I’ve been reading novels for the past six months that deal with children being taken from their parents (The School for Bad Mothers), children being forced to migrate (What Strange Paradise), children living under dictatorships (I Must Betray You), and children just trying to get by in a world that seems intent on crushing them (Our Missing Hearts, In the Wild Light, and to some extent Mercury Pictures Presents).

Reflecting back on my favorite books from the last six months, I don’t know why I have been drawn to these stories.  Perhaps it is because I have two young children myself – aged 1 and 3 right now – and I’m constantly thinking about them.  Perhaps it is because I read certain novelists I like: Ng, El Akkad, Sepetys, and Marra.  Their novels just by chance deal with core elements of being a child or how childhood shapes us.  Whatever my reason was, I think, or at least hope, that you too will find at least one of them engaging and worth reading.  With so much happening in our lives, carving out the time to read is an empowering choice.    

Finally, as 2022 comes to a close, David and I want to thank you for your continued support of the site.  Simply put, we genuinely appreciate it!  And we look forward to providing more resources and materials for you while also helping you with any and all of your questions into 2023 and beyond!

Best,

Tim

Book Recommendations

What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad

What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad is top-notch!  You may even decide to teach it as a free choice work in your IB classes (and if not, you might consider it for your Grade 9-10 program, if you also teach that age group).  It’s that good.  Told in alternating chapters titled “Before” and “After,” the story follows Amir – a 9-year-old boy – as his life is upended in Syria and he is forced to migrate abroad.  This is the story of that terrible migration.  “Before” revolves around Amir’s life before he gets to the Greek Island of Kos on a migrant boat that leaves from Egypt.  “After” obviously follows his story once he makes it to Kos.  El Akkad’s writing is so precise and incisive about the plight of peoples around the world as they traverse unspeakable horrors.  It’s also incredibly observant about the people that try to help them or alternatively try to incarcerate them.  While I personally like El Akkad’s novel American War better (I’m a sucker for dystopian novels), this is an incredible novel and one that is worth reading and maybe even teaching. 

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

Emily St. John Mandel is the author of Station Eleven, perhaps the pandemic book.  And her latest novel, Sea of Tranquility, delights throughout as well.  This science fiction novel jumps around in time, from the past (1918, 1990, 2008) to roughly the present (2020) to the future (2203) and even farther into the future (2401).  There are colonies on the Moon, cities on Earth that find themselves protected by domes, but most exciting of all is that time travel actually exists!  It’s incredibly protected and firmly regulated, but the novel revolves around one character’s journey to investigate an anomaly in time.  Something happens in a forest in British Columbia in the early 1900s that also happens in the late 1900s and somehow connects to something that occurs much later – in the future for us readers.  While I am finding it hard to describe – the time travel, the interconnectedness of all the jumping around in terms of the narrative structure, the plot itself – simply put, it’s just a beautiful novel and you will not be disappointed!  

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

I won’t reveal what the title means – it spoils the book if I do so.  What I will say is that I loved her first book, Everything I Never Told You, really enjoyed her second book, Little Fires Everywhere, and found myself scared witless about the State and their power in this novel.  Set in the not-too-distant future, the novel tells the story of 12-year-old Bird and his parents – Margaret and Ethan – as they navigate the world after what’s simply called The Crisis.  The United States Congress has passed the Protect American Culture and Traditions Act, simply known as PACT to restore calm after a period of profound disturbance.  And yet, as you read on, it’s not the riots or the hemorrhaging economy that’s most troubling: the ramifications of PACT are real and scary.  While this is clearly a dystopian novel, the power of the narrative comes from the firm belief that this could very readily happen to any country facing a crisis.  And finally, in a thread from my previous book recommendations from earlier in the year, unexpectedly (for me at least) libraries and librarians play a huge supporting role in the novel. 

