Against the Tide

I absolutely loved this prequel to the new live action Little Mermaid movie. Its premise is pretty simple: Ariel's eldest sister is kidnapped right before Ariel's protector ceremony and the book reads like a mystery. Ariel is trying to solve it and working to rebuild her family's relationships at the same time. 

Ariel herself is well-written. It follows suit with other Little Mermaid things from Disney. I quite like Ariel BEFORE the events of the movie when she gives up everything for some guy she doesn't know. They're really going to have to work hard to convince me live action Ariel isn't even more irresponsible than the cartoon one, because now she's not only giving up her family, her world and her very self, but she's also stepping away from the kingdom she's protecting. Being a good protector matters to her in this book, so yeah, they're going to have their work cut out for them to make her come up with reasons for what she does. 

I loved all the sisters, though not right away. Their dynamic is primarily bickering and fighting. Indira and Caspia are close, but they don't really like anyone else except sometimes Ariel. No one really likes Mala except Ariel because Mala was the perfect one they had to live up to. Perla and Karina don't like each other. And Tamika hasn''t been seen since the day their mother died. 

Perla stepped out right away as my favorite. I love her design best, so I'm glad I liked her character in this, too. She's the only one to help Ariel right away. She's kind, warm, funny, a bit fearful but honestly, they all are except Ariel. 

Karina was next. She returned to her kingdom quickly after Mala's kidnapping because she was afraid. She and Perla mend fences and she joins the sleuthing. I got a sense of Karina being very caring. 

Tamika was never shown in a bad light. She's simply traumatized by fear over what happened to their mother. I don't even think she dislikes Mala like the others do, though it's possible she once did. She's sweet and gentle. 

Indira and Caspia can barely be separated. Indira is a bit of a joker, while Caspia is more prissy. Neither of them are rule breakers. It takes them the longest to come around and I didn't 100% get where I loved either, but I definitely liked them by the end. 

Mala herself was barely there, so it's hard to get a good read on her, but I liked what I saw. She has an interesting secret that I won't spoil. 

This book is set when Ariel turns fifteen, as that's when protectorship is granted. She does become protector at the end. 

Each sister has her own MerSong, which is essentially a superpower. 

Each sea has a protector and a resident, which is a sea monster. In this book, the sea monsters take the role of the humans in the movie. They're what Triton fears and what the rest of the seafolk fear. 

The queen's death is different in this book from what it was in Eric's Guide to Merfolk. Not sure which story they'll go with for the movie, but they're both the fault of Ursula and humans, so it doesn't really matter. 

The book has the origins of Flounder (who I liked a lot more in this world than in the original) and the grotto. Scuttle is referenced as a friend of Flounder but doesn't appear. Sebastian is there but barely. 

So yeah, it's basically Ariel solving a mystery alongside Flounder and her sisters and it's awesome.

Front Desk 2

The follow up to Front Desk finds our three cover characters in sixth grade. 

Mia is still working occasionally at the front desk at the motel. Hank is now working for her family, too. Her main personal struggle in the book is with her new sixth grade teacher, who seems on the racist side at first, supporting a politician who's going to pass Prop 187, an anti-immigrant bill basically. 

I need to stop for a sec. Prop 187 was a real thing. The prejudiced events in this book are all things that really happened. The nasty candidate for governor mentioned is a real person. And this is set in 1994. I'm not sure if I just missed it and I'm really unobservant or if I was so sucked into the story that I never thought about the time, but I completely missed the 90s setting of the first book. 

Anyway, Mia struggles with the things this teacher says and how she excuses the prejudiced things her classmates say to Mia right there in the classroom. Mia is even punished when she stands up for herself. She never asks an adult for help, but over the course of the book it's Mia herself who gets this woman to change her viewpoints. 

How this teacher grades Mia's writing is also a worry for her, though eventually the teacher admits she sees promise and works with Mia one-on-one to get her up to speed on English grammar and then the more nuanced parts of writing in English. 

There are also issues with Mia's parents. Mia's father misses his scientist job and wishes Mia wasn't becoming so American. Mia's mother wants to be like other ladies she sees, so she applies for a credit card and makes some snotty Chinese friends that she eventually ends up telling off for being racist. 

