Future Girl – Asphyxia

What a beautiful book – the story, the illustrations, the things you can learn, the things you can think deeply about!

As an artist, author and activist (who also happens to be Deaf), Asphyxia has created a sumptuous book with a tale to be considered carefully. Her illustrations are just beautiful, as they reveal Piper’s emotions as she journals her personal insights.

Piper has been deaf since 3. Her mother wants her to be seen as normal. In a near-future dystopian society, life is hard enough, but Piper finds school and its demands more exhausting each day. With the ability to ‘tell it from the heart’ (as a Deaf person living in a hearing world), Asphyxia reveals through Piper just how hard it is being Deaf.

‘Future Girl’ is also coloured by the real characters Piper meets, as she struggles to find direction for her life outside of her school experience. There is so much more she learns (and teaches us) from these people.

Marley first helps her fix her bike, and becomes a future love interest. Robbie, his mother (who happens to be Deaf), opens up a new (Deaf) world to her – a new way of being herself. From her, in a world of economic chaos and rationing, she also learns ways to provide for herself (and her mother, Irene) and begins growing her own food.

Gradually, Piper becomes part of a different community, where her talents are applauded. Her voice is found in her art. At the same time, many upheavals in her life create challenges, and she has to decide what is important to her.

Asphyxia’s gentle education of the reader is fascinating.

I was re-introduced to the sign language alphabet which I had played with at school, and found quite exhausting (imagine having to spell everything you want to say!). Her explanation of Auslan through Piper’s gradual introduction to ‘whole-word’ signs was eye-opening. I found the concept of how exhausting it is for a Deaf person using a hearing device and lip-reading thought-provoking too. (It reminded me of Being Jazmine by Cecily Paterson.)

The importance of community and belonging is another element ‘Future Girl’ raises. Just starting out with a local community garden myself, I found this a wonderful and warm attachment to the story. It was also timely in this COVID climate where relationships, separation and restrictions mark our current world. But there is so much more… it is impossible to deliver it all here!

Asphyxia ‘speaks’

This is a book you want to read, hug and re-read carefully. Absorb the ideas, the beautiful illustrations and the inspiration it gives us all. Inspiration to look at the world differently, with hope and with concern for those around us. (Recommended 14+)

 

# Asphyxia gave permission to include some of her stunning artwork – I hope this entices you to pick up a copy soon. There is so much to learn through the story and the personal notes from her at the end.

# A younger series she has written also displays her creative puppetry skills – the Grimstones, a gothic fairytale series introduced here. 

(Apologies for the quality of the photo images taken…)

 

Stranger than fiction?

Imagine having your water supply turned off at home? How would you react? What would you do to cope with a limited water supply?

If you read Neal Shusterman’s novel, Dry, you might get a few ideas. You might also fear that such a thing might actually happen!

It is not unusual to read articles in the news lately discussing the use of scarce resources – water being one of them. Some Australian farmers currently have issues with water allocation, as a result of the drought. Those in political authority endeavour to meter out a scarce resource.

This premise is the basis of the story of Dry – leading to the extreme situation where parts of California simply have their water supply cut off. After a period of guided rationing, the taps simply run dry. This is an extreme level of the Tap-Out.

How people react to and adapt to this is told through the eyes of several young people – brought together as they try to survive the consequences of a community without water…

When their parents fail to return from a drive to get water supplies for the family, Alyssa and her brother Garrett look for them, accompanied by their neighbour, Kelton. This is even though Alyssa is not totally comfortable with Kelton.

Kelton’s family thinks they are not at risk. They have prepared for such times and are able to live off-the-grid, self sufficient in food, energy and water supplies. Because of their survival actions, they are considered ‘odd’ by their community. However, as the water crisis continues, the McCrackens become of greater interest to the locals, but not in a positive way.

Dry is told using various voices – mainly those of Alyssa, Kelton, Henry and Jacqui. These are interspersed with comments from others viewing the unfolding water crisis – reporters, rescue workers and others. The young people in the story are not super heroes who develop extraordinary power to bring life back to normal, but those who respond in a way to keep it real and authentic, with sometimes interesting results.

