Heather Seggel

Children's & YAPicture Book

Together we’ll make this work

Review by Heather Seggel

When Bear visits a duck family one spring, they have so much fun together he decides to stay. But the ducks’ home is too small for Bear, and his ideal space is far too gloomy (and roomy) for the ducks. Can a compromise be struck? The smart money’s on finding Room for Bear.

Ciara Gavin’s watercolor and pencil illustrations expand on simple text to poignant and humorous effect. “What suited Bear didn’t suit the ducks,” as Bear kicks back and smiles while the ducks fret alongside him, two sitting in a bowl of water, the smallest playing with a classic yellow rubber duckie. When Bear tries to join the ducks on their turf, a step onto their small boat sends the same tiny duckling flying out of his mother’s arms—but not to worry, he’s wearing a little red life vest. A scene where Bear reminisces about the fun they have together shows them all reading and enjoying cups of tea, a copy of Eat Quack Love on the table beside them.

Bear finally solves this dilemma through the application of some grade-A carpentry skills, but you won’t need a stud-finder to take away the lesson that a family who looks different can still love each other and make a home together. Room for Bear is a sweet debut with an important message at its heart.

When Bear visits a duck family one spring, they have so much fun together he decides to stay. But the ducks’ home is too small for Bear, and his ideal space is far too gloomy (and roomy) for the ducks. Can a compromise be struck? The smart money’s on finding Room for Bear.

NonfictionMemoir

A mother’s last days

Review by Heather Seggel

George Hodgman had defined himself by his work as an editor in New York City. Newly out of a job, he returns home to small-town Paris, Missouri, and discovers that his mother, Betty, is in need of full-time care. Their affection and shared humor dance around the unspoken; Hodgman is gay, a fact his parents never acknowledged.

In Bettyville, Hodgman writes with wit and empathy about all the loss he’s confronted with. Betty’s poor health is mirrored by the failure of towns like Paris, whose farms and lumberyards are now Walmarts and meth labs. Coming out in the age of AIDS, he lost the people he was close to when he had nowhere else to turn. His commitment to “see someone through. All the way home,” is medicine for his own soul as much as his mother’s.

That doesn’t mean Bettyville is without humor—far from it. Paris eccentrics (one woman shampoos her hair in the soda fountain) compete with Hodgman’s colleagues in the office of Vanity Fair. The stresses of eldercare take their toll as well: “Monitored by graph, my emotions would resemble a chart of a frenetic third world economy.”

This is a portrait of a woman in decline, but still very much alive and committed to getting the lion’s share of mini-Snickers at every opportunity. When things are left unsaid between parents and children, it leaves a hurt that can never be completely repaired, but love and dedication can make those scarred places into works of art. Bettyville is one such masterpiece.

 

This article was originally published in the March 2015 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

George Hodgman had defined himself by his work as an editor in New York City. Newly out of a job, he returns home to small-town Paris, Missouri, and discovers that his mother, Betty, is in need of full-time care. Their affection and shared humor dance around the unspoken; Hodgman is gay, a fact his parents never acknowledged.
Children's & YAMiddle Grade

A child’s experience with homelessness

Review by Heather Seggel

Eleven-year-old Ari Hazard is living in the shadow of her mother’s dying wishes: She must get into the prestigious Carter middle school and stick by older brother Gage no matter what. When Gage has a falling out with their guardian, he takes to the streets with Ari in tow. Staying with friends and occasionally at a juvenile shelter, they do the best they can, but the stress is overwhelming. Paper Things uncovers an often-unknown reality that is often hiding in plain sight.

Author Jennifer Richard Jacobson (Small as an Elephant) perfectly captures the reality of being rootless while still trying to present a normal facade. When Ari overhears classmates making fun of her dirty hair, it’s a double blow, reminding her that she doesn’t have easy access to a shower. Her game of “Paper Things,” a dollhouse world made of catalog cutout pictures, lets her grieve for her parents and visualize her ideal home and family at the same time. Tradition is a theme throughout the book, including an elementary school protest in defense of their student activities that gives a nod to civil disobedience.

