Weekend Review: Stitches

 

Stitches / Glen Huser
TO: Groundwood Books, c2003.
200 p.

I picked up this short YA novel from my library recently -- I mean, just look at the cover! How could I not want to read this one? And I liked it, but do have a few caveats to that opinion.

The story follows Travis and his best friend Chantelle, as they move from fifth grade to junior high. Travis is different; he loves making puppets and wants to grow up to be a professional puppeteer. Chantelle has many physical disabilities and between them they are the outsider kids in their school. Travis has high hopes for changes in junior high, but while they do have supportive home ec and English teachers, who both encourage Travis' interest in drama and puppets, there is also more homophobic bullying from a group of boys he's known for a long time. But their teachers set them a challenge to present A Midsummer Night's Dream as a puppet show as their final project, and this keeps them going. 

The action in the story is mainly centred around the homophobic violence, which is never clearly resolved in the end. Travis' home life is rough, with a mother who's rarely around - he lives with his aunt and uncle (and the uncle is a mean loud mouth). He doesn't have anyone to confide in or to stand with him at home. Chantelle has older brothers who are rough types but at least support her and by extension, Travis as well, and they come in strongly at the end. 

There is lots of description of Travis and Chantelle sourcing fabric for their puppets at the thrift store, and making things like bags, puppet stages, and more. But I thought from the cover and description that there might be a bit more focus on that part of the story. 

The narrative tone is also a bit confusing. It doesn't feel so much like a young adult living the story, but an adult looking back at the events and telling them in retrospect. And the timing is a bit off; sometimes from one paragraph to the next, you are in the next school year without realizing it at first. I think some spacing/breaks in the typesetting could have helped with the transitions. 

I did like this one. It's set in rural Alberta and has some authenticity there. But I did feel a bit overwhelmed by everything being so dismal for Travis, from home to school, with so many aggressive characters and anger everywhere. I was relieved by the ending, with new hopes coming for Travis as he moves to the city to an arts-based high school. But I also felt that this novel, with important themes, could have been better.  

Weekend Review: Private Label

 

Private Label / Kelly Yang
NY: HarperCollins, c2022.
404 p.

I wanted to read this one because of its link to fashion -- the main character, Serene, is the daughter of a fashion designer, Lily Lee. And the fashion house is a big part of the story. 

Serene is 17, still at high school, and she also works at her mother's business - interns, really. It's difficult to see how she manages both, timewise, but you just have to go with it. She's also dating a big blond surfer, one of the popular kids, and hangs out with the popular girls, even though she is the only Chinese person in her entire area. Until Lian Chen shows up. He's moved to this California town with his family, thanks to his Dad's new job. But his parents are quite traditional, and both he and his little sister spend most of their free time prepping for college entrance exams. Well, they're supposed to be prepping, but his sister skips lots of her prep to go to a dance studio, and Lian is trying to become a stand-up comic. 

The good things about this story are the main characters - they are interesting and developed well. Their struggles with being Chinese in a bland white California town are clearly drawn, even if some of the other characters are a bit one dimensional in order to keep the story going. Serene's boyfriend is obviously a jerk right from the beginning, but she goes along with it. When she meets Lian there is an instant attraction but it's not really explained much, and it's hard to see how someone who has worked so hard to be one of the popular crowd would just suddenly flip to dating one of the very out crowd. Plus, how does she even have time for dating?? 

Lots of issues; her mother is diagnosed with cancer, and names Serene as the new head of Lily Lee, despite their investors' objections. The company investors want to sell; Lily wants the company to stay small and independent, and a couple of the board/investors are pretty cartoon villianish. Serene is also trying to find her birth father, in China, while dealing with her snobby social circles and her soon-to-be ex posting nudes of her online. Meanwhile, Lian is trying to develop his dreams of stand-up, against his parents' very clear expectations, and he's dealing with bullying and loneliness in America. Plus trying to date Serene on the q.t. without his parents finding out. 

I found it a quick read with some interesting themes. But I did feel like there was a bit too much going on at times, and also that the romantic teenager elements clashed a bit with the Serene-as-business-maven parts. I'm not sure that both were equally believable. But as a teen read, it's quick and with lots of glamour, teen angst and rebellion to attract readers. A light summer pick with some more intense themes included. 

