marshmallow & jordan

Now that I’m a teacher, it’s much harder to keep track of all of the awesome books releasing each week. I don’t have the attention span (or time) I used to have to track what’s going on in the book world! Luckily, the folks at Macmillan and First Second do a great job of getting the word out about their books to bloggers, librarians, and educators. And when I heard about Alina Chau’s middle grade graphic novel Marshmallow & Jordan, I perked right up. A mysterious white elephant, a story set in Indonesia, playing sports with a disability, and water polo (which I played myself!) all rolled into one story??! Sign me up. And the result, you’ll be glad to hear, is enchanting.

Jordan's days as star player for her school's basketball team ended when an accident left her paralyzed from the waist down. Now, she's still the team captain, but her competition days seem to be behind her...until an encounter with a mysterious elephant, who she names Marshmallow, helps Jordan discover a brand new sport.

Will water polo be the way for Jordan to continue her athletic dreams--or will it just come between Jordan and her best friends on the basketball team? And with the big tournament right around the corner, what secret is Marshmallow hiding?

Jordan, a former basketball star growing up in Indonesia, is still on her school’s team even after an accident left her paraplegic. However, Jordan misses playing in games – she’s not allowed to compete in a wheelchair, even though she can still make amazing shots. Enter Marshmallow, a mysterious white baby elephant who needs Jordan’s help and friendship. With Marshmallow’s help, Jordan learns how to play water polo, joins the water polo team, and works for her chance to compete again. Two mysteries remain: who, or what, is Marshmallow? And will Jordan’s new team get to compete next year at nationals?

 

Oh my goodness, this is SUCH a cute book! It’s solidly middle grade, with adorable art, bittersweet moments of loss and could-have-been futures balanced by a solid here-and-now main character, and a fantastic setting and cultural milieu. Jordan’s family, including her parents and her nenek (grandmother) are a welcome change from many YA and middle grade books – they’re alive! and present in Jordan’s life. Their banter and support are refreshing to read, and help the reader understand how Jordan has become who she is. Jordan also has an amazing friend group through her basketball team, and throughout the book she gets to know girls on the water polo team as well. Overall, Chau’s storytelling is fairly simple, but the setting, amazing network behind Jordan, the mystery and cuteness (kawaii!) of Marshmallow, and the gorgeous artwork raise the book a level above.

 

If there is a weakness in this book, it is that there’s not quite enough of it – but isn’t that always the way? I was having such a good time with Jordan and her crew that I wanted to keep reading. Marshmallow’s fantastical origins could have been explored a little more? But really, what you get as a reader is a sweet, good-hearted story with just a bit of angst to carry you through. And it is a wonderful read for those reasons!

 

Let’s talk a bit about the art. When I first saw it I thought refined watercolors, vibrant colors, attention to cultural setting and details (especially food and flowers!), and an elephant that is too cute to be real – and I was right on that point! Chau’s art was sketched and cleaned up in Photoshop, watercolors painted by hand, and then composites were detailed in Photoshop, according to the back matter. Chau captures movement well, including illustrating plays in both basketball and water polo, which is tough! Her background in the film and game industries no doubt helped develop that skill, and she brings it and the storytelling to the page with grace.

 

In all, Marshmallow & Jordan is a heartwarming, thoroughly middle school tale of overcoming obstacles, making (and keeping!) friends, and familial love. The dash of fantasy at the end just adds to the delightful whole.

 

Recommended for: fans of Shannon Hale’s Real Friends, Victoria Jamieson’s Roller Girl, and Raina Telgemeier’s books, anyone interested in sports depicted in graphic novels, and readers ages 8+ looking for wholesome, pure-hearted heroines and reads!

 

 Marshmallow & Jordan will be available from First Second on October 26, 2021.

