Week 12 - Contemporary Realism!

 Hello again, Professor and classmates! This week, I evaluate books based in contemporary realism, let's begin! 

    Kelly, Erin Entrada, and Celia Krampien. 

    Those Kids from Fawn Creek.

     Greenwillow Books, an Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2022. ISBN 978-0-06-297035-0

Characters: Throughout Those Kids from Fawn Creek, various points of view are given across the titular Fawn Creek’s seventh-grade class of thirteen children, with the perspectives of Dorothy, Greyson, Janie, and Orchid, being the focus of the novel. Despite a fairly large cast of characters, author Erin Entrada Kelly gives distinctive personalities to each of her characters which make them stand out rather than blend together into a crowd. Children are sure to find relatable characters amongst the protagonists.

 

Plot: The plot follows a small-town, seventh grade class who have known each other since kindergarten experiences significant change in their school for the first time when Renni moves to a neighboring community and new girl, Orchid moves to town, bringing an exciting perspective and changes to classroom dynamics with her. Although the story is fairly straight-forward in its execution, Entrada Kelly approaches the social politics of middle school and pre-teen drama with kindness and understanding, treating the commonplace issues of adolescence with empathy.

 

Setting: Set within the seventh-grade class of the titular Fawn Creek, Louisiana, it captures the feelings and atmosphere of growing up in a small community, and how the protagonists experience a drastic change that sees a drastic change for the first time in years. The small-town setting is essential to the novel’s plot structure and influencing the character development of the protagonists, as growing up in a small town has shaped the social hierarchy of the seventh-grade class, how they respond to change and the ways in which they initially view their new classmate, Orchid Mason. 

 

 Theme: The theme of choosing kindness, both to others and how one sees themselves occurs naturally within the plot, as the story portrays realistic, slice of life middle school politics. The themes of finding happiness in one’s own identity, and choosing to do what feels right over following herd mentality of peers are all messages that middle-grade readers can find relatable, as Entrada Kelly explores issues that young readers can see themselves and their lives reflected on the pages.  

 

Style: Entrada Kelly’s style and prose is rather straightforward, but engaging and impactful in its messages; every line in the story’s narrative is written to express the isolating, stagnant atmosphere of small-town Fawn Creek, while the highs and lows of childhood experienced by the protagonists are written in a style which combines figurative descriptions of the characters’ emotions and colloquial dialogue in how they interact.

 

Gender and Culture: The story explores the influence of growing up in a small, predominantly white community, with exploration of gender identity and gender roles in its narrative. In addition to exploring middle school dynamics, as well as deconstructing girlhood friendships through Dorothy and Janie’s relationships to Orchid. The novel also embraces the idea of being authentic to one’s true self in order to find genuine happiness, whatever shape or form that takes, such as how Greyson preferring more traditionally feminine hobbies such as sewing is treated with positivity and kindness by the narrative.  

    Yang, Kelly. New from Here. 

    Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2022. 

    ISBN 978-1-5344-8830-4 

Characters: New from Here by Kelly Yang follows the Wei-Evans family, ten-year-old protagonist Knox, his old brother, Bowen, little sister Lea, and their mother Julie as they move from Hong Kong to California during the early days of the coronavirus outbreak in 2020, and exploring how they adjust to so many changes in their lives when moving to a new country during an uncertain period of time. Readers can easily identify with the cast of characters and their experiences, as Knox, his siblings and mother experience a variety of joy, humor, sadness and everyday struggles in their new home in North America. Any child reader who has had to move or had to adjust to a big change in their life can relate to the Wei-Evans siblings’ experiences throughout novel.

 

Plot: The plot of New from Here is very engaging as a character-driven story, being both fun and emotionally moving at the same time as it reflects recent historical events of the coronavirus outbreak. Yang writes within her author notes that her novel was based upon her own family’s real-life experiences moving to America and that is reflected within the emotions, characters’ personalities and experiences in the writing. The novel concludes on a hopeful note, as the family is reunited with their father joining them in America, and is reflective of the times by acknowledging that the future could be scary or uncertain, but they could still face it together as a family.

 

Setting: The setting of California during the height of the global pandemic is integral to the story’s narrative, themes and character development. The setting and time period is depicted realistically and believably, reflecting issues many real families experienced during the pandemic, such as the mother struggling with finding steady employment while raising her children after the move and the children adjusting to online, remote learning.

 

Theme: The theme of a family overcoming challenges in turbulent times, of love and friendship being stronger than hate, and the discussion of modern North American race relations all occur naturally over the course of the novel. Child readers can relate to the often confusing and upsetting feelings which arise from the pandemic that the child protagonist and his siblings experience on the page.  

 

 Style: The author’s writing is very natural and straightforward in execution, being conversational and colloquial, reflective of realistic dialogue between family members and friends.  

 

 Gender and Culture: The novel has a positive depiction of Asian American people through its main characters and Yang’s incorporation of her real-life experiences into the story. It also positively portrays modern, non-stereotypical gender roles in general through the Wei-Evans mother and father sharing work and household responsibilities on equal ground. The novel addresses present day racism towards people of Asian heritage with candidness and sensitivity to Asian people. The novel discusses the cruelty and unfairness of racism to elementary-aged children in a way that doesn’t talk down, downplay the issue nor dismisses the feelings of children who have experienced racism.