A Day Late, But I Love This. Percy, Nancy And Alex Are Wonderful And I Hope To Get To Know The Other

A day late, but I love this. Percy, Nancy and Alex are wonderful and I hope to get to know the other characters as well.

Happy National Book Lovers Day! (August 9th)

Feel free to tell me about your favorite book/author/characters/etc if you wish, totally gush about books, I am here to listen.

Btw, do you know any of the characters above?

LdyEnki reads Anger is a Gift Chapters 3 and 4

The continuing adventures of LdyEnki being unprepared for Mark Oshiro’s “Anger is a Gift”.

Chapter 3:

I don’t feel like I really know Moss’s friends yet, but I am intrigued.  So far we have only gotten little tidbits of information about each and I still trying to figure out who’s who.  But I want to know more.

School- I was wincing reading the description of Moss’s school, it is so far from my experience.  My high school wasn’t great (though we had some great teachers) and the principal actively encouraged kids to drop out rather than create the kind of supportive space where they might actually succeed, but it was nothing like this.  I felt uncomfortable just reading about the worn down, grimy building.  And if I felt this uncomfortable just reading about it I can’t even imagine trying to learn here.  And yet I know this is an experience so many kids have.  And it's wrong.  They deserve better. (I want to gather up all the kids and send them to the elementary school of my childhood)   

Chapter 4:

“What are you going to do about it?”  I get the feeling that this is the central question of the book.

Chapters 1 and 2 are here.

LdyEnki reads Anger is a Gift Chapters 9, 10 and 11.

The continuing adventures of LdyEnki being unprepared for Mark Oshiro’s “Anger is a Gift”. 

Chapter 9:

This feels very much like a setup chapter.  We see the pieces start to move. The school escalating, becoming more controlling and the students starting to ask why, starting to get angry and want things to change.  And we see Moss’s hopelessness, the world isn’t fair and there is nothing we can do to fix the overwhelming wrongness in the world.  

I am worried about Moss and Esperanza.  They have each had very different first weeks and it is jarring after everything that has happened to see Esperanza busy but happy, talking about college.  It is a careless comment she made, probably something she didn’t even think about before saying but I can see how it puts Moss on edge.  There is a tension between them and it doesn’t feel right.  Don’t do this to us Mark.  The power of friendship is sacred.

Chapter 10:

Yay!  Happiness!  They are so cute.  I love how realizing Javier is nervous helps Moss relax.

Though Moss, the whole doing push ups just before a date, sorry but it doesn’t work that way.

Interesting contrast of Javier’s response to the locker situation with Esperanza’s response to the college booths.

Chapter 11:

And some hope!  They are starting to plan.

Chapters 1 and 2 are here.

Chapters 3 and 4 are here.

LdyEnki reads Anger is a Gift Chapters 7 and 8

The continuing adventures of LdyEnki being unprepared for Mark Oshiro’s “Anger is a Gift”. 

Chapter 7:

Well that happened sooner than I expected it to.  That was intense.  The call is knocking on your door Moss.

Chapter 8:

Much needed release.  I love the detail of Moss’s dad bringing home stray furniture.

That last line of the chapter has me very worried.  Please don’t let that be foreshadowing.  Mark don’t do that to us.  I am now very concerned for Moss’s mother.

Chapters 1 and 2 are here.

Chapters 3 and 4 are here.

I’d have liked more time with you.” “A lot more time. Stephen, you’re the only spark of light I’ve encountered in this whole vile country. You’re extraordinary. You’re valuable. And I don’t want you to die because of me.

The Magpie Lord by KJ Charles (via drchristineputnam)

LdyEnki reads Anger is a Gift Chapters 5 and 6

The continuing adventures of LdyEnki being unprepared for Mark Oshiro’s “Anger is a Gift”. 

Chapter 5:

Being a librarian influences my priorities so I’m not sure anyone else had the “Wait. What?!” reaction I did about the library inventory being sold off.  So please excuse me a moment as I say, “They did what!?  Why!?” 

Now weeding out books and other material from a library is important for keeping a library current, relevant and helps prevent books from being lost and overwhelmed by no longer active materials.  I’m not going to go into my defense of weeding diatribe here, though if anyone wants to talk about it I’m happy to.  But if a book (or several copies of a book) in the library is still being used in a classroom, you don’t weed out that book.  You weed out the book that the teacher who left for a different job 5 years ago used in their classroom.  I want to know who sold off “most of the library inventory” and why.

Moving on to the much more plot relevant scene with the girl having her locker searched.  To quote Mark, “Fuck.”  I can see the shape forming of the coming conflict, Officer Hull, an abusive bully, targeting these kids.  Moss won't be able to avoid him forever.  I’m glad there are some good teachers who care in all of this. 

Chapter 6:

Alternate Title: “Or why I love Moss, his Mama and their whole found family.”

Chapters 1 and 2 are here.

Chapters 3 and 4 are here.