Totally Joe

Howe, James. 2005. Totally Joe. Ginee Seo Books. 0-689-83957-X

Plot Summary
Joe Bunch is a teenager, learning who he is and how to be completely himself amidst a time in life when to stand out is usually not recommended. Supported by a group of friends that all have their own quirks, Joe revels to his teacher how he sees himself and the world in this alphabiography.

Critical Analysis
This is a clever, fun, witty, happy and entertaining read. Joe is a refreshing character for young readers who need a positive, confident, twelve-year-old boy to identify with no matter what their unique qualities may be. Joe deals with many universal challenges in this book with humor, creativity and an honest strength that reads as inspiration and encourages the pre-teenagers to be open about who they are and not be ashamed of their individuality.

The cast of characters are complex but support the main character, Joe, in interesting and important ways. His best friend, Addie is a quirky, outspoken feminist with individual and intelligent strengths. Joe’s two close guy friends each have less than normal family lives and have learned ways to navigate the world of middle school each in their own way. Joe’s parents are caring people who encourage Joe to be himself no matter what. His older brother is a “guy-guy” but in his own way loves and supports Joe. His aunt Pam is a young, hip confidant that Joe learns how to be strong and courageous. This motley crew is the perfect support network for a young boy who is gay, harassed by school bullies, but feels no reason to hide who is simply to fit into the cool crowd.

Joe steers through common middle school struggles such as crushes, relationships, fitting in, and is recognized as being “totally Joe”. A few gender stereotypes play a little tiresome in the beginning of the story. For example, “But, when you’re a boy, people just expect you to: 1. Make fart noises under your armpit and think it’s hilarious…8. Be an expert on a. video games b. cars c. sports d. fixing things e. acting tough” (p8). However, a lot of the emphasis is in order to show that Joe is the clear opposite of a guy-guy. It seems probable that a 12 year old may view boys and girls in such black and white ways. This is a great bit: “I also like books, but I wish there were more books about boys like me. I mean, most of the books “for boys” are about guy-guys. The characters are always trapped in the wilderness, where they become friends with a wolf, or their biggest worry in life is how they’re going to score the winning point for a team. Yawn.”(p83) A great quote to remember when emphasizing the importance for a diverse collection.

The language is a bit over the top, but the author is clearly trying to create a character that has a flair for dramatic emphasis. This is best exemplified in the footnotes to his teacher Mr. D. For example, he uses such phrases as “I am so not making this up” or “Peoples Exhibit A: Kevin = handsome. Not.” (p126) or the best one, “I picked this term [disclosure] up from C-SPAN, which I was only watching because I dropped the remote while channel surfing and the batteries fell out and rolled under the couch and it took me fifteen minutes to find them. After being stuck for one-quarter of an hour on C-SPAN, I have to ask: DO REAL HUMAN BEINGS ACTUALLY WATCH THIS? ON PURPOSE? SHOULD WE SEND HELP?” (p132).
This would be a great addition to any library collection. The cover is also fabulous!

Review Excerpts
"A character that lives and breathes with all the inconsistencies, fears, and longings of your normal, average seventh-grade homosexual." -- Kirkus Reviews starred review

"Obviously, the novel will be problematic for some--not only because of the gay theme and Joe's age but also the stereotypic portrayal of the bullying Christian family. Joe himself often comes off as a cross between Niles Crane and Harvey Fierstein. But he also reacts like a kid, and readers in his situation will wish for the love and support he receives from friends and family, as well as the happy life he so clearly envisions." Ilene Cooper, Booklist

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0689839588/sr=8-1/qid=1185909450/ref=dp_proddesc_0/105-9522721-4213214?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books&qid=1185909450&sr=8-1

Connections
Lambda Literary Award nominees for Nominees for CHILDRENS/YOUNG ADULT (17) Sept-Dec 2006:

• Wolfcry by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes (Random House Children's Books)
• The Boys and the Bees by Joe Babcock (Carroll & Graf)
• Playing the Field by Phil Bildner (Simon & Schuster)
• The Manny Files by Christian Burch (Simon & Schuster)
• Life As I Knew It by Randi Hacker (Simon & Schuster)
• Is He or Isn't He? by John Hall (Avon)
• A Queer Circle of Friends by Lisa Lees (Phreeky Dragon Press)
• Wide Awake by David Levithan (Random House Children's Books)
• Full Spectrum, edited by David Levithan & Billy Merrell (Random House Children's Books)
• Between Mom & Jo by Julie Anne Peters (Little Brown)
• Tripping to Somewhere by Kristopher Reisz (Simon & Schuster)
• Skip Macalester by J.E. Robinson (Harrington Park Press)
• Getting It by Alex Sanchez (Simon & Schuster)
• Tale of Two Summers by Brian Sloan (Simon & Schuster)
• Now Is the Hour by Tom Spanbauer (Houghton Mifflin)
• Erik & Isabelle's Junior Year at Foresthill High by Kim Wallace (Foglight Press)
• Pearl's Christmas Present by Thomas S. Wurst (Pearl & Dotty)

