{"id":522,"date":"2018-12-31T12:38:32","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T12:38:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=522"},"modified":"2018-12-31T12:38:32","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T12:38:32","slug":"lone-star-book-reviewsby-michelle-newby-nbcccontributing-editor-52","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=522","title":{"rendered":"Lone Star Book ReviewsBy Michelle Newby, NBCCContributing Editor"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/span><\/span><\/span>Michelle Newby<\/span> is contributing editor at Lone Star Literary Life, reviewer for Foreword Reviews, <\/span>freelance writer, member of the National Book Critics Circle, and blogger at www.TexasBookLover.com. Her reviews appear or are forthcoming in Pleiades Magazine, Rain Taxi, World Literature Today, South85 Journal, The Review Review, Concho River Review, Monkeybicycle, Mosaic Literary Magazine, Atticus Review, <\/span>and The Collagist.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lone Star Book Reviews
of Texas books appear weekly
at LoneStarLiterary.com<\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n
\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span>MIDDLE GRADE FICTION<\/p>\n

Karen Harrington<\/span><\/p>\n

Mayday<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 978-0-316-29801-8, hardcover (also available as an ebook), 352 pgs, $16.99<\/p>\n

May 24, 2016<\/p>\n

Twelve-year-old Wayne Kovok is an anxious seventh-grader<\/span> who uses facts (Did you know that chickens can run up to nine miles an hour?) to protect himself from awkward silences and uncomfortable emotions. \u201cA fact is like a shield,\u201d Wayne says, \u201cYou can hide behind it. Then you can make a run for it if you need to. Or make someone laugh so that they aren\u2019t laughing at you. Or distract your mom if she is sad.\u201d Wayne\u2019s life is pretty normal\u2014Spanish homework and does Sandy Showalter really like me?\u2014until his Uncle Reed is killed in action in Iraq.<\/p>\n

As Wayne and his mother are flying home from Arlington National Cemetery with Uncle Reed\u2019s burial flag (\u201cThere was a waiting list for the honored dead,\u201d Wayne observes. \u201cThat might be one of the saddest facts I\u2019d ever heard.\u201d), an unseasonal storm forces their plane into an emergency landing. Author Karen Harrington\u2019s<\/span> imagery is vivid as the plane begins to fall. Wayne\u2019s mother has been cradling Uncle Reed\u2019s burial flag when a hole is ripped in the side of the plane and the flag \u201cunfurled and sailed up into the fuselage like a patriotic kite.\u201d Wayne and his mother survive but many passengers do not. Wayne leaves the hospital with one eyebrow, a large \u201cL\u201d-shaped (\u201cthe sign of a loser\u201d) wound stitched together across his face, and a throat injury. The boy who uses his voice to protect, distract, and fill, now has none.<\/p>\n

Harrington\u2019s characters are diverse and genuine. There\u2019s Grandpa, a retired army drill sergeant, who moves in with Wayne and his mom to help out during their recovery, quoting Napoleon and issuing commands. Wayne\u2019s mother, who loves Jane Austen movie adaptations and has named their dog Mr. Darcy, shaves off an eyebrow \u201cin solidarity.\u201d Denny, Wayne\u2019s new friend from voice therapy, is preparing for his bar mitzvah, which means he has to read a portion of the Torah aloud to the congregation at their synagogue, which is unfortunate because Denny stutters. But, boy, can he sing\u2014think Mel Tillis.<\/p>\n

Mayday<\/span><\/a><\/span> is the story of how Wayne learns to deal with unavoidable silences and difficult emotions while his vocal cords heal, making decisions and realizing his own agency, and learning \u201cthe economy of the shrug.\u201d Wayne\u2019s first-person narrative is by turns funny and sweet, anguished and melancholy, but always smart and perceptive. The plot is simple, though it deals deftly and sensitively with some of the toughest issues a family can face and Wayne sometimes feels like \u201cthe rope in a tug of war. The rope never wins. It just gets pulled.\u201d The pace moves along at a good clip, guaranteed to retain the attention of younger readers.<\/p>\n

Mayday<\/span> compares favorably with the classics from Beverly Cleary<\/span> and Judy Blume.<\/span> \u201cI just needed the flag to be found,\u201d Wayne reflects, \u201cGrandpa to move back to his house, my face and neck to heal, my dad to stop messing with me, and Mom to keep smiling and make spaghetti every Tuesday.\u201d<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michelle Newby is contributing editor at Lone Star Literary Life, reviewer for Foreword Reviews, freelance writer, member of the National Book Critics Circle, and blogger at www.TexasBookLover.com. Her reviews appear or are forthcoming in Pleiades Magazine, Rain Taxi, World Literature Today, South85 Journal, The Review Review, Concho River Review, Monkeybicycle, Mosaic Literary Magazine, Atticus Review, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}