While the story is sad, it’s also powerfully optimistic. Gage loves and protects Ari, but she’s the one who makes the mature decision to reclaim the childhood that homelessness is stripping away from her. Paper Things treats honesty, compassion and generosity as things we can never have too much of in life. Here’s hoping it inspires more of the same in its readers.

Eleven-year-old Ari Hazard is living in the shadow of her mother’s dying wishes: She must get into the prestigious Carter middle school and stick by older brother Gage no matter what. When Gage has a falling out with their guardian, he takes to the streets with Ari in tow. Staying with friends and occasionally at a juvenile shelter, they do the best they can, but the stress is overwhelming.

NonfictionTravel

Making a voluntary change

Review by Heather Seggel

There was no major emergency that motivated John Marshall to uproot his family for six months of global volunteer work. It was lots of little things: declining intimacy with his wife of 20 years; the desire for quality time with their teenagers; and a general sense of boredom at work. Their travels do change their lives, in ways both expected and highly surprising.

In Wide-Open World, Marshall describes their quest with self-​effacing humor. He’s the first to admit the family did poorly at their first stop, a wildlife sanctuary in Costa Rica, and he has the multiple monkey bites to prove it. Time spent in New Zealand seems dreamlike in its beauty, and the family’s work in a small orphanage in India creates bonds that prove unbreakable even after the story ends.

It’s inspiring to see how Marshall’s kids gain confidence and a new perspective on the world, as well as appreciation for a day’s honest labor. He breaks down the journey’s specific expenses and confesses to starting his research by googling “volunteer” plus the name of a country, to make it clear that if this idea appeals to you, it’s well within reach.

Wide-Open World is an adventure made up of countless small moments of human connection. It’s an armchair travelogue that may well inspire you to do good off the beaten path.

 

This article was originally published in the February 2015 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

There was no major emergency that motivated John Marshall to uproot his family for six months of global volunteer work. It was lots of little things: declining intimacy with his wife of 20 years; the desire for quality time with their teenagers; and a general sense of boredom at work. Their travels do change their lives, in ways both expected and highly surprising.
NonfictionMemoirHumor

Film junkie

Review by Heather Seggel

Patton Oswalt’s career has ranged from earnest stand-up comedy to material that requires an encyclopedic knowledge of popular culture to simply follow along. In Silver Screen Fiend: Learning about Life from an Addiction to Film, he describes how a lifelong love of cinema led him from hubris to humility and back on more than one occasion.

Moving to the West Coast to pursue a stand-up career, Oswalt ends up in Los Angeles, writing for television and complaining about his cushy job. When he’s not there or onstage, he’s hunkered down in an old theater, watching movies and telling himself it’s all research for an eventual career as a director. Instead, he gets work in movies and TV and continues to hone his stage material, and finally notices that’s not such a bad life after all.

Silver Screen Fiend is funny, but more for Oswalt’s connect-the-dots streams of consciousness than any straightforward jokes. Many stories hinge on his behaving like an entitled ass and then learning his lesson, but the know-it-all tone still dominates. Has he really learned? Or is the tension between feeling like both the smartest guy in the room and the weakest link the engine that drives great comedy? When Oswalt breaks his film addiction and comes blinking back into the light, it’s with an awareness that real life has been passing him by while he was at the movies. Still a film junkie, he now manages to find time for things like marriage, family and reality.

Oswalt writes in a foreword, “This will be either the most interesting or the most boring addiction memoir you’ve ever read.” Fans of his skewed take on the world will scarf up Silver Screen Fiend like a tub of popcorn at a Saturday matinee.

 

This article was originally published in the January 2015 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Patton Oswalt’s career has ranged from earnest stand-up comedy to material that requires an encyclopedic knowledge of popular culture to simply follow along. In Silver Screen Fiend: Learning about Life from an Addiction to Film, he describes how a lifelong love of cinema led him from hubris to humility and back on more than one occasion.
YA NonfictionYA

The definitive Roosevelt bio for young readers

Review by Heather Seggel

Franklin D. Roosevelt was born to privilege and raised for a life in politics. It was both a blessing and a curse that he came to power when the nation faced insurmountable struggles: first the Great Depression and then the events leading to World War II. FDR and the American Crisis looks at those critical times in our nation’s history and how they affect our lives to this day.

