Just Ella Sacrifices Magic and Wonder for "Empowerment"

      

    Just Ella is a retelling/sequel to the Cinderella fairytale. It follows our heroine Ella after the ball when she is getting ready to marry her prince, and her happily ever after is right on schedule. However, she quickly realizes that life at court as a future princess may not be what she wants out of life. A story about Cinderella not being completely happy with her life after the ball is a very creative setting for a fairytale retelling. However, I don’t feel it was executed all that well here. 

 Before picking up Just Ella I heard it was praised as a feminist retelling of Cinderella that was a more grounded and realistic take on the tale. I did not find it to be feminist as (although the line itself is never spoken in the book) Ella has the attitude that she is not like other woman and is very much the exception rather than the rule. This retelling also removes all the magic from the fairy tale (the carriage, fairy godmother etc.,) but it keeps other equally unbelievable elements. 

         Some of the elements I found unbelievable was the world building. They live in a fictional kingdom, but they speak languages like French, Latin, Greek, which would imply that they lived in our real world. Their religion is literally just Christianity with a different name. So this story is fantasy because it is most certainly not historical fiction. I have nothing against fantasy stories with little to no magic, but I don’t really like it when the magic is removed and the setting is said to be more realistic and/or historical because of it. 

The noble women only sit and do needlework all day which Ella scoffs at. Except noble women in medieval Europe had many responsibilities, one of the most significant being running the finances of the estate. Other un-official duties of noble women included hosting and receiving guests (who may or may not be foreign diplomats) and planning events such as parades, tourneys, etc. The Queen is never shown to partake in these activities nor does she try to teach these to Ella which if this was a more “realistic” setting she would most certainly be doing.  I was also confused why sewing was treated as being so useless because in pre-industrial times, sewing was an essential task because people kind of needed to wear clothes for warmth and protection.  

         Ella constantly berates he lady’s-in-waiting for being stupid and most of the humor stems from just how air-headed all the other ladies at court are. Actually pretty much everyone, but Ella and her love interest are so incredibly stupid its infuriating. There is a lot of conflict between Ella and these rich boneheads, but there is not really any tension from these conflicts because the courtiers are so wrong there is no possible way Ella could get them to listen to her, and because they are so wrong it also doesn’t make Ella seem all that clever herself. I don’t need to be exceptionally smart to tell someone not to drink gasoline. Ella is not that level-headed to think spilling a few drops of soup on a table cloth is nothing to lose one’s head over. 

There is also this one incident that probably bothered me way more than it should have. Ella is attending a tourney with her ladies and she is excited to finally have a break from all the gossiping and sewing. However as soon as they arrive outside the ladies sit in a pavilion that is closed shut and Ella is understandably angered by this because she came to watch a tourney and now they are shut inside a tent and cannot see anything. Ella is told that the curtains are drawn because women are forbidden from watching tourneys as they are to delicate for such action. Women regularly attended tourneys throughout history.

Ella snaps at this and during her rant over this matter, she asks her ladies-in-waiting what they are waiting for. A lady-in-waiting tells Ella that they wait for the men to get home. This irked me because a lady-in-waiting at least historically was more like a retainer and a secretary to a noble woman who she waited on. Hence the name.

Now without magic, how did Ella get to the ball? Throughout this story other characters discuss rumors that Ella received help from a fairy-godmother, but Ella makes it clear this was not the case. Towards the end of the story she explains how she gathered everything she needed for the ball. She, a peasant who is little more than a servant to her step-family, got them herself, the dress, the carriage, and even the glass slippers which she won from a bet she made with the glass blower.  I don’t really mind this per se, but when she is explaining this to her love-interest, the only other character in this book who has at least two working brain cells, comments. “People would rather believe in fairy godmothers and divine intervention than to think that you took charge of your own destiny.” I might be reading way too much into this, but I felt this line was meant as a “take that” towards the original story and people who like fairy godmothers and magic. 

This story assumes that Cinderella in the fairytale is a passive character who gets lucky, and this is true that she is lucky, but I wouldn’t say she is passive. In most versions of the story and the Disney movie, Cinderella tries her hardest to be allowed to attend the ball and in many versions completes impossible tasks that her step-mother sets up for her only for everything to go wrong. In most stories she receives assistance whether through a fairy godmother or in most cases the spirit of her late mother, but this doesn’t just happen. 