 

Fine print: I received an advanced e-ARC for review consideration from the publisher. I did not receive any compensation for this post.

h.o.r.s.e.: a game of basketball and imagination

Emma of Miss Print and Nicole at The Book Bandit have started a new weekly feature called Monday Memories.  To participate, all you have to do is take a photo of one of your books (or a library book that means a lot to you) and talk a bit about why it made an impression.  Today I'm going to talk about Christopher Myers’ picture book H.O.R.S.E.: A Game of Basketball and Imagination.

One day at the basketball court, two kids, a familiar challenge--H.O.R.S.E.? But this isn’t your grandmother’s game of hoops.

Not when a layup
     from the other side of the court
             standing on one foot
                       with your eyes closed
                                  is just the warm-up.

Around the neighborhood, around the world, off Saturn’s rings, the pair goes back and forth.

The game is as much about skill as it is about imagination.

A slam dunk from multi-award-winning author/illustrator Christopher Myers, H.O.R.S.E. is a celebration of the sport of basketball, the art of trash-talking, and the idea that what’s possible is bounded only by what you can dream.

I met author/illustrator/very-tall-person Christopher Myers this last spring in New York at a breakfast event put on by Egmont USA.  Myers is a talented artist AND an entertaining conversationalist, and he kept our entire table amused with basketball stories.  It was special to hear straight from the author about his inspiration for his Coretta Scott King Honor book.  Afterward he was kind enough to personalize a copy of H.O.R.S.E. for me.  It was an early meeting, so I can’t say I was my most sparkling self, but I remember the morning fondly, and the book is of course a beautiful reminder.

But what about the story?  It’s a conversation between two kids in the city, united by their love of basketball and wide imaginations.  They know the game H.O.R.S.E. by different names, and they may have different ideas of the parameters – but once it starts, their dreams expand.  It’s half trash talk, half tall tale, and a joy to read.  It’s a testament to the power of sport (or any shared interest) to unite people and fire imagination.

The artwork, though!  It’s another step up.  Mixed media (some paint, some altered photographs) blend to create the setting: first the basketball court, then the cityscape, and then the planet and space.  The two unnamed main characters are African-American kids with a passion for the game, and Myers has distilled their gangly adolescence in these pages, as well as the boastful reach of their dreams. 

In all, H.O.R.S.E. is a beautiful book and an homage to a game, a friendship, and telling stories.

Recommended for: all-ages fans of art, picture books, and basketball.

I read and reviewed this book as part of the #diversiverse challenge.

If you'd like to see more Monday Memories posts, head over to this week's link list.

Fine print: I received a finished copy of this book from the publisher for review consideration.

what happened to goodbye

There’s something wonderfully reassuring about a familiar author and a familiar genre. Even though you don’t know the story, you have an idea of what you’ll get. If what you expect is comfort, reading can be very rewarding (i.e. comforting). On the other hand, if it disappoints, you may feel cheated.

With Sarah Dessen and contemporary YA drama, what you see is what you’ll get – and Dessen’s latest release What Happened to Goodbye was what I wanted on my bus trip home from Thanksgiving. Download to my crackberry? Done in an instant. I had a book in my hands, and all was right with the world.

Who is the real McLean?

Since her parents' bitter divorce, McLean and her dad, a restaurant consultant, have been on the move-four towns in two years. Estranged from her mother and her mother's new family, McLean has followed her dad in leaving the unhappy past behind. And each new place gives her a chance to try out a new persona: from cheerleader to drama diva. But now, for the first time, McLean discovers a desire to stay in one place and just be herself, whoever that is. Perhaps Dave, the guy next door, can help her find out.

Combining Sarah Dessen's trademark graceful writing, great characters, and compelling storytelling, What Happened to Goodbye is irresistible reading.

Oh, McLean. You are one heck of a piece of work. Your parents are, too (three pieces of work? oh, nevermind, i’ll stop). Sarah Dessen has put together a book that delivers heaps of angst and realistic conflict, and a story about a girl finding her way, finding friends, and perhaps finding love. Amidst all that finding, though, you get a string of bad life choices, and Dessen puts McLean through so much drama that it’s a wonder she doesn’t end up crazy-face.*

McLean has been moving around the country with her dad since her parents’ messy divorce, and in each new town she tries on a different role and personality. All of this life change is starting to wear on her, and avoiding her mother isn’t getting any easier. When McLean lands in her dad’s newest town, she finally starts to find a place… but will it last, and will she let it?

