Chasing Helicity by Ginger Zee

Chasing Helicity by Ginger Zee is a young adult novel aimed at a 12-15 year old audience. Ginger Zee is ABC news' chief meteorologist. This is her debut novel to be released April of 2018.

To start, Chasing Helicity is a young adult novel that tackles a few things I was pleasantly surprised by, while also ignoring some pretty glaring things that were... problematic.

I loved Zee's writing style, it was clear and concise, the bigger words were defined before being used- perfectly accessible to a younger audience. I especially enjoyed her launching into a major conflict within the first three paragraphs to really capture a young audience.

I noticed immediately that of the family, the father is the definition of toxic masculinity, while the mother just puts up with it. In fact, his rages, belittling of Helicity, and general bullying behavior is taken as just another part of life. I feel like this is really sending the wrong message to the young women reading this book in a very formative time.

Of the other three male characters, one is a side kick named Ray who is great but only gets about as much 'screen time' as Helicity's best friend Mia, which is to say not much. Ray is the only positive male role model in the book. Helicity's brother steals from her and gets hooked on opioids though this is more of an undercurrent instead of an overt conflict. Helicity's work partner and crush is an egotistical overly cocky 17 year old that literally puts people's lives in danger, and refuses to honor literally the only thing she requests of him, which is to call her by her name instead of her age. Let's just say none of the male characters in this book are ones who I would want to spend any extended time with, except Ray, he seems nice.

The book is incredibly good at getting past trauma. Helicity, her best friend Mia, her mentor Lana and her mother Elizabeth are all very strong characters who carry the weight of tragedy on their shoulders. Unfortunately, because this is a Disney book, Lana has to have  both parents in her backstory die at a young age. In fact, None of the female characters are really much of anything until they are formed by trauma. Another thing I noticed was that in order to further Helicity's story, a woman has to be horribly injured and possibly die- why this is necessary I am not sure. It seems to me to be perpetuating the "girlfriend in the refrigerator" trope.

Another example of 'women getting horribly injured for not a lot of reason' is a quote about halfway through the book that reads, "Andy told her about one woman he'd seen at the hospital who'd slipped, fallen onto a broken window, and needed sixteen stitches to close the gaping wound in her abdomen." I applaud her use of graphic imagery to get a safety point across while also giving some scary imagery to young readers- but only one man (excluding victims of a storm that die 'offscreen') gets injured... and it's a broken arm. Why do all injuries have to be girls and women?

I feel pretty torn on this book; it is well written but I'm not sure I would recommend it. The protagonist is strong, her mentor is even stronger and more resilient but there's these insidious undertones of toxic masculinity that just made it seem like a bad thing to give to young women. I'd say give it a pass, but by all means take a look if you'd like to read about storms, storm chasing, and the undervalued kid thriving!

White Rabbit by Caleb Roehrig

White Rabbit is a young adult mystery novel by Caleb Roehrig. If this novel had featured your stereotypical scooby-squad protagonists I would have suggested to skip it; fortunately for us that is not the case.

White Rabbit has a very pulp feel to it: kids stumble onto a crime scene, and the kids have to figure it out before the adults do. The main story has everything you'd expect from a kid's mystery book: heaps of dead bodies, romance between leads, and a few 11th hour twists to throw the honor students in the audience off their game.

So why am I still recommending this 330pg cliché? Because of representation. The fact that the book is so cookie cutter is exactly why it's a great book to give impressionable kids. It not only addresses the stigmas attached to figuring out your own non-heteronormative sexuality at a tender age, but also addresses the very real homophobia and uncertainty people feel when they come out.

White Rabbit's a typical book you'd find battered and dog eared sticking out of a thrift store backpack on the bus. It's honestly wonderful to see a kids book written for kids that doesn't have a heavy handed message so much as it just happens to have representation and it's unashamed of itself for that selfsame reason.

I would recommend this book to any middle schooler or early high schooler, as it's an interesting read and makes the reader evaluate facts and analyze differing narratives in an easy to manage level. I would double recommend to any kids who are questioning their sexuality or who have friends who are going through that struggle.

Caleb Roehrig goes to great length to garner the audiences empathy without trying to make the character's backstories total sob stories, and for that Roehrig has my respect.

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Children of Blood and Bone is a young adult fantasy novel written by Nigerian-American Tomi Adeyemi. The setting is very Nigerian, yet a fantasy setting with large cats ridden like horses, maji, knight-like guards, and fictional kingdoms.

Let's just say this off the bat: It's really, really refreshing to read a fantasy book that isn't set in fantasy England. Fantasy Nigeria was incredibly well done, and just as fleshed out as you could imagine, it was great.

Okay, so into the book review! I loved Children of Blood and Bone. Were there a couple YA fantasy tropes? Sure, but that didn't detract from the depth of this novel. When I say depth, I mean as the target audience of a young person of non-African background you can read this book and have a really good time. On the other hand, if you are familiar with Nigerian history, black history, and socioeconomic issues between West Africans, or West Africa and the world, this book doesn't just talk to you, it sings to you.

Small details from a maji's hair being flat when she has no power, and full and curly into a mane when she does turn social expectations on their head. The class system and obsession with lighter skin tones is addressed in a subtle way. The obvious undertone of talking about race and race based power is done so well that you can say that it is both directly addressed, and yet not so overt that a young reader would pick up on everything Adeyemi is saying.

Another fantastic touch that I would like to bring up was that instead of making up a magical language, Adeyemi simply used Yoruba as the language of the maji. Why is this important? Well, Nigeria is a world power, a strong economy, and a beautiful multilayered nation. Now how many people would say they are interested in learning Yoruba before reading this book? Before you say to me that Yoruba only has a very minor application that it could be useful for, let me remind you that High Valyrian (from Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice And Fire) and Klingon (from Star Trek) are actual language options on DuoLingo language learning software, while Yoruba is not. I love that she's using her platform to subtlety get audiences interested in cultures and languages that just aren't apparent in most fantasy, given that most fantasy is set firmly in the West.

In summary, this book was amazing, and I would definitely gift it to any young reader or fantasy buff in my friend group. I can see why it's already gotten a 17 country release deal and a motion picture deal as well. I look forward to seeing Adeyemi's future works, as she's now firmly on my radar.