Ella is written as an antithesis to what readers expect a Cinderella character to be by being far more active. However, she isn’t any more active than other characters, she just doesn’t have things go wrong for her just before the ball. 

 I pushed through this book because, due to the praise it received for being a feminist retelling, I expected that Ella would have to check her internalized misogyny at the end, but she does not.  Ella begins and ends this book believing she is “not like other girls”.         

Do I recommend this book? Not really. It feels like a parody that, in some ways, disrespects people who enjoy fairytales and magic. More affectionate parodies/reconstructions of Cinderella that gives the original Cinderella credit where credit is due is My Fair Godmother by Janet Rallison and Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine.

        

        

Queen's Peril Needs to Take its Audience Seriously.

Padmé has always been one of my favorite characters from Star Was. While I enjoyed the previous book in this "Padmé Trilogy" of YA novels, Queen's Shadow, I did find it far from perfect. However, I was still interested enough in Padmé's early adventures in the Galactic Senate to keep reading. Queen's Peril is a prequel that is set just before the events of Star Wars The Phantom Menace and is meant to focus on Padmé's early days as queen of her home planet.

However, I was very irked by the way Padmé is portrayed in this story. Instead of showing how a teenage girl can still be a good queen despite her age and inexperience, this book shoes how a queen can still be a (stereotypical) teenage girl in spite of her responsibilities. The first 75% of this book follows Padmé and her teenaged handmaidens sneaking off and getting into shenanigans and spends more time focused on these misadventures instead of how these young ladies participate in the government.

Padmé does call a summit to meet with ambassadors from neighboring planets, but this quickly turns into a romantic subplot between one of the handmaidens and a teenage ambassador. (This ambassador also flirts with this handmaid during the summit in front of several other diplomats, which I found to be a bit awkward).

In The Phantom Menace one of Padmé's handmaidens switches places with the queen to act as a decoy during the invasion. That handmaiden in question is named Sabé, and this young woman was ready to die in her queen's place so I never found it hard to believe this was meant as a last resort. However, Queen's Peril treats this "decoy procedure" as a common convenience.

They employ this whole switcheroo several times before Naboo is invaded by the Trade Federation and everytime is for a stupidly trivial reason. The first time Padmé and her handmaiden switch is because Padmé was having some menstruation cramps and was not feeling up to making any public appearances so she had Sabé stand in for her. The second time the two switch, was because Padmé's hands got covered in glitter during a concert that she and the handmaidens snuck out to with the teenaged ambassador Sabé was flirting with. This glitter could not wash off and apparently it would be insulting to a certain ambassador if she showed up to the summit with this glitter, but it would be offensive to another ambassador if she wore gloves to cover this up, makeup is not working, and none of he official royal gowns have sleeves below the wrist.

To circumvent this Sabé and Padmé switch places and no ambassadors are offended. That is until that afformentioned teenaged ambassador approaches Padmé thinking she is Sabé and tries to kiss her so Padmé panics and quickly runs off. This ambassador thinks Sabé doesn't want to be with her and breaks things off with Sabé so now Sabé is angry at Padmé and doesn't want to be her friend anymore. Now, I know these characters are teenagers, but they are also teenagers who are participating in a planet-wide government, this just makes these kids come across as immature with terrible priorities.

Also, the last third of this book really relies on the reader having already watched and be very familiar with the plot of The Phantom Menace to understand what is going on as it really jumps around the plot. I think this book could have been much better if it were a story that stood on its own and ending as The Phantom Menace begins. It could start just before Padmé becomes queen and ends as the blockade is build around the planet.

As for the plot, I recall from previous Star Wars books, Padme's predecessor was very corrupt. This would have been an excellent challenge for a young queen to overcome, especially if an invasion from outside the planet arrives just as she is making progress with the problems at home.

However, instead of the tension of the story being whether or not the girls will be able to sneak off to concerts with ambassadors or if Padmé and Sabé will be able to reconcile their relationship following the ambassador drama, the tension would be from Padmé trying to restore sanity to a government that had spent a little bit to much time not functioning due to corruption. It would also have been a good mirror to the situation of the Galactic Republic at the time.

I have read in other reviews, that since Queen's Shadow is a YA book, the more childish elements of the story are understandable and that teens will not mind them. I disagree. I promise as a former teenager, that teen girls will be interested in stories that do not have dating drama and fallouts between friends because of said drama. Books that take their target audience seriously regardless of their age can and should be written. Both teenagers and Padmé's character deserve better.

