Mermaids, Tomboys and Little Girl Ghosts- Oh my!

I have a thing about mermaids. It's not quite an obsession, but it is a very strong infatuation.

Over the weekend, I started working on a new windchime. Almost all my wind chimes are safely packed away now, in preparation for the harsher weather, but the weather has been so nice lately that I couldn't resist starting a new one. I used a lampshade structure again, painted it silver, and the strands have shells and other sea-inspired charms dangling down.

Then this book arrived in our latest batch of new arrivals:

Last year's Fish Girl by David Wiesner was a great read for mermaid fans, but I was happy to see such a beautifully illustrated rendering of the original Hans Christian Andersen story. The intensity of the blues in the pictures not only enhances the sea setting, but also contributes to the melancholy that characterizes this beloved story.

Last night I managed to read two other books in addition to The Little Mermaid. One is Tomboy by Liz Prince, which I mentioned in my last post.

Prince's memoir, in graphic novel format, relates the struggles she faced as a child and teen as she eschewed heteronormative gender roles. She's a girl, but for a long time, she wasn't sure how she felt about being called one because she never seemed to dress or act like all the other girls she knew.

This book is a fantastic read! With all the recent attention on transgender awareness, and reflecting on how we enforce gender stereotypes, sometimes without even knowing it or thinking about it, Prince deftly points out all the contradictions and double standards that exist in relation to gender and sexuality.

And like Smile and Real Friends and all the other graphic novel memoirs I have come to adore, there's a healthy dose of nostalgia, too:

                                                               Beverly Hills, 90210 

                                                                        Clueless 

 I think the allusion that really sealed the deal for me was this panel:

Not only did I love Are You Afraid of the Dark?  in the 90's, but I still watch it on a regular basis- partly because I use many of the episodes in the classes that focus on folklore and urban legends. You know how I like my creepy stuff.

Speaking of creepy stuff, the third book that I read last night was Thornhill by Pam Smy:

This is a book I would recommend to anyone who enjoys ghost stories, but also to any readers who enjoyed the unique combination of story-telling through sections of text and different sections of illustrations, like The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Wonderstruck and The Marvels by Brian Selznick.

The sections of text are presented in a diary format; the story of a lonely orphan girl in the 1980's. The sections of illustrations take place in 2017, but it will not take long for readers to realize how the two stories are connected.

Pam Smy's black and white illustrations set the mood of the story:

And the desperation of Mary, the girl in the 1980's, will speak to readers and add to the tension:

Onto more books, now!

It Started with a Smile

I recently read two new graphic novels: Awkward and Brave. Both of these stories feature the same group of characters in a middle school setting, and I started thinking about all the graphic novels that have come out in the past few years that focus on the middle school experience. Although these two stories are not true in the way that a memoir is, they were so authentically written that I am sure the author Svetlana Chmakova, must have tapped into her own memories at least a little bit.

Since Raina Telgemeier's book Smile was published seven years ago, there has been a wave of read-alikes flooding the publisher magazines and bookshelves. I do not mean "read alike" in a negative sense, I mean that in a good way because these books were obviously needed! Not just by current middle schoolers, but by readers my own age who are still reflecting back on our own school experiences.

Let's take a quick look at some of these books:

 

Smile was released in 2010, and Telgemeier penned a companion to it which was published in 2014. Both books depict Raina's childhood and adolescence, although Smile deals with dental drama and social challenges whereas the companion is more about her family.

Like Smile, Cece Bell's El Deafo (2014) follows the main character as she navigates childhood and adolescence with a physical challenge; in this case, her hearing loss. Her hearing loss affects her school work and development, and wearing cumbersome hearing aids impedes her social life.

In 2015, readers got a look into the underground sport of roller derby through Victoria Jamieson's Roller Girl. Jamieson herself maintains a not-so-secret identity as Winnie the Pow in her local roller derby league.

  

Sunny Side Up is Jennifer Holm's 2015 story based on true events in her childhood involving her older brother's struggle with drugs. The conflict of loving someone, yet also hating them sometimes because of the hurt they cause, is presented realistically, yet sensitively and in an age appropriate way. This year's sequel, Swing It Sunny, picks up where the story left off.