Cover Designs! #27: As If On Cue

Cover Designs is a feature in which I try to match up the outfit on a book cover with a dress pattern and sometimes even potential fabric matches as well. Today's pick is a fun YA rom-com! 

Summary from the publisher: 

Lifelong rivals Natalie and Reid have never been on the same team. So when their school’s art budget faces cutbacks, of course Natalie finds herself up against her nemesis once more. She’s fighting to direct the school’s first ever student-written play, but for her small production to get funding, the school’s award-winning band will have to lose it. Reid’s band. And he’s got no intention of letting the show go on.

But when their rivalry turns into an all-out prank war that goes too far, Natalie and Reid have to face the music, resulting in the worst compromise: writing and directing a musical. Together. At least if they deliver a sold-out show, the school board will reconsider next year’s band and theater budget. Everyone could win.

Except Natalie and Reid.

Because after spending their entire lives in competition, they have absolutely no idea how to be co-anything. And they certainly don’t know how to deal with the feelings that are inexplicably, weirdly, definitely developing between them…

Today's pick is also a two-fer. Not only do we get the girl on the cover, there's also the boy! But let's start with that cute dress. 

This stripy dress looks like a knit, and it seems like the Alcoy Dress by Bonnie & Blithe would be a perfect match for this one. It's a knit raglan sleeve t-shirt dress that runs from XXS - 4XL. Perfect for a range of bodies!

If you want a knit t-shirt dress with a set in sleeve instead, you could always try McCalls 7531. 

And to throw over this dress, a cute cropped shirt like the Archie woven top by Style Arc might recreate this look to perfection. In a bright yellow linen or cotton of course! 

Archie top

In a yellow linen-rayon from Spool & Spindle

As for the menswear element, I think we could put together quite a nice lookalike outfit using the Jedediah Pants by Thread Theory for the jean style trousers. 

And perhaps this goldenrod denim from Blackbird Fabrics would be the perfect choice to make them up in! 

Then the t-shirt, any one would do; perhaps this easy Basic Tee by Patterns for Pirates. You can add any extra imagery to a tee with a Cricut and some iron on vinyl to personalize it quickly.

And to top it all off, a Negroni button down by Seamwork would add the finishing touch. Perfect!

No matter which outfit you want to recreate, I think these patterns (or many others) would work well. And they'd be just right to relax and read in, too!

Weekend Review: Making Bombs for Hitler

 

Making Bombs for Hitler / Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
TO: Scholastic, c2012
186 p.

This middle grade novel is a companion to Skrypuch's earlier novel, Stolen Child. This one follows the elder sister of this Ukrainian family that is broken up when Nazis kidnap children in WWII. Lida pretends she's 13, even she is small, knowing that if the Nazi work camp doesn't find her useful for work she'll have a worse fate ahead. Thanks to her cleverness in speaking up about a loose button on an officer's jacket, she is assigned to the laundry, where she performs back-breaking washing and ironing, and is then put to work mending sheets and clothing. Her sewing skills are eventually praised by the head laundress, and her sewing keeps her safe for quite a while. 

However, her quick seamstress hands lead her to a new role alongside a few other girls; they are reassigned to work in a munitions factory, assembling bombs. The descriptions of their daily life and routine are horrifying but well-known to anyone who has read WWII fiction or non-fiction. Lida and her fellow bomb makers decide that they will sabotage the bombs, ruining the gunpowder so that the bombs won't explode on use -- even though they could easily be caught doing this and that would be their death sentence. These scenes draw from the true story of Jewish slave labourers in Czechoslovakia,  who removed the charges from Nazi ammunition and left a note instead, found when a British plane was shot at but wasn't destroyed.

Eventually their munitions factory comes under fire itself, and Lida is sent to another work assignment on a farm where they are starved and cold; but then they are freed by the American forces. During all this time, Lida can't stop wondering about her younger sister Larissa (of The Stolen Child) and what might have happened to her.

This is well written, thoroughly researched, and emotionally compelling, while also pitched just right for the juvenile audience. Skrypuch is really good at these kinds of stories, and this one caught my eye because of the role of sewing in keeping Lida alive. But it's also a powerful story of war and survival, pinning both the Nazis and the Soviets down for their horrific actions. It's timely again, sadly enough. 

Weekend Review: Small Bones

Small Bones / Vicki Grant
Victoria, BC: Orca, c2015.
239 p.

This novel is part of the Secrets series, a set of seven Canadian stories focused on, well, something secret.

