Audacity (2015)

Audacity. Melanie Crowder. 2015. Penguin. 400 pages. [Source: Review copy]

I loved Melanie Crowder's Audacity. It was a fascinating read focusing on the life and work of Clara Lemlich. It would pair well with Margaret Peterson Haddix's Uprising and Katherine Paterson's Bread and Roses, Too. Also Margarita Engle's The Lightning Dreamer and Andrea Davis Pinkney's The Red Pencil.

What did I love most about Audacity? I loved, loved, loved Clara herself. I loved her strength, her determination, her ambition, her loyalty, her persistence. Whether in Russia or America, Clara dreamed of one thing above all others: getting an education and making something of herself. She wanted to be able to read and write. She wanted to be able to think and form her own opinions and express them. She was raised in an environment, a community, where education was ONLY for men, the message that was reinforced over and over again (not specifically by her parents, but by the community) was that equated a woman going to school and learning with a prostitute. An educated woman brought shame to her family. It wasn't just that it was pushed aside or made a low priority. It was discouraged and forbidden. Clara wanted a voice of her own, and she wanted to be heard. There were many intense places in Audacity. Some within the Russia setting. Some within America. Some within her own home. Some outside the home. Audacity isn't a light-hearted read.

The novel opens with Clara and her family in Russia at the turn of the twentieth century. After facing persecution--the Jewish community within Russia facing brutal persecution--her family emigrated to America. The focus remains on Clara: her dreams and her reality. For example, while her father and brothers stay home to be scholars, she works seven days a week in a mill. The conditions under which she works, under which all the women work, were horrible. She gives her paycheck to her family faithfully, dutifully. But not without some regret. Why must she be the one working so hard while others take it easy?! Much of the book focuses on her struggle: her struggle to hold onto her dreams, her struggle to hold onto dignity, her fight for right, to see justice done.

Audacity is a novel written in verse. It was powerful and compelling. The verse worked for me. It just wowed me in places! This fascinating book is easy to recommend. It's an emotional read, but oh so worth it!

© 2015 SukaYuka.com of SukaYuka's Book Reviews

Reread #34 Out of the Dust

Out of the Dust. Karen Hesse. 1997. Scholastic. 240 pages. [Source: Bought]

I first reviewed Out of the Dust in March 2008. Out of the Dust is a historical verse novel that I likely would have avoided at all costs as a kid. It is set in Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl and Depression.

Billie Jo is our piano-playing heroine. Life was hard enough for Billie Jo and her family BEFORE the tragic accident. Multiple crop failures in a row. Worry and doubt weighing down whole communities, and, not without cause. But after the accident, things are even worse.

Added to despair and doubt is anger and bitterness and regret. Billie Jo doesn't know how to talk to her father anymore. She doesn't know how to be in the same house with him. Things are just off between them. Both are suffering souls. Both have needs that aren't being met. Both need time to heal at the very least.

The novel spans two years, 1934 and 1935. These two years are very hard emotionally for almost all the characters. Out of the Dust is a great coming-of-age novel. I think I liked it even more the second time.

© 2014 SukaYuka.com of SukaYuka's Book Reviews

Salt: A Story of Friendship in Time of War

Salt: A Story of Friendship in a Time of War. Helen Frost. 2013. FSG. 160 pages. [Source: Library]

I definitely liked this verse novel set in the Indiana Territory during the War of 1812. I liked the dual narration. I liked reading about the times from the perspective of the Native Americans (Anikwa, is our young hero) and from the perspective of the white settlers (James, our second young hero). These two boys can be on the best of terms: doing plenty of things side by side, learning from each other, laughing at each other, too. But their are forces pulling these two cultures apart. There are people in James life telling him that the Indians are NOT their friends, that the peaceful coexistence is done with, the Indians will join with the British any day now, and then there will be trouble, then there will be blood. But James is unsure. He knows what he knows, what he has experienced, and he feels that Anikwa and his family could never really be their enemies. Misunderstandings do occur in the novel, and the danger is real on both sides. But there is a theme of friendship and trust in the novel which I enjoyed.

© 2014 SukaYuka.com of SukaYuka's Book Reviews