Book review: 2013 Printz Award Winner "In Darkness" by Nick Lake

Title: In Darkness
Author: Nick Lake
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Children's, 2012 

In this powerful story, we learn how circumstances can shape who a person becomes. This is the story of a teenage gang member stuck under the rubble after the Haiti earthquake in 2010 told in tandem with the story of Toussaint L'Ouvreture, the man that freed Haiti's slaves. Shorty, a 15-year-old gangster in the most dangerous part of Haiti, finds himself trapped beneath tons of rubble after the earthquake of 2010, with nothing but darkness and death surrounding him. He begins to tell us, who he calls the "voices in the darkness," his history. We also read, through third-person narration, the story of the slave Toussaint, who led his people to freedom and their own government.

It is clear why this was the winner of the 2013 Printz Award. The story is compelling, both of them together; Shorty has grown up in terrible poverty, surrounded by gang violence and political unrest. He has seen family members, friends, and neighbors killed, to the point where it is almost normal. And so, he falls in with the gang of his neighborhood, because he believes that way he will get his abducted sister back and get his revenge.

Meanwhile, we're learning how Toussaint was successful in some things, but not in others. It's history, so it's not a spoiler, but we are living the revolution along with him. What really made this fictionalized history stand out was Toussaint's spirit connection with Shorty and the Haiti of 2010. In visions, he sees Haiti through Shorty's eyes, and knows what he dreams is possible, though perhaps not as peaceful as he hopes.

The writing is superb, though it helps if you know a little bit of French or Creole. There is a lot of vernacular throughout Shorty's sections, and you can see what most of it means in the context of how it's used, but it makes for a more challenging reading experience.

What really got me with this title is the characters. It was hard to read about how violent they all are, and the evil acts they all do, but I have to say Lake wrote them in such a way that I understood why they became what they did, and still see their humanity. I could see why Shorty fell in with the Route 9 gangsters. There was one scene I couldn't stop thinking about where Biggie talks to his mother on the phone, and I cried.

If you're up for the challenge of the dark content and the difficult language, this is a book not to be missed.

Disclosure: I got this book from the library.

Review: "Jake and Lily" by Jerry Spinelli

Title: Jake and Lily
Author: Jerry Spinelli
Publisher: Balzer + Bray, 2012

Jake and Lily are twins. But they're not what you would call normal. They have this special thing, something they call goombla—they just know things about each other without having to be told. They can't play hide and seek because they always know where the other is hiding, the don't have to look at each other's journal entries because they already know what they say, and every year on their birthday they sleepwalk to the local train station and have the same dream, most likely because they were born on a train in the  middle of a tunnel, and wake up hand in hand.

But all this starts to change one summer vacation when Jake starts to hang around with some neighborhood boys who ride around and call themselves the Death Rays. To make matters worse, the leader of the gang is Bump Stubbins, Lily's archenemy. Soon Jake and Lily start to lose their goombla, to Lily's great distress. The problem is, Jake doesn't seem to mind that much. Over the course of the summer, the two will learn what it means to be individuals while still realizing they will always be brother and sister, inextricably linked together.

While this is not my favorite Spinelli book, it is a nice summer read about growing apart and growing up. Jake and Lily have always done everything together, to the point where Lily can only define herself through her relationship with her brother. When that is taken away from her, she isn't sure who she is anymore, forcing her to figure it out after a lot of grieving. Jake also has to grow up, as he realizes that his treatment of others isn't always as kind as he has been in the past. Overall, this is a book about identity, love, loyalty, and friendship, with the added bonus of a kind of twin ESP.

Lily and Jake narrate in alternating chapters, and it is clear where their stories begin to diverge. Lily's voice is full of sarcasm, anger, and sass. She is a tomboy all the way, and is surprised and insulted when she realizes she is being left out because she's a girl. She calls it like she sees it, and I found that really admirable. Jake, on the other hand, is straitlaced and calm. You can see how he is drawn into the mob mentality, but it takes a fairly serious and cruel incident to make him realize what he's becoming.

This is a nice summer story for older elementary readers and those in the younger middle grades, and a quick read. It may look really long at 335 pages, but a lot of the chapters are less than a page, so if any kids are deterred by that let them take a look through it so they can see for themselves.

Disclosure: I got this book from the library.