The Teacher's Funeral by Richard Peck Review (Kinda)

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“Why she hankered to be a teacher, I couldn't tell you. But she had chalk dust in her veins, and she deserved to get that certificate. It was only fair.”- The Teacher's Funeral, Richard Peck

In 1904, Russell Culver 15 wants to leave school and his tiny Indiana farm town for the endless sky of the Dakotas. Instead of school closing, leaving him free to roam, his sister Tansy steps in. Despite stolen supplies, a privy fire, and many snakes, Tansy maybe, just maybe, can set her brother on a wiser course.

I thank three things for my love of history. Well, technically four- you know, the teachers that inspired me and blah blah blah. But mostly three things- American Girl, children's picture books, and Richard Peck. Unsurprisingly, they all have to do with books- I read Felicity's and Samantha's stories cover to cover, including the wonderful notes in the back that had all the historical facts, I loved those If You Lived... books (especially the parts about fashion), and I first fell in love with Richard Peck's writing when I was 10 years old and we were assigned The Teacher's Funeral. Prior to The Teacher's Funeral, I had always associated historical fiction with those musty smelling clearly 70s books you can find in the back of classroom bookcases or school assigned Very Important Books like Maniac McGee or Number the Stars or Bud Not Buddy (disclaimer: I actually like or at least don't hate the books I listed here). Sure, there were exceptions, like Catherine Called Birdy but I prefer to pretend that book doesn't exist. But The Teacher's Funeral didn't seem to have an obvious message attached, and was funny and dark and really, just a nice little story about growing up at the Turn of the Century in Indiana. And I loved it.

Looking back, The Teacher's Funeral is probably responsible for the kind of historical fiction I gravitate towards. I like often quiet and meandering stories about growing up in a time so different than our own. And I was delighted to find that all of Richard Peck's books were like that- my favorites were always A Long Way From Chicago and A Year Down Yonder, (God, even the titles take me back!) about a pair of kids whose parents send them down to their grandmother's farm from Chicago in the 30s. 

The best thing about The Teacher's Funeral is that there is no message. Well, I suppose it can be taken as being about the importance of education, but other than that it doesn't try and hit you over the head with anything. It's a coming of age story, I suppose, but it's not one like The Outsiders (another favorite from those late elementary/early middle school years). There is no giant life changing event, instead, it's a quiet one. 

And it's funny too. I was pleasantly surprised, given that I thought at first it would be full of cheap kid jokes. Instead, I found myself genuinely laughing out loud at some points and- what's more- I finally got some jokes that I didn't really understand as a child, like the cut-short swear words (I was an oddly naive little girl, especially given that neither of my parents ever censored themselves). 

I never read all of Richard Peck's books but he had a huge impact on my reading life nevertheless. I know that a majority of this review may just be nostalgia glasses, but I can't help it. No wonder this was one of my favorite books as a child. Also? That ending makes me want to cry. It made me want to cry all those years ago and it makes me want to cry today.

9 out of 10

The Boy in the Black Suit by Jason Reynolds Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“...death isn't bad. It's not. It's just that life is so good. So damn good that you just wanna hold on to it, and everybody in it. But we can't. But what we can do, is appreciate it more. Y'know, smell the flowers.”- The Boy in the Black Suit, Jason Reynolds

Just when seventeen-year-old Matt thinks he can’t handle one more piece of terrible news, he meets a girl who’s dealt with a lot more—and who just might be able to clue him in on how to rise up when life keeps knocking him down—in this wry, gritty novel from the author of When I Was the Greatest.

Matt wears a black suit every day. No, not because his mom died—although she did, and it sucks. But he wears the suit for his gig at the local funeral home, which pays way better than the Cluck Bucket, and he needs the income since his dad can’t handle the bills (or anything, really) on his own. So while Dad’s snagging bottles of whiskey, Matt’s snagging fifteen bucks an hour. Not bad. But everything else? Not good. Then Matt meets Lovey. She’s got a crazy name, and she’s been through more crazy than he can imagine. Yet Lovey never cries. She’s tough. Really tough. Tough in the way Matt wishes he could be. Which is maybe why he’s drawn to her, and definitely why he can’t seem to shake her. Because there’s nothing more hopeful than finding a person who understands your loneliness—and who can maybe even help take it away.

First of all: Happy Friday the Thirteenth! Let's celebrate with another funeral home book, this time another reread from last year, The Boy in the Black Suit.

The interesting thing about The Boy in the Black Suit is that, even though it's a funeral home book, it's the one least about funeral home matters. Sure, there are bits about being a pallbearer, snippets from actual funerals, and the like, but unlike The Dead I Know, for instance, Matt doesn't go on calls to pick up dead bodies or have to dress them for their funerals. It's like funeral lite in that respect. 

