Ginny Moon by Benjamin Ludwig

GINNY MOON by Benjamin Ludwig is a must read book. I try not to say that very often and this debut novel is certainly uncomfortable to read at the beginning, but I became so enamored with the characters that I simply could not stop.   New Hampshire English and writing teacher Benjamin Ludwig was at The Book Stall last Wednesday afternoon (May 3rd) and I am really sorry to have missed that discussion about this story of an autistic teenage girl in a foster family.

It has been almost 5 years since Ginny Moon, then nine, was removed from an abusive and neglectful situation with her Birth Mother, Gloria.  Since then she has been in several foster homes and may have found her Forever Home with Maura and Brian who are expecting a child.  In an effort to help Ginny adjust to a sibling, she is given a plastic electronic baby, but it will not stop crying and Ginny wants her Baby Doll instead, obsessing over finding Gloria and making sure that her Baby Doll is safe.   

GINNY MOON is a coming of age story that is full of suspense and action as well as troubled relationships and several well-intentioned blunders and misunderstandings. In creating these situations and Ginny’s internal monologues, Ludwig aptly draws on his own experience as a foster parent of a teen with autism.  I, too, see Ginny in some of my students - in their sheer determination and certainness of purpose, their tendency to interpret most comments literally, and their sense of trust and wonder.  I am looking forward to sharing this book with teachers and students.  I think that our book group and class literature circles would benefit from reading and reflecting together on the title.  In addition, we should add it to our Junior Theme list. GINNY MOON received starred reviews from Booklist, Library Journal and Publishers Weekly; plus it is an Amazon Best Book of the Month for May and almost fifty percent of its ratings on Goodreads are 5 stars. Clearly, I am not the only one to say GINNY MOON is a must read book.

ADDED JUNE 10: Author interview with Benjamin Ludwig

Beartown by Fredrik Backman

BEARTOWN by Fredrik Backman, author of A Man Called Ove, was just released this week and has garnered some very positive reviews.  Backman again creates an ensemble of characters who are somehow both universal and yet firmly anchored in their time and place. In this novel, it is Beartown, a small, economically decaying Swedish community whose hope rests on the junior hockey team.  A championship that could revive tourism and interest in the area is close at hand for general manager, Peter Andersson.  Upright and fair, he played on the team years ago, made it to the NHL and has returned with his family, including 15 year-old Maya.

The team’s stellar player is Kevin, affluent and aloof. He’s protected on the ice by Amat, an immigrant with a single Mom. Hockey ensues, a game is won, and a particularly wild party results in tragedy involving Maya and Kevin.  The championship is still looming and the community faces tough moral choices with a financial impact.  BEARTOWN is packed with emotion and will work well for discussion groups.

Another "guilty pleasure" I have been reading lately is THE NIGHT THE LIGHTS WENT OUT by Karen White. After a divorce due to her husband's scandalous affair, Merilee moves her two young children, Lily and Colin, across town in Sweet Apple, Georgia to a new school. There she begins to form a friendship of sorts with her landlady, a real steel magnolia named Sugar Prescott. Merilee is also befriended by Heather Blackford, a very rich, but unfulfilled mother at the school. This is a perfect blend of light romance (with cartaker Wade Kimball) and a murder mystery with "mean girl behavior" being telegraphed awkwardly and often. Gullibility, poor decision-making and trust issues certainly complicate life for Merilee in this novel full of secrets - both past and present.  

Two New York City novels ...

Here are some thoughts on two new books, both of which are set in New York … 

THE GARGOYLE HUNTERS is a debut novel by native New Yorker John Freeman Gill.  In this

story, set in mid-1970’s New York City, 13-year old Griffin tries to cope with his parents’ dysfunctional relationship and struggles with the expectations of the family’s architectural salvage business. It is fascinating to read about his adventures climbing around buildings as, per his Dad’s direction, he rescues and liberates gargoyles and other sculptures.