National Book Award finalist Albert Marrin briefly describes Roosevelt’s youth and his steady climb in the political realm, but the book takes off with his victory over Herbert Hoover for the presidency. Hoover’s reputation suffered as the Depression wore down national morale, and Roosevelt’s New Deal helped millions get a new start—though it forever changed the government’s role in the lives of its citizens.

FDR was a central figure in World War II, though his legacy is similarly complicated. The American “war effort” finally turned the economy around, but his leadership involved alliances with mass murderers, lying to the nation and layer upon layer of secret and often questionable deals. He seems to be made of equal parts hero and villain, able to connect with virtually anyone, but overwhelmingly regarded as cold and remote at the same time.

FDR and the American Crisis is eerily timely. As Marrin writes, “[W]e need to know about the thirty-second president because we cannot understand our world today without understanding his role in shaping it.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt was born to privilege and raised for a life in politics. It was both a blessing and a curse that he came to power when the nation faced insurmountable struggles: first the Great Depression and then the events leading to World War II. FDR and the American Crisis looks at those critical times in our nation’s history and how they affect our lives to this day.

YA FictionYA

Young love in a gritty world

Review by Heather Seggel

Maddie Diaz is looking forward: to a new life once she starts college; to a better relationship with her mother, whose acrimonious divorce is finally coming through; and to a little distance from her friends so she can spread her wings. Cutting through a park after a late shift at work, she witnesses a crime that threatens her future happiness . . . and her life. On the Edge looks at the costs of integrity in an often-lawless world.

Author Allison Van Diepen’s (Street Pharm) books are often recommended for reluctant readers, and On the Edge is no exception. Maddie is an overachiever in school and a hard worker, but she parties hard in her free time. She’s editor of the school paper and uses her analytical skills to make sense of her new normal. After witnessing the crime, she's on the run from a gang but protected by an anonymous stranger known only as Lobo. Male and female readers alike will root for Maddie to succeed. This is a love story, but one with side trips through gang hideouts, drug abuse and the frightening realities of human trafficking.

Maddie and her friends are hardened by life in their Miami neighborhood, where crime is commonplace, but they never stop looking for a better life despite the odds against them. When she is jumped and severely beaten as a warning not to testify about what she’s seen, her friend describes her appearance as “so Guantanamo.” On the Edge is rife with harsh realities but reminds us that it’s how we face them that counts.

Maddie Diaz is looking forward: to a new life once she starts college; to a better relationship with her mother, whose acrimonious divorce is finally coming through; and to a little distance from her friends so she can spread her wings. Cutting through a park after a late shift at work, she witnesses a crime that threatens her future happiness . . . and her life. On the Edge looks at the costs of integrity in an often-lawless world.

YA FictionYAPoetry

A stark and moving novel-in-verse

Review by Heather Seggel

The Armenian genocide that took place 100 years ago is not discussed in most history classes, but the story is still sadly relevant. Told in verse, Like Water on Stone follows three Armenian children, orphaned by the Ottoman siege of 1915, as they race to safety and, hopefully, to America. Their path is littered with bodies, and they see the smoke of their neighbors’ destroyed houses. Along the way, an eagle watches the young trio and does what he can to guide them and keep them safe.

The eagle is a necessary character here, as a story this bleak needs a dose of magic to keep readers from despairing. The writing is stark and never shies from the realities of war: starvation, sexual assault, the desecration of the dead. Shahen, the only surviving son of his family, tries to protect his sisters while raging against their misfortune; in turn, they remind him of home and hope. Like Water on Stone isn’t easy reading, nor should it be. It’s a clear-eyed view of war and its brutal consequences.