Real life is hard, even (and sometimes especially) for teenagers. Dessen has a knack of showing how pressure and trouble can weigh on anyone, and how getting through tough times (i.e. suffering) often prompts growth and change. When she strikes the right vein, Dessen is gold. She writes stories that grab the reader’s emotions and sympathies and teach them something new about life, love, and empathy. Or, in the case of What Happened to Goodbye and McLean Sweet, a story that gets most of the way there and then stalls out hardcore.

In the end, this book didn’t deliver for me. It had the trademark emotional ‘oomph’ that can and will cause you to leak tears mid-paragraph, but it lacked a cohesive conclusion and emotional finality. Rough translation? It put me through a lot of crap and didn’t seem worth it after all was said and done. Kind of like a bad relationship. Ah well. Dessen will rebound with a great story next time, and I’ll be waiting.

Recommended for: die-hard fans of contemporary YA lit, especially romance and family-drama oriented stories. Also a great bet for readers who feel the pull of the beach even in the midst of winter and look forward to a book with characters that feel the same way. Do you like intense conflict in a realistic setting? Then this book may also be for you. Good luck.

*crazy-face: A term my roommate uses to describe anyone under too much stress. May be accompanied by ‘crazy eyes’ and poor coping skills.

how i did grievous harm (to myself)

I’m a Gator. Err…was one. You know the Gators? The ones who won national championships in both basketball and football in 2006-07 and repeated in football last year? No? I wouldn’t have known or cared myself, except I went to UF for a couple years. After small, private high school and college experiences, going to a big, consistently-voted-one-of-the-best-party-schools-in-the-nation type place was a change. No really, it was. People start tailgating for games at 11am, and there are so many rabid fans that a game experience can be a little frightening (and hazardous to your health…in so many ways!). But it is an enormously good time, as well. On game day is the only day that I can truly say Gainesville is a wonderful place to live. The community of fans and alumni and students are equal parts crazy and fun, and when they converge for a sporting event, it’s out of hand and off the wall.

So on the night of the Final Four game, March 2007, I was driving my scooter to campus. Plan: sit in a bar on University Avenue with friends and watch the Gators play victorious basketball. But as I turned the corner into the campus parking lot, my scooter malfunctioned. More specifically, it felt as though the throttle got caught in the “on” or “faster!” position, and I couldn’t brake enough to slow down. I know they always say that in the seconds before an accident (if you’re aware it’s happening), time seems to slow down. You know: everything in slow motion, and the reactions going across your face switching at light speed from blissful ignorance to alarm, to horror, to pain… At least, that’s how they portray it in the movies. For me in those moments it was like everything sped up. I had maybe a quarter of a second to log the fact that the brakes weren’t working, and then a half second after that to make a decision to either steer toward a line of cars or take the curb. I chose curb. I’d do it again if I had to make the decision over. Me + scooter + curb/pavement sounds a lot better than me + scooter + a huge hunk of metal and possible crushed-in-between-ness.

The scooter hit the curb with a great jarring lurch, and then miraculously (or not so miraculously, however you want to look at it…) kept gunning. Into a small tree. I was thrown sideways at that impact, and the scooter came to a crashing rest on top of my left leg. I don’t remember the seconds just after impact. I think the common term is that “I had the breath knocked out of me.” The next thing I remember is pain, and the wrenching need to take my helmet off. (Yes, I was wearing a helmet. And I would suggest you do, too. I’d gotten it at Valentine’s Day thanks to my mother’s persistent nagging, and ever grateful am I for that nagging, can I just tell you!)

