It Ain't So Awful, Falafel

It Ain't So Awful, Falafel

by Firoozeh Dumas

Publisher: Clarion Books (May 3, 2016)

I have been trying to stick this book under the noses of whoever will tolerate such liberties, urging them to read it, just so they can derive the immense satisfaction that I did from a book so superbly written that it makes me hope that world peace is easily achievable if only all books were like this.

Of course, I do that a lot with every well-written book, be it Middle Grade, YA, or Adult, fiction or non-fiction, that has come my way.

Yes, this is a Middle Grade fiction, not a heavy literary tome by a Pulitzer winner.

I first got introduced to Firoozeh Dumas's writing through her memoir-of-sorts, Funny in Farsi. Being an Iranian American who lived through the Iran Hostage Crisis as a youngster, Firoozeh is both wise and pragmatic, always ready to state what she feels is right with just the right touch of humor that takes away the edge and makes you ponder on the realities of the situation. Her writing is honest and brilliant -- she spins poignant moments into funny yarns that are moving, heart-warming, vivid, and masterly, all at the same time.

Zomorod Yousoufzadeh is looking forward to starting middle school right after this summer break. Although born in Iran, she has been in the US for a few years now because her father's job brought them to America and has kept them here. The story starts with her family moving from Compton, CA to Newport Beach, CA.

As we enter the story, Zomorod starts calling herself Cindy, after the littlest Brady Bunch kid that everyone loves. Why?

“It’s not like I’m trying to pretend that I’m not Iranian. I just want people to ask questions about me when we meet, not about where I’m from.”

Obviously, "Zomorod" is not an easy name to pronounce, and is way too weird-sounding, plus she simply wants to fit in and belong here. "Hi, I'm Cindy" shifts the focus from her nationality to herself as an individual, compared to "Hi, I'm Zomorod."

Cindy's dad, an engineer, was sent to the US to collaborate on building oil refineries. He has studied in the US before and speaks English just fine (but for the accent) and is looking forward to doing the best he can in both his professional and personal life, and loves to speak eloquently about Iran and oil refineries with whoever is (un)lucky enough to start a conversation with him. 

Her mother on the other hand speaks barely any English (except hello and thank you) and feels isolated as a result, but still refuses to learn English and prefers having Zomorod as her translator. What's Cindy to do? Except to tell us readers that she loves her parents very much but that she'd rather keep them hidden till she feels that they are no longer embarrassing to her. Typical tween!

The book hinges on Cindy/Zomorod. She  carries the book on her young shoulders with panache. She relies on her inherent sense of humor to tackle life's weird encounters when nothing else would work. With a steadfast fellow bookworm, Carolyn, for a friend, Cindy manages to balance her parents' expectations with her own need to belong, while navigating the student life at Lincoln Junior High, and discovering Girl Scouts, Halloween, and Taco Nights at Carolyn's.

Pivoting around the Iran Hostage Crisis, Firoozeh shows us the dark side of our own weaknesses and fears that prevents us from standing up for what we know is right -- how our perception gets easily clouded by collective hysteria. With her sharp insight into human nature and her firm belief that people around the world are not that much different from each other, Firoozeh, through Zomorod's dad, assures us that, "...people like that are not truly horrible; they just need a geography class, a passport, and a few foreign friends."

The little nuggets about hospitality culture and the universal language of food can easily be applied to Indians just as well as it applies to the Iranians in this story. In fact, some of the characters in the book could just as well be from India, they'd slide right into their roles just as easily. Which attests to the fact that human beings everywhere are not all that different from each other once we take away the language and the food and the geographical borders -- humans seek the same thing: a sense of community, safety, security, and to live their lives as best as they can.

This splendid story mingles family, politics, and immigrant experience, with friendship, self-identity, and coming-of-age angst while addressing paranoia, xenophobia, and intolerance with wry wit and gentle humor.

I can easily see this book becoming required reading for all fifth graders so they can peek into the cultural nuances from an immigrant child's perspective, even if the story is set in the 1970s and 80s. When the resident 11 year old avid reader started chortling at every other page, saying, "Mama, listen to this:..." and proceeded to read passages from the book back to me, I knew I could ask for nothing more from a book.

