No Ballet Shoes in Syria by Catherine Bruton

This junior fiction novel was one of my summer reads. It tells the story of a Syrian refugee and her family as they try to settle in the UK. The girl is a ballet dancer and part of the story is how she finds links into her new community through her dancing. The story doesn't pull any punches about the difficulties, suspicion, racism and lack of understanding faced by refugees, but balances that with good people who understand and help. One character who plays a pivotal role is the new ballet teacher who herself was a Jewish refugee in the 1930s. I really enjoyed this story. This novel would be a good extension read or follow-up to novels like Alan Gratz's Refugee or Morris Gleitzman's Boy Overboard for students looking for extra reading.

'Watchmen' - a Graphic Novel - Script: Alan Moore; Illustrator/Letterist: Dave Gibbons; Colorist: John Higgins

I have read so many interesting books this year and not blogged about them! *Guilt!* But this one I needed to.

Watchmen was one of the first classic graphic novels, originally published in DC comic books in 1986 and 1987, and as a single volume in 1987. I needed to read a graphic novel for a book bingo, and I found this book by going to Amazon and browsing graphic novels - it came up as the top hit because it has just been made into a TV series by HBO. I was interested not because of the TV series, but because I recognised the name of Alan Moore as the creator (along with David Lloyd) of the graphic novel V for Vendetta. I have taught the film of V for Vendetta many times to my senior students and had previously read the original graphic novel for background.

Watchmen is quite a dark and satirical look at US society, human nature, and the whole 'masked avenger/superhero' trope.  It is set in an alternate timeline where America won the Vietnam War and Nixon is still President, having altered the constitution to allow himself to run for a third term. Watergate was never exposed: there is a throwaway mention somewhere about Woodward and Bernstein being found dead in a garage and "What's with that?" Masked avengers, aka vigilantes, became a big thing in society in the 1940s and 1950s. But then public opinion turned against them, and in 1977 vigilantes were outlawed. At the time the story is set, in the 1980s, the masked avengers have either unmasked and 'gone straight' or are deep underground. The title of the novel comes from the Latin tag by Juvenal: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? - usually translated as 'Who will guard the guardians?' or 'Who will watch the watchmen?'



The novel is a complex of interwoven stories: the main plot centres around the fact that someone appears to be killing off all the old masked avengers. The main characters are the ex-avengers such as Dr Manhattan, Nite Owl, Rorschach, etc. Gradually, we learn their backstories and the complex reasons why they decided to dress up in costumes and roam the night seeking justice. We learn that their actions have often been questionable. As the avengers are disposed of, the Cold War (still going!) heats up and we get closer to nuclear war:



There are also sub-plots revolving around minor characters who act as vox populi (similar to V for Vendetta) giving the voice of public opinion. An entire sub-plot revolves around a boy reading a comic book called Tales of the Black Freighter, sitting against a fire hydrant next to a newsstand. Without giving spoilers, that story acts as a foil to the main plot, and is skillfully juxtaposed with the main story.

The novel is full of allusions to historical and political events, films, and other texts. It is also quite brutal in places, being explicitly violent and including an attempted rape. The underlying themes are around the morality of seeking justice outside the law, the human condition, war, greed, etc, so it is pretty deep. Interspersed with the main comic strip are 'excerpts' from Nite Owl's autobiography, scholarly articles on vigilantes, newspaper articles, etc.

It was interesting to see that some of the themes were ones which were also central to V for Vendetta, such as 'One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter' and 'Is it justified to break the law if you feel the law is unjust?' As someone who participated in civil disobedience and broke the law to protest against NZ playing sport with South Africa in the days of Apartheid, this latter question has always been close to my heart. To me, there is a difference between peaceful protest and taking the law into your own hands. The masked avengers in this novel often go beyond the original Batman trope of 'Biff!' 'Whack!'  'Tie them up and deliver them to the police', to simply killing those they believe to be evil-doers. What if they are wrong? And who gave them the right to judge? I look at the current popularity of the Jack Reacher novels (a vigilante if ever there was one) and compare those to the superheroes and masked avengers. I see that there is a strong thread in American society (perhaps in humanity as a whole, even going back to Robin Hood), which applauds the person who will take action to seek justice when the powers that be are not doing so. Watchmen reminds us that there are significant moral dangers attached to this romanticised viewpoint.

