I went to a lovely convention, Kids Read Comics, a few weeks ago. I learned lots about graphic novels (mostly for kids, but still) and met several lovely librarians. At least one of whom I referred to this blog, and in the process discovered that “graphic novels” is a pretty teeny tag in my cloud, and I hadn’t reviewed any gns recently. Pretty pitiful given the amount of time I spend picking out what to buy for my collection. So I thought it was time for me to actually read a few more.

French Milk by Lucy Knisley This memoir in graphic form has been getting some good press. Knisley and her mother, both celebrating birthdays – 22 for Knisley and obviously older for her mother – decide to spend a month together in Paris. While there, they look at lots of art, do a fair amount of shopping, and eat lots and lots of good food. Some reviewers commented on the nuanced portrait of the mother-daughter relationship; I didn’t really notice this much. There was good commentary on the art, which I should have expected from someone enough into art to be drawing a memoir. Somehow I was surprised anyway. I was less surprised by the loving commentary on the food, given that the book is named for her love of the milk in France – many, many meals and snacks drawn out, with written descriptions. I put this in adult again because I wasn’t sure how many teens it would appeal to; the most graphic it gets in terms of actual sex or violence is a mention of missing her boyfriend with a drawing of a wrapped condom. There is also some humorous nudity in the art references, as Knisley talks about how tired she is of the female nude as a traditional art topic, showing a couple pages in a row full of sketches from museums. This is worth looking at for the lover of France or food.

The Vaccine Book by Dr. Robert Sears Many parents I know are concerned about vaccines. For the most part, unbiased information about them is really tough to find. On the one side, people who claim that vaccines cause autism and reduce the ability of the immune system to deal with disease. On the other hand, mainstream doctors who say that this is pure hogwash and vaccines are absolutely safe, effective and necessary. This book, while not entirely neutral (Sears believes at least in the theoretical value of vaccination) does the best job I’ve seen of discussing the proven benefits and risks of vaccines. For each disease we vaccinate for, the book lists what the disease does, how common (in the US and abroad) serious and treatable it is, the ingredients and side effects of the vaccines, and where it falls in the recommended schedule. He discusses for each how important the vaccine is from an individual and a community standpoint. Do vaccines help prevent diseases? Yes. Can they have serious side effects? Indeed they can, and Sears includes discussion of and reference to studies published in mainstream medical journals, including any industry ties the authors had. The one vaccine I was surprised by his reaction to was the new HPV vaccine. That’s one that seems to me very little testing and a whole lot of money to provide a very limited amount of protection from an easily detectable and treatable disease - but he’s wholeheartedly in favor of it.

In later chapters, Sears discusses controversial ingredients and alternative vaccine schedules. He’s especially concerned about aluminum, which is known to be dangerous given intravenously and is regulated in IVs but not vaccines, where it is often present in much higher doses than allowed in IVs. Studies of aluminum in vaccines have looked only at short term, visible effects, when it’s known that the dangers need to be tested for and often effects show up later. This is even more concerning when multiple aluminum-containing vaccines are given at the same visit, and when newer combo vaccines include many times more aluminum than the sum of the old separate vaccines.

Sears avoids giving straight-out recommendations for the most part. He divides parents into three main groups (ignoring those unwilling to do any vaccinations): those who have no problems with the standard vaccine schedule, those uncomfortable with vaccines who are only willing to vaccinate for serious diseases that their child might get, and those who want to vaccinate on a schedule that spreads out the number and vaccines per visit as well as limiting the total amount of aluminum per visit. For the latter two groups he includes alternative vaccine schedules, putting vaccines so that they will protect from diseases as needed. For example, the minimal vaccine schedule skips the controversial MMR vaccine as well as chicken pox, since most parents in that group would prefer for their children just to have chicken pox. He recommends getting the pertussis and rotavirus during infancy, when they can be deadly, and postpones the sexually transmitted Hep B from birth until age 12. Similar changes are made in the “get them all, but spread them out” schedule, which does no more than two shots per visit and keeps close tabs on the total amount of aluminum per visit, including listing which brands contain less when relevant.

