The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson

The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson
Levine, 2018.

So I have spent the weeks since the beginning of the year reading and judging middle grade fiction for the Cybils awards. It was very satisfying: I read some terrific novels and had some interesting discussions. In the end, our choice came down to two novels and I’m thrilled that my top choice, The Parker Inheritance, won out. That’s today’s review and over the next few weeks I’ll post about the other books. In case you’re interested, here is the link to the full list of Cybil award winners.

12-year-old Candice is spending a “horrible summer” in Lambert, South Carolina as her home in Atlanta is being remodeled prior to being sold after her parents separate. She and her mother are staying in the home of her beloved grandmother, who died two years ago, and while clearing out the attic, Candice finds a letter addressed to her grandmother that offers the opportunity of finding $40 million by solving “a puzzle mystery that will take you deep into the city’s past.”

As Candice and her new friend Brandon (both brown-skinned like the majority of characters in the book) try and work out the clues that will lead them to the treasure, they uncover the Jim Crow past of Lambert, particularly an incident involving a tennis match and the African American Washington family.

With twin themes of “Just because you don’t see the path doesn’t mean it’s not there” and “We hear what we want to hear. We see what we want to see,” Inheritance covers a lot of ground about prejudice both past and present. So here’s a list of the topics the novel explores: sexism, gender roles and labelling, homophobia, racism, segregation, police violence against Black people, Jim Crow, passing, miscegenation. There may well be more but those are the ones that immediately came to my mind. These are all woven organically into a terrifically absorbing mystery as Candice and Brandon try to crack the puzzle which is really well worked through, and the elements that the kids take on can also be solved by the reader (albeit a very smart one).

The characters are vividly created – not just our main two protagonists but all the support ones, and the author gives them all some complexity and nuance. Though there are some out and out villains, those on the side of good, adults and kids alike, are not perfect but recognize their slips. The South Caroline setting, both past and present, is powerfully evoked and the Jim Crow era is strikingly brought to life through both Candice and Brandon’s research and the chapters set then that are interspersed throughout the book.

This book is the real deal and a thoroughly deserving winner. It covers so many important issues without making them “issues,” and fully integrates them into an engaging and thought provoking novel.

Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough

Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough
Dutton, 2018

Set in 17th century Rome, this harrowing and deeply emotional novel in verse is a fictionalized account of the early life of painter Artemisia Gentileschi.

Her art is sold under her father’s name as no-one accepts that a woman can paint, but since her mother died, her father, resentful of her superior talent, is distant and harsh. So Artemisia is thrilled when Agostino Tassi is hired to tutor her, and it seems there might be a romantic attraction between them. But Tino is really a predator and rapes her.

Artemisia’s narrative verse is tight and focused when she is describing her painting, shatters during her ordeal, and is jagged with her suppressed fury at the inequity of her position.

Woven throughout are her mother’s stories of Susanna and Judith, biblical women who stood up to the oppression of men, and these women become figures of strength for Artemisia during the trial after her assault. She is able to find an outlet for her rage at the patriarchy and through painting them with her unique perspective.

The novel is adapted from the author’s play and an afterword gives some biographical information about Artemisia. Inexplicably it excludes the full story of her later professional and personal success, which I think does a disservice to readers who are likely not aware of the full story. Or maybe Ms McCullough is saving it for a sequel.

Includes resources for victims of sexual assault.

Gamer Army by Trent Reedy

Gamer Army by Trent Reedy
Scholastic, 2018.

Reedy (The Last Full Measure series) mixes up a rather bland middle grade scifi stew of Ready Player One and Enders Game when five 12-year old gamers are invited to take part in a virtual reality Laser Viper tournament.

In an unspecified future, much of life, including gaming, is conducted in Virtual City, created by William J. Culum, the CEO of Atomic Frontiers. So when white Rogan, Shay, and Brett, along with brown-skinned Jackie, and Asian American Takehashi arrive at the Atomic Frontiers specially constructed game arena they are initially beguiled by William J. Culum. But as the gamers play competitive missions and contestants are eliminated, the remaining ones start to have some disquiet about how the game is really working.

Despite this potentially exciting set up, the game sequences lack the expected fizz and despite the cinematic style of the writing, they drag, not helped by the clunking acronyms and ‘gamer-speak.’ The characters are two-dimensional, even the main protagonist Rogan who at least has been given some family background, and their relationships lack chemistry and are workmanlike at best.

Trent Reedy has written some really good novels – the first two novels in The Last Full Measure series, Words in the Dust – so he clearly has talent. But this novel feels like the start of a series that has been commissioned to appeal to kids who are more interested in video games than books and just falls flat.

I, Claudia by Mary McCoy

I, Claudia by Mary McCoy
CarolRhoda Lab, 2018.

So I’m of an age that I watched the BBC series of I, Claudius when it was first on TV and thrilled the nation. And Ms McCoy has taken that story and set it in an elite private high school and it works really well. As an examination of the use and abuse of power, the shenanigans of the over-privileged and entitled students of the Imperial Day School fits perfectly.

Claudia McCarthy (oh what fun Ms McCoy has with her characters names) is a freshman with a limp and a stutter, and just wants to fade into the background. But her popular and well-liked sister Maisie brings her into the inner circle of the Honor Council with its current President Augustus Dean and his girlfriend Livia Drusus. Students are expelled or graduate, rather than the more gruesome ends they suffered in Robert Graves’s classic, as, over the years, the Honor Council presidency moves from Augustus to Ty and finally to Cal Hurt’s reign of terror (see what I mean about names – Caligula was played by John Hurt in the TV series).

Claudia herself is a fantastic creation. Not particularly likable and thoroughly unreliable about her own motives as she rises through the ranks of the school’s Senate with her crush the virtuous Hector, Claudia is unrepentant and pugnacious. She is telling her story, apparently to a therapist, as we accompany her through the school’s descent into wild decadence.

Really, this was just an absolutely terrific read and I was inspired to read I, Claudius to see if I could spot more connections. What I found was that Ms. McCoy and the BBC scriptwriters had sensibly focused on the spine of the story, whereas Grave’s Claudius chronicles every name and relationship to the point of my utmost confusion and, sadly, indifference. So hooray for Mary McCoy taking inspiration and then setting off with it on a wildly entertaining novel.