Their Problems are Real

Moustafa Bayoumi has written a WYSIWYG.*

How Does It Feel To Be A Problem? Being Young and Arab in America, efficiently describes some of the problems faced by seven teens and young adults living in New York in the aftermath of the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks on US soil.

All US citizens, gainfully employed, good students, and in most cases both, Rasha, Sami, Yasmin, Akram, Lina, Omar, and Rami are presented as being 'normal' Arab-American citizens. And for all I know, they are. In my admittedly white-bread world, I'm very unaware of what life is like behind a dark complexion and the Quaran. That's exactly why I wanted to read it.

I stumbled at first. The writing is a bit clunky here, the grammar out of sync there. I wanted the prose to sing! Succinctly! Alas, Bayoumi isn't Barbara Kingsolver. (Sigh. No one is.) But the writing really didn't get in the way of the story - er, stories.

How Does It Feel... is seven truly separate stories; although the characters share some common ground, it's surprisingly little. Bayoumi's choice of subjects and his ability to paint a very rich and deep, living, breathing portrait of each in a relatively few pages (less than 40 pages each) is the basis for the book's success.

These are far more than snapshots or shotgun introductions, denser than slice of life vignettes, and at the same time, the sections left me both satisfied that I "knew" the subject and still I wanted to know each one better.

I felt that each one is owed a sincere apology from someone - something - in our country. ("The Government" is the easy whipping boy; it's also a perfectly absurd target.) I'm also pretty darned sure none of Bayoumi's subjects will bear significant scars or remain "down" because of the pressures and prejudices applied to these Arab Americans.

From Rasha, the high school student who was jailed along with her family in May 2002, to Sami, who was traveling with a busload of other young Marines when he heard about the attacks on the World Trade Center, the folks we meet in How Does It Feel To Be A Problem are strong, smart, serious, young people I'm extremely proud to call Americans.

Perhaps only this author, who was born in Switzerland, raised in Canada, and currently lives in New York, could have enough detachment and the necessary understanding to write this book this way.

To Bayoumi's great credit, the book is not a condemnation of the United States, its government, or any of its white bread citizens. (Whew.) Nor is it a look through rose-colored glasses. It is what it is: "a wholly revealing portrait of a community that lives next door and yet a world away."

Bayoumi writes in the book's forward that he "developed a great deal of optimism through its writing." Reading it, I believe my emotions were equal parts fascination (I am more ignorant than I thought!) exasperation (THIS is America?!) depression (that's terrible!) and wonder (human beings are truly amazing).

So while the book left me with no overriding emotion, it certainly left me changed. I believe my mind has been pried open a bit...and I hope it will remain that way.

I'm certain, at least, that I can forgive the occasional clunky sentence.


= = = = = = = = = = = = = =HIGHLY RECOMMENDED= = = = = = =

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Buy the book from Amazon ($14.97 as of this post).


*My all-time favorite acronym: What You See Is What You Get.

Hoberman's Seven Silly Eaters Still Magic

I've been reading The Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman for nearly a decade.

The picture book written in Hoberman's pitch-perfect verse tells the story of the Peters family with not one, not a handful, but seven (!) very picky eaters.

Mrs. Peters goes from the epitome of patience to nearly-undone in the course of the story; in the end, the whole family finds an accidental but delightful solution: they eat cake!

(Trust me, Hoberman does a much better job with the story than I do.)

My son, nearing the five-year mark, requested it again last night; then my just-turned 13yo daughter curled up on the couch to hear it for the upteenth time!

What? The same children who had spent most of the previous four hours trying to confound, maim, or kill each other? Yes. The same kids who nearly caused their not-so-patient mommy to crack up? The same.

Hoberman's magic worked again; providing yet another very happy ending to our evening.

Neat trick!

Need I say it? If you're looking for a gift for almost any young reader/listener, I recommend this one.

A Mango-Shaped Space & More Sustenance

Wendy Mass's first novel, A Mango-Shaped Space, scored on many counts.

First of all, it got published, by Little Brown & Co. It boasts cover blurbs from Judy Blume, Paula Danzinger, and Meg Cabot. AND it earned a Schneider Family Book Award, for "honoring artistic expression of the disability experience." That's a heck of a debut!

Grading based on the YAs I've read in the past two years, I give it a B+. The story was solid, but not stellar; the writing the same. Character development is where Mass shines.

She creates a near-tangible relationship between main character Mia and her dearly-departed grandpa, for one thing, and then proceeds to build a brilliant connection between Mia, her pet cat (Mango), and Mia's entire family.

Initially I though Mass's development of Mia's parents was a little clunky. She included a lot of just plain description up front, while I prefer to learn about characters through their actions and interactions with other characters.

Later in the book, though, I realized the descriptions helped give the reader a base of believability which is necessary when mom and dad play a larger, and important, role in the story. Had Mass not laid the groundwork earlier, those actions would have seemed like convenient but rather out-of-nowhere responses.

I can't say much more without giving away the nut of the story, and I don't want to do that; it's worth a read.

