Jane, the Fox, & Me

Our narrator is Helene, a young girl who is possibly in her last few years of primary school. She is taunted and teased by her classmates and have virtually no friends. To help her get through each day, she finds solace in Jane Eyre. The two heroines then realize they have much more in common than they think.

The only color throughout the book are the portions where Helene is reading about Jane. All other areas are a muted sepia color. I thought this was a smart move because the girl thinks she amounts to nothing; she is fed lies every day by her peers that she’s not good enough and that she’s drab and boring (hence the muted color scheme).

I think the book portrays bullying and solutions to overcoming bullying well within a short book of mostly illustrations.

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I would recommend to people of all ages. Bullying affects everyone whether you are the bully or the victim. It exists in every aspect of society, sadly, but perhaps the existence of books such as these will help kids struggling to fit in finally gain a voice of their own.

 

 

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

A Tale for the Time Being is told through two perspectives:

We are first introduced to a 16-year-old transfer student named Nao Yasutani, who is uprooted from her home in the States and brought to Tokyo, Japan. As if a big move isn’t stressful enough, she has to juggle bullies at her new school, get adjusted to the different cultural customs, and deal with her suicidal dad. With her life falling apart in every way imaginable, Nao decides to end her life. But before she can do that, she decides to share stories about her 104-year-old great-grandmother, Jiko, in the pages of her diary.

The second narrative is that of a writer named Ruth who lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband. One day, she finds a Hello Kitty lunchbox washed up on a beach, and inside is Nao’s diary. Essentially, the book becomes an annotated work as Ruth writes little footnotes at the bottom of the pages, trying to figure out who Nao is and how, if possible, she can help her.

Nao’s voice is particularly perky and upbeat, contrasting with the sad nature of her story. Sometimes it was easier to view her as 12 as she came across very naive and kid-like. Her account was heart-wrenching, but it definitely made for an interesting and compelling read.

There were threads of magic realism laced throughout the novel, which made it harder to decipher fact from fiction.

There’s so much more I want to say about this novel; I think it may become one of my top books of the year. It certainly belongs in the historical fiction genre as it dives headfirst into a rich and complex family history. I would have given it 5 stars had it not been for this particular scene in the last half of the book that I found to be completely off-putting and unlike how I perceive Nao to behave.

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Please heed my warning that this book discusses several situations regarding abuse (physical, emotional, sexual.. you name it). There are bullies in every parts of the world, and the ones in Nao’s new school are among the absolute worst.