (Discover Magazine January 2009) ...

...and I have too many $#%& magazines!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Words are Cheap, Laughter is Free

Recently I wrote about what fun my son and I had just hanging out the library. I didn't mention the oodles of hand puppets, games, puzzles, and friends we enjoyed there, nor did I mention that we went to the library that day to sign up for one of its many upcoming programs for children. I didn't mention it because I think we all know: libraries are fun. They're also a great source of free entertainment, and I'm talking about more than just being able to borrow a bazillion books, for nuthin.'

But as we enjoyed several of Doris Cronin's books (Click, Clack, Moo; Diary of A Worm) it occurred to me - she's one of those authors whose books all but guarantee belly laughs. Great big guffaws, even. We laughed so loud I was afraid we might be asked to leave :-0

What authors do that for you? Let me know!

We're Reading More! So, What?

The New York Times reports that we're reading more books - and specifically, fiction.

When I saw the headline, I thought, well, there's one benefit of this economic disaster. But the experts who comment on the National Endowment for the Arts' annual report don't go there...instead, their scholarly opinions seem to be, who knows what that means?

They're probably right. The increase, the first seen in 25 years, is just one increase. According to the report, conducted by the US Census Bureau, just over 50% of adults surveyed said they had read at least one novel, short story, poem, or play in the previous 12 months. In 1992, nearly 57% answered "yes" to the same question.

I'm not going to second-guess the experts; I can only hope that means we're not as dumb as we've been told.

I will hazard a guess (and hope!) that we'll find ourselves spending more time in libraries. My son and I read and played away two hours at our local library last weekend, and we had a blast - for free. :)

Three Cups of Tea For Me

Greg Mortenson is the kind of guy that makes me feel really shallow.

After a couple of decades climbing (real mountains) and a short stint in the US Army, he became an ER nurse - you know, saving people's lives and all that jazz. Then he dedicated his life to building schools in Pakistan. He's still at it, and there are nearly 60 schools to show for it. The schools aren't a true measure of success, of course. The lives the students and their families can lead thanks to what they learn in those schools, now that's success. And joy. And possibly, a road to peace. Certainly, it's a start.

To learn more about the Central Asia Institute that Mortenson founded and the good deeds being done, visit the CAI's website.

If you haven't read Three Cups of Tea, I really think you should. Why should I be the only one getting an inferiority complex?

I'm reading the "grownup" version, and it's not taxing my brain :) but just to let you know, there's also a Young Adult edition and the essential story is soon-to-be-available in picture book format, too, under the title Listen to the Wind. Buy 'em through the link on the Three Cups of Tea website and Amazon makes a donation to the institute. Nice.