The Shustermans (father and son, Neal and Jarrod) give the reader lots to think about – when water management IS becoming difficult, towns ARE threatened with limited supplies, and even citizens of developed countries are CHALLENGED to seriously consider how they use natural resources. Living in California, they came up with the idea for Dry having seen and experienced the tragic consequences of local drought and bushfire, and other natural disasters across the globe:

“In California, we are constantly dealing with drought, and the possibility of the state running out of water has become frighteningly close. So that got us thinking about what could happen if so many millions of people were struggling to survive without water.” Source: Fiction Frighteningly Reflects Fact in ‘Dry’

Reflecting on the consequences of our taps being turned off – i.e. no running water supply, is an awkward place to be after reading Dry, but not one we should shirk. Recommended for all – read it before the movie comes out!

# What do you think you would need to do if your regular water supply was cut off?

## What would be the first thing you would do? 

### How might your local community change? be impacted? react? Is Dry realistic about this?

We See Everything

Two young men. Two families. Living in the chaotic, dysfunctional city that was once London. What hopes and aspirations can they have?

In We See Everything, we experience the pangs of youth – needing acceptance, understanding and love. As Lex and Alan move about in different circles of life, they both look for these things – from their family or their work. But in some ways their lives are in-sync.

Though they will never meet, Alan has a perception of Lex’s life, lived on the edge on the Strip – “the overcrowded, bombed-shell of London.” He views Lex’s comings and goings incidentally, while surveilling the movements of Lex’s Dad, #K622 (through his work as a drone pilot).

Lex is aware of the surveillance drones which buzz the city streets, but seems to have become accepting of them, and tries his hand at testing the limits of his freedom – just to feel alive. Growing older, he begins to sense his father keeps secrets from him; but getting older, he takes on the challenges (duties?) his father begins to place before him. Will he meet these challenges? And what could the consequences be if he doesn’t?

We See Everything, told from 2 different points of view, is a thriller which will have you guessing, feeling the angst of the players, and considering the possibilities for those involved. Some twists and turns make it a thought-provoking read as you ponder the impact of technology and its role in depersonalising the tasks people are sometimes called on to perform.

Both Lex and Alan seek love and attention from their family. What conflicts exist? Do you feel they are resolved in the end?

Whose life would you choose to lead in this tale?

Revisit – Never Let Me Go

How do you review a book to entice a reader to pick it up, without giving away details that might spoil the reading experience? You need to give enough information – without giving away key surprises within the book, but enough detail to compel the reader to give it a go.

That is the issue with this post about the award-winning tale, Never Let Me Go.

Masters of the trade (authors and their publishers) are careful with what they reveal on the cover and back of the book. So what can a reviewer use?

Maybe you should focus on what others say about the author?

‘Kazuo Ishiguro is a master storyteller, in a class of his own making.’ Independent.

‘Ishiguro has always been good at presenting the past – and childhood – as a kind of universal affliction, but probably never so well as in this novel…’ New Statesman

‘Ishiguro’s novels are preoccupied by memories, their potential to digress and distort, to forget and to silence, and, above all, to haunt.’ British Council – Literature

Or take an excerpt from the blurb:

‘Kazuo imagines the lives of a group of students growing up in a darkly skewed version of contemporary England.’

You then may ask yourself: who are the students? what is their special story? what genre is it? (dystopian, mystery?)

Initially, Hailsham School appears to be an idyllic location – perhaps a privileged boarding school location. Students have their own special quirks and idiosyncracies. They develop close friendships within their small group, as might happen at any school. But the school’s purpose is what waits to be discovered as you travel through the years; as narrated by Kathy, one of the former students.

Over three stages of Kathy’s life, we learn more about friendships, fortune and the fragility of life.

There are many levels on which you can read this tale – and then, wonder what thoughts Ishiguro meant to spark. Of course, a film interpretation has been produced, but really, you should read the book before seeing it – to avoid the spoilers of knowing the story before reading it, and to develop your own experience and understanding first. (Hopefully, this trailer is more enticing than revealing…)

# For Older Readers.

# If you have read this before, would you read it again? Was it a different experience ‘knowing’ parts of the story, or did you just enjoy the rediscovery as you went along?