http://www.lambdaliterary.org/awards/current_nominees.html#childrens

Additional Information
I found an essay that the author wrote about this book. He made some extremely important comments about how and why he developed Joe’s character. “He was the boy I wished I could have been when I was his age.” After two marriages and fifty years of denial, the author came out. “Hard as it is for me to believe, there are those who think gay people come into existence fully formed as adults, that there are no such things as gay children, or if there are it is only because evil, lecherous gay adults have seduced or recruited them. Because those of us who are gay (and most of us who are straight) know better…” He talks about using characters in the book to “express the anger I felt toward the hypocrisy of those who sit in judgment, those who use religion to hate and exclude, those who bully out of ignorance and fear.” All very important and thought provoking points to share. The whole essay can be found at http://www.simonsays.com/content/book.cfm?tab=1&pid=511175&agid=9.

Ages: 10 and up
Grades: 5 and up

Awards:
ALA Best Books for Young Adults Nominee
ALA Notable Children's Books
ALA Quick Picks Nominee
Bank Street Best Books of the Year
CCBC Choices (Cooperative Children's Book Council)
Kansas State Reading Circle Middle School Titles
Kirkus Editor's Choice
Lambda Literary Award Finalist
Maine Student Book Award Master List
NCTE Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts
NYPL "Books for the Teen Age"
Thumbs Up! Award Master List (MI)

Habibi

Nye, Naomi Shihab.1997. Habibi. New York: Simon and Schuster. 0689801491.

Plot Summary
Thirteen-year-old Liyana Abboud and her family have decided to leave St. Louis and move to Jerusalem, the place her father grew up. Navigating in a foreign country, her family learns the reality of the conflicts between the Jews and the Arabs, the countrymen and the soldiers. With the help of their extended traditional Arab family living in a nearby rural village, the charming shopkeepers and other new friends they come to love their new home in all it's splendor and complexity.

Critical Analysis
This book was simply enchanting. I drank up her writing like sweet liquid sliding down my throat. The chapter’s titles and headings gave a whimsical glimpse into the heart of the main character, Liyana. For example, “Negotiations: Maybe peace was the size of a teacup” and “History of kissing: I would like to know the story of every little thing.” How delightful.

Habibi is clearly rooted in the cultural identity of the characters involved in the story. As Arab Americans, the Abboud family embarks upon a return to this region with preconceived notions and views of the state of peace and conflict. This is the thread of the story. The family members each learn how to understand themselves, their new gender roles, and their notions of cultural identities through their own lenses as they live in the city of Jerusalem and spend time in the nearby countryside. They each confront their own prejudices as well as their ideals. The author does a beautiful job addressing how each character sees the struggles through their age, roles (mother, child, etc), comfort zones and other means of understanding ones surroundings. Each develops different adaptabilities and these ways enrich the story from all four sides.

The author contrasts the two grandmothers subtly but in a way that establishes how Liyana understands the two sides of her heritage. The journeys inside and outside of the city walls give examples of Bediouns, Armenian educators, Israeli soldiers, refugee camps, Jewish and Arab neighborhoods. This reads a very multicultural rich experience filled with sights, smells, colors, textures and images that draw a vivid portrait of life in this region. There are subtle situations infused into the story giving the reader the sense that people of different backgrounds (mainly the Jews and Palestinians) are living near but in distrust and anger among neighbors. There is no mention of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, but its effects are implied throughout the text (for example, the refugee camps are a cause of this). It is unfortunate that the author did not introduce this important historical context, perhaps as a lesson that Liyana learns in school or something. However, the main characters including the grandmother Sitti, portray how some people do not subscribe to racist, angry and non-peaceful ways of living with others and outwardly rebel with their actions and words.

This is a book that all children should be required to read in school and would lend to some interesting class discussions. I will surely recommend it to many others.

On a personal note: My family uprooted from my home in Washington State and moved to the Virgin Islands in my sophomore year of high school. Although I had no cultural ties to the Caribbean, I understand a teenage culture shock and became a better writer and observer as Liyana did. I could relate to Liyana’s experience of initial longing, mixed emotions, being torn between the old and the new, the known and the unknown and the unfamiliar rules of a new school.

Connections

Additional juvenile books that offer a historical context for children:

• Kamm, Josephine. 1968. The Hebrew People: a history of the Jews
• Clinton, Cathryn. 2002. A stone in my hand.
• Ashabranner, Brent K. 1984. Gavriel and Jemal: two boys of Jerusalem.
• Ashabranner, Brent K. 1991. An ancient heritage: the Arab-American minority

Additional Information
Jane Addams Children's Book Award

Half and half

Namioka, Lensey. 2003. Half and half. New York: Delacourte Press. 0385730381.