Gill, an expert on historic New York buildings, seamlessly educates his readers about facades and construction while cleverly raising questions of greed, decay/demolition and preservation/progress. Also, the father son dynamics will offer a potential starting point for Junior Theme students as this quote illustrates: “just standing beside Dad, the force of him, so often rendered me inarticulate.  His imminent disapproval was a weight I could never quite stop trying to push off me.” THE GARGOYLE HUNTERS is both funny and poignant; it received a starred review from Booklist which also recommended this title “for fans of Donna Tartt and Colum McCann.”

A second novel concerning New York is THE WIDOW OF WALL STREET by Randy Susan Meyers which details the development and ultimate consequences of a Ponzi scheme.  To be honest, I really liked the beginning of this novel and then it started to repeat itself seemingly incessantly (about how Jake would be certain to pay back loans and make good on other irregularities in his investment business) and I was simply not so interested. What he did was wrong and not even based on any clear motivation.  More interesting was wife Phoebe’s reaction to Jake’s betrayal, but it took a long time to really understand or feel empathy for her, also.   

While I do not think that this title will have much appeal for our students, it could work for adult book groups since there are clearly some moral issues to discuss and a spousal relationship to explore (perhaps in tandem with Ada Calhoun's recent New York Times article "To Stay Married, Embrace Change"). Other reviewers have been generally more positive (Kirkus called THE WIDOW OF WALL STREET “compelling… an engrossing emotional journey”) so if the financial industry is of interest to you, pick up a copy and let me know what you think.     

March 2017 ... YA titles ...

Other commitments have been swallowing up available reading and reviewing time this month but I wanted to be sure to comment on several new YA titles. 

THE HEARTBEATS OF WING JONES by Katherine Webber (March 14, Delacorte) is set in Atlanta and tells the story of Wing Jones and her older brother, Marcus. The local public library placed this title in their Junior High section and it does have a younger feel, beginning with a gentle, lovely swing ride for Wing and Marcus as children. Once high school age, he is a popular football star while she feels like a misfit, too obviously different due in part to their mixed racial heritage (half black, half Chinese). Circumstances change dramatically when Marcus has a car accident and kills two people while driving drunk.  He goes into a coma, the family faces financial concerns and Wing copes by beginning to run:  “I’m sure somehow my running is keeping Marcus alive, that my footsteps are making his heart beat, way more than the machines that he’s hooked up to.”  School Library Journal recommends THE HEARTBEATS OF WING JONES for Stephanie Perkins’ fans; please see the author’s website for more review comments about this promising and affirming debut.  

THE SHADOWS WE KNOW BY HEART by Jennifer Park (March 14, Simon Pulse) appealed to me because of its beautiful cover and the mystery element it contains. Independent-minded protagonist Leah is not supposed to go into the woods, but she sneaks away anyway and is fascinated by the Bigfoot Sasquatch she sees. There is even a Tarzan-like element due to the “wild boy” who accompanies them. It is a bit difficult to believe that these creatures could exist so close to a residential area, but the suspense will pull readers in and, of course, human contact eventually produces a crisis.  THE SHADOWS WE KNOW BY HEART is also shelved locally with Junior High materials and will be an engaging, quick read for middle school and freshmen students looking for a story filled with romance and some mythical elements.  

JUST FLY AWAY by Andrew McCarthy (coming March 28, Algonquin) explores family secrets in a different way and is a very quick read.  15 year-old Lucy and her younger sister, Julie, discover that their Dad has another child: their half-brother, 8 year-old Thomas. Lucy deals with this revelation by being angry with both parents – for her Dad’s involvement with another woman and her Mom’s acceptance of it. Lucy is a very immature and certainly self-involved character who want to “just fly away” and eventually she ends up in Maine, spending time with her grandfather.  JUST FLY AWAY is a debut novel from a bestselling memoirist, actor and director recommended by Booklist and School Library Journal for students in grades 7-10.