Wednesdays @ West: The family tales of Patricia Polacco

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Last week one of my lovely coworkers here at the West and I were discussing an author for whom we share a mutual admiration.  She mentioned a title I hadn’t read by this author and proceeded to bring me a copy.  With a tissue inside.

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The more I read of Patricia Polacco’s books, the more I’m convinced that the library should probably provide our readers with tissues to go with most of her books.  If you haven’t yet discovered her work, she is a prolific author and illustrator of picture books.  Don’t let the picture book designation turn you off.  As I read more and more of Polacco’s work I increasingly feel like her books can and should be enjoyed even more by adults than by children.  Her books are often inspired by stories from her own life (like Thank You, Mr. Falker), stories she hears when she does school visits (like Mr. Lincoln’s Way) or, my personal favorites, family stories that have been handed down to her.

My maternal grandmother was an accomplished storyteller and her forte was family stories.  Although my family’s narrative is quite different than Patricia Polacco, her picture books give me the same feeling that listening to my grandmother’s stories always did.  Since November is National Picture Book month it seemed appropriate to devote today’s Wednesdays @ West to some of these lovely books.  So here are my Top Five Patricia Polacco Books for Adults:

The Blessing Cup is the story of the author’s great-grandmother’s blessingcupescape from Russia after her Jewish family had been ordered to leave the country.  Anna’s family must leave almost all of their possessions behind, but they manage to bring with them a  tea set that has always brought special blessings to their family.  This book is both a timely reminder of the reality of life as a refugee and a life-affirming look at what can be accomplished through the kindness of strangers.

keepingquiltThe Keeping Quilt is a companion to The Blessing Cup.  Anna’s family has arrived in the United States after their perilous escape from Russia.  Her babushka is one of the last things Anna has to remind her of home. When she outgrows it, however, her mother turns it and other family members’ clothes into a special quilt that is handed down through the generations and witnesses many special family times.

bettydollSkipping ahead a couple of generations, Betty Doll shares the story of yet another of Polacco’s family heirlooms.  The titular doll originally belonged to Patrica’s mother, Mary Ellen.  After Mary Ellen’s death,  Patricia discovers the doll and a letter her mother had written to her.  Betty Doll accompanied Mary Ellen through many of life’s ups and downs and now, as “Trisha” mourns her mother’s death, she finds that Betty offers her a similar comfort.  I’d recommend this tear-jerker to anyone who loves or misses their mother.

butterflyEven though she is an author for children, Patricia Polacco does not hesitate to tackle the big, sad stories of  history.  In addition to writing about her family’s refugee experience, she shares the story of her aunt’s experience with the French Resistance during the Nazi occupation of France in The Butterfly.  Monique is just a child, but has learned to fear the Nazi soldiers who have taken over her hometown.  The reality of their brutality is not lost on the young girl when she sees them drag off a beloved shopkeeper and crush a butterfly for sport.  But when Monique befriends a Jewish child, who is hiding in her home, she and her new friend’s child-like ways can’t help but put two families at risk.

pinkandsayWith Veteran’s Day just around the corner, I can’t think of a better time to read Pink and Say.  Pink and Say are two soldiers of different races, but both are fighting for the Union cause.  One young solider, a former slave, rescues another and brings him home to convalesce.  The rescued soldier was Patricia Polacco’s great-great-grandfather and this piece of family folklore was handed down through generations.

orangeforfrankieWhile I’m not quite yet ready for holiday books, I also want to mention, as a bonus, that if you’re looking for a charming Christmas story this year, I’d suggest you take a look at An Orange for Frankie.  This is (in my humble opinion) the best of several Christmas stories written by Polacco.  Frankie’s family is celebrating the holiday during the Great Depression, but financial hardship and bad weather don’t deter this family from holding fast to their traditions, while pulling together as a family and embodying the very best of the Christmas spirit.

One reviewer on GoodReads described reading one of Ms. Polacco’s books as a “luxury” and that’s just how they feel to me.  Reading her books feels like wrapping yourself in a quilt on a cold night and drinking a cup of tea.  Just make sure you bring your tissue box with you.