Given the limitations of research - looking only at mainstream studies and written by a busy practicing doctor - this book seems as good as one might hope. Sears is open about the fact that he went into vaccine education believing that fears about vaccines are overblown. He’s still in favor of the idea of vaccines, but has found things to be genuinely concerned about, such as the aluminum issue, that are not discussed in the many places that discuss vaccines from an either entirely pro or con standpoint. I looked for information and especially alternative schedules like this when LB was wee, and plan to make good use of it with New Baby.

Timothy and the Strong Pajamas by Viviane Schwarz There is a stage in the preschool years when many children become obsessed with superheroes. What three or four-year-old doesn’t long for the power to fly and to beat bad guys ten times his or her size? Yet good books for this age on the topic are surprisingly difficult to find. Poorly written easy reader books based on big budget films inappropriate for the age abound, as do picture books of similar quality but much denser text-per-page levels. Even using my librarian-fu on the catalog has had very limited success. I have seen a few good books (and alas, not written them down!), but here is a good recent entry:

Timothy Smallbeast, a young boy of indeterminate species, is not a superhero. But he really wishes he was! When his mother fixes his favorite pajamas, he finds that they make him superstrong. He promptly goes out and saves scads of people with his new powers, before disaster strikes and he finds that his powers have deserted him in his hour of need. There are picture books that I would buy for adults; this is not one of them. However, for parents who want a good story for their superhero-loving young fry, one that won’t instill in their offspring a desire to see R-rated movies, one that parents can read several times in a row without getting sick of, Timothy and the Strong Pajamas fits the bill just perfectly.

Aya by Marguerite Abouet & Clement Oubrerie It’s 1978 in the Ivory Coast, a good and prosperous time. Teenage Aya is growing up with her two best friends, Adjoua and Bintou. Aya studies hard and wants to be a doctor, while Adjoua and Bintou are more interested in going out dancing and meeting boys. Aya’s father agrees more with Adjoua and Bintou that marriage is the best ambition for a girl, as he tries to arrange a marriage for Aya with his wealthy boss’s skirt-chasing son. She’s not interested, but both Adjoua and Bintou, who’ve met him out dancing, are. It’s a slice of life from an Africa that, rare for Westerners to see, isn’t desperate, though the differences in culture and setting are especially apparent in the graphic novel format. The story (not too uncommonly for graphic novels, seemingly collected for size rather than neat plot arcs from comic books) ends rather abruptly, but there is a sequel. I bought it for the adult collection mostly because it’s a little more thoughtful than our teens tend to go for; still, there is nothing inappropriate for teens here, and plenty for them to relate to. The straightforward panel layouts and narration make this an easy starting point for those less familiar with comics, as well.

When I put together my pregnancy bibliography earlier this year, I wrote about a couple of prenatal fitness things I hadn’t tried. Now that I have, I thought I’d do a fuller review.

Prenatal Yoga with Shiva Rea I heart this dvd! I’ve found myself neglecting all the other fitness things I was doing to have more time for it. There are three workouts of about 20 minutes each, followed by a four-minute guided relaxation, so I can do one, two, or all three sessions, depending on how much time I have. There is a model for each trimester, each wearing a different jewel-toned outfit, demonstrating adaptations of the poses for each, though they are still explained verbally as well. The moves seem to hit everything that gets achy or needs extra help during pregnancy – lower and upper back, leg stretches, side stretches, squats and Kegels. To borrow the words of the friend from whom I’m borrowing the dvd, after doing the workout, I go from feeling like I just can’t live in my body anymore to feeling comfortable in it again. The beautiful music and visuals help in making the whole thing feel like something special I’m doing for myself rather than the dull but necessary time that exercise can so easily be.

Maternal Fitness by Julie Tupler, by comparison, covers most of the same bases, with a lot more explanation, but telling you to do a 1-2 hour workout every other day – difficult with a first pregnancy and pretty much impossible with a second. The big difference is the Tupler Technique, Julie Tupler’s special abdominal exercises, the same in both Maternal Fitness and Lose Your Mummy Tummy. These I find really valuable and do just those, and the prenatal yoga. Maternal Fitness comes as either a book or video/dvd. I borrowed the book and video from a friend. They both have a lot of useful information on preparation for birth and selecting a health care professional, though this is available many other places as well. I disagreed with her philosophy on belly breathing – she seems to want a lot of active pushing in and out of the breath, which doesn’t sync well with my Alexander training, but this is easily skipped and the idea of paying attention to breath might be more valuable for someone less musically trained than I.

