42. The House on Mango Street

by Sandra Cisneros

People tend to think that if a book features a youthful protagonist that is meant to be read by children. It is true that teens and kids like to read books with an age-appropriate hero. It is easier to connect to a protagonist when you've lived through that time of life. However, when it comes to books with child protagonists that are not picture books, it often turns out that there is a level that kids just can't access. There is something sad about being a child that children don't perceive. All those things missed through lack of experience.  All those fights and all those opportunities. Being afraid of the ghost in the corner that is really a shadow that looks like a ghost or is it a ghost that looks like a shadow. Experience in life both protects us and steals those magical moments.

The House on Mango Street is one of those books that has seeped into the holy "High School Canon of Approved Literature For the Youth of America." It seems to get shoehorned into the American Literature curriculum as an example of Latin-American Literature. If you sense, dear reader, my dripping sarcasm, know that it is not aimed at the novel. Rather it is aimed at the "Administrative Powers-That-Be." If you are a teacher, there are a multitude of rules about what you cannot say and the material you cannot cover. Censorship has won in America, at least as far as the schools are considered. Sex is scary. Drugs don't really exist, at least if you say it loud enough they don't. Nothing truly bad happens to children. Ever. As a teacher, adding new and fresh novels to the curriculum in even them most minor ways (say summer reading lists) opens one up to attack. If there's a bad word in it: attack. If there is sex, even abstractly: attack. Any hint of the realities of life: attack.

Unless, however, the novel introduced fits into the sacrosanct category of multicultural. If that's the case, suddenly all bets are off and it's possible to teach what real literature is good for. Good literature is not safe. Good literature rolls over the rocks in the human soul and examines the dark creepy crawlies. That's not to say there aren't happy endings, triumphs, love won, and sappy endings in real literature.  These bright points exist but the trip up to them is challenging and arduous.

The House on Mango Street is one of those real books.  There are a lot of dark things hidden behind the perception of young protagonist. There's rape, poverty, violence, and despair. There's also faith, love, and escape. It's a real book and the only reason we can teach it is because its latin origins protect it. Some administrator somewhere read the first 10 pages, absorbed the child POV and approved it. Well here's one in your eye, admin. The teachers won on this one.

41. The Enormous Crocodile

by Roald Dahl

Of the lesser known Dahl children's books, I think this is my favorite so far. The story is about this gluttonous crocodile who sets out one day to slack his hunger on a passel of children. On his way through the jungle he explains his nefarious plan to a bevy of jungle animals who take it upon themselves to protect the children.

It's a cute little book on the classic lines. There's nothing too extraordinary about it but it's a pleasant little read.

40. By the Sword

by Mercedes Lackey

This is the natural successor to the Vows and Honor duo. Kerowyn  is Kethry's granddaughter and an odd duck for her family. When disaster hits and her father's keep is overrun, it's left to Kerowyn to rescue her brother's bride. Being a rather intelligent young woman, she knows she can't take on a band of bandits on her own so she turns to her mysterious grandmother, Kethry. Kethry gifts her a magic sword and sends Kerowyn on her way. Needless to say, Kerowyn is successful but finds that she is no longer accepted by her family which launches her on a new path.

I like By the Sword but it's not my favorite of all Lackey's Valdemar books. Kerowyn as always seemed like this cold character and is hard for me to relate to. She's a perfectly feasible character but seems too ruled by her head for me.

39. Unknown

by Didier Van Caulwelaert

The French have a long literary tradition. I might even tack on the adjective "glorious." I went through a period where I was reading all sorts of french lit in translation. My french is unfortunately not good enough to read them untranslated. It was still good stuff. Dense, but good.

I started to notice that modern french lit often has a particular "frenchness." I figured out that Unknown was french lit by reading the first chapter. The copy I have is a reprint to coincide with the release of the movie adaptation and the translator's credit is not obvious. However, one chapter in and I went looking for it.

Unknown is about a guy, Martin Harris, who wakes up after being in a coma for three days. When he gets home, he finds a stranger living with his wife, taking over his job and calling himself by Martin's name. No one believes except for the cabbie who took Martin to the hospital originally. It is unclear whether it's a hallucination or an insane hoax. That sort of unclear reality seems to be a common element in french literature and is what clued me in.

This was a fun read but started to drag a bit in the middle.  The end came as a bit of a surprise and seemed at least somewhat jarring.  While it was a perfectly reasonable explanation of events, I didn't feel like it was even a possibility until we were suddenly there in the last 10 pages.