 

This article was originally published in the November 2014 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

The Armenian genocide that took place 100 years ago is not discussed in most history classes, but the story is still sadly relevant.Told in verse, Like Water on Stone follows three Armenian children, orphaned by the Ottoman siege of 1915, as they race to safety and, hopefully, to America. Their path is littered with bodies, and they see the smoke of their neighbors’ destroyed houses. Along the way, an eagle watches the young trio and does what he can to guide them and keep them safe.
NonfictionMemoir

Reflections on a Ukranian-American identity

Review by Heather Seggel

“Running a totalitarian regime is simple: tell the people what they’re going to do, shoot the first one to object, and repeat until everyone is on the same page.” Such was life in Ukraine for young Lev Golinkin and his family, and it might have been tolerable had he not also suffered daily beatings in school for being a Jew. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the family fled to Austria where they lived in a refugee hotel before immigrating to the U.S. A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka is the story of that journey and of Golinkin’s struggle to reclaim his identity.

When the family finally makes it to the America extolled in folk songs and held out as their greatest hope, assimilating is as hard as you might imagine. Golinkin’s father, an engineer in the Ukraine, spends eight months sending out resumes in order to land an entry-level job in his field. His mother, a doctor, struggles with the language barrier while pulling espresso shots as a barista. Lev and his sister Lina are the family’s great hope, but while she studies, he struggles to dismantle his internalized anti-Semitism.

Golinkin writes with dry humor about his experience but connects emotionally when describing how a lengthy stint doing charity work in college finally led him to investigate his past and the people whose charity made his own life not just better, but possible at all. A friend in Vienna steered them to Indiana so they wouldn’t be lost among refugees in Brooklyn, and the efforts expended to get the children into college were heroic. A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka blends memoir and history into an intimate tale of personal growth.

 

This article was originally published in the November 2014 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

“Running a totalitarian regime is simple: tell the people what they’re going to do, shoot the first one to object, and repeat until everyone is on the same page.” Such was life in Ukraine for young Lev Golinkin and his family, and it might have been tolerable had he not also suffered daily beatings in school for being a Jew. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the family fled to Austria where they lived in a refugee hotel before immigrating to the U.S. A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka is the story of that journey and of Golinkin’s struggle to reclaim his identity.
Social Science

A first-hand look at poverty

Review by Heather Seggel

If you've ever seen a story about food stamps or poverty and wondered how people end up there, you need to read Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America. Author Linda Tirado wrote a post about why the poor make such “terrible decisions,” it went viral, and she offers an expanded take on the subject here.

As more people fall through the “spongy divide” between just making it and too broke to function—and at last count that was roughly a third of the U.S. population—Tirado writes in the hope that we'll understand one another better. Specifically, she hopes those who use the services and reap the benefits of subsistence labor (and if you eat food, shop or pretty much ever leave the house, this is you) will acknowledge that it's necessary work, but grossly underpaid and routinely devalued.

Tirado's writing is gritty, profane and to the point. She nails the sense of exhaustion you feel while toggling between two or three jobs with little to no rest in sight, the staggering insult of being accused of meth use because lack of access to dentistry means your teeth fall apart over time, and the perpetual sense of hives-like itchiness that comes with wearing second-hand clothes. And she offers a succinct explanation for the situational depression that service workers often experience while trying to balance back-breaking labor with the soul-crushing imperative to be all things to all customers: “(W)e're trying to zombie out to survive.”

This is dark material, to be sure, but Tirado is fierce and funny in equal measure. Lest you think she's describing a phenomenon that doesn't touch you or anyone you know, the examples I chose for this review are ones I've also experienced firsthand. There are more of us living Hand to Mouth than you realize, and thankfully, we finally have a voice.

If you've ever seen a story about food stamps or poverty and wondered how people end up there, you need to read Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America. Author Linda Tirado wrote a post about why the poor make such “terrible decisions,” it went viral, and she offers an expanded take on the subject here.
Children's & YAMiddle Grade

Change comes to a small mountain town

Review by Heather Seggel

Rural North Carolina in the 1920s is modernizing at its own pace. Arie Mae loves her hometown and family, but dearly wants a friend to call her own. When Tom comes from the city to study the old ways of living, she’s sure she has found him, but nothing is ever that easy. Anybody Shining illuminates friendship, family, faith and all the things that can be left behind for the sake of progress.