The motel goes through a slump and some of the paper investors are threatening to back out, but by the end, the kids have come up with an idea to turn it into a cheaper hostel-type place and bring in even more money. They'll be able to hire cleaning help, which means Mia's mom can pursue her new dream of teaching math. Mia's father sets his dreams on the shelf to support his wife. 

Over to Jason. He's had a slow summer but hasn't contacted Mia at all. He's spent all his time learning to cook and he's really good at it! His struggle is very minor compared to the girls'. His father's businesses aren't doing well and they have to move into a smaller home and adjust to a simpler lifestyle. He wants to take cooking classes and is eventually able to persuade his family that's what he wants to do. Mr. Yao even becomes a better guy by the end of this one. Not a good guy by any means. He's still an ass who supported the shitty bill, but he at least is better about his son by the end. 

Now Lupe is the one with the big problem. She reveals that she's undocumented. Her whole family is. Her mother has to return to Mexico because her mother died. Then while she's trying to get back across the border, Lupe's dad goes to look for her and is arrested. Lupe is living at the motel while everyone helps try to get her father out of jail and her mother back home. Once they finally get a lawyer, she says it's best if Lupe's mom stays in Mexico for now. The core of the book is everyone working together to get Lupe's father out of jail and figure out a way he can stay in the US. 

Once again, it's an amazing book. Kelly Yang really is a master of being light-hearted and moving and heavy all at once. She knows how to write how life can be and she doesn't pull punches. I'm happy to be starting the next one today.

Front Desk 1

I was going to wait and do these as a series, but Front Desk is so powerful that I'm going to need little breaks between each one. Or partially between. I'm a few chapters into the second one and I can tell something's about to go down that won't be good. 

Front Desk is story of 10-year-old Mia, a Chinese immigrant who came over with her parents. They take the job of running a little, 30-room motel. The only unbelievable part of this book is that a motel five miles from Disneyland only costs $20 a night. Is that even possible? The cheapest motel in my area is like fifty bucks a night and this is not five miles from Disneyland. 

Front Desk tells about the trials of immigrant life in the US. Not only do you see how the Tangs are taken advantage of and abused by their employer (who is a Taiwanese immigrant), but there are also numerous stories from others who pass through the motel as it becomes a haven for immigrants briefly escaping bad circumstances. 

Racism and prejudice are of course main topics. One of the most realistic things in the book that I have very rarely seen portrayed in other books is racism between people that are not white. Multiple Asian characters in the book show racism towards Black people. There are also levels of prejudice and abuse between the Asian characters, because frequently a bad employer is a fellow Asian immigrant. There are white characters who are racist, but by far the worst ones are not white. One of my very few criticisms is that I wish Mia had stood up for herself against her best friend Lupe. There are several times Lupe makes racist statements in the book and I don't remember Mia clearly standing up for herself once. She gets upset, but she never says "So you think it makes sense that Jason likes me because we're both Asian? Here's what's wrong with that." I really wish she had. 

Mia is a phenomenal character. I love her strength, resilience and resolve. I love how she helps people without really even a second thought that she might be overstepping. She's not afraid to call prejudice out when she sees it. Not even when it's cops. I also love how she stands up for her love of writing and English, even though her mother makes her feel awful about it. 

I don't want to go on too much. I just want you to go read this series. These are powerful books that are both light-hearted and heavy. They need to be read.

Finally Seen

I've seen Front Desk and its sequels suggested to me for ages, but I never got around to ordering them until now. I opted to start with Finally Seen, which is the newest book by the same author, as it also deals with censorship in schools like Attack of the Black Rectangles. 

Lina Gao was left in China with her grandparents when she was young. Her parents and her two-year-old younger sister travelled to America. Finally, it's time for Lina to join them, five years later. Her grandmother needs more help than a 10-year-old can provide, her grandfather has passed, and Lina just plain wants to be with her family. After her aunt helps get her grandmother settled in a nursing home, Lina is off to a town outside LA. 

