A first novel by Laurie Gray, Indiana author,

Stories written for teens and middle schoolers can be very satisfying reads.  When I was a librarian in the Young Adults Department at the Allen County Public Library I read most of the new books we were purchasing to understand the material and categorize it for our purposes.  I became hooked on Blume, Zindel, and Ellen Conford, among others.  I still enjoy reading  YA book.  I like the people, the plots, and quite often the characters are really well drawn.  And maybe I have never grown up.  Anyway, when received SUMMER SANCTUARY by Laurie King, (Luminis Books,13-978-935462-34-70) I read it all in one sitting.
Ms. Gray tells her story through the voice of Matthew, a going on thirteen youth who is  wise for his age, smart, and a kid I would like.  He is a preacher's kid and has 3 younger brothers and his mother is expecting another child.   He is studious; his closest brother in age is athletic, taller, better at sports.  But this is a family that gets along well.  The author depicts a family that meshes, is tolerant, and who welcomes intellectual curiosy.  And a family who seems to respect the individual and allow for some personal responsibility,  The boys are all home schooled and the library is one of Matthew's haunts.   Here he meets  Dinah, a somewhat older girl who befriends him.  Or perhaps it is the other way around.  She seems to be at loose ends because her mother is "away" for about 20 more days and she is kid of living on the streets.   Seems her mother's boyfriend is too friendly and she does not stay home. Throught the course of the story we learn what away really means and why. Matthew finds her a place to sleep in his father's church, the sanctuary of the title, if you will.  He goes to great subterfuge to get food to her  and not let his family know about his secret friend. 
What  makes this book stand out is not only the deft writing or the good characterizations.  It is the tone of the story and the attitudes of the people involved.  There is a warm family relationship shown in Matthew's family.  They care about each other  and others and it shows. The depiction of personal relationships is exquisitely done. Matthew's desire to help Dinah seems to spring from lessons he has learned at home.  And the religious aspect of this book is always there, but not so much that the reader feels overwhelmed by thou shalts. and thou shalt nots   This is a book about compassion, caring, and understanding.
There are no drunken orgies or violent acts.  There is some questionable behavior by irresponsible adults, but solutions are offered.  The climax of the story is funny, witty, and moving,  It takes place at the church, involves a parishioner who brings her dog, and a sermon about sanctuary,  It also involved the imminent arrival of the baby in Matthew's family. 
Matthew will learn that it is not easy to hide things from parents and that a loving family can be very supportive when one is learning to be grown up,  There is even a solution for the dilemma facing Dinah and her mother.
I can heartily recommend this book.  And not just for middle schoolers.  It is a breath of fresh air and offers a reaffirmation that not everything has to be sordid  and violent.  Oh, evils are covered well in this book.  drinking and driving,  Sexual predators. Homeless and neglected children.  But not in a sensational manner.  In a way, that makes the presentation all the more compelling.  I really appreciate the fact that Ms.Gray treats her young people as "persons" and never makes them less valuable than adults.
I think I would like to read more about this family and the other children.  I am sure they must be as interesting as Matthew.
The author was graduated from Goshen College and received a law degree from Indiana University.  She also has taught Spanish to high schoolers, worked as an interpreter in Guatemala and is a trial lawyer.  She is a child advocate and is the founder of Socratic Parenting, LLC.