The whole street was full of pedestrians, and someone came over as I was dazedly jerking off said helmet. I heard several gasps, “It’s a girl! A GIRL just crashed! Someone call 9-1-1! Oh my God! ‘9-1-1? Hi! I’m on University Avenue, and a girl just crashed her scooter. Yes, she’s moving. Oh my GOD, are you okay???’” And on. And on. Being as they were expecting lots of drunks all over the place, police and firefighters were ready and waiting to respond. I think both were at the scene in less than five minutes. I just struggled to wrap my head around what had happened. A bystander helped get the scooter off me. I scrabbled a bit in my jeans pocket for my phone, and sub-consciously assessed my injuries. Head: alright. Arms, shoulders: check. Legs: left a bit dodgy, right seems okay. Hands and feet: bleeding.

When I had my wits a bit more together, and right before Emergency Services arrived, I called my friend R.I. on the phone. She answered, “(bar noise in background) Hey Ceecee, we’re at the bar!” Me: “I got in an accident.” R.I. : “Are you okay? Where are you? How bad was the accident? On your scooter?” I’m told I answered back very calmly and told her exactly where I was, and asked if she could please come get me? Apparently my composure on the phone convinced her that it mustn’t have been a very bad accident, because when she and another friend got to the scene, they were pretty shocked. I mean, who wasn’t shocked? I was DEFINITELY in shock, random pedestrians were shocked, and the responders were maybe not shocked, but not exactly pleased and happy, either.

I pretty much knew by this point that there was something seriously wrong with my left leg. I’ve been able to tell since age 12 whenever I had a broken bone. There’s a certain level of pain that only ever comes when you’ve really messed up your body. I was experiencing that hurt. Firefighters? Not convinced. Said that it was probably just a knee sprain, but as I couldn’t walk on it, I’d better go to the hospital. There was a policeman mentioning something about reckless driving...I don’t remember that much after that. I believe I signed some forms, while R.I. rounded up friends to put the scooter in someone’s truck bed, and then I called roommates to come deliver my insurance card at the emergency room.

Off we went to the hospital. The hospital where on the night of the Final Four game, EVERYONE was seen before me. People with breathing problems. Crying babies. Old folks having panic attacks. Drunks arrested after bar fights. Everyone. Status: in fairly excruciating pain, hadn’t been seen and had no pain relievers. I got to the ER at 9:30pm, and I was eventually seen at 4:30am. At which hour they took an X-ray, told me it was a sprain, and gave me a prescription for painkillers, crutches, and a knee brace and sent me off into the Florida night.

UF won the game. I think that was the only upside to the whole experience. I crutched around campus for a couple of weeks (which was NOT FUN), and eventually was able to walk and resume normal activities. I tried playing water polo a couple of times, but felt that the knee was pretty weak, so I was careful and eventually gave up the idea, at least for the rest of the school year. After the end of classes that May I went to Chile for two months, and when I got back I went home to Seattle before returning to Florida. During the visit I went to the pool with my mother for an afternoon swim, and dove from the pool deck into the deep end. My knee gave way. I had to tread water one-legged and wait for the pain to subside before I could even speak and let my mother know what was wrong. She promptly insisted that I see a doctor for a second opinion. So I went. You do not turn your mom down when she’s worried about your health! Or at least I don’t.

Turns out that when the scooter crashed, I tore both the ACL and meniscus in my left knee. SHREDS of the ligament were holding my knee together. The doctor told me later that had I fallen again, or played water polo a little too aggressively, I would have likely snapped the ACL all together, my leg would have seized, and that would have meant immediate surgery. As it was, the only open slot I had for surgery and recovery was the upcoming Christmas vacation. Later in the year I had the surgery (the doctor said some squeamish things I shall not repeat here about how little of the ligament was left) and an appropriately painful and groggy Christmas recovery at home. I've since been physical therapy’d into almost complete recovery. I think I have about 90% of the function back. I play water polo and can run a bit (like, to catch a late bus. Not anything like REAL running.) at any rate, which is all I need it for. The knee does ache when the weather changes, though, and I’m bound to get early arthritis, so it’s not all roses. Mostly, it's a crazy story and some weird scars. And that’s the tale of my most serious injury, folks!