The video that I saw was the first of two, the first explaining her 15-minute basic daily routine and basic health things and the second about the full hour-plus workout to be done every other day or so. While the information was good, I was frustrated that the exercises in the video were all intercut with lengthy information. I understand the need for explanation, but on a day-to-day basis, I don’t want the 45 minutes of explanation to be talked through the 15 minutes of workout. Perhaps the dvd version would have just a workout segment, and would certainly make it easier to skip, but I found the video version frustrating to work with in this regard. Between the book and the video, then, I’d go with the book.

The book includes both the long and short workouts, and charts to photocopy with pictures and brief explanations of the exercises. It is deeper than the yoga video in that it goes in depth into why she’s having you do what she is, and exactly what bad exercises will do for your body. That’s useful information to have, and makes it easy to modify your own favorite workout for pregnancy. The abdominal work is unique and useful, and the rest of the information in the book is good to read through. The workouts looked to my midwives and me to be good workouts – they just looked to me like less fun than the yoga and perhaps too time-consuming. As that’s entirely a matter of taste, you, gentle reader, might want to look at both.

I am indebted to Colleen at http://www.chasingray.com/ for this as well as the Sisters Grimm… I think she wrote a column about mysteries for kids and teens last summer. Somehow I missed the first in the series and started with the second… though I made it through without noticing, you might wish to start with the first book, The Case of the Missing Marquess.

The Case of the Left-Handed Lady by Nancy Springer. Read by Katherine Kellgren. Enola is the much younger sister of Sherlock – just 14, and knowing her older brother mostly through Dr. Watson’s famous books. Her mother recently ran away, and Enola is now living on her own, hiding from her brothers, who want to send her to boarding school. She and her mother communicate via ciphers in the newspapers, which enterprising readers could try to solve for themselves. Enola is posing as the secretary to a Scientific Perditorian or finder of lost persons, intending to do the finding herself. Dr. Watson comes to her office, seeking help in finding her, but accidentally leading her to the case of a missing society lady, only a few years older than herself. The police and Sherlock Holmes assume that she’s eloped, but Enola doesn’t believe it and uses her wits and multiple disguises to solve the mystery. Enola is an excellent character, determined to stay independent but still figuring herself out, and ever conscious that her name, backwards, spells “Alone.” Raised feminist by her mother, she knowingly manipulates the Victorian conventions regarding females to fit in multiple places without resorting so low as to disguise herself as a man, from high society houses to London’s poor and sooty underbelly. My husband and I both very much enjoyed these. For the children it’s actually aimed at, parents should be aware that there is some violence that could be disturbing for younger or sensitive children – I’d put it as more appropriate for 12 and up than the 10 years I read on the case. Katherine Kellgren’s assured British accents are perfect for Enola and adapt themselves well to the many characters of different classes in the book. Enola might not exist without Sherlock, but she’s well worth reading in her own right, a strong character in a vivid (if vivid is the right word for sooty fog) setting with just the right balance between plot tension and introspection.

Darkborn by Alison Sinclair In the city of Minhorne, Lightborn and Darkborn have always lived side by side, despite the fact that light is fatal to Darkborn and vice versa. Dr. Balthasar Hearne, Darkborn, gets a knock on his door just as the sunrise bell is ringing, and obeying ancient laws of hospitality, opens it. It’s his estranged younger brother’s former lover, now betrothed to a high society lord. Before next day comes, she has given birth to twins whose father, she impossibly claims, came to her in the day. Yet the unwanted twins appear to be sighted, impossible for Darkborn. Bal’s sister, the attending midwife, takes them to safety. That night, Bal is attacked and beaten by ruffians demanding the twins. He is saved by his Lightborn neighbor, but as they flee, they find his wife, Telmaine, and two daughters returning home from a society visit, unexpectedly accompanied by Baron Ishmael di Studier. The ruffians snatch the older girl on their way out. Despite his title, Ishmael is disreputable, a known mage who uses his powers to hunt the Shadowdwellers on the borders – important, but hardly proper for a baron. And only the Lightborn consider magic use truly acceptable. Lady Telmaine herself has magic, which she has concealed even from her husband her whole life and never learned to use. But now, with the plot rapidly thickening and both her husband and daughters’ lives in danger, she may need to risk her position in society.

