Seek the honey in life . . .
                    with THEBOOKJEANIE

April flew by too fast with all the events of National Poetry Month: attended a Robert Frost poetry discussion, sat in on a poetry reading at the UofA Poetry Center, and most importantly had almost 100 works of haiku by my elementary students accepted for publication in the Young American Poetry Digest.






Two weeks ago 234 girls were abducted from a boarding school in northwest Nigeria on the same day that a deadly attack in the capital Abuja killed 70 people. The next day the government released a statement claiming that all the girls but 8 had been freed. Sadly enough, these numbers were soon proven to be completely false. The BBC News Africa reported on April 28th that 187 girls were still missing after they were forced into a convoy of 11 military vehicles believed to be manned by the radical Islamist group Boko Haram. Despite tightened security by the largely ineffectual government of President Goodluck Jonathan, militants appear to be moving freely throughout the northeast Borno state. Boko Haram objects to the influences of Western culture, in particular, Western schools. Two months ago two dozen boys were killed in another attack on a Nigerian school. Parents of the abducted girls are frantic and many are setting off into the bush to search for their daughters. It is feared that since this area is close to the Cameroon border, the girls may have been taken far from their homeland. 
This horrific crime is eerily similar to the 1996 abduction of 109 girls from St. Mary's College of Aboke, Uganda, the subject of a new novel by Susan Minot titled Thirty Girls. When the head of the college, Sister Guilia, fearlessly tracks the kidnappers through the bush and eventually is led to the camp of the Lord's Resistance Army, she is reunited with her students only to find that the psychopathic leader of this terrorist band, Joseph Kony, will only release 109 girls - 30 must stay with him. The fate of these 30 girls is the hard gritty core of this story that is told by Esther, a teenager who escapes and begins to reveal her painful memories in a journal while in a rehabiliation camp as well as through the eyes of Jane Wood, an American journalist who has heard about the girls and hopes to interview Esther and a few others that managed to make their way to freedom. The atrocities that the girls witnessed and endured are real and extremely painful to read about but Minot is spare and direct in her descriptions and the reader is left with a strong impression of these young women's dignity and strength that overshadows the indignities and degradation of their plight. Jane Wood and her traveling companions, an odd assortment of wealthy entitled foreigners and Kenyan colonialists, serve not just as a contrast to these rural schoolgirls who have been brutally traumatized, but as a link to a self-involved world that stands by helplessly while children become the pawns of bandit armies. Minot tells a story that must be told, in flawless and elegant prose, itself a tribute to the thirty girls in Uganda as well as the 187 girls who are being held in Nigeria whom we must not forget.



April 23rd was World Book Night - the night when tens of thousands of volunteers, including myself, handed out 20 free copies of specially selected paperback titles to promote literacy in communities across the U.S.  Non-readers or "light readers" were targeted and I had an especially interesting time meeting a variety of new literature fans at the main bus terminal in Tucson. The book I selected to give out was Walter Dean Myers' Sunrise over Fallujah, the story of a young African-American who joins the army after 9/11, much to the dismay of his family who were hoping that he would go on to college. Entering Iraq on the eve of the second Gulf War opens the eyes of this young man to the brutality of war and the destruction of so many lives, civilian and military. It was a pleasure to promote this book and put it in the hands of more readers. I am so pleased to be part of the wonderful community of Tucson!



Take these titles to bed . . . 

The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert:  This book felt as heavy as the one pictured here but nonetheless it was a refreshing new selection from this previously self-absorbed author, featuring an early feminist named Alma Whittaker who takes on the male-dominated world of botany in the early 19th century, enduring disappointments in love as well as in her chosen field, but ultimately demonstrating that "women have a tremendous capacity to survive." Quite an amazing tale - much recommended if you can endure the sometimes tedious 19th century writing style.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce: Harold Fry, a recent retiree, receives a letter from a former colleague who is dying in a hospice hundreds of miles away in the north of England. Filled with remorse and guilt, Harold agonizes over a response and eventually pens a short reply, setting off before lunch to the postbox. After hesitating over several postboxes, Harold decides that he must deliver the letter himself and sets off in the direction of Berwick-on-Tweed, in the belief that Queenie Hennessey will live as long as he walks. You will want to follow Harold on his journey, appreciating his insights and change in philosophy as he walks but if you read Wild by Cheryl Strayed, you will laugh to find someone even less prepared than Cheryl for a long soul-searching hike.




Many thanks to the artists whose work was featured in this blog:

Susan Stonestreet - Bumblebee: http://www.stonestreetart.com/

Lukandwa Dominic - Batik Art: batikartist.blogspot.com

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