Plot Summary
Fiona is a child of parents from two different races. Her grandparents come to visit during the Folk Festival and Fiona is forced to choose between her Scottish heritage and her Chinese heritage for which performance she will attend. Her love of dancing and her support of her father are at odds and eventually she learns how to satisfy everyone involved, including herself, while embracing both of her halves.

Critical Analysis
This book addresses a very common situation in this country today. Children of mixed races is extremely common and the identity crisis that they must feel during the teenage years when the struggle to fit in battles the struggle to stand out. Not all of the cultural heritages that make up each of us are always at odds however. Namioka’s story plays rather simply an issue of magnificent depth and complexity. Indeed, even more so at the age of Fiona’s character. Her analysis of the various conflicts seems very rosy, naive, uncomplicated and inappropriate for the age of her character.

The story creates several smaller conflicts all centered on the issue of who Fiona sees herself as, Scottish or Chinese. The grandparents pressure Fiona and her brother in choosing whom they identify with more and take offense to the loss when not chosen. They are characterized as simple, selfish, and outright cruel because of their demand for loyalty. This can hardly be realistic to such an extreme and seems like a fabrication to create false tension between themselves and conflict for Fiona.

The story begins when Fiona is forced to choose between Asian, White or Other for a class registration form. In the beginning of the story, she declares that she “can’t enroll in the dance class until I decide what my race is!” (p14) This is a plausible situation that would bring inner conflict in anyone and is too neatly tied at the end of the book with her succumbing to being an Other as a way out from having to “choose one culture over another”(p136). She succumbs to being this half-and-half person throughout the book with clever phrases like, “Normally I don’t mind looking Chinese. But now I was very conscious that I didn’t belong. I felt like a prune in a bowl of strawberries.” (p47) Aside from the unfortunare way this is phrased it is also an awkward metaphor. The situation is rather simplified and the author misses an opportunity to address this common situation in a more challenging way.

The Folk Festival that centers the book’s storyline is also a simplified black and white cultural celebration. The Scots wear traditional kilts, the Chinese wear traditional silk jackets. The Scottish dance is danced by children that look Scottish and this leaves Fiona to feel out of place because she looks more Asian than European. There are likely other dancers that are not pure Scottish heritage that may also look different than a traditional Scot but there is no mention of this and seems really unrealistic. The Chinese character’s that the father illustrates for his children’s books apparently follow the stereotypical Chinese girl’s characteristics and mannerisms (meek, walks with head down, small feet and hands, and others mentioned by the author) and leave Fiona feeling like she is not right to portray the characters for his presentation. However, the father’s character reads as being very open to embracing one’s individuality and likely does not draw characters that mimic stereotypes he himself does not believe, simply to please his Chinese mother. This is an example of another simplified conclusion to a rather important issue.

The author includes one other “half and half” or mixed race child in the story and she hardly struggles with the same racial identification. Her best friend is Japanese American and she serves only to be her friend more than someone Fiona relates to and coverses about this. There are other children that Fiona shares her lunch with that are the “Odds and Edds Box” table (p12). Apparently kids that are African American, Hispanic, Asian American and ‘all sorts of mixtures’ sit here while everyone else has a table of their own kind. Also, unlikely in today’s schools. Of course, schools have clicks of groups and similar “kinds” but this gives the impression that pure breds are the majority and this is extremely untrue. It clearly is described this way to show that Fiona is different and that the others that are also different are whom she feels kinship to. True enough, but simplified, unsmooth, and doesn’t seem to teach tolerance, open mindedness or any other lesson that this author was clearly trying so hard to do with this plot.

Review Excerpts
“A realistic, gentle and funny tale.”—Detroit News & Free Press

“Readers will identify with Fiona’s struggle to fit in.”—Publishers Weekly
http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780440418900

Connections
Other mixed race children character based juvenile titles:

• Dorris, Michael. The Window. 1997. When ten-year-old Rayona's Native American mother enters a treatment facility, her estranged father, a Black man, finally introduces her to his side of the family, who are not at all what she expected.
• Garland, Sherry. Valley of the Moon: the diary of Maria Rosalia de Milagros. 2001. The 1845-1846 diary of thirteen-year-old Maria, servant to the wealthy Spanish family which took her in when her Indian mother died. Includes a historical note about the settlement and early history of California.
• Woodson, Jacqueline. The house you pass on the way. 1997. When fourteen-year-old Staggerlee, the daughter of a racially mixed marriage, spends a summer with her cousin Trout, she begins to question her sexuality to Trout and catches a glimpse of her possible future self.