I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys

I’ve said before that I think she’s the best young adult writer of historical fiction and simply one of the best writers for teens out there publishing today.  I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys continues to demonstrate her profound ability to dig deeply into historical topics while also making it engaging for teens (or any reader, for that matter).  This particular novel follows the story of 17-year-old Cristian (Cristi) in 1989 just as Romanians are about to topple Nicolae Ceaușescu’s dictatorship.  And what you learn about Romania in the 1980s in the novel – the pitfalls of Communism, the spy networks needed to keep up this system, the fear instilled in the population to do what the dictatorship demands – is well-researched, well-documented, well-told.  Told through the eyes of Cristi, readers are compelled by this character’s individual story amidst the larger story of Romania at the time.  I cannot recommend this book and all the books by this author enough!

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan is a wickedly dark and twisted dystopian novel about the State taking power away from mothers.  The novel centers on Frida, a mother of a toddler, who leaves her daughter in the house unattended for 2 hours on a very, very bad day for Frida and Harriet (her daughter).  In a warped future that feels eerily similar to our current state of affairs, the government orders Frida to an institute for how to become a ‘good mother’ – for an entire year!  Frida has to go through rehabilitation and training, all the while lacking access to the person most important to her: Harriet, her daughter.  It’s a warped and seriously dark tale of how we view motherhood in society today.     

Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra

Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra is a wonderfully hopeful novel even if it deals with some of the atrocities of World War Two.  The novel is set, for the most part, in Los Angeles, and follows the story of Maria, an immigrant from Italy who works her way up in the motion picture industry.  Maria’s struggles are real, but she’s also this dignified character who takes no bull from anyone around her.  Marra is an amazing writer – if you haven’t read A Constellation of Vital Phenomenon, you should! – and while this novel is long, it’s an incredible story about families, war, immigrants, and the bonds that tie us together.    

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman

A colleague recommended this book to me and I’m so glad she did!  Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman – a writer for The Guardian – is such a great book of nonfiction.  The book explores our fascination with time and our deep desire to control it.  Spoiler: we can’t.   Big picture, the book is about how we should re-examine our relationship with time.  It’s a fantastic read!

In the Wild Light by Jeff Zentner

In this young adult novel, the main character, Cash, a young man from rural Tennessee, and his best friend Delaney win scholarships to attend a fancy, private boarding school in the Northeast of the United States.  Needless to say, Cash and Delaney are culturally very different from most of the teens who attend private boarding school!  The novel follows their life in Tennessee before the move and their time at the actual high school.  What makes this young adult novel so appealing is that the ups and downs they face are common to many teens: relationship troubles, making new friends, fitting into a new place, and the demands of teachers, especially English teachers!  It's also a heartwarming novel about Cash and his Papaw, or grandpa, and that plot line I found to be incredibly poignant. 

The Measure by Nikki Erlick

The Measure by Nikki Erlick is a complicated book to recommend.  The concept that the plot revolves around hooked me.  One day in March, every single 22-year-old and above receives a box.  No one knows where they came from, how they got it, or who delivered it.  Inside the box is the full name of the person, an inscription (“The measure of your life lies within”), and a piece of string.  No one knows what to make of the boxes for months, but eventually it’s revealed (I won’t spoil it for you).  Chaos ensues with this revelation.  The novel follows a bunch of characters as the human race tries to come to terms with these strings.  As a concept, it’s fascinating.  Read it for that reason.  But the dialogue is stilting, the plot meanders, the descriptions irked me throughout, and the ending was too cheesy.  In other words, I didn’t like her writing style or her plotting one bit, and was quite frustrated at times, but the concept – you get a piece of string at 22 that changes your life forever– is so, so engrossing.  For that reason, I recommend The Measure.

Don’t Point That Thing at Me by Kyril Bonfiglioli (The Charlie Mortdecai Mystery Series)

While clearly dated (it is a bit sexist), I was surprised by how often I was delighted with the book.  The plot was unwieldy enough for me to not read the rest of the series – I just couldn’t suspend my disbelief, no matter how hard I tried – but the narrative voice was engaging, lively, and a lot of fun.  The story is told in the first person, from the perspective of the main character, Charlie Mortdecai, an art dealer and all around very, very shady character.  He gets into and out of all kinds of trouble with the authorities and the ridiculously rich in both Britain, where much of the novel takes place, and the United States.  If you are looking for something light, and a thriller that will delight, this might be for you.