Lina definitely has a lot of struggles. She was led to believe her father was doing microbiology stuff, but that had fallen through years ago, and her mother lost her job in a fancy nail salon during the pandemic. The house where she thought they lived was simply a house they thought was pretty. They live in a small apartment with the girls having the bedroom and their parents sleeping on a mat in the living room. Her father works long hours on an organic farm for not nearly enough pay, though the owner is going to help the family get their green cards, so Dad is sticking it out. Lina's mom decided to start her own bath bomb business on etsy and it continually does pretty well. The main family drama is that they owe $3700 in back rent and are struggling to save for it. They can't apply for aid because they're afraid there will be repercussions when they apply for green cards. 

Lina was taught by her grandmother to sew part of her mouth shut with invisible thread. To try to be as invisible as possible to not be labelled as a bad person. Her English isn't great when she first arrives and she becomes terrified of speaking in class. Her awesome teacher gets her an ESL teacher, who is equally awesome, and she helps Lina a lot. Lina is an artist and she discovers graphic novels and how much they help her learn English. 

As Lina navigates getting to know her very American younger sister, helping her mom with the bath bombs, seeing her dad treated like crap by the farm owner, feeling guilty she left her grandmother behind, dealing with bullies at school, and trying to fit in in both her own family and in America, she decides to create a graphic novel of her own to tell her story. 

All the problems come to a head and are thankfully resolved around the same time a racist twat of a parent decides Lina's favorite graphic novel, the one she suggested for her whole class to read aloud, is temporarily banned while the school board looks into it. Lina overcomes her fear of speaking in front of others to stand up for the book and explain how important it is to her at the emergency school board meeting.

It works. No idea if the asshole parent learned anything, but at least her daughter did. 

I loved all the characters in the book and it was very well done. Loved the graphic novel name-dropping, although I am disappointed to learn that Flea Shop, the contested story, doesn't actually exist! Maybe Kelly Yang will create it for us. Attack of the Black Rectangles taught us that censoring words in books is insulting to kids' intelligence and maturity, and now Finally Seen teaches us the importance of having diverse books so more kids than ever can feel seen on the page. 

Attack of the Black Rectangles

Attack of the Black Rectangles is about Mac, who is twelve and just starting sixth grade with his friends Denis (suffers from anxiety) and Marci (feminist). The three are in the same reading group and they're given Jane Yolen's The Devil's Arithmetic, which I've never read, but you can easily enjoy this book without having read it. When Marci discovers two sections in the book have been blacked out, she is outraged. She, Mac and Denis go find a regular copy of the book and learn that both instances of censorship involve references to female anatomy in a completely non-sexual way. (One scene mentions a character covering her breasts in a shower scene IN A CONCENTRATION CAMP, for fuck's sake.) 

Thus begins a few weeks of battles for Mac. He and his friends fight against this censorship in school, but Mac also has a very problematic father and dealing with him and the aftermath of what he does is very hard on Mac. Mac struggles with his own anger and fear of relationships because he's terrified he's going to be like his father. With the help of his Vietnam vet grandfather, Mac finally comes to terms with everything and is able to enjoy life more. 

Mac's grandfather was easily the best character in the book. I loved Marci, too. Denis was okay, but there was one part where I didn't care for how he was handled. It takes Mac ages to confide in him about what happened with his father, but Denis very quickly turns around and tells Marci, who he knows Mac likes. Mac finds out and he's rightfully furious, but after yelling at Denis, he beats himself up over losing his temper blah blah blah. No. He absolutely had a right to be angry about his friend betraying his confidence and sharing information that he had no right to share. What Denis did was very wrong, but it's never really presented as such. Mac mentions later in the book that he thinks it will be a while before Denis trusts him again, but it's Mac who should be the one taking time to trust Denis again. Also, the odd things he has anxiety over are played up at first and then completely forgotten. I thought his anxiety was going to play a role in the fight against censorship and would cause problems with him and Mac, but nothing ever materialized with that, so what was the point of him having anxiety at all? Mac himself is a good character. I liked his point of view, though I got frustrated with him sometimes, especially over the aforementioned Denis issue. 

The book does an excellent job of explaining things. As I said, you don't have to read Yolen's book to get the gist of it and understand how the characters react to it. Several terms are defined by Mac so kids don't have to stop and look up a bunch of things, and it's done in a way that doesn't take you out of the story. Maybe a little, but not really. 

