Disney Week: Disney's The Never Girls Book 1 - In A Blink

As part of "Disney week" here at the Library, this is a review of one of the Disney "The Never Girls" series!

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THE NEVER GIRLS SERIES

BOOK 1

"In a Blink"

(2013)

By Kiki Thorpe
Illustrated by Jana Christy
A Stepping Stone Book
An Imprint of Random House

"Far away from the world we know, on the distant seas of dreams, lies an island called Never Land. It is a place full of magic, where mermaids sing, fairies play, and children never grow up. Adventures happen every day, and anything is possible.

There are two ways to reach Never Land. One is to find the island yourself. The other is for it to find you. Finding Never Land on your own takes a lot of luck and a pinch of fairy dust. Even then, you will only find the island if it wants to be found.

But every once in a while, Never Land opens its doors to a special few. Believing in magic and fairies from the bottom of your heart can make the extraordinary happen. If you suddenly hear tiny bells or feel a sea breeze where there is no sea, pay careful attention. Never Land may be close by. You could find yourself there in a blink of an eye.

One day, four special girls came to Never Land in just this way. This is their story."

*Looks back over the book* Was there a central theme to this book? It felt more like just an adventure story featuring the four main characters. It was about trying to get home, but then realizing that maybe you wanted to stay a little bit longer since you just got there. Also that sometimes you have to listen to what you are told to know the true character of someone else.

For this one I also want to give you a general synopsis, which is something often I try to avoid. You can see some of the premise above in the information before my pretty new "Central theme" graphic. The story revolves around four girls:

Kate, Mia, Lainey, and Gabby. Mia and Gabby are sisters!

These three girls are magically transported to Never Land (yes, the one from Peter Pan). This is accidently done by Prilla, the fairy (Yes, the same one that helped Vidia in the book I reviewed this week here). Prilla is a blinking talent fairy. Actually she is the only one in all of Pixie Hollow. She is sent to our world to get children to clap to believe in fairies, so they can live. She does not realize that the magic of Never Land is near the girl's house when she appears to Gabby. When Prilla blinks to go home Gabby grabs her and the rest is as they say is history. They are in Never Land, destined to be the Never Girls!

I picked this up on the day that I posted that I was doing a Disney week on my blog. I have always wanted to read this series because I had seen it on the book shelves at my local Target store, but I just never picked it up. I was looking through an app that my local library allows you to use a patron to check out ebooks. I knew I needed a few more Disney related items for this week, so when I saw that this was available I was like "SCORE FOR ME!"

I started this on Wednesday night and finished it on Thursday afternoon. It was a fast read, since it is meant for a slightly younger audience (hey, don't give me the side eye when I say slightly). It was also fast-paced for me because I enjoyed the book. The moment that Gabby clasped onto Prilla I knew they were about to be transported to Never Land and I was ready for that ride they were going on. The plot of this book is rather simplistic, which I believe is primarily due to the fact that it was always planned as a series book for kids. The book revolves around the four girls wanting to go home and trying to figure out how that can happen. They interact with mainly characters from the Disney Fairies world, which I reviewed earlier this week. For me, I enjoyed seeing these characters that I was already familiar with from these other set of books. In this one you had Beck, Tinker Bell, Queen Clarion, Vidia, and of course the catalyst that got them there in the first place, Prilla. Beck and the Queen are the only ones that feels like side characters that were utilized just to mention. The rest are pretty central to the plot in some way.

A great aspect to this, which sometimes irks me in other books, is that you can tell this is setting up for a series. One reason you can tell this is because Prilla goes to drop off a letter to the family of one of the girls to let them know they are okay and it blows away. You know this is going to come up later and cause emotional turmoil for the girls. It is a great little moment that I cannot wait to see when it comes back up. Yes, this means that I will be continuing on with the series.