If you are interested in the themes then you will probably find this a fascinating read, but likely not a comfortable one. I did feel that it would benefit from a re-reading, a bit like the kid reading the comic book story:

By the way, speaking of morality, you may be interested in finding out why Alan Moore is not going to be watching the HBO TV series based on his graphic novel:
Article: Why Alan Moore wants nothing to do with HBO's Watchmen.

'Death of a Salesman' by Arthur Miller

I hadn't read this play since my own high school days. I remembered it as being good but depressing, and my memory was accurate.

Why this play? I have launched this year into a literary exploration of the American Dream with my Year 13 class. We will be reading The Great Gatsby, and I have been toying with other texts which we might explore. As I googled my way around the theme, I kept coming up against Death of a Salesman on reading lists, time and time again. I was dubious, but we have a number of dog-eared copies in the resource room, so I decided to re-read it and see.

Miller's play is a good example of the adage that 'there is a reason why the Classics become Classic'. It won a Pulitzer Prize in 1949, and a Tony Award. It has been adapted into two feature films and a number of TV movies. It is old, but it is still very good.

In fact, like Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four---written around the same time---seventy years later, the underlying themes and questions of this drama are still as relevant as ever: the tension between the 'American Dream' and the reality; the societal pressure to live up to some norm or expectation, regardless of one's aptitude or personality; the realities of the way that families can replicate destructive patterns of thought and behaviour from one generation to another.

My question after re-reading it is no longer whether it is worthy of study, but around the sensitivities and appropriateness of teaching a text which deals with suicide. I will need to discuss this with the class and see what they think.

'If I Die in a Combat Zone: Box Me Up and Ship Me Home' by Tim O'Brien

This is an autobiography, or memoir, of Tim O'Brien's tour of duty in the Vietnam War. If you want to
understand what the Vietnam War was like for an American soldier then this is a great memoir to read. He is college educated, thoughtful and reflective, but tells it like it is. 

I was re-reading this book to decide whether I want to teach it this year with my Year 12 class. I still haven't decided. One of the things I noticed particularly this time around was the way the author switches from first to second person narrative. He uses second person (you) when he is talking about the worst parts of the fighting. I came to the conclusion that it could be more a way of distancing himself from the memories than a way of involving the reader, but it is a bit disconcerting switching pronouns from chapter to chapter.

What I like about this memoir is that he is completely honest about his feelings. He is drafted and doesn't want to go. He believes that the war is not a just war; that the US involvement is wrong. But he also feels his duty as a citizen. He considers dodging the draft, and later considers deserting before he is sent to Vietnam, but he can't bring himself to do either. The memoir starts in Vietnam for the first few chapters and then flashes back to him getting drafted, and after that tells the story in chronological order. For this reason, I think it is a more useful book to teach than his Pulitzer-nominated collection of short stories (The Things They Carried). Students tend to find that collection disjointed and don't get an overall picture. But the short stories are better crafted writing than the autobiography. Meh. Can't decide!

'Educated' by Tara Westover

This memoir was a challenging read on the emotional level, but I was completely riveted from the outset. Westover was brought up in rural Idaho by strongly religious survivalist parents who would not send her to school or use medical intervention of any kind, including antibiotics. The family was Mormon, but their views were more radical than the Mormon church, and Westover insists that her memoir is not a story about Mormonism or any organised religion.