This novel worked well for me. It has an interesting premise and a taut plot without overwhelming with too many characters or details of the world. The characters were sympathetic. The kidnapped child fell just under my low threshold for child or parental suffering (I won’t read books, thriller or thoughtful, that center on a child’s death), and the thriller-aspect just the right pace to tempt me to stay up a few minutes late without keeping me up all night. The only downside is that (common for fantasy) it’s the first of a trilogy, the next volume due out next year, and the mystery behind the mystery isn’t solved this book.

The Sisters Grimm: Fairy Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley This is the first book of a delightful fantasy mystery series for elementary-age kids. Everyone has heard of the Brothers Grimm, but what if the stories they wrote down were real? Sabrina and Daphne Grimm didn’t think so, until their parents disappeared, the only clue a red handprint painted on the dashboard of their car. Two years later, they’ve been shuttled from one bad foster home to another, when someone claiming to be their grandmother comes to take them home to Ferrytown. Daphne trusts Granny Relda immediately, even when she starts telling them things that can’t possibly be real. The older Sabrina is more skeptical – even when a first attempt at running away has them surrounded by stinging pixies. But the next day, Granny Relda brings them along as she investigates a crushed house, crushed into what looks remarkably like a giant footprint. Many of the old fairy tale characters came to America when life got too uncomfortable in Europe, she tells them. They’ve mostly settled in Ferryport, where a spell the Grimms arranged for keeps the Everafters safely inside and unwanted people out. It’s not an entirely popular solution, and the modern-day Grimms face a good deal of resistance as they investigate the crime and try to keep the peace. The premise is remarkably similar to the excellent graphic novel series, Fables by Bill Willingham, though appropriately lighter for a younger audience. Still, we find, for example, Prince Charming mayor of Ferryport, and not entirely popular among the many princesses he’s wed and left. Strong characters, an engaging setting, and a fast-moving plot make this a great choice for young readers, or even their parents looking for a light read.

How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish. This is a classic parenting title. The 20 year edition, which I read, is now nearly 10 years old. Many of the ideas are familiar to me from newer gentle parenting books, but this is still a good summary. Especially if you find your parents’ destructive speech creeping into your own speech with your children, this is a very good introduction to dealing respectfully with children. It includes cartoons and summary pages to easily grasp main ideas, role-playing exercises and similar situations for adults to test how you’d react, as well as examples and questions from real parents at the end of each chapter.

( Chapter by Chapter Summary )

I am very happy to say that the Faber/Mazlish approach seems to be spreading, so that there are a lot more respectful parenting books on the market today. If you already have favorites among these, you may not need this one. If, however, the whole idea is new to you, this book is quite solid, tried and true and easy to get into.

No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting by Anne L. MacDonald I saw this book six years ago and just now got around to choosing it over knitting porn. But how delightful! The book is filled with pictures and anecdotes, talking about where, what and why people knit from colonial times through the late twentieth century. In colonial times, women knit to gain independence from British textile imports. Children of both sexes, notorious for wearing through their favorite red socks, were required to knit an inch a day before being allowed out to play. But looking at knitting, an archetypal feminine activity, involves looking at the overall roles of women in society. It was used both as a method for defining the appropriate sphere for women: girls’ schools advertised prominently that they taught girls to knit and wife wanted ads listed knitting along with preserving as an important skill for brides. Women, children and older men all joined in knitting – mostly socks - for every war from the Revolutionary through the Korean. On the other hand, women also expanded their roles through knitting, as early craft fairs successfully raised money for civic ventures where male efforts had failed. They found themselves more competent outside the home than they had ever before thought themselves and were reluctant to return to their confined spheres. Changing fashions also illuminate social change, as Victorian shawl patterns gave way to daring bicycle stocking and tennis costume patterns, the tiny-needle patterns of earlier centuries likewise making way for the broom-handle dress patterns of the seventies, so loosely knit that they required body stockings underneath. Published in 1988, it predates the current resurgence of knitting, so that the final chapter is filled with happily unjustified doubts about the future of knitting. This book is a bit denser than I normally read these days, and I was surprised at how quickly I got sucked into it and how fascinating I found it.

Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon Ai Ling was a scholarly girl who mostly stayed properly home with her mother. Then, her father gives her a jade pendant before leaving for a month at the emperor’s palace. Months later, their family finances dwindling, Ai Ling decides that it’s time to go find her father. It’s not easy for a girl of marriageable age to travel alone in China, but Ai Ling finds herself facing one demon after another, recognizing them from the book that she’d thought her father forbade only because the stories were so frightening for a young girl. Early on, she is rescued by the handsome and exotic Chen Yong. He’s travelling in search of his real parentage, a secret even from his adoptive parents. They start travelling together, and are joined on the way by Chen Yong’s adoptive brother, the openly flirtatious Li Rong. Their straightforward journey to the palace takes unexpected turns as mountain paths lead them to strange lands mentioned only in the classical texts that Ai Ling and Chen Yong have read. Eventually, they are given a deeper quest by the Goddess of Records. Ai Ling is a delightful and sympathetic heroine. Though she finds the courage she needs to fight off the demons attacking her, she also never develops Amazing Martial Arts Prowess, instead finding her own magical abilities. She also has a refreshingly large appetite, which gives plenty of opportunity for vivid descriptions of the food. This was a delightful adventure with a Buffy meets Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Kids, Parents and Power Struggles by Mary Kurcinka

Kurcinka is best known as the author of Raising Your Spirited Child. While she still recommends that book for anyone, and this book covers what she calls spirited children as well, this geared more towards typical children. ( Read more... )

This is not the only parenting book on the market that talks about recognizing that kids have feelings and needs and how to teach them appropriate ways to express themselves. A few other books, such as The No-Cry Discipline Solution, also talk about recognizing how your own feelings affect your parenting. While these are fairly standard approaches in the parenting literature I read, they are handled well here. This book also does an exceptionally good job at covering parenting the whole age range, rather than concentrating on under or over five. In addition, the detailed, but easy-to-use coverage of temperament types makes it easy to recognize your particular issues and find solutions tailored to your child and family. I read it through twice in a row as I found it so helpful.

Your Best Birth by Ricki Lake and Abby Epstein Lake and Epstein start this positive and empowering look at birth with explaining how even a woman in love with her Tylenol PM could want to try for a natural birth, and their own birth stories. It’s first and foremost about opening up choices about birth, including choosing your place (hospital, birth center or home), care provider (OB, GP or midwife), and back-up team. (They even suggest finding a doula first, who can help you pinpoint your birth style and direct you to doctors and midwives in the area who share your philosophy.) Though they don’t hesitate to point out that the U.S. is at the bottom of the world charts in terms of maternal and infant safety during birth, they focus more on what women can do than on the depressing statistics. They talk about what interventions are out there, risks, and when they are really appropriate. The C-Section chapter talks about both medically unsound reasons to do them as well as ways to make your c-section as gentle as positive as possible if it turns out that you do need one. They talk about communicating with providers and hospital staff, birth for survivors of sexual abuse, different (and more American-focused) birth class/philosophy options, and postpartum care. They include profiles of “birth goddesses”, including birth activists, celebrity moms who opted for natural births, and regular women with amazing births.

One review I read (Library Journal, I think, but maybe Booklist) said that since the authors seemed to think that hospitals cared more about avoiding litigation and following hospital policies than individuals, this shouldn’t be the only book libraries carry on the topic. I would really like to know where the reviewer gave birth to come up with a different opinion on modern birth. This book reflects the reality of modern birth in America, from my point of view and the many other mothers I’ve talked to. And it does it in a way that will leave you feeling more informed, confident and excited about birth.

Selkie Girl by Laurie Brooks Elin Jean lives on the Orkney Islands. She doesn’t know why she has webbing in between her fingers, only that the bullying that disfigurement causes has kept her from having any social life outside her croft. Though she adores her mother and grandfather, the only person in the village she thinks she might be able to be friends with is Tam, a gypsy boy even lower in society than she is. She does not know why her father gets so upset at the amount of time she spends in or near the ocean, or why she is the only person in the villager so upset by the annual baby seal cull. When she is sixteen, she finally learns that her mother is a selkie, kept with her father and aging prematurely because of her own seal skin, hidden by Elin Jean’s father. Now Elin Jean has a choice of living with selkies or humans herself, ultimately finding herself on a quest to find the deep answer to her own question. The story isn’t clearly set in any time, though the place is vivid and the characters, especially Elin Jean, ring true. The lyrical language speaks of the enduring power of music, dance and story. This is a beautiful and timeless take on the ancient stories of the selkies, as well as a solid coming-of-age tale.