Probably my favorite moment of this book was based on an one of the earliest moments in the book. Early on Mia, the older sister of Gabby, states that Gabby is too young to do something. Gabby just rolls with it at that moment, but later on in the book (closer to the end) Mia says this to her and basically Gabby gives her a glare that says "I will cut you deep if you say that to me while I am stuck up here in some weird world." Mia was shut down entirely by her younger sister and I was like "Go Gabby!" For me to have that connection with a character I know I was enjoying what I was reading. I also have to say that Gabby was my favorite character, which is primarily because she was the one written with the most heart. She believed in magic, she believed that things the others didn't could be possible. She may have been the youngest, but she was the most mature out of all of them. My least favorite character in this book was definitely Kate, but she is written that way here. She is part of the plot that adds a bit of the adventure element and also is where Vidia comes in. Now truth be told, the adventure element comes in a little late to be meaningful in any substantial way. The book, however, does not suffer greatly from it and is still an enjoyable read, if you understand that it is the first in a longer term series.

I wouldn't recommend this to someone that is not interested in reading a series book because this is rooted in the fact that it is. Every single moment seems to be building up to something else later on. There are little moments where you are not sure if you have been given every single detail yet or not. Also, as stated earlier, the letter thing is obviously coming back later, so it is way to apparent that this is a series book, so if that is not your thing steer clear of this. Also if you don't enjoy the Disney Fairies, like Tinker Bell, then steer clear. They are featured pretty heavily within this book, as they are the only other featured characters outside of the four main girls.

I would recommend this book to someone that wants a well-written children's book. Kiki Thorpe does an amazing job. Applause for you Mrs. Thorpe. You did a great job! Each girl has a distinct personality and I can only see that growing as we go further in their journey through the remainder of books. I also recommend this to anyone that does have a deep affection for Peter Pan and Never Land. I am pretty sure other elements of Never Land will come into play throughout the rest of the series and that this was only set-up to coincide with another popular book series that had been previously published by Disney (the Disney Fairy books). This link helps ease into the stories and will be a great read for a child that wants to be transported to Never Land them self.

You Can Purchase

Book 1 in the Never Girls Series: "In A Blink"

Here:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Half Price Books

Book Depository

Old Blog Post Saturday - For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow is Enuf by Ntozake Shange

Once Upon A Time...

Cassie used to do another blog, as "Optimistic Reader". 

These are those reviews:
(These are formatted as best to their original view as possible to show my own progression with reviewing)

For Color Girls who have considered Suicide when the Rainbow is Enuf

by Ntozake Shange

I am a huge fan of the movie "For Colored Girls" that is based off of this book and I thought that I should finally look to see if my University Library had a copy of it. Indeed they did have a copy of it. This book is done in poetry form, which makes it a unique reading experience. Also it gives a unique voice to the characters contained within as a result of this chosen form by Shange.

I devoured the pages within an hour because Shange's prose is interesting, engaging, and insightful. This book is riveting and really showcases well the voice of an African-American woman. We can learn from this book about their struggles and experiences. I would recommend this to anyone that is in a field that works with a variety of individuals, such as a social worker. The book tells you how women, not just African-american, struggle with the choices they have to make. If you understand Shange's words you will come away changed for the better for having read it. 

My favorite part of the book is "He nearly walked away with all my stuff". This is about giving someone else the power over your life. Not recognizing your own individual self-worth.Truly letting someone else walk away with everything you have and could ever desire. It is hurtful, but there is power in recognizing that you got out of that bad relationship and didn't go back to it. Shange embodies the emotions that someone feels when they come from this dark place. Only someone that has either been there or truly understands the human emotional spectrum can write as Shange does.

This will give you some great insights and will also move you to tears by the end. It is a highly recommended read for another wanting to step outside of their world. Be willing to explore worlds that you might not be a part of, but will learn a great deal from if you simply examine it. Reading a book is a good way to start that journey.

Until next time... Stay Optimistic!!!