Tara's birth was not registered and she essentially did not exist in the legal sense of paperwork, until her mother applied for a birth certificate for her when she was 9. She was taught at home to read and use basic number skills, but after that was put to work in her father's junkyard and assisting her mother, who was a herbalist and midwife. 

At the age of 16, Tara decided she wanted an education. She bought an algebra textbook and began teaching herself the maths she needed to pass a college entry certificate. At 17, she left her family against her father's wishes to attend the Mormon college, Brigham Young University. She ultimately ended up studying at Harvard and at Cambridge University in the UK, graduating with a doctorate in History. In the process of gaining her education, the beliefs she had been taught by her family were challenged and eventually she ended up estranged from her parents and some other family members.

Her family was... dysfunctional, I think would be the best descriptor. Her father's belief that everything was God's will meant that he was negligent to the point of causing accidents to happen to the children. Later, one of her brothers subjected her to emotional abuse and physical violence. I found the story of Tara's quest to be educated a painful but inspiring one. I finished it some days ago now, but it has stayed in my mind and I keep thinking about it and about her experiences.

One of the messages that I have taken from the book is the benefit of self-education and of motivation to learn:

"My parents would say to me all the time: you can teach yourself anything better than someone else can teach it to you. Which I really think is true. I hate the word “disempower,” because it seems kind of cliché, but I do think that we take people’s ability to self-teach away by creating this idea that that someone else has to do this for you, that you have to take a course, you have to do it in some formal way. Any curriculum that you design for yourself is going to be better, even if it’s not the absolute perfect one. You will follow what you care about." (Tara Westover in an interview with Vanity Fair)

If you are trying to decide whether or not you want to read 'Educated', I suggest watching this video of an interview with Tara Westover:

'The Adventures of Nanny Piggins' and 'Friday Barnes: Girl Detective' by R A Spratt

I finished reading this book on 16 January. It was recommended to me by a young cousin who was reading the third Nanny Piggins book at a recent family gathering. I don't tend to read a lot of junior fiction these days, more YA, so it was a nice change to discover this author.

Nanny Piggins is a pig who gets a job as a Nanny. In one sense she is the total opposite of the Mary Poppins syndrome - she is pretty much the world's worst Nanny (for example, she and the children hide and pretend there is no one home when the truancy officer knocks on the door...)

In another respect, Nanny Piggins does have parallels to Mary Poppins in that both of them have limited respect for the father of the household and generally subvert the paternal authority to side with the children.

I found the book funny and entertaining and would like to read the others in the series. You might enjoy the first paragraph:

After reading Nanny Piggins I read the first in another series by the same author: 'Friday Barnes: Girl
Detective'. Friday is a kind of 'Matilda' character who has read a lot of books (including lots of detective stories) but has limited social skills. She applied to university to study medicine and was accepted until they found out she was only 11, so she has to go to high school. Friday is not super keen on the idea but with some reward money from solving a police case she pays for her tuition at a private school. Socialising is challenging for her, as is the fact that she has to solve some mysteries. I enjoyed this story also and will look out for others in the series. I finished this book on 18 January.

No Stone Unturned: A Lexi Carmichael Mystery by Julie Moffat

I finished reading this book on 15 January. I really enjoy this series though it is 'fun reading' rather than great literature. It is a kind of romance/spy story/hacker story mix. The main character, Lexi, attracts a lot of trouble and some of her predicaments are quite funny. 

Lexi is a math nerd hacker genius who works in IT security in Washington DC. Her fiancé is a spy/hacker who used to work for the Vatican and now works for the NSA. Some of the books in the series involve travel in Italy, which I enjoy reading about. This latest book includes some fun Dan Brownish kind of Vatican mystique and goings-on.

I'm not giving detail about this particular book as it would create spoilers for someone starting at the beginning of the series. I will just say that the story is about Lexi and her fiancé and how a mystery from the past threatens them and their relationship. 

If you enjoy spy/thriller/romance with a touch of humour then you might enjoy this series. The first book is 'No One Lives Twice'.