Obsessions

PROUST'S OVERCOAT by Lorenza Foschina, (Eric Karleles, translator)Harper Collins, 978-0-06-196567-8, is so short it is perhaps better described as an over long essay. Yet, it covers its subject with clarity, humor and intelligence as well as grace.  Which is rather extraordinary when the subject is one man's obsession with all things Proust.  The book had its inception when the author was on an interview about a television program and talked to a gentleman who had planned at one time to do a movie on Proust.  He mentioned an interview with a man who was an avid collector of all things Proust.  The collector was Jacques Guerin, a perfume magnate in France.  This is his story as well as that of Proust.  Proust's life was as strange as he.  He was at odds with his brother and sister in law, had strange habits, was always cold. wrote in bed, and always was seen in a black overcoat.  Guerin had Proust';s brother as his surgeon and became even more obsessed with collecting Proust artifacts.  Guerin's bedroom was entirely made up of thins that had belonged to Proust.  He haunted dealers hunting for books and other objects that Proust had used.  Eventually he found the overcoat that Proust had worn all his .  It was sacred to him.  The slim volume is packed with facts about Proust and his eccentric life as well as his family problems.  The book is a gem of a read.  Enjoy.

A picture is worth how many words?

I thoroughly enjoy graphic novels.  I do not have too many that come across my desk, however.  But I have this one my Denise Mina, a writer whose crime novels I ] have enjoyed in the past.  She writes Scottish noir and does dark well.  She has also done comics in HellBlazer.  A SICKNESS IN THE FAMILY, by DC Comics, Vertigo Crime, 978-1-4012-1081-6.  Drawn by Antonio Fuso.  Fuso has drawn such comics as Fear Agent and others.  He lives in Italy.  The book  This is the morbid tale of the family Usher.   They  are renovating the home after a tragedy makes the other half of the house available to them.  The family are a wife and husband, a son and daughter, and the wife's  mother.  There is also the wife's lover and some other mentioned friends.  There is a great deal of animosity shown in their acts and their conversations.  But things turn deadly.  Death and illness attack the family.  Is it the evilness of the house?  Do stories of witchcraft in the early history of the house have anything to do with the events?  Who is trying to kill whom?  Secrets and grudge fed hatreds make for a surprising and rather grotesque ending.  The stark art work lends to the atmosphere of gloom and despair of this noir graphic. It has a well developed plot and storyline. Families can be deadly.

A   few thing have happened since last we spoke.  There was an election.  The weather was warm and the outside was inviting.  But back to the books.  Did you like the TV show Connections that PBS ran?  If you did you will surely enjoy Bill Bryson's latest book, AT HOME A SHORT HISTORY OF PRIVATE LIFE, Doubleday 978-0-7679-1938-8. The Victorian parsonage in in England where Bryson and his family reside is the basis for this delight book of arcane and mundane facts about a house, the origin of specific rooms and their names and why they are there.  He takes the ordinary parts of the house and has delightful historical stories to explain their why and wherefore.  The evolution of houses is as fascinating as any well crafted whodunit.  And other factual tidbits he uses as throw aways are wonderful.  Did you know that Henry Cole probably invented the Christmas card to get people using the new penny post of the time? 
Anyway, the telling us about the house involves a discussion of the English clergy and the fact that at one time it was a well paid sinecure for the lesser ranked sons of fine families.  This provided clergy who were less than interested in the parish  than in tinkering with inventions and writing.  Hence England  produced clergy who wrote Trstram Shandy, the Malthusian theory, as well  botanist Adam Buddle who was the inspiration for the butterfly bush, the buddleia.  Some were composers.    We learn that earlier English houses had few windows because of a glass tax.  It was not until a cheaper way to make glass in England evolved that windows with glass became common.    If we think taxes are bad now, we should take note of the time when there seemed to be a tax on everything that could be taxed to pay off the debts of the king and/or country.  The way rooms came by their names and use turns into a study of architecture which leads us to the fact that early builders were not necessarily builders or architects by training.  If there was such a thing.
House layouts wear awkward  and often haphazard.  Houses evolved as transportation evolved.  Trains allowed people to move from crowded cities to the country. As houses grew people needed help.  As modern appliances evolved the help went away and the homeowner became the help. Progress? From the entrance way to the solar, from the kitchen to the living room, from the pantry to the closet, each room has a history and a fascinating evolution through time.  This is a delightful book to read and I guarantee that you will want to read more about some of the events and places and people mentioned.  It is a witty and an intriguing read.