The Romance Garden

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Well, it’s November, dear readers; the month that Louisa May Alcott described as “the most disagreeable month in the whole year”.  And, frankly, I couldn’t agree more.   Thankfully, so long as there are books, there is hope, and thus, we bring you this months’ Romance Garden, where there is plenty of dirt to help your mind grow, and countless happy endings to make November just a little bit more bearable…

The Chrysanthemum is November's birth flower
The Chrysanthemum is November’s birth flower

Bridget:

3824611Going Deep by Anne Calhoun

I have a lot of trouble with contemporary romance novels (those set in the present day) because it seems that very few of them are willing to challenge the “hard, rugged, dominant Alpha-Male” and “Damsel In Need Of A Hero” tropes.  Not only do I find them damaging for perpetuating ideas about how men and women “should” behave and interact–I also find them really boring.  So I cannot begin to tell you my joy at reading Anne Calhoun’s latest Alpha Ops novel.

Singer/songwriter Cady Ward’s career is finally taking off…but fame comes with a price.  Cady is being stalked online, and after one too many run-ins with some over-enthusiastic fans, Cady’s manager decrees that she cannot go home for the holidays unless she has a bodyguard with her.  Conn is in the middle of a career melt-down.  Though he knows that the accusations of unnecessary force being leveled against him are false, his chief orders him to take some time off…and take care of Cady…until things blow over.

And thus, we are set up with the old  damsel-in-distress/aggressive Alpha Male trope, right?  Actually…no.  The relationship between Conn and Cady is as far from convention as it is possible to get.  Conn may be big and strong, but he is all too aware of the kind of fear that physical strength can impart, and never stoops to treating Cady as anything but what she is–a force, both creative and intellectually–with which to be reckoned.  Cady, for her part, effortless shows how capable she is of rescuing herself, but Calhoun also shows how difficult this role can be, and deals with it beautifully.

As a singer, I really appreciated that Calhoun treated Cady’s art with respect, and showed what a difficult, taxing, and stressful job performing really is.  More than anything, though, I loved, loved, loved the final scene in this book–enough to make it among my favorites of all time.  Readers who haven’t read the other Alpha Ops novels won’t have too much trouble at all with this one, but Anne Calhoun is a darn good writer, so I highly recommend checking out the series as a whole.

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Kelley:

3793430Hero in the Highlands by Suzanne Enoch

Suzanne Enoch’s “No Ordinary Heroes” series is off to a great start with Hero in the Highlands, a story that turns the standard English rose meets untamed Highland laird trope on its head to introduce us to Major Gabriel Forrester, a soldier in the British army; and Fiona Blackstock, a capable and confident Highland woman.

When we meet Gabriel Forrester, he is actively fighting for the British army in Spain and enjoying a military career where he thrives on battle, and his family is made up of the men whose responsibility it is his to keep alive. Shortly after we come to understand what being a soldier means to Gabriel, we see that life taken away from him suddenly and unexpectedly when he inherits a dukedom he never knew he was in line for in the first place. As the Duke of Lattimer, amongst the money and some well managed properties in England, Gabriel also inherits a castle in the Scottish Highlands that comes complete with a curse that makes the estate entirely unprofitable and an uncooperative steward.

Fiona Blackstock is the steward of Lattimer Castle, and she has no interest in seeing an English duke in residence at a castle neglected by the previous duke and adequately managed by the Maxwell clan, the clan who owned the castle prior to the English win at the Battle of Culloden. Though it’s been decades since Culloden, and Gabriel wasn’t even alive at the time, the battle is remembered bitterly in Scotland, and he is despised simply for being English. Although Fiona is reluctant to help him at first, Gabriel proves time and again that he is willing to take action when needed and he cares about her clan, so Fiona comes to see that Gabriel might be just what Lattimer Castle and its people need.

The relationship that develops between Fiona and Gabriel is a surprise to both of them, and it’s sweet to watch their romance unfold. Fiona is smart and capable, has the respect of her clan, and has managed the estate for years without need of help or rescuing. For his part, Gabriel is a hard-working man who cares deeply about the people in his care, but has never envisioned a future for himself that didn’t end in an early death. Can Gabriel teach Fiona that having a partner to support and help you can be a very valuable and desirable thing? And will Gabriel ever be able to envision and live for a life that includes a real future and love? I highly recommend that you pick up a copy of Hero in the Highlands to find out!

Until next month, beloved patrons…happy reading!