Which 17th Century Spanish Painter Would You Be?: Book Review of I, Juan de Pareja

 

I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Treviño

Gratitude

Thank you to Montgomery County Public Libraries for making I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Treviño readily available at no cost to the public.

Description

Juan was born a slave and grew up with a slave owner who treated him much like a pet. When the slave owner died, he was inherited by her relative. In his new home, he became the assistant to Diego Velázquez, the famous painter. As Velázquez’s assistant, among Juan’s new responsibilities were stretching his canvases and mixing paint colors. He waited on Velázquez and helped him with his paintings as needed, but Juan was not allowed to create any paintings of his own.

As a slave, it was illegal for Juan to paint. The more he learned and the more he watched Velázquez and the apprentices he took on, the more that Juan wanted to create his own art. He saw where the apprentices flourished and where they failed, he understood the lessons that Velázquez wanted them to learn, and he felt the passion behind creating art. What will happen when the desire to paint becomes more than Juan can bear?

Would I teach this book?

I, Juan de Pareja is historical fiction, based on an actual man who was a slave to Velázquez. The story, then, is loosely based on events that actually occurred and were embellished through the imagination of Elizabeth Borton de Treviño. As this was a true story, I appreciated the intense drive to make good art. I appreciate the FOMO of having to sit backstage as others are able to preform. It was strange to me, however, to read of Juan’s complacency at being a slave. He was born into slavery, and while he was not poorly treated, the first slave owner did not treat him as a human child, instead, he was looked upon as a somewhat pampered animal. The lack of bitterness and his simple acceptance felt odd.

The book is not set in the United States, where slaves were treated violently and used for hard agricultural labor in addition to domestic work. The culture and practice of slavery in Spain at that time seems different from that in the United States. However, it felt jarring to treat slavery as though it was not a great injustice and as though it did not diminish owners in their humanity. It felt like a perpetuation of the “good slave owner.”

Slavery is addressed in the fact that it is illegal for Juan to paint and draw, but this seems a bit subordinate to some basic rights such as moving about freely. Perhaps the real de Pareja did not so much question the position that he was born into, but the conversation cannot be ignored today. If I were to teach this book, I would certainly prepare to have this discussion and help students to think through how slavery is presented in the book and how we regard human rights today.

I, Juan de Pareja does provide an interesting discussion about passions and wishing to pursue them, as well as what one might have to suffer in order to follow one’s dreams. Too often, inspirational tales are shown not as “look at what you could do” but more “look at what someone in a more difficult situation did.” As in, giving the message that those without means can still overcome their challenges and not that you must work hard to overcome your challenges. The empathy falls out of it–students often feel so removed from the situations (such as an enslaved person in seventeenth century Spain) that they do not get that they also must strive to reach their dreams, not simply dream. We must not only dream big, but we also must work to help ourselves and others to achieve their dreams.

Have you taught I, Juan de Pareja? Or, have you read I, Juan de Pareja and have thoughts about how it might be discussed? I would love to read your thoughts in the comments. 

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In Case of Emergency, Which Kid Would You Save?: Book Review of The Accidental Favorite

 

The Accidental Favorite by Fran Littlewood

Gratitude

Thank you to Goodreads Giveaways and Henry Holt for the review copy of The Accidental Favorite by Fran Littlewood.

Description

In The Accidental Favorite, the Fischer family has gathered together to celebrate first the naming of the eldest daughter’s baby and then the mother’s seventieth birthday. Along the way, many crazy things ensue, including a clear indicator that their father has a real and evident favorite.

Told through the perspectives of the mother, Vivienne, and sisters Nancy, Eva, and Alex, the story moves between memories from the women’s childhood and the week-long family get together. Eva, the youngest and prettiest, has the oldest grandchild, and is now a successful entrepreneur. Nancy, the middle child, the one who acts out, is divorced with one child, and she became a successful doctor. Alex, the oldest, is an ambitious music teacher, married to another teacher, and together they have three children, including the youngest of the grandchildren, baby Dolly. At the same time the sisters have close, loving relationships, they also have insecurities and jealousies, begun in their childhood.

Would I Teach This Book?

Would I teach The Accidental Favorite plays on common family dynamics and entertains the question of if these dynamics shape who a person will be in their adulthood, as well as the impact that off-hand parental comments and favoritism plays on identity and behavior. Will the oldest child be the most responsible and successful? The middle child the one who gets in trouble and pushes boundaries in order to get attention? The youngest the most pampered and least tried, with a much easier childhood and adulthood than the others? Maybe. But I also wonder about the dramatization of the family structure in The Accidental Favorite.