Author Frances O'Roark Dowell (The Secret Language of Girls) tells the story through a series of letters from Arie Mae to a distant cousin. The joy of a barn dance and the scary fun of hunting for “haints” (ghosts)—and sometimes finding them—interweave with the community’s patronizing mistreatment by well-intended outsiders. For the locals’ part, they’re mystified as to why someone would want to learn weaving when you can finally buy ready-made cloth from the Sears catalog. Arie Mae tries to balance her view with respect for everyone involved: “Mostly we have got the stomping kind of dances here, and I wouldn’t mind to see a new step or two. But this ain’t something I would say to Daddy, as he’s partial to our ways.”

Anybody Shining has rich atmosphere, and the friendship between Arie Mae and Tom is sweet and inspiring. History teachers will love the references to the post-Civil War South, the eerie way Indians went from living nearby to becoming the stuff of legend, and the “songcatchers” who traveled out to find traditional roots music. (One refuses to listen to a contemporary fiddler for fear of being “inauthentic.”) Grab some molasses candy and dig in; Anybody Shining is a pleasure.

 

Heather Seggel reads too much and writes all about it in Northern California.

Rural North Carolina in the 1920s is modernizing at its own pace. Arie Mae loves her hometown and family, but dearly wants a friend to call her own. When Tom comes from the city to study the old ways of living, she’s sure she has found him, but nothing is ever that easy. Anybody Shining illuminates friendship, family, faith and all the things that can be left behind for the sake of progress.

YA FictionYA

Coming out, coming-of-age

Review by Heather Seggel

Sara Farizan’s debut, If You Could Be Mine, told a wrenching tale of young love lost to the complications of growing up and growing apart. The stakes in Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel are slightly lower, making for pure rom-com pleasure.

Leila keeps a low profile at her private high school. She likes girls, but that’s not something she’s ready to make public. When new girl Saskia transfers in mid-semester, Leila quickly becomes smitten: “It’s like finding a magical unicorn in a high school full of cattle.” While trying to get to know Saskia, Leila tests the waters, coming out to friends and family, though not always as planned. Leila fears rejection by her family, who are Americans but hold Persian values. Nevertheless, her parents are wonderful, embarrassingly square and touching in their concern, despite not understanding what’s wrong.

Farizan’s second novel is sweet, tough, sexy and ultimately hopeful.

 

This article was originally published in the October 2014 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Sara Farizan’s debut, If You Could Be Mine, told a wrenching tale of young love lost to the complications of growing up and growing apart. The stakes in Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel are slightly lower, making for pure rom-com pleasure.
Social Science

Face it: Personal contact is good for you

Review by Heather Seggel

Multitasking at work through texts and emails, pumping breast milk for your baby, then grabbing a decaf latte solo as a treat afterward: Is this you? It turns out our collective drive for greater efficiency is leading to lower productivity, reduced immunity and general malaise. In The Village Effect: How Face-to-Face Contact Can Make Us Healthier, Happier, and Smarter, author Susan Pinker (The Sexual Paradox) shares research indicating that face time is the answer to many of our troubles.

When MIT researchers enabled workers to share a 15-minute coffee break, they were surprised: Productivity increased significantly, and the workers reported being happier on the job. This may have been because they could share strategies for dealing with difficult customers, but there's also a less-quantifiable benefit to face time. Breast milk is full of good things for babies, sure, but there's new thinking that one of the benefits of breastfeeding, beyond the contents of the milk, is the physical closeness between mother and child; this form of coddling tends to produce children who are paradoxically more willing to take risks. Similarly, there has yet to be a TV show or computer program that engages children with books the way having a parent read to them from a young age does; what seems like a simple interaction affects much more than you'd think.

Pinker's research takes her to “blue zones” in Sardinia and intentional communities in Northern California. She's thoughtful, humorous and thorough, allowing for the downsides of a trustworthy face (Bernie Madoff had one), while shoring up her argument that finding time to connect on a personal level is more than worth the effort. While The Village Effect is short on ideas to help the disconnected find community, it's nevertheless a thought-provoking introduction to an idea we'll surely be hearing more about.

 

Multitasking at work through texts and emails, pumping breast milk for your baby, then grabbing a decaf latte solo as a treat afterward: Is this you? It turns out our collective drive for greater efficiency is leading to lower productivity, reduced immunity and general malaise.

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