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conulyWhich is how I read the following four books.
Chloe in India is about a young girl navigating classism in India. The decision to present this view entirely from the perspective of a young white American girl whose parents aren't going to be working in India long enough to justify the cost of buying new furniture certainly was a decision all right, as was the choice to focus exclusively on money and class and not at all on anything tricky like religion, ethnicity, or caste. And with that context, you might be totally unsurprised to hear that at no point does anybody ever criticize America in any way.
Speaking of choices, Chloe's mother spends a lot of time bemoaning the terrible attitudes her children are picking up at her rich school for rich kids (where - unlike in America, not that anybody spells this out, they're required by law to admit a certain percentage of students on scholarship) as though it was her daughters' idea to go to that particular school. There are other schools in the city! The author's note says that her own children went to a very nice, progressive school that isn't at all like that fictional one. That note makes this writing decision all the more irritating.
The Blackbird Girls is not about Chernobyl. Okay, yes, that's what sets off the action - but in the grand tradition of children's literature it's really about two young girls growing up. One of them had been badly abused, and we can all be very happy her father died.
This book is well plotted and well written and, despite the nuclear disaster, the child abuse, and the Holocaust backstory, not too grim either. I feel like I can recommend this book, though some pre-reading may be necessary for younger or more sensitive kids.
New Kid is a graphic novel you may have heard about because certain reactionary groups absolutely hate it. They have left a slew of negative reviews about it, and frequently challenge it at libraries etc, and the only valid response to comments about "hating white people" is that this is an issue they should take up with a therapist, because it certainly doesn't come from this book.
I feel like I can recommend this book as well.
Which brings me to The Gilded Girl which - man, classism is kinda a theme in my reading these past few weeks.
This book is rather blatantly a magical AU of A Little Princess, but the Becky analog has more agency and a personality, and also ever other chapter to herself. If this is what you want to read, go for it!
However, I do have a few caveats. One, every character in this book can be assumed to be white and nominally Christian, and when the whole theme of the book is bringing down the magical caste system that allows only "the right people" to retain magic into adulthood that seems like a bit of a glaring oversight, especially when we consider the time period and setting. Gilded Age NYC had lots of non-white people. (No explanation is given on what makes people "right" other than having lots of cash.)
Secondly, the ending is extremely... pat. It doesn't make any sense that the entire social structure and strict laws - laws which we can only assume are widespread throughout Europe and the Americas, because nobody comments that it's different elsewhere - will all fall based on a few people saying "Wow, those plucky poor kids, let's start a school for them too!" (Also - one school? For the entire city of NYC? That's not a solution, even if the author thinks it is.)
But this is evidently only book one, so maybe the next book will address this.
I sorta feel like I can recommend this. I'd like it better with a few sharp edits.
Chloe in India is about a young girl navigating classism in India. The decision to present this view entirely from the perspective of a young white American girl whose parents aren't going to be working in India long enough to justify the cost of buying new furniture certainly was a decision all right, as was the choice to focus exclusively on money and class and not at all on anything tricky like religion, ethnicity, or caste. And with that context, you might be totally unsurprised to hear that at no point does anybody ever criticize America in any way.
Speaking of choices, Chloe's mother spends a lot of time bemoaning the terrible attitudes her children are picking up at her rich school for rich kids (where - unlike in America, not that anybody spells this out, they're required by law to admit a certain percentage of students on scholarship) as though it was her daughters' idea to go to that particular school. There are other schools in the city! The author's note says that her own children went to a very nice, progressive school that isn't at all like that fictional one. That note makes this writing decision all the more irritating.
The Blackbird Girls is not about Chernobyl. Okay, yes, that's what sets off the action - but in the grand tradition of children's literature it's really about two young girls growing up. One of them had been badly abused, and we can all be very happy her father died.
This book is well plotted and well written and, despite the nuclear disaster, the child abuse, and the Holocaust backstory, not too grim either. I feel like I can recommend this book, though some pre-reading may be necessary for younger or more sensitive kids.
New Kid is a graphic novel you may have heard about because certain reactionary groups absolutely hate it. They have left a slew of negative reviews about it, and frequently challenge it at libraries etc, and the only valid response to comments about "hating white people" is that this is an issue they should take up with a therapist, because it certainly doesn't come from this book.
I feel like I can recommend this book as well.
Which brings me to The Gilded Girl which - man, classism is kinda a theme in my reading these past few weeks.
This book is rather blatantly a magical AU of A Little Princess, but the Becky analog has more agency and a personality, and also ever other chapter to herself. If this is what you want to read, go for it!
However, I do have a few caveats. One, every character in this book can be assumed to be white and nominally Christian, and when the whole theme of the book is bringing down the magical caste system that allows only "the right people" to retain magic into adulthood that seems like a bit of a glaring oversight, especially when we consider the time period and setting. Gilded Age NYC had lots of non-white people. (No explanation is given on what makes people "right" other than having lots of cash.)
Secondly, the ending is extremely... pat. It doesn't make any sense that the entire social structure and strict laws - laws which we can only assume are widespread throughout Europe and the Americas, because nobody comments that it's different elsewhere - will all fall based on a few people saying "Wow, those plucky poor kids, let's start a school for them too!" (Also - one school? For the entire city of NYC? That's not a solution, even if the author thinks it is.)
But this is evidently only book one, so maybe the next book will address this.
I sorta feel like I can recommend this. I'd like it better with a few sharp edits.
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Date: 2022-03-17 09:23 pm (UTC)https://archiveofourown.org/works/34858
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Date: 2022-03-17 09:42 pm (UTC)I like Princess a bit more because I read it at a younger age, over and over again - but Garden is better written.
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Date: 2022-03-17 11:10 pm (UTC)I did not expect children's books to be very different from each other, but they were.
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Date: 2022-03-18 04:35 pm (UTC)Quite seriously, I find the writing choices in that first book baffling and offensive. The only way to do it like that - not that it's much of a justification - would be to draw parallels with the US, but the author didn't even do that!
Somehow, this book got praised. I do not understand this.
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Date: 2022-03-18 12:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-03-18 12:46 am (UTC)