Memoirs of a Bookbat - Softcover

Lasky, Kathryn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0152012591 ISBN 13: 9780152012595

Publisher: Clarion Books, 1996

Synopsis

Harper Jessup is an avid reader, and when her parents become “migrants for God” she must keep her books secret. As Harper grows older and realizes how valuable reading is to her, she comes to understand that her parents’ radical efforts in favor of educational censorship are related to a quest for control within their own family. And so Harper finds she must make the hardest choice of all. “Sure to be controversial, prepare for a stimulating conversation.”--The New Advocate

About this title

About the Author

KATHRYN LASKY's many books for young people have received such honors as the Parents' Choice Award, the National Jewish Book Award, and a Newbery Honor citation. Her picture books include The Emperor's Old Clothes, illustrated by David Catrow; A Brilliant Streak: The Making of Mark Twain, illustrated by Barry Moser; and Marven of the Great North Woods, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. <br>www.xensei.com/users/newfilm/homelsk.htm

Review

"Honey," Harper's mother says to her sweetly, "You're no longer just a migrant for God. You're on his rescue squad." Harper, a highly intelligent teenager given to irony, tells how she ended up leaving her Christian fundamentalist family in this first-person narrative. Ever since her parents have been "reborn," the family has been traveling all over the country in their Roadmaster, speaking out against blasphemy, especially the kind found in C. S. Lewis's Narnia tales, Judy Blume's books and textbooks that teach evolution. But while giving off the outward impression that she is a believer too, Harper is actually a secret devotee of all the books her parents despise ("Are you there Judy? It's me, Harper," she says at one point). Harper's eventual escape is partially inspired by her correspondence with an author of fantasy stories. In this very smart (and somewhat acerbic) book, Newbery honoree Lasky ( Double Trouble Squared ; The Night Journey ) combines fictional characters with real-life authors and religious groups (such as Operation Rescue) to create a credible and entertaining story of an emerging independent thinker. Ages 12-up. (Publishers Weekly)

Grade 6-9-In a problematic story with a cast of disappointing, one-dimensional characters and a plot that misses the mark, Harper Jessup, 14, hides her love of books and reading from her Christian fundamentalist parents. Told as a flashback as she runs away to a grandmother in Georgia, the girl reflects on her life. When her unemployed, angry father and desperate, placating mother find comfort and financial reward in the church, they embark on careers as missionaries for F.A.C.E.(Family Action for Christian Values) and F.I.S.T.(Families Involved in Saving Traditional Values) and take to the road in a spiffy recreational vehicle to preach the gospel of book censorship. Meanwhile, Harper continues her secret life of reading, her only solace. When the family finally settles in California, she makes a too-good-to-be-true first friend, and he helps her make her escape when her parents and the church encourage her younger sister and a friend to write an anti-Semetic letter to JEWdy Blume and force the girls to become active in an anti-abortion campaign. For a person so immersed in reading and ideas, Harper never questions the fact that her parents' religious involvement is more monetary than spiritual. Compared with the fundamentalist family and church members in Lois Ruby's Miriam's Well (Scholastic, 1993), whose actions are a constant testament to their deep, abiding faith, Harper's church and family are unconvincing. Just as the girls are manipulated by the adults around them, so readers are manipulated through this heavy-handed anticensorship tract. Alice Casey Smith, Monmouth County Library Headquarters, Manalapan, NJ (School Library Journal)

Edition details

• Publisher: Clarion Books
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0152012591
• ISBN 13: 9780152012595
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224