The characters were mostly likeable and mostly understandable. Mostly, I was in their corner. Mostly. But Alex was really, really difficult to like at times. Really. She was so difficult to appreciate. Yes, she had a lot to deal with in her life, more than the other two women, but her behavior toward her sisters--well.

In addition, the idea that grown women in their thirties and forties would still be so hung up on sibling rivalry--I suppose it is something that remains throughout life, but to have such an impact? I don’t know. Is this common? Do many people actually experience this in their forties? Just thinking this one out.

The book might be a potential to be taught in a contemporary literature course--maybe. It lacks the bite of many things that I have read as of late. It is doubtful that I would teach it in a creative writing class. If I did, I would use it to teach writing through multiple perspectives.

The narration is in third-person, yet still demonstrates distinct differences when it is attached to each of the characters. The sisters have their own separate personalities, attitudes, and beliefs about themselves, the past, and the current reality. The names at the beginning of the sections and the time frame help to clearly orient the reader without being distracting.

I would readily recommend this book for a book club, as it offers a significant discussion about sibling dynamics and how to read the different characters

.

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The Way to Healing Is Through the Stomach: Book Review of Crying in H Mart

 

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

Description 

Crying in H Mart is Michelle Zauner’s memoir of grief and appreciation of culture, particularly in the cuisine of her Korean heritage.

Zauner lost her mother when she was only twenty-five and had just begun to develop a more mature relationship with her. She describes herself as having been a difficult child and her parents struggling to help her through depression when she was in high school. Music, as she writes, was what saved her in her adolescence, but it was food that helped her in the mourning process for her mother.

From her early childhood, the strongest connection Michelle had with her mother was food. Her mother paid close attention to the food preferences of others and lauded Michelle’s Korean palate. Every other year, they went to Korea to visit family and take in the country in which her mother grew up and lived until she married Michelle’s American father and left after her birth. In Korea, and with extended family, food is still the language of love and joy.

The book describes a difficult reality between daughter, mother, and father, as well as including details about her mother as she was dying of cancer.

Would I teach this book? 

Would I teach Crying in H Mart? Crying in H Mart, as a memoir, seems to have less distance from the death of the mother and less reflection than some other similar memoirs, such as Jennette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died. The point of telling is fresh and incredibly youthful. It’s a vibe, and not one that I dislike.

Crying in H Mart was a book club pick, my first book club pick, and it is a book that I might have found my way to without book club. The majority of the non-fiction that I read, which is admittedly significantly less than the fiction that I read, is memoir. I love a good story. My mother recommended this book to me, and when it was my turn to suggest books, I put this one on the list.

Crying in H Mart is a good book to teach as well as a good book for book club. As for teaching, Crying in H Mart illustrates how pairing a common experience, such as the loss of a parent, with a point of passion, such as Korean cuisine, helps to make a work both personal and universal. In terms of representation, as Zauner discusses looking for role models with whom she can identify in music, including Korean American voices, the representation her voice offers is important. Zauner’s relative youth at the point of writing the book is also significant in terms of including diverse points of view.

If you were a fan of Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert or Wild by Cheryl Stayed, you will likely enjoy Crying in H Mart, though I enjoyed Crying in H Mart much more than the other two.

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Clock It: Middle School, Year 2 Reflections

As my students will tell you, I am big on reflection. Research in Teaching for Transfer, the concepts on which Writing for Transfer is built, suggests that in order for students to be able to apply the skills that they learn to other areas, reflection is key. Summer is a great time to reflect on the previous school year and what I want to keep and what I want to leave behind. Four big takeaways: 

1. Moving on is hard. 

In my current position, I am blessed to teach the same students in sixth and seventh grade. Building a relationship over two years makes such a difference! At the end of this year, it was difficult to say goodbye to my departing seventh graders. Yes, in eighth grade they will still be in middle school and I will still see them--but they won’t be my students, learning with me in my classroom. At the same time, I know that they have learned and accomplished so much in the past two years--most of them had a bat or bar mitzvah. Most of them put in a lot of hard work, not just in English class, but in their other subjects, including their electives. The perspective they have gained, as well as the self-knowledge, is very admirable. 

2. Maximize my time. 

Organization is not my strongest skill, so this year I worked on using my time more efficiently. 

I began using timers to make sure that I worked on different things, instead of getting caught up in one area or another. Depending on the amount of time I had, I would set timers in increments of twenty minutes. I also tried to set aside some time to work in a distraction-free area. 

As a passionate person, it is not always easy to switch gears and extremely difficult to dive into tasks that are not my favorite. And yet they must be done. (See--setting goals is important for everyone!) I also have to be flexible about the goals that I set and realize that there are times when I will have to shift my focus. 