The Crystal Snowstorm is a Hidden Gem

I first read this book in middle school and it quickly became one of my absolute favorites. Even after nearly a decade  (and too many rereads to count) my love for The Crystal Snowstorm (and the following Letzenstein books) has not diminished. 

The Letzenstein Chronicles follows the happenings of a small European country on the brink of revolution. Catherine, an adolescent visiting her estranged Grandfather the Grand duke and ruler, finds herself caught in the crossfire of not only the revolution, but the feud within her own family. 

The relationships between the characters are genuine and natural. In the author’s note, Ms. Trevor explained when she writes stories about difficult topics for children (such as political turmoil and revolutions) she tries to focus on the adventures of the characters foremost and it works beautifully here. These are friendships that I could see happening in real life. These characters, Catherine, Yolande, Edward, and especially Rafiel LeMarre have  stuck with me the way Luke Skywalker, Samwise Gamgee, and Katniss Everdeen did. 

Our heroine, Catherine, is another highlight of the story. She would rather  live a quiet life and get to know her newly found family than be involved with the politics her Grandfather has ensnared her in. However, she still strives to do what she can to help even if what she does seems very small. Catherine does fail at times and feels hopeless and frustrated but she does not become apathetic. 

I also enjoyed seeing Catherine, a very quiet girl at the beginning, develop unique friendships with different people. She comes to love and care about Con, Yolande, Edward, and Raf, but each relationship does something different for Catherine and the story. I will give special notice to Catherine and Yolande’s relationship because it is a sisterly friendship between a young girl and a young woman, something I do not see very often in fiction.

My only complaint (if it could be called that) is, I would have liked it if Countess Imelda, the sister of our antagonist Duke Julius, had been a bit more involved in the story. She mostly acts as a messenger for other characters. However, Catherine and co. have more than enough problems and as I reiterated all the other characters are very developed and this by no means ruined the story for me. 

    Overall, the Crystal Snowstorm is a solid first entry in a series that satisfied but also left me curious for the next installment. I would recommend it for children (and adults) who enjoy historical fiction and character focused stories. I feel it is appropriate for kids 10 and up, but this is subjective to the individual child’s reading comprehension.

An Uncertain Choice by Jody Hedlund

As an avid reader of historical romance, I have accepted not every book needs to be 100% accurate to the time-period it represents. No one is perfect and no author, (and no reader) will ever know everything about a particular time in history. If the story and characters are well written small mistakes can and should be excused. However, there is a difference between having small mistakes such as a character mentioning a book that was written a handful of years after the story takes place and having a character use a piece of technology that was not only invented centuries later (if it even existed) they utilize it incorrectly.

An Uncertain Choice  unfortunately is the latter. As I said earlier if I find a book to be enjoyable, I can overlook inaccuracies. However, I did not find the story to be anything to write home about and the inaccuracies feel as if no research was done at all. 

The premise is that our heroine Rosemarie must become a nun when she turns 18 because of a vow her late parents made. The inciting incident is when Rosemarie’s godfather finds a loophole to this vow. Rosemarie must marry before her 18th birthday so her Godfather introduces her to 3 of his noblest knights to compete for her hand, but it quickly becomes clear that someone is trying to sabotage the knight’s efforts in wooing Rosemare. 

Rosemarie, is not that much of a three dimensional character. What I know about her is that she wants to be a good ruler, she is opposed to torture, and she cares a great deal about the poor. Rosemarie’s relationship with the poor and peasants was presented as one of her greatest virtues. The peasants all adore Rosemarie, but not a single one of them have names and anything more meaningful than a parasocial relationship with her. They only exist to ask Rosemarie for alms  so that she could come across as a kind person when she gives them donations. 

There is also a gratuitous usage of medieval torture and torture devices. Although Rosemarie has long since outlawed such cruel practices in her territory, the story opens with our heroine running into the square to save an old man from being boiled alive because the sheriff cannot be bothered to respect Rosemarie as a ruler. Now, punishment for crimes was brutal hundreds of years ago, I am not going to pretend they were not. However, many of what we think in pop culture as medieval torture were rarely used if they were actual medieval inventions. Also, the mention of torture was explicit and very detailed, which I found did not fit the tone of the book.

Like the peasants, the torture feels as if it is only in the story as a tool to make Rosemarie likable. Torture bad. Rosemarie does not like it. Rosemarie good. 