I really enjoy Vicki Grant's writing (her other books have all been clever and funny)  -- and the main character in this book is a seamstress so it's a must read for me. 

In early June 1964, the Benevolent Home for Necessitous Girls is destroyed, in one fiery night. Each of the grown-up orphan girls (7 in all) are sent out to make their own way in the world -- thus the 7 titles in the series. This book follows Dorothy 'Dot' Blythe, nicknamed for her tiny size as an infant. She is searching for her origins, with one clue; a coat that she was wrapped in the night she was left on the orphanage's doorstep, with a label reading "Howell's of Buckminster". Her journey is brief; she leaves Hope, ON and takes a train to nearby-ish Buckminster, ON.

Once she arrives, however, she finds that an envelope that held all the money she had in the world has been stolen on the train. Desperate, she sees a notice for an employee needed at the Dunbrae Arms, a summer resort, which includes room & board -- so starts walking. And encounters a cute boy who was on the train as well, now on his bike and offering her a ride.

Their meeting is fortuitous for the plot, and also for the reader, as it is a very amusing scene. Grant's sense of the ridiculous in the everyday is in full swing here, and so there are many moments where I was laughing aloud, not at any slapstick comedy but at the situations and behaviours that Dot finds herself faced with.

There are definite period elements; the popular dance at the time is the twist, the trendy clothing that they wear is noted, there are post-war effects still felt in town, and of course, the biggest one of all, there is a reason that Dot's birth was kept a secret all this time. One more 60's element that I noticed is that Dot and her new boyfriend Eddie get pretty serious at the end; marriage is mentioned even though they are only 17ish. The way the plot wrapped up, all I could think was "how is she ever going to break up with him now?"

Despite the lightness and humour, Grant balances the secret of the story well, with tension and darkness involved. This is a youth-focused novel, however, and so she holds that line between the sadness of the past and the sense that Dot will prevail, and is not in too grave of danger. It's well done, amusing, charming, and appropriately tricky -- the reader won't figure out all the plot points very much faster than Dot finally does herself. It's a fun read, and other sewing readers will enjoy the stitching details, while anyone else will have a great time with the story & the way it is told.

(this review first appeared at The Indextrious Reader)

Weekend Review: Spin the Dawn

 

Spin the Dawn / Elizabeth Lim
NY: Knopf, c2019.
392 p.

This week we have a YA novel to talk about. This is the first book in a series, featuring Maya, a young woman and expert sewist & designer, who poses as a boy to enter the Emperor's competition to become royal tailor.

The book is set somewhere in the past, in a fantasy world based on China. There are wars that have destroyed many families, including Maya's -- her two older brothers have died in the fighting, while the youngest has returned home unable to walk. Thus when the Emperor requests that the son of this family of tailors attend the trials, Maya (who is the only one in her family to have learned her father's expertise anyhow) turns herself into her brother. 

It's a fascinating set-up, with an interesting main character & a dramatic situation. The world created here is convincing, with lots of court intrigue to drive the story. But what I was most interested in was the sewing competition! Someone called it "Project Runway with magic" and that really does summarize the first half of the book. The details of the last minute, elaborate projects that Maya and the other tailors are asked to make are described fully, and the rivalries between the participants are clear. The planning process Maya goes through to come up with her ideas is also shown, which I thought was great. Of course she does have the help of her grandmother's magic shears...

I really enjoyed the build-up and the competition part of this book. But then Maya is sent on a quest for 3 impossible materials for a gown for the Emperor's fiancee, inexplicably being helped by the royal magician. He's an ancient, nearly immortal figure bound to the Emperor, but of course he's also young and handsome in appearance & for no good reason defies the Emperor to accompany Maya. Apparently he has seen through her disguise & fallen in love with her. Why? Who knows, it comes from nowhere and doesn't really convince a reader. Most of the second half has them mooning over each other while they are on a dangerous quest, and I am afraid I found it a bit tedious. There is not much sewing or designing going on even though it seemed so vital to Maya earlier. 

And because it's a series it doesn't really tie up in a conclusive manner. But I'm not sure I will continue with this series. The first half of the book was very strong & unique, but it fell into cliched YA territory halfway through, at least for me. But if you want to read about some fabulous glass slippers & magically enhanced silk painted gowns, give it a go; you'll enjoy those parts if you sew as well.