Bookami

What the Dickens: The Story of a Rogue Tooth Fairy by Gregory Maguire

Synopsis: During a Hurricane Katrina like storm, the parents of Dinah, Zeke, and Rebecca Ruth must go in search of insulin. In order to entertain the anxious children, their cousin Gage tells them the story of an orphan tooth fairy, also known as a skibberee, named What-the-Dickens.

Review:  I can't say that this was my favorite book ever or even my favorite Maguire work, but I can say that Maguire understands the importance of having a little magic in life whether one is 1-year-old or 99-years-old.  When you're a child that magic comes from tales about tooth fairies or Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny.  When you're an adult, you must seek out the magic.  Thankfully, authors like Maguire make the search easier by creating novels like this one.

There are two passages I haven't been able to get out of my head since I finished this book last Sunday.  "Not once upon a time, but, oh, next upon a time."  What a brilliant phrase.  We often think of stories as transporting us back in time and space, but they also move us forward.  They help us create dreams and ideas.  They help us believe in the impossible, and above all, give us hope.

The second passage is, "The possibility of wishing strengthens the imagination to consider, at times, that things could improve. Could be different.  They could.  They might."  Children are constantly wishing whether it be for a new bike or computer or to do well on a test. They also seem to create many opportunities to make wishing a part of every day life.  I remember wishing on fallen eyelashes as a girl.  Also, when the clasp of a necklace got turned around, you were supposed to make a wish.  Do we forget this skill as adults?  I can't remember the last time I made a birthday wish, but this year I'm certain to do so. 

As both of these quotations come within 30 pages of the end, certainly this book took a while to make its point, but reading a novel is not supposed to be like buying a meal at a fast food restaurant.  All Maguire has promised the reader is a unique spin on a traditional childhood myth.  I think he delivers on this promise, and for me, he also reminded me to believe that my wishes could and might come true.

Three Little Words by Ashley Rhodes-Courter

Synopsis: Ashley Rhodes-Courter spent nine years in fourteen different foster homes. Some homes were good, some were bad, one was awful, but somehow Ashley managed to survive and eventually be adopted by a loving family, who gave her the support she needed to become an advocate for foster care reform.

Review: I don't really know that you can review the story of someone's life.  After all, who am I to question how Rhodes-Courter voices her heartbreaking, but uplifting story?  What I can say is that anyone who cares about children should read this memoir.  I have two children of my own, and even after staying up until four in the morning reading this book, I found that I wanted to have a little extra patience with them today and every day.  I certainly can't understand how someone could physically hurt a child the way the Mosses hurt Ashley and the other children in their care, but this book reminds the reader that sometimes being apathetic or thoughtless can cause just as much damage as a physical slap.  Apathy was the crime of most of the people who were supposed to care for Ashley.  Most of them weren't really bad people, but they didn't do the job they were supposed to do.  Ashley appropriately quotes Moliere: "It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable."  While it is certainly unspeakable that such a young woman has to educate so many adults about this life lesson, it is also remarkable that Ashley's story ends happily enough that she has the fortitude to be just such an educator.

Fancy Nancy Bonjour, Butterfly by Jane O'Connor with Illustrations by Robin Preiss Glasser

Synopsis: Nancy is bubbling with anticipation over her friend Bree's Butterfly Birthday party, only to discover that she will be unable to attend because she has to make an appearance at her grandparents' fiftieth anniversary celebration.  How will she survive missing what is sure to be the fanciest party ever?

Review: I'm surrounded by boys.  I only have brothers, and I only have sons.  I even have more nephews than nieces.  That is why I'm so glad that Fancy Nancy exists to put me in touch with my inner, glowing, girlie self.  I love that she loves pink and bows and beads and all things frilly and French (one of my majors in college was French).  Nancy has become one of my best friends by her sheer celebration of what it means to be a girl.

Bonjour Butterfly proves that even with her wild hair and her tendency for a little too much bling, Nancy truly is an exceptional lady.  She is devastated when she is told that she won't be able to attend Bree's Butterfly Birthday.  Her grandparents' fiftieth anniversary fete certainly couldn't compare.  Nancy makes it clear to all of her family members that she is unhappy.  "Mad is way too plain for how I feel.  I am furious!"  In typical Nancy fashion, though, she soon lets go of her anger and starts to enjoy herself.  "I'm sorry for the way I behaved.  I am ecstatic to be here."  What a good, lady-like way to present herself.  Nancy has learned that being fancy is not only about how one dresses, but also about how one acts.

With its typical glittering cover and marvelous, exuberant illustrations of Nancy jumping, dancing, primping and preening, Bonjour Butterfly won't disappoint fans.  I have only one possible negative/anal comment.  In the original Fancy Nancy, Nancy teaches her family that yellow is plain.  The border on Bonjour Butterfly is yellow.  I'm pretty sure that Nancy would have chosen gold.

Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall by Wendy Mass

Synopsis: High school junior, Tessa Reynolds, suffers a head injury at the hands of a dodgeball only to discover that her version of heaven looks a lot like the mall where both her parents work and where she has spent many hours of her life.  By reviewing various purchases that she has made at the mall, Tessa relives her life so far, discovering some things about herself that she would rather not know.