The romance was not all that interesting to me as I found it difficult to root for a character who I don’t care for to find true love.  I also struggled to root for one of the three potential love interests when it was likely one of them was actively trying to harm the others. On the other hand, this mystery of who was the one playing dirty kept me reading as I was thinking it would be resolved excitedly. I was wrong. The one who was guilty was obvious, but as I was reading, I was convinced they must be a red herring. 

If this book was not explicitly stated to be set during the 14th century in England and was fantasy, many of my gripes regarding the historical and religious inaccuracies would be irrelevant. But I still would not be able to say that I would recommend a book as the romance and the subpar mystery and tonal issues would still be present. I wish I knew of a book with a similar premise I could recommend instead, but I cannot think of one. If anyone does know of one please feel free to mention it in the comments. 

You are Better off not Knowing These Books Exist

While it is true that many good books remain under the radar of mainstream audiences, that does not mean all unpopular books are diamonds in the rough. Sometimes, when you are digging for hidden treasure, all you end up with is a sandy hole at the beach.  

     I know there is some irony of me drawing attention books that I personally think shouldn’t be popular, but consider this a public service announcement. If you come across any of these books, read at your own risk. You have been warned.  

The Red Keep

     I picked up this book expecting adventure. I didn’t get it. I don’t remember that much from this book, and I can live with that. I’d much remember the good books I read instead. Did I mention this book also struck me, who was thirteen years old at the time, as a bit racist with its treatment of a Jewish character?

Mechanica

     I was at my local library with a friend when we stumbled upon Mechanica. We both wanted to read it so my friend let me barrow it first and tell her how it was. She was the lucky one, because I was greatly disappointed by this book. 

     I remember reading reviews praising this book because it was considered feminist. Well just because a book has an “empowering” message, does not give it a free pass for a five-star rating. It was boring and in my opinion poorly written. 

Need

     I really wanted to like this book for two reasons. A. The book is about fairies and I went through a phase in high school where I was obsessed with the fair folk. B. The author is from Maine and I love looking for books written by fellow Maniacswho are not named Stephen King. However, I could hardly tolerate the main character, Zara. She was so self-righteous it distracted me from the mystery.  

Revolutionary     

What is it with YA dystopian trilogies being plagued by poorly written endings. Maybe it’s just my luck.  However, this final book in the Anomaly trilogy does not hold up to the other two in my opinion. The plot twist seemed only half-baked, and character development seemed to drop from the sky. It, simply, was not a natural ending to the trilogy. 

Bookish Pet Peeves

       Reading makes me happy, but sometimes the publishing company doesn’t take my personal taste into account and does something dumb when designing the book. I am aware some things that bother me, other people love. Just because I don’t like an aspect of a book doesn’t mean I don’t like a person who does like it. We all have our own opinions. If everyone thought the same way this world would be very boring. 

1.    Mass Marketed Paperbacks

     Mass marketed paperbacks give me horrible wrist aches and eye aches every time I try to read one. I run a risk turning the page as it will snap itself shut the moment I remove my other hand and not only will I have to search for my place, but I’ll have to pry the book opened again. 

2.    First Person-Present Tense

     The natural tense to tell a story is in the past tense as most narrations are about something that has already come to past. However, I have read many a YA dystopias in my day, and I must admit the majority of them were in first person-present tense. The two biggest offenders that come to mind are Red Queen and Matched series that I was obsessed with. However, I realized just how jarring present tense narration is. It doesn’t feel organic to the narrator and often I’ve noticed most people who write in first person-present are trying to give the book a sense of urgency, but this is simply not how it works. 

3.    Shiny Paper

      When I was in middle school, one of my favorite series was The American Girl Historical Fiction Adventures. I could read those books in an hour as they weren’t long. Although many of my friends thought they could’ve had a little more meat to them, the length wasn’t what bothered me about them. The paper used in those books were very shiny so if you wanted to read outside, which I do frequently during the summer, you might want to wear some shades. I just feel books shouldn’t be printed on solar panels. 

Top 5 Books to Read Before the End of the Year

     Many people told me I would have considerably less time to read once I started college. Much to my dismay, they were right. The amount of time I was able to read for enjoyment dropped much too low for my liking. Because of this, I found myself in need of prioritizing the books I want to read right away and the ones that can wait in line on my shelf a little longer.