Sacred Myths: Stories of World Religions by Marilyn MacFarlane When I was in the sixth grade at a religious school, my teacher skipped the brief pages on other religions at the beginning of our religion text. She was trying to teach us Christianity, not those other false religions.

For those who want their children to have a somewhat broader exposure to the world’s many religious traditions, I recommend this book. Each of seven major world religions is given a one-page summary, including its version of the Golden Rule in large and decorative type. While Mr. FP had no patience for these sections, he was mesmerized by the five myths told for each religion. All are illustrated with images from appropriate religious art enmeshed in bright graphic design – hard to describe, but interesting to look at. Religions included are Buddhism, Hindusim, Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Native American and Sacred Earth. Stories include the births of Buddha, Ganesh, Mohammed and Jesus, as well as many less well-known stories; a pre-Hellenic retelling of Demeter and Persephone, where Persephone goes willingly to the Underworld to help the spirits there; and Mr. FP’s favorite, “How Grandmother Spider Stole the Sun.” The stories are engagingly told and brief enough to work for older preschoolers (OK, my preschooler - Publisher’s Weekly says age 10… judge your own child) up through adult. It also includes a helpful pronunciation guide, glossary, and books for further reading. For educators, her website says that she also has a classroom guide available, with questions for discussion as well as explanations of all the symbols in the pictures. I’ve not seen the guide, but the stories are well worth reading.

Gunnerkrigg Court: Orientation by Tom Siddell And now for something fun. Gunnerkrigg Court is the first print volume of a popular web comic, set in a spooky British boarding school/industrial complex. Our heroine is young Antimony Carver, just starting at Gunnerkrigg Court following her mother’s death. In the first short story, Antimony finds that she has a second shadow, which turns out to need help getting to the dark and forbidden Gillitie Woods, across a brightly lighted bridge. In typical Harry Potter fashion, finding little help from adults, Antimony finds her own solution – scrounging enough spare parts to build a robot to help the little stray shadow. As the stories progress, Antimony is befriended by a girl named Kat, whose parents (now teachers at the school), Antimony’s mother and now-missing father, as well as a few others, were part of a tight group of friends. Again as in that Potter book, there’s a hint that they were involved in something bigger than innocent school friendships, but the mystery isn’t fleshed out much in this first book. Though the mother’s death and the mystery, as well as the literally dark setting, give the whole book a dark feel, it’s dark and snarky humor. In one of the early stories, for example, Antimony’s favorite stuffed animal is possessed by an untrustworthy but not altogether malignant demon who finds himself forced to obey her commands. Read it on line if you prefer, but please do read it. Assuming, of course, you like magic and technology fused with dark humor.

Unhappy mythic pregnancy number 3 – though the focus is only on pregnancy if you happen to be pregnant yourself, I expect. And at least the pregnancy itself is happily come by in this one.

A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce A couple of years ago, I talked about the problems with the story of Rumplestiltskin. Among these problems are why a magical being who can spin straw into gold would want a poor girl’s probably cheap necklace and ring. What would he do with a baby? Why does the girl treat so badly the only person in the story who helps her? And why on earth in a story about the importance of names does the protagonist not have one? This beautifully dark and ghosty novel-length treatment is yet a different spin on making the story make sense.

In a world on the edge of the Industrial Revolution, Charlotte Miller tries to keep her family’s small water-powered mill going in the face of brutal competition, a crushing mortgage, and what seems to be a curse on the mill and the Millers who run it. Though her Uncle Wheeler, newly arrived from town, is trying to convince Charlotte and her younger sister Rosie that running a mill is a highly improper occupation for young ladies, Miller boys never live to adulthood. The mill is the only employer in the village, and Charlotte is willing to do anything to keep it going. The banker’s representative, Randall, turns out to be a handsome and encouraging young man. When Rosie works a spell to summon aid, the skeptical Charlotte is nonetheless willing to give the little man who appears, calling himself Jack Spinner, the only memento of her mother for enough gold thread to meet the season’s mortgage payment. But of course that doesn’t solve all the problems. It is only as Charlotte is married and pregnant with her first child that she begins to delve deeper into the crooked history of the mill, trying to find out just why it is that all the little Miller boys die and how Jack Spinner is connected. It’s a quest that will pit her loyalty to the mill against everything else she loves, and time is running out.