The book highlights a very rare condition - not fatal, not really even harmful - called synesthesia. Folks with synesthesia see colors (literally) associated with numbers, letters, words, foods, or any or all of those things. Of course, the first book-form treatment of a condition like that is likely to garner the attention of agents and publishers, as well as get you short-listed for some specialized book awards, so Mass deserves kudos for getting to the synesthesia space first.

I would have preferred a lot more medical info about the condition, but I keep in mind it's a YA. Which brings me to...

More Sustenance!
I've decided to shelve YAs for a few months. After so many, they're starting to seem like candy to me. And I love candy, but, you know, meatloaf is good too. It takes longer to eat and to digest, though, so postings may come a bit slower in the future.

Next up: How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? by Moustafa Bayoumi.

The Answer is ...Too Much!

I'm reading too many things, and I'm enjoying them all. You know what that means: library fines are mounting. I'm in the middle of, almost in the middle of, or almost finished reading A Mango-Shaped Space (yes! another YA), How Does It Feel To Be A Problem?, and Girls Will be Girls.

I'm just beginning Sound Reporting and this month's National Geographic...

Brain Fade

I gave up on The New Feminine Brain. The good Dr. Schultz disappointed me by making a substantial chunk of the work - ostensibly a non-fiction self-help book - a running commentary on her own life.

I like the format of nonfiction books that take off with a personal narrative, something that provides a glimpse into the author's first-hand experience with a situation. From the beginning, I thought Dr. Schultz was just going to unusual lengths to prove her understanding of various brain functions.

Unfortunately, her first-hand accounts continued, from her experiences in medical school (which seemed to pop up in every chapter) to her M&M "addiction," to name-dropping, like the three-paragraph explanation of helping Naomi Judd pen her autobiography, with the explanation rather heavily peppered with her own quotes.

I selected the book because I assumed the subtitle, "Developing Your Intuitive Genius," referred to my/the reader's intuition, not the author's. (I guess I'm no genius.)

The book's cover promises readers will "discover your unique brain type and how to use it" and find out "how to use your intuition to improve your physical, emotional, and relationship health." Instead, it actually details the author's discovery of her unique brain type and a variety of her physical, emotion, and relationship problems.

I know how much work it takes to get a book to market; because of that, I really hate to "trash" a book. So, I offer this recommendation: Because the author has ADHD and has spent a lifetime examining brain function (a good bit of it her own) it may be a helpful book for adults with ADHD or parents of older children with ADHD. There. That's the best I can say for it.

What I'd really like to know is, how did this book happen? Schultz has a PhD and an MD following her name; she's no dummy. The publisher - The Free Press - is a division of Simon and Schuster, which presumably employees bright editors. It really ticks me off when the book between the covers isn't at all what's touted on the covers and in press releases. And it can't help sales much, can it?

Sigh.

Girly Brains?

I'm splitting my precious reading time between two books right now - Girls will be Girls (Deak) and The New Feminine Brain by Mona Lisa Schultz. Like wine and cheese (which often accompanies my reading, and probably does little for my retention) they make a nice pairing.

One of Deak's primary pieces of advice (or anti-advice?) for parents of girls is:

"Probably the worst thing we can do as adults, to handicap girls, is to encourage them in any way to want or need things in total order or control. They're already inclined that way. The best thing we can do is to help them learn to grow in a climate where chaos--internal or external--is always in the three-day forecast."

Amen.

Now if I could just learn to deal with that forecast...

Give Kids a Sporting Chance

An article in some magazine (Health, maybe) really spoke to me this weekend. The article was about kids and sports, and as a new-on-the-coaching-side-of-the-field parent, it hit me right between the eyes with this little tidbit:

Most parents are surprised by their own emotions when they watch their kid(s) play sports.

No kidding.

So after gobbling up a bunch of idiots-guide books about coaching soccer earlier this year, I've added a few books to my read-and-recommend list. They are:

It's Just a Game! (You say it to your kid; why don't you follow this classic advice?)

Whose Game Is It, Anyway?: A Guide to Helping Your Child Get the Most from Sports, Organized by Age and Stage, by Richard D. Ginsburg

101 Ways to Be a Terrific Sports Parent, by Joel Fish


Over the years, I've also recommended Parenting Young Athletes the Ripken Way by, of course, Cal Ripken. It's a quick read, and it's not all about baseball. While the message is a simple one, Ripken repeated it enough, and with enough conviction, that it really sunk into my thick head: the game is for the kids, let them play.

I've tried to let this be my mantra. I've tried.

And I offer the list above for other parents who want to try. Trust me. In a few years, you'll be glad that there aren't a lot of home movies featuring your screaming face, hollering as if there was a Superbowl ring (and mega-bucks endorsements) hanging on the outcome of a JV game.

Your kids might appreciate it, too.
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If you're tired of screaming (ahem - coaching) your kid but he (or she) really wants to get better at soccer, consider Epic Soccer Training by 3-time Adidas All-American Matt Smith. The program is designed for players at every level (hoping to make varsity as a freshman, maybe?) and offers money-back guarantee if you don't like it or don't get results.