Would-be writers should be spared this shallow autobiographical account, which comes with family-album photos of the author from angelic tyke to coiffured success. The author of less than memorable juvenile novels (Witch's Sister, Walking Through the Dark), Naylor includes here samples of her earliest (elementary school) efforts plus, in toto, her first published story ("Sure Mike," the famous athlete assures the injured boy, "Anyone can succeed if he tries hard enough and long enough")—solicited by a former teacher for a church school paper when Phyllis was 16. There are more stories, exchanges with editors, reviews of her books—but the closest Naylor comes to considering the art of writing is an early "glimpse [of] the possibilities in writing the unexpected. What if a mother was not soft-spoken? . . . Why should children always be the ones at fault?" Naylor ends with a housewifey chat on how she fits her writing in with the sock-sorting and such, and some banal advice for those who would do likewise: "Read good books as well as junk. How [else] can you tell the difference?"; "Live a full life with many types of experiences." But there is no evidence here that she's been touched by either good books or experience (despite the hairy ones recalled in her adult, autobiographical Crazy Love). Book publication by a respectable house seems the ultimate goal; reading this, one wonders how she ever got that far.
Pub Date: March 10, 1978
ISBN: 0689838875
Page Count: 149
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1978
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Small but mighty necessary reading.
A miniature manifesto for radical queer acceptance that weaves together the personal and political.
Eli, a cis gay white Jewish man, uses his own identities and experiences to frame and acknowledge his perspective. In the prologue, Eli compares the global Jewish community to the global queer community, noting, “We don’t always get it right, but the importance of showing up for other Jews has been carved into the DNA of what it means to be Jewish. It is my dream that queer people develop the same ideology—what I like to call a Global Queer Conscience.” He details his own isolating experiences as a queer adolescent in an Orthodox Jewish community and reflects on how he and so many others would have benefitted from a robust and supportive queer community. The rest of the book outlines 10 principles based on the belief that an expectation of mutual care and concern across various other dimensions of identity can be integrated into queer community values. Eli’s prose is clear, straightforward, and powerful. While he makes some choices that may be divisive—for example, using the initialism LGBTQIAA+ which includes “ally”—he always makes clear those are his personal choices and that the language is ever evolving.
Small but mighty necessary reading. (resources) (Nonfiction. 14-18)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09368-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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