Book Review:  The Weight of Water by Sarah Crossan

Every once in a while I find a book that I enjoy NOT because it has lots of action or a suspenseful plot, but rather because of the simple truths that the author conveys in a timeless story.  This is one of them.  The Weight of Water is the story of 12 year old Kasienka, a Polish girl who has immigrated to Coventry, England with her mother.  Told in verse, this story illustrates the hardships that she and her mother face from day one.  They have left the familiarity of Poland to try to locate Kasienka's father, a man that abandoned them several months before.  Kasienka feels that perhaps he does not want to be found, but her mother clings to the hope that they will reunite and begin life anew together.  In the meantime, Kasienka begins going to school, and must endure the bullying and awkwardness of "junior high".  She discovers first love as well as cruelness in her classmates as she tries to understand the complexities of friendship and acceptance.  Kasienka's only reprieve from the stress of her home and school life is the community pool.  She is a powerful swimmer and feels most confident while in the water.
This book is simple yet very powerful at the same time.  Many students, no matter what their background, can relate to Kasienka's predicament - she is not in control, and she feels like she is being pulled from all sides by puppet strings.  The prose writing style conveys the emotions perfectly - if this had been a full-fledged novel, I feel like it might have been bogged down.  This is a great novel that I would highly recommend to anyone!

Welcome back!

Welcome back to school!
I hope everyone had a fantastic summer!  I cannot wait to share more books with you this year!
Over the summer I began thinking about "old" media (books and movies).  So, in an effort to cross things off of my bucket list, I began watching old films and reading old books that I have heard of but never actually seen or read.
As far as books go, I would like to highlight Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers.  I picked it up because of the movie coming out this fall, Saving Mr. Banks.  I wanted to see how the "Mary Poppins" we all know and love is different from the original "Mary Poppins" written by Travers.  Let me tell you, they are as different as they come!  In the book, Mary Poppins comes to 17 Cherry Tree Lane after a nanny has quit.  She does not get a letter penned by Jane and Michael, and no other nannies are turned away by the wind.  She is strict, and a bit cross with the children - almost mean - which is something I was not expecting.  She endears herself to the children by showing them a world unlike any they have ever experienced.  She tells them of a cow that cannot stop dancing, takes them to meet her Uncle that floats on his birthday (this one was in the movie), shows them what goes on in the zoo at night, takes them on a trip around the world, that sort of thing.  With each adventure, the children wonder if what they have experienced actually happened or if it was just a dream.  She is still strict with the little ones (by the way, there are FOUR Banks children - Jane and Michael have twin siblings, John and Barbara), but she does seem to care about them.  The wind changes at the end of the book and she just up and leaves without saying goodbye.
Now, I may make P.L. Travers roll over in her grave when I write this, and it is against all I believe as a librarian, but I liked the movie version much better.  In the book, Mary Poppins is mean.  She snaps at the little ones, she is sarcastic, and she fusses at them quite a bit.  Now, this could be a generational thing - maybe that was how nannies treated children in early turn of the century London, I do not really know.  It must be that I need to read more installments of the Mary Poppins series in order to see how she changes the lives of the Banks family members.  I might try the next book, but I am in no rush to continue the series.  I do love the movie, though!