One for the Murphys

Hunt, Lynda. One for the Murphys. Nancy Paulsen Books, 2012.

When Carley's stepfather beats her (while her mother holds her so she can't run away), she is placed into the foster system.  The Murphys are a bustling, happy family, and Carley has difficulty adjusting to life in their home and accepting the unconditional love she finds there.  When her mom has recovered enough to leave the hospital, Carley has to face leaving the one place she felt like home.

I enjoyed this story. I loved how "real" the Murphy family was and how patient the mom was with Carley and her odd behavior.  I didn't want Carley to go back with her mom, but I was glad she had had a chance to grow strong and see that there are possibilities outside of her normal experiences.

Confessions of a Teenage Hermaphrodite

Simon, Lianne. Confessions of a Teenage Hermaphrodite. Faie Miss Press, 2012.

Meh. I wanted this book to be good. There are so few YA books about LGBTQIA (especially BTQIA) teens, I was glad to find one about an intersex person. Jamie/Jameson has been raised as a boy, but she feels that she is a girl, and she wants to live her life as the princess she feels she is. Her dad, though, is insistent that she is a boy, going so far as to invent rules for her to live by and whipping her as he would a son.

She's 16. She's away at college. She starts living as a girl. Dad gets mad. She's 18 - still living as a girl and still not at home. She wants to marry and adopt a couple of orphans, but her dad still thinks she needs to come home and go into some kind of gender therapy and become a boy. Then everything gets resolved and she lives happily ever after.

Like I said, I wanted this book to be good. But the narration switches from first person to third person frequently, so I never felt like I was truly inside Jamie's head. And I got SO frustrated at her insistence on obeying her parents even when she was an adult and not even living with them - she knew she was a girl, the doctor agreed she was a girl, so why did she keep trying to be a boy for her dad? Argh.  And her family was sort of religious, but not really, so I was confused when they started talking about Bible verses just randomly.  Having spent a considerable amount of time in a strict religious near-cult, I know what that kind of environment is like, and this book didn't paint that picture quite right. I was unconvinced.

I guess I wanted to be in Jamie's head more, and I wanted her to have a backbone. Better luck next time.

Stuck in the Middle with You

Boylan, Jennifer. Stuck in the Middle with You: A Memoir of Parenting in Three Genders. Crown, 2013.

A father for ten years, a mother for eight, and for a time in between, neither, or both ("the parental version of the schnoodle, or the cockapoo"), Jennifer Finney Boylan has seen parenthood from both sides of the gender divide. When her two children were young, Boylan came out as transgender, and as Jenny transitioned from a man to a woman and from a father to a mother, her family faced unique challenges and questions. In this thoughtful, tear-jerking, hilarious memoir, Jenny asks what it means to be a father, or a mother, and to what extent gender shades our experiences as parents. "It is my hope," she writes, "that having a father who became a woman in turn helped my sons become better men." Through both her own story and incredibly insightful interviews with others, including Richard Russo, Edward Albee, Ann Beattie, Augusten Burroughs, Susan Minot, Trey Ellis, Timothy Kreider, and more, Jenny examines relationships with fathers and mothers, people's memories of the children they were and the parents they became, and the many different ways a family can be.

I am not a parent, nor am I transgender, but I did find this book to be a very interesting read. For anyone who has read Happy Families, this is a nonfiction version of a similar story, interspersed with interviews. It's a very interesting read, and one I would recommend for anyone who has a transgender friend or who simply wants to understand an often misunderstood segment of humanity.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through the Goodreads First Reads program for the purposes of review.

Sing You Home

Picoult, Jodi. Sing You Home. Atria Books, 2011.

People attempting to conceive and miscarrying. Suicidal teens. Religious fundamentalists. Gay people. Big court cases over frozen embryos - what's not to like in this novel? I listened to the audio version of this novel and really enjoyed not only the narration but also the songs that preceded each chapter. And I will admit that I cried when Zoe and Vanessa married - even if their marriage took place in a bowling alley.

This is a great novel for adults who want to wrestle lightly with some tough issues without delving into a teen book.  And it's got a wedding - in a bowling alley.  Like I said, what's not to like?

Killmaiden's Compendium of Uncommon Occurrences

Shapiro, James. Killmaiden's Compendium of Uncommon Occurrences. Inkwater Press, 2013.

Alex Drake is a scout, hoping to become an explorer someday and follow the great tradition of explorers who are published in Killmaiden's Compendium of Uncommon Occurrences. He's already famous as the youngest scout to have an entry published in the famous book. But when Alex's father leaves on a top-secret mission and is gone for over two months, Alex knows something is wrong. He must follow his father on his mission, not knowing where he is going or what he is searching for, trusting his fate to his wits and the help of those he finds along the way.

I loved this book. It's a great adventure story, set in a world that's similar enough to Earth so that it is easy to follow along, but different enough to seem fantastical. If I hadn't had to stop to sleep in the middle, I'd have finished this book in one day. The story is great, the characters are believable, and the ending, even if it isn't surprising, is quite satisfying. I sincerely hope that a second book follows.

I would recommend this book to tweens and teens, especially those who have enjoyed adventure books like the Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, or Fablehaven series. The Compendium would make a great read-aloud book for a classroom or a "next read" for the student who has read everything else. This one is definitely worth adding to a library's or classroom's collection.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through the Goodreads First Reads program for the purposes of review.

Hot Dogs and Hamburgers

Shindler, Rob. Hot Dogs & Hamburgers: Unlocking Life's Potential by Inspiring Literacy at Any Age. River Grove Books, 2012.

Rob Shindler recounts his adventures in becoming a tutor for adults learning to read - a process he started when he wanted to help his son learn to read. His story turns literacy statistics into real people and shows the importance of literacy education. A fun, easy, entertaining read. I truly enjoyed this book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley for the purposes of review.