Atkins, Jeannine Borrowed Names

Atkins, Jeannine Borrowed Names
Henry Holt 2010 208p 16.99
978-0-8050-8934-9 hs/adult VG
The lives and accomplishments of 3 female icons are important in the telling of these poetry/prose biographies, but it is the relationships between mother and daughter that shine. Laura Ingalls Wilder, Madam C. J. Walker and Marie Curie are the topics.
Whether the author’s purpose is to entertain or to inform, the reader will be taken on a factual and fictional journey through 3 women’s lives, experiencing both objectives. The journey is uniquely written to accomplish both purposes. Using a poetry format to tell the stories, Jeannine Atkins has chosen 3 women who were more successful due to their commitment to their daughters’ beliefs, needs and support. Laura Ingalls Wilder was encouraged by her daughter Rose to write down her prairie stories, and it was Rose who both edited and published her thoughts. Madam C. J. Walker had a daughter to support in post-Civil War America, and this spurred her to invent a hair care product for African American women during a time when entrepreneurs were not African American much less female. Finally, Marie Curie’s passion for science led her to two Nobel prizes! It’s hard to say which came first, a love of science or a need for a relationship with her mother, but daughter Irene developed both, and became famous in her own right. The stories told in poetry are inspirational, sentimental and creative. There is something within the covers of this book for every female. One surmises that Atkins uses this book as the basis for a college course on female accomplishment during a time when females did not have equality. The reader will seek biographies of these three women to separate the fact from the fiction and will additionally discover that Atkins’s use of her own personal thoughts to fill in the gaps is what makes this book such an interesting read. She weaves the two together to make her pages come to life.
Recommended for a college library and/or course on female motivation & accomplishments. Perhaps a high school teacher of A. P. English would find use of this book in either a comparative study of poetry vs. prose or a study of fiction vs. nonfiction within works of literature. Squaresky, Martha poetry about famous mothers & daughters

Kaye, Marilyn. Demon Chick.

Kaye, Marilyn. Demon Chick.
Henry Holt 2009 215p 16.99 978-0-8050-8880-9 hs

A daughter is sold to the devil before she is born so that the mother can have political power. Jessica reaches her 16th birthday without really ever knowing her mother because she spent her life in boarding schools. Then just when she is lead to believe she will have time with her mother, she is taken to Hell to live before she even knew what life really was all about. Jessica Hunsucker considered herself a mousy kind of girl who knew how to fade into the background. With her dull brown hair, the braces on her teeth and her thick glasses, there would never be a glamour life for Jessica. Then she gets a call that she must be ready to go home. This from a mother who has never had time for her. Jessica barely knows who her mother is and has only had a few words with her in her whole life. Could it be possible that her mother has finally decided to spend time with her? Her mother assistant meets Jessica at the door and whisks her away to get a new look. This is a surprise to Jessica as she learns that she can change her hair color, gets contacts and her braces are taken off. She should have suspected something when the braces came off before they should have. The new Jessica was glamourous and beautiful! She look like everything she always wanted to be but she had yet to meet her mother. That night Jessica waited and waited for her mother but she was once more disappointed and was sent to bed with the promise that she would see her mother in the morning and her mother would see the new Jessica then. Morning never came because Jessica was taken that night to Hell. It was then that she discovered the truth about her new look and her mother’s evil intention. Her mother had already sold Jessica at birth and it was time for the devil to collect and in return her mother would get the political power she wanted but she has evil plans for the destruction of the world. When Jessica discovers the truth about her mother’s evil plan, Jessica must escape Hell and return to earth to set things right but can she do it in time to save the people of the world? An exciting, humorous supernatural love story with a satisfying ending. Diaz, Magna