Topic Read - "You Can't Touch My Hair and Other Things I Still Have to Explain" by Phoebe Robinson

"You Can't Touch My Hair and Other Things I Still Have to Explain"

By Phoebe Robinson

Published by Plume 

(A Penguin Random House Imprint)

Publication Date: October 4, 2016

Genre: African-American Nonfiction

Central Theme:

The central theme of "You Can't Touch My Hair" is about various aspects of the African-American experience and directly how Phoebe Robinson has seen those differing experiences as an African-American woman. Robinson infuses humor into hard topics, like seeing African-American individuals as the "Other" and how there are issues even within the confines of Hollywood for African-American individuals. She touches on numerous conversations about the African-American experience. 

Important Quotes:

This book has numerous important quotes and is chock full of important information, but these are a few that I want to highlight to you about the discussion of African-American individuals in American society:

"There's nerdy black, jock black, manic pixie dream black, sassy black, shy black, conscious black, hipster black... the list goes on and on. But some people don't want to believe that, because if varying degrees of blackness become normalized, then that means socieity has to rethink how they treat black people. In other words, if you allow black people to be as complicated and multidimensional as white people, then it's hard to view them as the Other with all the messy pejorative, stereotypical, and shallow ideas that have been assigned to that Otherness." (p. 79)

"Pointing out modern-day institutionalized racism prevents blacks from getting jobs and paints them as angry, scary, and a menace to society by the police until proven otherwise is not me reveling in victimhood. It's acknowledging the current environment as the first step in attempting to change." (p. 131).

"Explaining your life to a world that doesn't care to listen is often more draining than living in it" (p. 156)

"On that day with the White Director, I made the choice to never again be quiet, to never again suck it up. I challenged him. And I will do it again. If that makes me uppity, so be it. At least people know I'm no longer a vessel that they can use to act out their racist feelings. They will know that I think I'm worth fighting for. They will know that I have a fire burning inside me. They will know that I'm alive." (p. 158)

"You see, I've spent my life learning that I am, at all costs, supposed to care more for a white person's feelings than my own. That if I hurt them or they decide that I have hurt them, that I am to feel guilty." (p. 201)

My Feelings:

This book highlights exactly why I do not give books ratings. If I rated this book based on my experience of enjoying the book, I would have given it like 3 whatevers I utilized as a rating point system. This is because I found elements of this book hard to get through. This was because of how Robinson mixes humor to help get through the tougher conversations that the book is trying to have. As an individual more set in academia it was weird to see this infusion. I wanted to see it written more professionally, but when I sat with the book (a good couple weeks before writing this review) I recognized that she needed to infuse this humor to help other populations get through the book and understand these concepts that they may not have otherwise understood. If I was to rate the book on importance of conversation though I would be rating it at 5 stars. In a book like this the rating system would be so arbitrary because what am I rating it on? How important the message was, how she wrote it, or something else all together. Diverse books sometimes are best left unrated and more taken at face value as being part of an important dialogue, which is why (even though I mention ratings here) I will never rate any of the diverse books that I read. It is just not appropriate to do. It detracts from the intended message. This is the only time, since I am starting these diverse books as part of the conversation here now, that I will mention this aspect. 

This being said, Robinson has some very important conversations about racial issues that are at the heart of our country right now. Most of us are aware of numerous deaths of African-American individuals by police officers, in situations where the person did not have a weapon or was not even resisting arrest. I am not having some huge discussion about police officers. I respect that they do the world a service, but the reality is that too many incidents have been reported now where this has occurred to African-American people for little to no reason, other than they were African-American at the wrong moment. She does not discuss too much these particular incidents, but she delves into differing aspects of society that showcases this "Otherness" that society places on the African-American experiences. Robinson does this with a sharp and witty tongue that remains comedic through most of her stories. 