I hope, Dear Readers, that you are appreciating my book-reviewing industry. I've been reading like mad with all the extra time spent eating, but have been then too busy to post. I'm making up for lost time now, and have, right now, only three books in queue waiting to be reviewed.

Today's selection – unhappy but mythic pregnancy book #2, which is getting all sorts of applauds in teen lit circles.

Impossible by Nancy Werlin Lucy Scarborough is 17. Decently popular, on the track team, she also gets along very well with her foster parents, Soledad and Leo. Her biggest secret – from her friends at least - is that the crazy homeless woman who sometimes hangs around school, singing an odd variation on “Scarborough Fair”, is her mother. Then – wham-bang – Lucy turns 18, gets pregnant by rape, and finds that the song is a puzzle. She has until the baby is born to solve three impossible tasks posed in the song in order to save herself from insanity and break an ancient curse from an evil elfin knight. Though it takes some mental struggling, Lucy, her foster parents, and the boy who used to be next door but is now staying in the same house, decide to form a sort of Fellowship of the Ring rather than signing up for medication. Though they discuss alternatives both to this and to continuing the pregnancy in the first place, Lucy decides to keep the baby and she and Zach eventually fall in love and get married – Zach convincing her on the grounds that if he’s the legal father, the baby won’t be left in limbo if the quest fails. (Ever self-aware, Lucy is amused at how traditional people are as revealed by how pleased they are that she’s married.) These choices did set off my traditional-values blinkers a little, but it works in context – the love of parent for child and real love by choice opposed to the Elfin Knight, who says in the ballad, “She must be a true love of mine” – no choice given. The thing that bothered me most was that the Elfin Knight is obviously present through much of the story, but no one except the family dog recognizes him until very close to the end. These issues aside, I found myself discussing Lucy’s problems over dinner and couldn’t wait to find out how they would solve the problems and beat the Elfin Knight.

The Complete Book of Pregnancy and Childbirth by Sheila Kitzinger
I’d looked through this book during my last pregnancy, and it made it onto my pregnancy list. But, I hadn’t read it all the way through. This time, I read both the most recent (2004) and the earlier 1997 edition of this classic. Kitzinger is England’s premier natural childbirth advocate. The book includes baby development at the beginning, pregnancy by trimester, labor and birth, and newborn care. Each trimester includes considerations for birth appropriate to that phase. ( Read more... )
All in all though, her advice for pregnancy and birth is solid, reassuring, and very helpful for women figuring out what’s important to them in birth and how to make sure they get the best support possible. Since her biases are towards the norm, this is an excellent basic pregnancy book for most mothers.

The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin When I prepared to give birth, I hired a doula, a professional birth support person. She made a huge difference in making the whole birth experience smoother and more positive, and I recommend hiring a doula to anyone giving birth. But, suppose you can’t hire a doula? Suppose you want your parenting partner or your best friend to come to the birth with you? Or, that such a person wants to educate him or herself to be able to help you even if you have a doula as well. In that case, you want this book. It covers pregnancy, birth and newborn care from the perspective of a partner, rather than the mother or a medical professional. It includes such topics as preparing for labor, helping the mother find an effective labor coping pattern, common medical interventions, their side effects and risks and how to discuss them with hospital staff, what to do if there is a personality conflict between the mother and the assigned nurse or doctor, and how to best support a mother in labor who’s changed her mind about what she wants from her birth plan. I read the old, falling-apart edition that my midwifery still keeps. This edition placed rather more stress on the importance of learning and practicing several breathing patterns than is currently in vogue (my birth class instructor said that practicing breathing before you were in labor was like practicing breathing for a marathon without running); I don’t know if the new edition has changed. Overall, however, the information was extremely helpful. There are even helpful summary pages labeled in white text on darker bars on the sides of pages, so you can fan out the pages and find the part you need in the heat of things. Simkin is the founder of Doulas of North America/DONA, and this book is required reading for many doula training courses as well.