It got busy this week! Lots going on at home, work, and otherwise as well. Life My daughter's school decided to close on Friday, along with several other schools in the area, with some being closed from Thursday. Not enough staff. The school had been on a mask mandate since the beginning of the pandemic, dropping it only for one week when the pandemic had appeared to have stabilized last year. And yet, they dropped the mandate completely at the beginning of this year, when cases were exponentially rising, only to bring it back again starting next week. I've gone from being very annoyed to angry to feeling fatigue in these first two weeks already. I won't lie - we all mask around here and try to avoid going where we don't have a need to be in, and still, we are not taking anything close to the extreme precaution we all took at the beginning of the pandemic. I cannot and don't want to keep my kids home - I have at least that much faith in the schools' precautions
This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki
Every summer, Rose and her parents stay at a lake house in Awago Beach. Once there, Rose and her friend, Windy, who also visits there with her mother and grandmother, explore the Beach and spend a good amount of time swimming, shopping, or watching movies. Except this time, things aren't going to be quite as fun as Rose wants it to be. Her parents have been fighting, her mother has not been getting along with some company, and Rose has been a little too interested in one guy at the only store at the beach.I had mixed reactions to This One Summer. On the one hand, I really enjoyed the story. Rose is at that age when she is extra sensitive to triggers around her. When a girl comes to the store crying about something, she and Windy go to great lengths to find out what the deal was. When her mother starts behaving strangely, she worries that she could be part of the problem. And Windy being an exuberant and lively character, Rose struggles to share anything with her because the two girls truly are opposites. There is a lot of teenage angst in this book!
While the story itself was engaging, I wasn't much a fan of how it was executed. There were occasional leaps in the story that I found disconcerting - as if a panel or two was missing in between. Unlike most other readers of this book, I wasn't a fan of the artwork. I think I didn't like the overwhelming blue of the illustrations - they worked great for drawings set at night, but for others, they appeared somewhat whitewashed. I'm probably in the minority though - many others have loved this book, so you may enjoy it too, if you haven't yet read it.
French Milk by Lucy Knisley
Just like Relish, French Milk is not a book with any kind of plot. With their minimal knowledge of the French language, this mother-daughter duo headed to Paris to live among the locals and experience the food and delights of this wonderful city. Lucy's father also visits them for a few days to celebrate Lucy's birthday and enjoy some of the French cuisine.
What I found most interesting about this book was that it felt like a genuine unedited journal. There were instances where she corrected what she mentioned a few pages ago. There were also random squiggles and scribbles to give it an informal feel.
There were also quite a few photographs included in the book, which I loved! It's always nice to see real people in books.
Overall though, I was a little disappointed by this book. It is as charming as Relish - you can see the same narration and illustration style but the idea of the book is itself what felt flat to me. French Milk is more a travelogue with no real plot or direction than a book that gave you any a-ha moments. It will probably appeal a lot to those who have been to France or live there, or someone about to visit this country, but if you're looking for some takeaways (other than details about the French experience), this book may not work too well.
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