This year also introduced me to the graphic novel Real Friends by Shannon Hale (illustrated by LeYuen Pham). Like Sunny and Raina, young Shannon also suffered with difficult family issues, and endured more than her fair share of bullying and social alienation. I blogged about this book last June, when I first read it.

Next on my reading list are:

Hello, Winnie the Pooh

I'm all excited for the movie Goodbye, Christopher Robin, and my friend just told me that there is a Pooh hiking trail in Barrington, NH, so yesterday we went to check it out.

It was a beautiful day for a hike!

The trail is well marked with reflectors on trees, plaques that show illustrations and quotes from the books, and of course the characters' houses.

The first site you see is the door that leads to Christopher Robin's house:

Not long after that is Rabbit's House:

And of course John had to see if Piglet was home:

We knocked, but he didn't answer.

Of course, my favorite Pooh character is Eeyore, and I was glad to see that his house was still standing, so we posed for a picture inside:

The last house you'll find belongs to the Man himself, and there are a couple jars of Hunny waiting for him when he returns:

The little hike only took us about 30 minutes, and John enjoyed looking for the little houses.

Now I just need to make sure I get to see the movie sometime soon! 

So when we traveled down to Florida, I made it a point to visit Diagon Alley. Years ago, we visited Hogsmeade and it was wonderful. I wish we had been able to see Diagon Alley in the daylight, but we went for the  Halloween event (because that ticket was a little bit cheaper than a regular price one) so it was already evening.

The benefit to this is that it was definitely less crowded! We managed to get on the Escape from Gringotts ride within ten minutes of walking through the gate, and since most of the park go-ers were there for the haunted maze stuff, there were very few people to compete with for photos and good views. Seeing the streets of Diagon Alley lit up on a rainy autumn night was kind of magical:

The merchandise at the Universal Studios parks costs an arm and a leg, so I didn't buy any souvenirs. But we did indulge in a glass of butterbeer, and share a Cauldron Cake from Sugarplums Sweet Shop.

Being in Diagon Alley inspired me to work more on my Harry Potter themed used bookstore dollhouse, so when I got home I carved out some time and created a banner that shows all four Hogwarts houses:

The little flags were cut out from some packaging for the human-sized decorations that recently went up in the library.

I also found a lost owl in my stash of supplies, and he found a home perched on one of the flower boxes:

Now that I've been to Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley in Orlando, and Platform 9 3/4 in Kings Cross Station, I think the last big Harry Potter place on my bucket list is the Warner Brothers Studio Tour in London. But at least for a little while, my Harry Potter fandom bug is satisfied.

Kathleen Glasgow Book Signing

Well, my last post was about an author signing, but I actually went a different author signing less than a week before I met Caitlin Doughty. I was equally excited about this one- especially because it required going all the way down to Orlando, Florida!

Just kidding. I didn't go all the way to Florida for a book signing (but I might sometime in the future.  .  .)

We went down there to see family, take our son to Disneyworld for the first time (with his cousins, who were also going for the first time) and of course I had to go to Diagon Alley (but more on that later).

The first day we were down there, we decided to explore a museum in Orlando, and I also visited the Orlando Public Library.

That library was AMAZING! I didn't really get to explore it because it was closed off except for the area with the author event, but next time I go to Florida I'm going to make a point to visit and look around more.

I went there specifically to see author Kathleen Glasgow speak about her YA book Girl in Pieces. I read that book last year, and as soon as I was done, I started going back to re-read some of the passages.

I wrote her an email about why her book means so much to me, and she was nice enough to write back. I love it when authors respond to their fans!

I started following her on Instagram, and a couple months ago, I saw an advertisement for the event. Since we were already planning to be near Orlando that weekend, it just worked out.

She was appearing with another YA author, Jenny Torres Sanchez. I hadn't heard of Sanchez before, but I'm going to check out her books now. She read an excerpt from Because of the Sun, which focuses on a teen girl who is grieving the death of her abusive mother, and the complexity of that love/hate relationship. It sounds like the type of book (mental and emotional struggles) that I often like.