The comedic nature of her stories sometimes is overwhelming and detracts from her intended message. This was my chief complaint of her book. I wanted hard hitting facts. There was even a moment where I wanted to scream at her because she was discussing her issues with coded language and how one person utilized the word "uppity" against her that she worked for, but she seems during most of this story to not recognize that she, herself, was being a bit biting and racist (yes, this might seem weird, but you can be racist against a white person, even if they are the predominate race in the country). Throughout the story she made it a point to state numerous times "White Director" about the other main person involved in the incident. When you have to point out this aspect of the person for numerous pages in a book about racial issues it detracts from your intended message, especially if you want a white individual to take anything from what you are saying to make positive change in the world for your community. I also want to be clear: Yes, I am a white and I am also part of a marginalized population. I would never go around screaming in a story "cisgender" over and over again, if I was trying to make a point about the treatment of transgender individuals in society. When you complain about white people saying "this is not my intention" and then basically say the same thing about calling someone "White Director" for numerous pages, umm you may also need to check yourself slightly along the way. As she says though, I don't know her story though, not fully other than this book. With all this said by the end of the story I had forgiven her because it was when I stopped reading the book for numerous days as I was so frustrated with her message. I only fully forgave her story when I arrived at page 156 where she discusses that this director actually started making it all about him and she couldn't even own what had happened to her because of the antics he ensued after the fact. Her story, at the end, showcased the reason she called him this throughout, but the reality is that other people may never reach that point of this story as a result of her language choices. I will, however, state that through the entire book there was no other singular moment that I wanted to stop the book. There was nothing else that made me think, "Phoebe Robinson, you are full of some grade A manure girlfriend." The rest of the book I was like "Yes girl YASSSS!" because she speaks the truth on these experiences. She doesn't mix words. She lets it all hang out, but she does it in a way that is edible. You can devour it without going "Oh lord I am about to choke on all this realness of the world." This is important since this may be the only book some people read about racial issues in our society, I hope not because people should read a diverse grouping of books, but if they do only read this one they are not walking away from it unlearned. 

The book does discuss some really important conversations. For example, I appreciated that she discusses that in Hollywood there is not only an issue with African-American representation (often it can be linked back to looking a particular way or being a slave), but also she discusses that transgender representation sucks as well. She cleverly states that Laverne Cox, who I love, cannot represent every single transgender experience and nor should whatever white male they hire to play the role either. I applaud her for this inclusion. Hollywood does have a long way to go in African-American and Transgender representation on the screen. We should not be a comedic punchline in every single movie either. Thank goodness for shows like "Transparent" and "I Am Jazz" coming to the forefront. This, however, is just a starting point. More needs to occur for both populations.

The last thing I really want to point out is that you may be thinking that there is no differences in society between African-American experiences and those experienced by White people, but this is so inaccurate. She showcases greatly these differences when she presents a limited amount of statistics on the population. For example, African-American women are "three times more likely to be incarcerated than white women" and they also have reported higher rates of poverty in American society (she provides actual numbers on this). Imagine living in a world where you are more likely to be walking down the street living your life and just for being the race you are you may be stopped by the police and end up in prison. It is this aspect of our society that has to change. It is this aspect of our world that we need to work on bettering. Statistically African-American people are treated substantially different in American society. We must do something to help change this, which I think a good stepping stone is reading this book to start educating yourself about these experiences.

Other Information:

Phoebe Robinson hosts several podcasts, including "2 Dope Queens" w/ Jessica Williams and "Sooo Many White Guys." She also has a website entitled "Blaria" (Black Daria) where you discusses topics related to race, gender, and pop culture. You can also watch a web series she created called "Woke Bae" on Refinery29.com, where she and a co-host discuss a guy that they deem to be "woke" because they are engaged with some type of community activism. 

Later this week, I will be posting some information about some films that showcase African-American representation within media. I am doing this to start the "conversation" part of my blog about diverse experiences. I am wanting to read two books every month and then have a blog post related to the book in some way that is not the book, but a topic that stems from the book. Phoebe Robinson discussed in detail about African-American representation in media, so I would like to point some important films to watch in that genre. I will focus on important films and television shows that have been important for the community, but I know it will not be an exhaustive list. Just a highlight reel. Some will focus on African-American experiences and helping the audience to understand those experiences because Robinson's book heavily focused in on that aspect of the world as well. 

Where You Can Purchase

"You Can't Touch My Hair":

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Half Price Books

Book Depository