Review: Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall is a teen girl's version of It's a Wonderful Life or A Christmas  Carol.  Written in verse, it chronicles the life of slightly over-weight, misunderstood, but still not so nice Tessa Reynolds.  Tessa's parents both work at the mall, which means it is her home away from home so to speak.  By reliving some life events that took place at the mall or reviewing purchases she made there, Tessa is forced to find the answer to the big question.  Now, if she only knew what the big question was.

Tessa certainly faces many of the issues that all kids face.  She's a bit over-weight, which is tough since her anal-retentive, harsh Mom works at the makeup counter at Lord & Taylors.  She doesn't have many friends, and the ones she does have are only willing to do things with her if none of their other friends are around.  She's not the brightest girl in school so she isn't beloved by her teachers.  All in all, Tessa has few talents.  So you would think I would feel sorry for her, right?  But I didn't.  Tessa just isn't all that likeable.  She's actually kind of mean.  In the fourth grade her science project is to see if an egg can bounce if left in vinegar for a week.  She realizes that her egg is not going to bounce but another boy in the class has done the same project, and his egg looks rubbery enough to work:

"I glance once at the door, / then I lift the egg out of his bowl / and switch it with mine. / I have long ago accepted the fact / that I am the kind of person / who does things like this, / so in a very real way, / it doesn't even feel wrong."

How does a girl in the fourth grade accept such a character flaw about herself?  The whole book is filled with examples of her doing dishonest, attention-grabbing acts.  Her friend Eliza drops her barrette, and Tessa drops it in a trash can so that she can be the hero who finds it.  Of course, the trash gets emptied and the barrette is lost.  She memorizes the answers to a test that all seventh graders must take, getting herself placed in honors classes the next year. In high school she lies to this guy Lucas about his girlfriend making out with a guy who works at Spencer's so she can try to go out with him.  And because the novel is filled with acts like this, how is the reader supposed to believe that Tessa has learned anything from her near death adventure in the mall?

Tessa knows from her earliest years that, "good people don't lie and cheat and steal."  At the end of the novel she notes:

"Someone forgot / to teach me / there are consequences / for my actions, / even if I never get caught." / He smiles. "You even blame someone else / for not teaching you about consequences."   

If 12 pages before the novel ends, she is still blaming other people for her actions, she hasn't learned a whole heck of a lot.  Maybe she is a better person, but since the reader isn't shown even the tiniest glimpse of this new life, we'll never know.  I think that is the ultimate flaw with this novel.  In movies like It's a Wonderful Life or novels like A Christmas Carol, the audience is allowed a peak of George Bailey's or Ebenezer Scrooge's changed life.  We don't get to view the new and improved Tessa, and the novel is weaker for it.                                                    

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

The Luxe by Ann Godbersen

Synopsis: It's Manhattan 1899, and while we're all led to believe that those were simpler times, nothing is simple for the Holland sisters, Elizabeth and Diana.  These two beautiful, young women are the reigning darlings of high society, sought after by the richest and most handsome of men, as well as the gossip mongers.  When a family secret threatens to destroy their way of life, the Holland sisters find that friends and lovers can quickly become enemies.

Review: The Luxe is an utterly delicious historical novel with a very contemporary feel. Much like a Gossip Girl or Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants novel,  I couldn't stop turning the pages, and I couldn't decide which character I wanted to be more.

Eighteen-year-old Elizabeth Holland is the girl everyone wants to be.  As the eldest sister from one of New York's first families, she is beautiful, perfectly mannered, and the constant talk of the town.  Appearance and propriety are everything, and Elizabeth is a master at portraying just the right good-girl image to her public.  But not everything glitters about Elizabeth.  She has a secret, delectable lover hidden right under society's nose.  If she gets caught, it will mean ruin for the Holland name.

Pretty Diana Holland is sixteen, and she believes that her sister, mother and all their female society friends are nothing but "bloodless mannequins."  She dreams of being a heroine in a romance novel and wants nothing to do with girls or men of her class, or that is until she falls for her sister's dashing soon-to-be husband, Henry Schoonmaker.

Nouveau-riche Penelope Hayes is a "deft player of society's games."  Elizabeth believes Penelope to be her closest friend, but Penelope is only interested in what connections Elizabeth can help her make.  When Elizabeth becomes engaged to Henry Schoonmaker, Penelope's mystery beau, Penelope plots her revenge as carefully as she would plan a party.

Lina Broud has been a servant in the Holland household since she was a girl.  She and Elizabeth were at one time playmates, but that ended the moment Elizabeth debuted.  When Lina discovers that Elizabeth is the lover of her long-time secret crush, she vows to change her life and destroy Elizabeth in the process.

Like the much discussed Tiffany engagement ring in the novel, Godbersen's debut sparkles.  I found her phrasing to be rich and flowing without being dated.  For instance, when Elizabeth is describing her friendship with Penelope.  "She had quickly discovered that she liked being around Penelope--everything seemed sharper and fizzier in the company of young Miss Hayes."  Hmmm, this is also how I felt the first time I tried champagne.  The initial image we have of the much loved Mr. Schoonmaker is also complex and concise. "Even among the dashing and rich, Henry Schoonmaker stood out for being so beautiful and so slippery at once." 

This novel made me feel as if I was thirteen again and sneaking my mother's copy of Judith Krantz's I'll Take Manhattan into my book bag.  The Luxe truly is a guilty, luxurious pleasure.  Thankfully, we only have to wait until June for what promises to be a divine and wicked sequel.