The Road to Damietta

I just finished the adolescent book, The Road to Damietta by Scott O'Dell. First of all, I don't think this is a good example of adolescent lit. I think most teenagers lack the background knowledge (13th Century, city-states of Italy, Catholicism, the Crusades, etc). and interest for this book. Honestly, I had a hard time getting through the first 200 pages (although the last 100 pages were very good - I read them in one sitting).

I originally bought the book because I saw it was a historical fiction novel about St. Francis of Assisi. I love St. Francis - he's one of my favorite saints. Unfortunately, his character is not as prominent as the narrator, a selfish young noblewoman named Ricca. I did not like or connect with her character, at all. Throughout the book, Ricca believes she is in love with St. Francis. She follows his life as he changes from a fun-loving, merchant's son into a devoutly religious man.

Although she has few actual interactions with him, her family disapproves of her obsession. As punishment, her father requires her to work as a copyist in the family's library/archive. Much of the first 200 pages describes her work making copies and illuminating those copies. After realizing that the work has done little to diminish Ricca's "love" for St. Francis, her father sends her to a nunnery in Venice.

After spending quite some time in Venice (the book doesn't give a definite time, but I assumed it was 1-2 years), Ricca learns that St. Francis is set to sail to Egypt with the Crusaders. She decides to follow him there, offering to translate for him. This was the best section of the book (the final 100 pages). It gave an excellent description of the Crusade, the city of Damietta, and the sultan, Malik-al-Kamil. I've been looking for a good book on the Crusades for the past 2 years, and had yet to find one. Although I choose to read this book to learn more about the life of St. Francis, I enjoyed it because of the portrayal of the 5th Crusade.

Despite not being a huge fan of this book, I still very much enjoyed the lessons learned from the life of St. Francis, including his prayer:

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy Peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sorrow, joy.

Whirligig

This week I read Whirligig by Paul Fleischman. I loved the message of this book. To me, the theme is summed up perfectly on page 70. Fleischman wrote, “The effects of an act traveled far beyond one’s knowledge. Everything we did – good, bad, and indifferent – sent a wave rolling out of sight. He wondered what his own accounting, generations later, would look like.” I tell my students this same message weekly. I ask them, “How are you going to contribute to your community? Are your contributions going to make your community a better place or a worse place?” A lot of the time my students reply, “I don’t do anything. I don’t make contributions.” I try to explain to them that all actions, or inaction, shape the world we live in. I think this book will help them see that.

American Born Chinese

I just finished reading American Born Chinese, a graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang. Although I had never read a graphic novel (nor was I planning on doing so), I had to because it was assigned in my adolescent literature class. The novel contains three different stories that cleverly weave together in the end. It contained a lot of humor and had an important message about accepting who you are and overcoming the desire to fit in. I highly recommend it!!

To read more about American Born Chinese or Yang's other books, click HERE.

One of my favorite pages.

Sold

Today I read the gut-wrenching novel Sold by Patricia McCormick. It is an excellent adolescent lit book that tells the story of Lakshmi, a 13 year-old Nepali girl who is sold by her step-father into a life of prostitution. She is taken from her mountainside village in Nepal and transported to India to work in a brothel. It is a quick read that shows the harsh reality that so many young girls face in the world. Although, for the most part, the story is bleak, the book ends with a message of hope.

Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World

I just finished the book, Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance by Jennifer Armstrong. It was an excellent book. It tells the true story of Ernest Shackleton's attempt to cross the continent of Antarctica. Attempt is the key word there because Shackleton and his boat Endurance never even made it to Antarctica (the boat became trapped in frozen ice 100 miles of the coast). The book tells the amazing survival story of Endurance's crew as they were trapped at the bottom of the world for almost 20 months!! Here's how Armstrong ended the book:

Shackleton had failed in his mission. And yet what he and his crew did succeed in doing in 1915-1916 was one of the most incredible feats of survival ever recorded. Every stage of their journey seemed more remarkable than the last. From January 1915, when Endurance was trapped in the ice, during its helpless drift through the Weddell Sea and its destruction in October, to the crew's long, miserable months of camping on the ice, the Boss had held his men together under terrible conditions. Their three-boat passage in April 1916 to Elephant Island was accomplished in spite of enormous odds. The voyage of the James Caird over 800 miles of winter ocean rivals any small-boat journey in history. Shackleton's trek across the unmapped peaks of South Georgia was the first in that hostile mountain range, and the survival of the crew in their hut on Elephant Island over one Antarctic winter is almost too much to believe. And yet it all happened Shackleton brought them all home.

Anyways, I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a fast and fascinating read. Here are a few pictures I found of Shackleton, his crew, and the Endurance:

Endurance after it was trapped in the ice pack.

Ernest Shackleton

Endurance after an ice floe hit it.

The crew with a lifeboat, after abandoning Endurance.