Book Review: Isabelle Webb: The Pharaoh's daughter by N.C. Allen (Whitney Finalist)

Title: Isabelle Webb: The Pharaoh's Daughter
Author: N.C. Allen
Enjoyment Rating: 4/10
Referral: Whitney Finalist
Source: Library Copy
Books I've read this year: 22

One of the things I frequently encounter when I read for the Whitney Awards is a book that's part of a series. It's rare that I've read the prior books in the series, and if I can't jump into the story, it's some pretty painful reading. There's an art to giving enough backstory to help a reader along, and not too much. JK Rowling had this down to a science-- she hooked her readers with some exciting bit of action, then did just the right amount of backstory, then back to the action. I jumped into the Harry Potter series with book three, and after the second chapter, I felt completely up to speed.

Unfortunately, I never felt like I got up to speed with The Pharaoh's Daughter. There were characters from the previous book introduced in the first few chapters, and later Allen introduced characters from earlier in Webb's life (and maybe earlier books). There were a whole lot of characters, some in disguise, others who were spies (and I didn't understand the spy ring either). And I never quite understood why they were traveling-- was it vacation? For the sake of the jewel? Were they passing it off as vacation to the girls? I'll admit that I probably didn't read the last half of the book as closely as I could have, but that's because I was so darn confused by the time I got there that I didn't know what else to do other than just plug on to the end. As I've been working on my novel over the last year, I've recognized how hard it is to know which details are essential and which aren't, and unfortunately The Pharaoh's Daughter gave too few of the former and too many of the latter.

Book Review: A Reason to Believe by Blaise Winter

Title: A Reason to Believe
Author: Blaise Winter
Enjoyment Rating: 4/10
Referral: I searched for cleft lip/cleft palate memoirs on Amazon, and this was the only thing I found
Source: Ordered used (and autographed!) from Amazon
Books I've read this year: 141

I often talk to people who want to write, but who say to me, "I could never be a writer." As a writing teacher and a wannabe writer myself, my advice is, "Anyone can be a writer who has the desire and works hard enough." Blaise Winter obviously had the drive, he obviously worked hard, and he even had a co-author to help him along, but this book is making me rethink my advice. I had high hopes for this book, because it was basically the only book I could find where someone with a cleft lip and palate wrote about their experience in a memoir (why is there such a dearth of books written about this?), but Winter, despite his protestations to the contrary, tended to write about his life in a way that it was obvious that he had a "woe is me" attitude about life. His dad was abusive. His brother accused his wife of being money-grubbing. His mom was nice, but weak. His coaches didn't believe in him. His teachers held him back. People treated him like he was mentally retarded because of his speech problems. Teams cut him when he didn't deserve it. He seems to say that inner strength and Angie made him the powerhouse of a man he is today. Maybe someone who liked Winter as a football player may enjoy the story, but it didn't do much for me in providing insight on cleft lip and palate.