Speaking from personal experience, I see Zomorod's self-identity as dual, such is the nature of immigrant children -- they manage to extract the best of both worlds and come out a better version of themselves in the end, holding on to what centers them from their own heritage while being open to new experiences and putting out new roots that will anchor them in their current domicile.

[image source: HMH Books]

6 Picture Book Biographies of Extraordinary Women

Daredevil
The Daring Life of Betty Skelton
by Megan McCarthy

Beautifully rendered story of Betty Skelton's life, this picture book captures her spirit and her personality with humor and authenticity.

Betty was a daredevil all right. The part that affected the kids most was when she was invited to train with the male astronauts for Mercury 7, went through the training with flying colors, only to be rejected at the crucial time simply because she was a woman and NASA wasn't ready to send a woman into space at that time.

Illustrations are slightly on the funny side and yet very adorable and relevant.



Solving the Puzzle Under the Sea
by Robert Burleigh
illustrated by Raúl Colón

One of 20th century's most important scientists, Marie Tharp was the key person involved in mapping the seafloors around the world. Her hard work validated the theory of Continental Drift which was a tenuous proposition at that time, but the only reasonable explanation for the observations.

Being the daughter of a mapmaker, it was no surprise that Marie knew what to do from her younger days. Even though she initially faced many obstacles as she was just a woman and women couldn't possibly be smart scientists in those days, her perseverance and confidence gained her respect among her peers at Lamont Geological Labs where she started her project of mapping the sea floor.

Illustrations by Raul Colon (of DRAW) complement the text well.


Queen of the Track: Alice Coachman
Olympic High-Jump Champion
by heather Lang
illustrated by Floyd Cooper

Alice Coachman was born to run and jump. Thus begins this story of a remarkable athlete who took her talents to new heights via sheer hard work and determination. Talent like hers cannot be suppressed, it is bound to be discovered sooner or later. But being black in those testing times was not helping her at all.

Going to London from her segregated Southern state, for the Olympic Games, Alice was awed that she could sit anywhere on the bus despite being black. That little nugget in the book influenced both the kids at home deeply. That, and the fact that the King George VI shook her hands when awarding her gold medal at the Olympics was something huge for Alice, something she could not expect the white people in her own community to do willingly.


Dorothea's Eyes
by Barb Rosenstock
illustrated by Gérard DuBois

Afflicted with polio at age six, Dorothea Lange never recovered from the limp; she felt different and lonely. But, she saw things like no one else did - with her eyes and her heart.

Being enterprising and tenacious, she asks to work with any photographer who would taken her on as apprentice. She learns all that she can pick up. Eventually, recognizing her talent, one photographer gives her an old camera.

In an age when photography was not taken very seriously, and women were not taken seriously, Dorothea was a natural at both, very seriously. Many of Dorothea's photographs are held in National Archives and can be accessed at archives.gov.


Stone Girl Bone Girl
A Story of Mary Anning of Lyme Regis
by Laurence Anholt
illustrated by Sheila Moxley

By now, most budding paleontologists have heard about Mary Anning, the girl who couldn't help finding fossils everywhere she looked, the girl who found the first Ichthyosaurus fossil that reconciled a huge gap that scientists had in understanding prehistoric creatures until then.

Being poor, and not knowing the value of her finds, Mary probably gave away most of her valuable treasures just to put food on the table. The book talks about the little speckled dog that showed up at Mary's one day and stayed with her for all her discovereis up until Ichthyosaur, and then magically disappeared. She later found Plesiosaurs and Pterosaurs in her small, unassuming town of Lyme Regis in Dorset.

The illustrations are bright, colorful, and gorgeous!


Bon Appétit!
The Delicious Life of Julia Child
by Jessie Hartland

A children's picture book about Julia Child? This I must read, I told myself when I saw it in our library.

All about Julia's life and her life's work -- Mastering the Art of French Cooking, the book shows Julia's indomitable spirit and her methodical approach to perfecting each recipe so others can follow it blindly and end up with something out of this world.