3. Raise student voices.

Recently, I heard someone say of a young author, that they could not have experienced that much in twenty-five years and their life could not be enough to write about. I did not have much of a response at the time, but as often happens, it really stuck in my craw, because it goes against everything that I believe in as a writer and a teacher. 

It is incredibly unfair and shortsighted to assume that someone in their twenties has not yet experienced life. Someone in their eighties will probably have experienced more, but that does not discount the young life. It is not as if life waits to begin until a certain age. The thoughts and experiences of young people have great value. If you think to discount them, it is a loss to you and our youth.

This year, I read about students preparing for basketball tryouts, preparing for bar and bat mitzvahs, and being afraid of going to the dentist. Perhaps in an adult purview, these things mean very little, but in truth, these are the things that shape our youths for their continuing journey.

Take preparing for a basketball tryout--realizing that you should be working out and learning months in advance in order to play better is not only very responsible, it shows that they are learning. In my school, a Jewish school, everyone has a bar or bat mitzvah, and so to many it may seem common. And yes, it is something that binds them together. But it is also a reminder that even these “common” experiences are felt deeply by the individuals. 

Consider the student who wrote clearly of their terror of the dentist--it showed how much they had mastered figurative language, which we had spent a good deal of time focusing on the year before. That, and the ability to express themselves clearly and compellingly. 

I would not and could not tell any of these students that their experiences weren’t valid or important. That the struggles they faced are not as significant as those of an adult’s or that what they have to say is not meaningful. Are they skilled enough to write a best selling memoir? They are probably not ready for that, but not for lack of thought or emotion.

 

To dismiss the voice of youth is to dismiss the vitality, creativity, and input that could not be provided by someone older, regardless of what they had accomplished. 

4. Listen with more than your ears. 

Okay, I just spent a lot of time discussing how important the voices of the young are, and I am not going to take that back. But I am going to say that the emotional maturity of adolescents is not perfect, and they cannot always voice what they are thinking and feeling. And so it is especially important to listen, not just with your ears, but your eyes, and yes, with your heart. (Yes, very cringe). If you can listen with your heart, instead of hearing the defensiveness, you will hear sensitivity and self-protection. In addition to anger, you may hear confusion. In teasing others, you may hear a need for challenge or a need for help. Most acting out is a mask for another need.

It was a good year. I learned a lot. My students learned a lot. Heading into summer, I am determined to do a lot of reading, learning, and writing. A big thank you to everyone who made this past school year possible--my family, the administration of the school, my colleagues, the parents who entrusted me with their precious children, and, of course, my students. Have a great summer, everyone!

What Do You Do with a Magical Drunken Sailor? Book Review of Voyage of the Damned

 

Voyage of the Damned by Frances White

Gratitude

Thank you to Goodreads Giveaways and HTP books for the review copy of Voyage of the Damned by Frances White. It's a beautiful book! 

Description

In Voyage of the Damned, Dee is on a boat with eleven other young people, bound on a pilgrimage to inaugurate the new empress. The others on the boat are not average young adults—they are the Blesseds, the ambassadors for the goddess in each of their regions. Together they unite Concordia and ensure that everywhere is safe and the economy is healthy.

The relationships between the different regions and between the Blesseds is full of politics and secrets. Dee’s province, known for the fish it provides for the rest of the empire, is at the very bottom both geographically and in terms of respect. Add to that Dee’s own secret—he does not have a blessing, but for the sake of his province, he must pretend.

Just when he thinks that things cannot get any worse, other Blesseds start turning up dead. As Dee begins to investigate, he finds two unlikely allies to aid in his sleuthing. Will he be able to find the murderer and save the rest of the Blesseds? Will he be able to keep his secret and protect his province?

Voyage of the Damned has queer representation and a blend of genres–think of Agatha Christie meets Percy Jackson. The characters and relationships are complicated and interesting. And the book really is beautiful. The front cover is blue and gold and it has edge decoration. 

Would I Teach This Book?

Would I teach Voyage of the Damned? With its mix of murder mystery and fantasy genres, Voyage of the Damned might fit in with a genre writing class. It is a first novel, and in many ways feels like a first novel. Dee, as the main character, does not feel entirely consistent, and neither are the relationships between the characters—and not in a complex way, but in a it doesn’t make sense way. In addition, there are some twists, especially at the end, that don’t feel exactly satisfying for the characters or the plot.

Perhaps in a literature course on queer representation it might make sense to include Voyage of the Damned, but I think it would still be a hard sell.


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