The book shows a character successfully handling a problem and making improvements, as well as fighting a larger problem and learning how to ask for help when doing so. The censorship issue isn't fully resolved by the end of the book, but some of the weirdass town's other laws are being changed, so you know it's inevitable. 

The bizarre teacher character never seems to learn her lesson, which is unsatisfying. Jane Yolen herself makes an appearance during one of the school board meetings and I would have loved to have seen her make a comment to the teacher. I guess you're supposed to feel fulfilled that all this teacher's laws are coming apart. She was the one behind making everyone paint their house white, cancelling Halloween, and even banning junk food and pizza delivery. Yet there's also a scene where she has zero tolerance toward bullying and helps kids learn by occasionally providing options that are more thoughtfully geared to their interests. She has many bad viewpoints, but she is capable of doing decent things...sometimes. I would have loved an explanation of her motivation, but she's not given any depth beyond the rather conflicting sides of herself. 

Overall, this is a great book. I stayed up late to finish it, even though it's Easter weekend and I pulled long hours. Reading this helped me relax, which for me sometimes means really getting sucked into a good book. It's a fairly simple read, but it's mostly well-done and I think it would be a good book to teach. 

Disney's Twisted Tales: Peter Pan

It's been over a year since I read my last one of these. I remember reading the Frozen one down in Florida on vacation in 2021. I got distracted with finishing off the Valentino villain series and we know how that one went. So now it's back to A Twisted Tale. Gah, these are mostly so much better. 

Aside from Disney Fairies, I'm not a huge Pan fan. I remember starting this one also on vacation and only getting a few chapters in. It does start out slow, but then it gets good. Really good. 

The premise is a bit confusing at first, because it seems like the Darlings went to Never Land, but really, it's all just Wendy's stories. They've never been. She's never met Peter. She doesn't know Tink exists. But Wendy tells such good Peter Pan tales that he drags Tink down to London to hang out outside the nursery window and listen in. On one trip, Nana grabs his shadow and for four years, the Darlings do have a physical sign that Never Land exists. However, only Wendy cares. Michael is a typical young boy. John is precocious, highly intelligent, and a bit snobbish. 

The book opens with Wendy not being thrilled with her current life. She's 16 now. The boys are in school but she didn't go. She doesn't fit in with other people her age. She's thoroughly too distracted with Never Land. She writes stories about it in a notebook. Her parents try to distract her by giving her a small dog. She's not thrilled. (And honestly, a bit of an asshole about it. It's not the dog's fault she isn't a wolf.) After they find her notebook of stories, her parents overreact and decide to send her to Ireland, where she'll be a nanny for 5 young boys. I'm not sure why this reaction to her writing is so outlandish. She could be an author, for fuck's sake. (This point is eventually driven home by Michael much later on, but Wendy sadly never writes her stories in novel form from what I can tell.) 

So Wendy brazenly decides to yell into the ether that she has Peter Pan's shadow. And she packs a bag and wanders to the Thames in the middle of the night, as if this is going to work. Yet it does work, because here comes Hook on the Jolly Roger. Wendy trades the shadow for a trip to Never Land and back home again. She spends some time aboard the ship, but Hook's actual plan unfolds soon. He said he'd take her to Never Land but didn't say anything about letting her go ashore. He plans for her to be the ship's "mother." With the help of a dissatisfied pirate named Zane, Wendy escapes the ship.

Once on shore, she finds this special place she created in her stories, as well as a young wolf named Luna, who's apparently her BFF in her tales. She realizes things she wrote about actually came to exist in Never Land. 

Then she's off to find the Lost Boys to get their help in the eventual battle against Hook. He's planning to use Peter's shadow as part of some big plan to finally take him and Never Land out at the same time. The Lost Boys are good characters. One is a girl, who tells her secret when Wendy is there. 

Wendy journeys off with Tink to find Peter. So much happens. I'm not trying to summarize, but they have a LOT of adventures. The mermaid chapters were really enjoyable. Tink initially hated Wendy. When Peter was searching for his shadow, Tink kept discouraging him from checking London out of jealousy. So she's partially at fault for him being separated from it, as is Wendy for the current situation. Watching their relationship change and grow over the course of the book is really the best part of the whole thing. This isn't Disney Fairies Tink. This is definitely fleeting emotions, changeable Tink. But she's done so well. 