Never one to sit idly, Julia was always passionate about cooking, and even got her own TV Show with live demonstrations in a day and age when such things were not easily open to women hosts.

My only nagging issue with the book is its layout and font - it is cluttered and crowded and hard to read in proper sequence. Plus the fonts are cursive which the younger child is not adept at reading - yet.


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When I was Eight,
Not My Girl
by Christy Jordan-Fenton & Margaret Pokiak-Fenton
art by Gabrielle Grimard


While not a biography but more a memoir of sorts, these two books gave a peek into a life of Margaret Pokiak-Fenton, that is very different from anything the kids had expected to read in a picture book.

Olemaun, an Inuit girl, knows a lot of things including how to keep the sled dogs quiet when hunting for caribou; how to bring get her team of dogs to obey; how to relish muktuk (whale blubber) and pipsi (dried fish).

But, she did not know how to read English, like the outsiders. And wanted to learn. So, she was sent to study with the nuns at the outsiders school.

The school changes her in ways she never imagined. She has forgotten her own language, lost the taste for her own native foods, and can't seem to know all the things that are important for her survival in the harsh lands.

When I was Eight is about Margaret going away to the outsider school; Not My Girl talks about her return from school and trying to get rehabilitated and learn the ways of her people so she can continue the traditional way of life and preserve her cultural heritage.

The illustrations are brilliant!


[image source: multcolib.org]

Truffles & Teas: Another school year just flew by

Sometimes I wish I was back in grade school. The years from 8th grade through 12th were absolutely lovely for me - grueling, stimulating, joyful, stressful, promising, and frustrating all at the same time. However, I have no intention of going through puberty again, worrying over what to do with my life when I 'grow up.'

Not until high school did I get quite taken up with learning for the sheer gratification of it, lingering in academia much longer than average, assuming, possibly falsely, that the depth of my knowledge somehow is tied to the strength of my identity. Which, at last stock-taking wasn't that deep or that strong respectively.

The one thing I would staunchly proclaim is that my teachers most definitely influenced me in ways even they don't know, and still influence me today, as I raise my kids. What power and bliss it is to be a teacher - to mold the next generation.

Now that another school year is coming to a close for my kids, I try not to live through them but let them have this experience to cherish what they hold dear. Part of me is terribly impatient, wanting them to grow up fast so I can see what sort of individuals they become as adults; but, part of me wants to preserve this carefree period in their lives which nostalgia claims as the halcyon days.

I chastise myself sometimes for not being the sort of mom who takes pictures of her kids on their first day of school each year, and possibly last day of school, and making cute scrapbook pages recording their growth and accomplishments each year as they develop by leaps and bounds. I think measurable achievements and accomplishments are secondary to who they become and how they see themselves as they grow -- always ready to set goals for themselves and working hard to get there, but, never straying far from the big picture of what it all means to lead a good life.

Anyway, I am rambling. This year, the older child decided to put together cute Mason Jar gifts for all the teachers in school who touched her in one way or another: The Truffles & Teas Mason Jar!

Keeping in mind that teachers have enough well-meaning gifts that students give them each year, and that they only have limited space in their lives to keep all the hand-made things their students give them, the older child decided to give a small handmade item that is utilitarian: a colorful loom loop coaster. Plus, who doesn't like tea? So, some tea bags. And, being a huge fan of dark chocolate, she decided to stash some bite-size chocolate treats for her teachers. A handmade card filled with heartfelt words about how each person influenced her rounded out the package.

No plans for summer camps for the older child - although she might enjoy a few select ones if only I can afford to enroll her. She might get lonesome but not really bored, I tell myself...  Downtime is essential for creativity to take root. She might set herself a goal or two and try to reach them by the end of summer. Or not. Who knows?

p.s: The younger child decided to make a Flip Book for his teacher - something that doubles as a notepad, which a teacher can not have enough of. Plus a handwritten note and card and some tea+chocolate. The flip book just has this little seahorse (stamped) that floats about and tumbles and such, along with a bird that flies off its branch and dives in the water and floats to the top.