Still, that doesn't mean that I don't really like this book. Matt is such a great main character to follow around. He's a kid that was certainly after my own heart, with his cooking and honesty and all that. Also, Reynolds has a keen understanding of what it's like to be a teenage boy. Admittedly, I've never been a teenage boy, but the things Matt does and his reactions just strike me as being very realistic. One of my favorite examples of this is when he goes over Lovey's house for Thanksgiving expecting a date and she takes him to the homeless shelter instead. He doesn't immediately warm up to the idea and yes, he is even a little upset that she didn't tell him they were going there in the first place. The Right Thing to Do would be to be happy at the idea of giving back on Thanksgiving, but honestly, what teenage boy would be excited about the idea of spending his Thanksgiving at a soup kitchen, especially when he was under the impression he would be on a one-on-one date with a pretty girl? Sure, Matt warmed up to the idea, but everyone probably would, too.

Also, like most teenagers, Matt is aware of what other people think of him, which is another great touch. I see a lot of authors who get praised for being able to get inside the mind of a high schooler, but Reynolds is one of the most successful at it.

The writing is pretty wonderful too. It's written in this New York black patois, which really puts Matt's voice in my head. The book has this conversational tone that makes me feel like I'm having a conversation with Matt and I love that. It makes me feel closer to him as a character without the author telling us a ton of exposition.

If I had to choose some points of criticism, it would be that in some parts it feels a bit juvenile or shallow, like in some of the parts where Matt is grieving his mother. I also wish the book didn't time skip so much, and a couple of the things that happened felt a bit contrived. That seems like a lot of stuff wrong with the book, but honestly, reading it is so much fun that it's easy to ignore that and just enjoy the story.

I also really wish there were more funerals in the book. Those were my favorite parts to read. Also, I kind of wish there was more about the funeral home itself, given that I know very little about the inner workings of inner city funeral homes. Being from New England Suburbia I'm used to the white vaguely-Colonial funeral homes with black trim and WASP-y sounding names written in somber font on the sign in front. I would be interested to know how Willie ran his home.

When I reread this my new rating actually went up from my old rating. This is definitely an 8.5 out of 10 now. I would recommend this book for someone who's maybe a little more squeamish so doesn't want to jump in with The Dead I Know, but someone who wants a little book with a lot of heart, which is corny but the best way to describe it. While I do prefer the former, this one is a close second.

8.5 out of 10 (old rating: 8 out of 10)

The Dead I Know by Scot Gardner Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“There was the unknown, the dark, the cold and the emptiness to contend with out there, but those concepts are all relative. Cold compared to what? A dead hand? Dark compared to what? Unblinking eyes? At times the ocean seemed full beside my emptiness. At times it was the one knowable thing in my world.”- The Dead I Know, Scot Gardner

Aaron Rowe walks in his sleep and haunted by dreams he can’t explain and memories he can’t recover. Death doesn’t scare him—his new job with a funeral director may even be his salvation. But if he doesn’t discover the truth about his hidden past soon, he may fall asleep one night and never wake up. In this dark and witty psychological drama about survival, Aaron finds that making peace with the dead may be easier than coming to terms with the living.

This is a reread for me, and I wasn't going to write a whole review for it until I read another book about funeral homes that I was looking forward to read and was struck by an idea. One of my favorite things to read about are funeral homes and the whole death business. So, I decided that it would be fun to do a mini series of reviews on my blog in which I reviewed several books on funeral homes. I will be focusing on fiction, and probably mostly YA but I might include one or two adult novels- one of those books may or may not be The Loved One. So, here is my first entry- The Dead I Know by Scot Gardner.

The Dead I Know is one of the darker entries in the YA funeral home lit list with a very horror movie-esque plot despite the fact that the book is not a horror novel. Our main character, Aaron Rowe, is a sleepwalker, dealing with his Mam's growing dementia and also the nightmares that have been plaguing him since he was a young boy. So naturally, he takes a job- more like paid apprenticeship- at a funeral home. Sound logic, that.

When I was thinking of a word to describe the writing, quiet came to mind. This is almost ironic, given how much happens in such a short book, but Gardner does not rely on dialogue or other ways of explicitly stating things that have happened to move the plot along. Instead, it's very action-based with a lot of things shown to us. Surprising, because there are at least 3 separate plot lines going on in this short little novel. There's the funeral home, then there's the sleepwalking, then there's the dementia, and then there's the money stealing thing which probably was the least useful of all of them and had an unsatisfactory conclusion. 

The best thing about this book is Aaron Rowe. Though maybe I'm just saying that because I developed something of a crush on him. He's just really endearing, with the way he acts around Mam or Skye or John Barton. He's one of those characters with a lot of personality just through the way he speaks and acts. 

This is one of my favorite books in retrospect from 2016, and in hindsight perhaps some of the later entries on my list probably should have been substituted for this one and Burial Rites. Because this book isn't for everyone. The humor is dark, the funeral home parts are detailed and even on the explicit side for some people, and there's a lot going on for such a quiet book. But this is one of those few novels that just work for me. Almost everything about it works really well, and it's a staple novel for anyone who wants to get into the Death Business YA microtrend. 

8.5 out of 10 (reread)