On the cover, that's Wendy's shadow, not some random silhouette illustration. She's also a character, as is Peter's shadow. 

We also do meet some other fairies. One is a female who was pretty rude, but the male, Thorn, is awesome and Wendy develops a crush on him that's cute. 

I won't say anything else for fear of spoiling too much, but if you are a fan of the dark Disney stuff, definitely check this one out. It's up there with the Mulan and Aladdin ones.

Serena Valentino Disney Villains 9

Ah, finally made it through the last of the Valentino villains series, at least until Hades' book comes out in July. 

James was a Lost Boy when he was young, but he was found by his mother and returned home, though he spent his young life thinking of ways to get back to Never Land. James is extremely intelligent and after graduating, he decides to try his hand at being a pirate, thinking that will help him return to Never Land. He signs on with Blackbeard's crew, the pair bonding quickly because they're both intelligent men. 

After an attack by a kraken, James and Blackbeard rescue each other, though it's ambiguous how they survived a confrontation with Davy Jones at the bottom of the ocean. Blackbeard takes James to the Jolly Roger and gives it to him, saying he once stole treasures from the Odd Sisters and they cursed him with a long life until someone saved him and he gave them that ship in return. That someone is James. Blackbeard needs him to go to the Many Kingdoms to tell the sisters that his end of the deal is done, so they can remove the curse on him and he can rest in peace. 

James goes to the Many Kingdoms, where Opal the crow gives him a message from the sisters. He's to meet them in the Dead Woods and bring cake. He meets Mrs. Tiddlebottom at her bakery and begins to learn some of the weirdness and magic that is this world. In the Dead Woods, he meets Circe, Hazel and Primrose, who almost convince him to stay with them, but he's determined to get to Never Land. Circe offers him a deal and he takes it, only to end up conversing with Lucinda via a magic mirror in the chest of treasures Blackbeard gave him along with the Jolly Roger. Lucinda says she can do what James wishes for most, while Circe cannot. Lucinda also offers him a way to make sure his mother, now a widow, is cared for. James switches from Circe's deal to Lucinda's, taking the treasures back to London to sell in an antique shop. He buys his signature red coat and his pirate hat there, and gives the rest of the money to his mother in secret, not wanting to talk to her in case she tries to make him stay.

Then it's off to Never Land thanks to a vial of pixie dust in one of the coat pockets. Turns out the sisters gave it to Blackbeard to leave in the shop all those years ago. James is upset to learn that Peter and the Lost Boys now don't like him. Not sure what he expected, as he's both an adult and a pirate. He needs to kidnap Tink and take her to the Many Kingdoms, which is where Lucinda said she comes from. This plan goes horribly awry, Peter cuts off the hand holding Tink, the crocodile eats it and the clock, and James wakes up next to a brand new hook. 

He eventually learns that this was the actual plan. Lucinda never meant to help him become a kid again, nor did she need Tink. And Peter knew about it all along. He sent James home the first time he was in Never Land, knowing he'd return to become the enemy he needed to have more adventures. Now Hook is stuck in Never Land forever, determined to kill Peter to repay him for ruining his dreams. 

This one wasn't bad. Once again, we're tying everything together. Remember the jade earrings Cruella's father bought her and said they were from a pirate? They're some of the items Blackbeard stole from the sisters and Hook sold to the shop. Likewise, remember the jade brooch Lady Tremaine got from her husband? Again with mention of pirate treasure? Yep, same deal. Without Hook, Cruella and Lady Tremaine wouldn't have gotten their cursed jewels.

My favorite reveal was that James and his crew never survived the kraken attack. This plays into the idea that Never Land is actually an afterlife and all the people in it have died on Earth. 

The next book is Hades. It ought to be interesting to see how the Odd Sisters find their way into Greek mythology. 

Now that I'm done with this series, I'm moving back to the world of Twisted Disney, where the next book is...surprise...the Peter Pan one.