     King’s Cage

      When I first saw the cover for War Storm, the final book in the Red Queen series, I was pumped to read it. My sister got me a copy for my birthday only adding to my excitement. There is one problem, however. To get to War Storm I need to finish King’s Cage first. I have no excuse for not yet finishing King’s Cage because I also own it, another present from my sister. The truth is I was too afraid to read it as I realized the book has the perspectives of other characters when the previous books only had one narrator. I began to fear character death, but I think my desire to finish the series has now overridden my horror of something bad happening to my babies. 

Siren’s Song

     Storm Siren is one of my favorite fantasy books. The world feels so fleshed out and the character’s so 3-dimensional. However, I’ve only finished the first three books in this trilogy. I also own all three books so I don’t exactly have any other excuse for not finishing it yet other than laziness. Do I have the energy to scan my eyes over a page? Apparently not. 

     

     The Mirror King

     I own this book since two Christmases ago. I enjoyed its predecessor. So why haven’t I read it? I think it’s too long, yet I have read books with hundreds of more pages than this one since I got it. I am a confusing creature. Part of it might be I find it much more exciting to start a brand-new series than finish an old one I have been working on. However, I don’t think anything can really beat the feeling of finishing a long-running book series for the first time. Which brings me to the next book on this list.

     

Viva Jacquelina

     This is number ten of a dozen books.  I faithfully read one Jacky Faber book a month since I started my senior year of high school. However, I broke the cycle when I started my first college semester. The problem is I still have a special place in my heart for Jacky Faber. I need to know if she will get what she’s been wishing for this entire time. I need to know how her story ends, and the last three books, including Viva Jacquelina, are relatively shorter when compared to the earlier ones. Also, they are all at my library so it's not like I don't have any access to them. 

     

       Witch and Wizard

     Because my book club is part of campus activities, we don’t exactly have meetings during summer vacation. However, we always vote on a book to work on during the summer so we have something to discuss when classes start up again. This year we decided on Witch and Wizard. My goal for finishing this book is much closer than the end of the year. I want to have this one done by the end of the summer. Otherwise, I will go to our first meeting in September and I will have to admit to not finishing the book, and I don’t think my pride will be able to handle that. 

Where are the Older Adults?

Note: this article is dedicated to the man who inspired it, who is probably waiting for me at the pearly gates with a pot of kale soup. 

     June 15^this Elder abuse awareness day! As a student whose dream job is a nursing home social worker, I try to be up to date on issues involving the grayer population. Originally, I planned to discuss books tackling the subject of elder abuse. However, I racked my brain for examples and realized none of my books, except for textbooks, mentioned elder abuse. In fact, very few even portrayed older adults in a positive light (if they featured any characters over 55 at all). At first, I thought there was some logic to this because most of the books I’ve read are children’s and Young Adult. I started to search through films and adult books and found a shocking lack of older adults in those as well. This isn’t only my personal observation either. Older adults are snubbed in Mainstream Media. 

       Movies don’t have to portray things accurately. If things worked the way they do in real life it would be boring. Fiction doesn’t have to be realistic, and I would argue it shouldn’t be, but it does need to be believable. If a piece of media has a world, greatly resembling ours, where no one ages past 50, and nobody ages slower than the average human, but nothing is said about the majority of people dying before they can claim social security, I think there is a problem.  A little less than 20% of America’s population is 60 years or older. However, few older adults, especially older women, are present in mainstream media, about less than 2% of all characters in prime-time television. Disney’s Up was the first full-length-featured-animated film to star a senior citizen. 

     In children’s books, negative words are often used to describe the appearances of older characters. Worlds like withered, crone, ugly, and toothless are very common. Although many people are passed he/her prime, older adults take a varying level of pride in their appearances. Just like middle-aged, and/or young people. However, this emphasis on the negative consequences aging has on the body, pales in the light of how the personality of those over 50 is portrayed. On the personal level, older-adults are often presented as sweet and childlike. They are frail and cannot possibly look after themselves. If there is a crime committed they are often the victim. Those who don’t follow this stereotype are treated as deviants and are almost always comic reliefs. However older-adults have a range of personality traits and abilities. Some may be child-like, while others may not. Vulnerability and independence also varies from person to person as well. 

     From all the YA books I have read, the only human older character was Cassia’s grandfather from Matched. *Spoilers* he dies not less than halfway through the book *End of Spoilers* Friendly older men are a rarity in fiction, but they are much easier to come by than their female counterparts. I found a handful of older women who aren’t mad at the world in adult fiction, but none in YA. In this category of literature, older female characters are old fashion, but this isn’t them having nostalgia for their youth and trying to get their granddaughters to act classy and ladylike (politeness is never out of style). Oh no, they think the good old days are the way it is supposed to be and a woman’s place is in the kitchen. 