Glasgow and Sanchez discussed current issues in YA literature, and hit hard on the point that all teens deserve to have a book in which they can see themselves. Of course, not every teen can relate to every story, but that just means that we need to advocate for diversity in YA literature. Not just diversity of people: race, sexuality, religion, culture, gender identity, etc. but also a range of stories and experiences.

I'm not a teen anymore, but I saw part of my story reflected in Girl in Pieces. I have seen parts of myself reflected in lots of books, ranging from classics to contemporary middle grade to graphic novels and YA.

The original copy of Girl in Pieces I read was an inter-library loan book, so I was glad to purchase one for myself and have her sign it after the event.

Caitlin Doughty (AT LAST!)

I've been a Caitlin Doughty fangirl ever since I read her first book Smoke Gets in Your Eyes back in 2014. I was visiting some former co-workers at the Portsmouth Public Library, and I saw it on the display in the non-fiction section, so I made a note to myself to ILL it. The book is about Doughty's life, and her devotion to death. She has worked in a crematory, as a funeral director, and a mortician. In fact, one of her blog posts inspired one of my blog posts earlier this year.

I've always had an interest in forensic science, but I know that most of the stuff on TV is either not real, or very dramatized . I've also always had a preoccupation with Victorian death; mourning jewelry, post-mortem photography, cemeteries from the era, et cetera. I started following her blog, and her YouTube series "Ask a Mortician", as well as her social media. I was hoping that when her second book was published, that she would go on a tour and make it over to the East Coast at some point (she resides in Los Angeles).

I was right! She had an appearance scheduled at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA! As soon as I saw it advertised on Facebook, I tried to get tickets. BUT, they sold out in record time. I put myself on the wait list, and then finally last week I got an email stating that some new tickets were now available, and I was lucky enough to snag one for myself. So last night, I finally got to meet Caitlin Doughty! I wore my skeleton earrings and my skeleton t-shirt for the occasion. 

Doughty has become an advocate for death positivity, and a revolutionary in her industry. She strives to create change in her business by speaking and writing about different cultural beliefs and practices surrounding death. For example, in the US there are very strict standards for opening a funeral home, one being that the mortician must be certified in embalming. But that is kind of discriminatory, because many cultures/religions do not believe in embalming their dead. That standard keeps people from entering the industry who might offer a more appropriate service to those types of cultures and communities.

Similarly, Doughty believes in keeping the process as natural and organic as possible. There is no health or safety reason a body must be embalmed; it has simply become a standard practice. There is also no reason why we must bury the dead in expensive coffins, or purchase headstones. Her own business, Undertaking LA, offers natural burials.

She also helps grieving families advocate for their rights. The rise of the medical industry, and the funeral industry, gradually stripped us of our ways of caring for the dead in our own ways. It used to be a family's own discretion if they wanted to wash the body at home, or possibly have a photographer come so that a mourning mother might have a portrait of her child to cherish, or have a wake in the home for a couple of days following a death, but we have forgotten those ways. Now we leave it to "the professionals", from transporting to washing to memorializing to burying (or cremating). And unfortunately those two industries have convinced us that their way is the only way.

And one of the most interesting tidbits I learned about her is that she is leading the way for more women to enter her industry. Years ago, she was in talks with a major tv network to have her own series about what the life of funeral director/mortician is like. One of the things that turned her off from the idea was how silly they envisioned it; they wanted her to pick up as blind date in a hearse, take the date to an abandoned asylum to go ghost hunting, etc. That's not what her business is actually about. Also, the network told her that she needed a male co-host for the series. When she asked why, they said "Well, we need an expert." She replied "Well, I AM the expert." And then they told her that they didn't think anyone would watch a show about forensics and funerals if it was just a woman hosting it. So she never got her TV series, but it did lead to her side career of writing.

I just started reading her new book From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death, so I'll have to review it at a later point. But for now, enjoy the photo of Caitlin admiring my skeleton t-shirt. He has his hand in the hair, and it reads "Slap me some skin!"