      In Red Queen Mare is given two instructors who are both middle-aged and older. Her male teacher, Julian, is supportive of Mare and wants change. He becomes her friend and confidant, and I love his character. However, Mare’s female teacher, Lady Blonos, is a wrinkly-petty devil. She is impossible to please and clearly doesn’t want to teach Mare. The scary part of this is that Lady Blonos is one of the many older women written like this! Who fought for woman’s rights in the first place? From the way, older women are portrayed in fiction, you’d think Title 9 fell from the sky because politicians were bored one day. These fictional women’s real-life counterparts went through hell to get their granddaughters to where they are now. 

      Many older characters are treated like they are set in their ways and it is impossible to change them. Lia from The Kiss of Deception is very against tradition, particularly arraigned marriage. I don’t fault her for not liking the inability to have a say in who she marries, but older characters who weren’t okay with, not only arraigned marriage but other traditions, were presented as good people but those who followed tradition weren’t so kind. These backward-old men were simply relics of their times just like their traditions. But, older adults aren’t from another time. Although they were born decades ago, older adults are alive and part of the now. They take care of themselves, their homes, their families, communities, and many are still very politically active. The present doesn’t belong to only one generation. We are all together in a community whether we took our first breath this morning or 85 years ago.

      Sources: 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-older-people-underrepresented-in-film-survey-20160912-story.html

https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=3468&context=etd

http://www.agingwatch.com/?p=439

Top 5 Wednesday Rewind: Book Mothers

  

  Because Mother’s Day is this Sunday I decided now was the perfect time to do a Top 5 Wednesday topic from April 2016, Top 5 Mothers/Maternal Figures in Books. I decided that I would only include mothers or mother figures who are present for much of the character’s life and who appear in the story so I’m not including any deceased mothers or at least mothers who are dead when/before the story begins. 

5. Sally Jackson from Percy Jackson and the Olympians

       I wish I could place her higher on the list, but there is one problem I have with Sally. That being she isn’t there in the plot as much as I would have liked. Her son does have a good reason not to be at home being a demi-god and all. However, even if she isn’t always in the story, we can learn from how Percy talks about her that Sally is an awesome mother. Every year she makes her son a blue (his favorite color) birthday cake, and when she came home from the candy shop where she worked she would bring Percy home blue candy. 

4. Michelle Benoit from Scarlet

      Like Sally, Michelle is alive in the story but doesn’t appear in it very often. However, Michelle is a very important character (Her disappearance is what kicks off the plot) Even if she isn’t physically there, like Percy with his mother, Scarlet holds Michelle , who had raised Scarlet since her mother left her father who had fallen off the wagon, in high esteem. The reader can learn what kind of person Michelle is by looking at the independent and logical granddaughter she raised. 

3.    Razo’s and Rina’s mother from The Books of Bayern

     After her husband abandoned her and her many children, this woman had to take matters into her own hands to keep them all alive. Rina remembers her mother having a contest to see which child could collect the most supplies for the first winter after their father left. She never actually gave out the prize though, but the family did survive the winter. Razo’s and Rina’s mother isn’t exactly the most active character in the story, but like with Michelle, we can see what a good person she was through the children she raised, Razo and Rina, who are both heroes in their own right.

2.    Nadine Merrick from Angel Sister 

   

  Nadine wasn’t in an easy situation. He father-in-law hates her, her relationship with her own father is very strained, her husband is drinking much more often than he used to, she has three daughters to raise during The Great Depression, and her middle child has just brought home an abandoned little girl.  Nadine continued to take care of her daughters and takes in the lost little girl as if she were her own so Nadine is both a mother and a maternal figure at the same time and she is amazing.  

1.    Aunt Ba Ba from Chinese Cinderella 

     This woman is at the very top of my list for many reasons, but one of them is the fact that she was real. The things she did for her nieces and nephews actually happened and I am amazed. This woman never married and ended up raising the children of her brother who took care of their physical needs, but that was about it, leaving Ba Ba to look after the children. 

*Note* Top 5 Wednesdayis a Goodreads group where blogger/vloggers post about a bookish topic every Wednesday. You can check it out  here. https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/118368-top-5-wednesday