Storm: Dawn of a Goddess by Tiffany D. Jackson

Storm is my favorite Marvel superheroine. In fact she may have been the first Marvel superhero I was exposed to. I mean she’s just so striking with the white hair, the glowing eyes, the weather powers. She’s so awesome, the goddess moniker is well earned. 

But when you’re a six year old in a new country, having white hair being so visibly different is awful. She was taunted by her peers in NY and it’s no different in Egypt even though her mother assured her that being special is good. It means there are great things in her destiny. 

Ororo thinks she’s cursed. After her parents’ deaths and life as a pickpocket on the streets, she is getting hunted by a menacing ‘Shadow King’ and lightning shoots out of her hands. So she decides to head to Kenya to find her mother’s people and get rid of the curse so the people she loves will be safe. 

Jackson does a wonderful job highlighting Ororo’s early tublent life and the little ways her powers manifested itself before she realizes the truth and fans will enjoy seeing all the elements of her backstory play out in real life. The description of the people and places in Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan and Kenya are tactile and bustling and serve to broaden Ororo’s sense of adventure when she has long believed she’d never leave the Cairo streets. 

This Ororo is not the calm, self possessed goddess of media. 

She’s a teenager still processing years of trauma and constant survival. She’s pessimistic, pragmatic and moody. But the kind heart is there from feeding the stray dogs to standing her ground to help a group of kidnapped boys before forced into military camps. She hates her powers but when it comes to a battle, she will use it to defend the weak because she knows what that vulnerability feels like. 

Like I said emotional trauma blocks her from controlling it. She’s stuck in the mindset that she’s not worthy, and she’s just a street rat. She wants the life she knows but she does have help in realizing that she can reach for more. Help from the Prince of Wakanda himself, T’Challa. 

He’s a teen too on his walkabout to learn the world so he can become king. They have a cute dynamic between streetwise pickpocket and green prince. He gives her the unconditional support and belief she hasn’t hadn’t in years, the grace to be herself. But he’s willing to push her despite the potential of lightning strikes. 

She also brings T’Challa to reality. He’s in a morally superior playing field that stealing is wrong and gov should serve the people but she points out that the world outside of Wakanda doesn’t work that way and as a prince with all these technological resources he’s not doing much to solve these problems by telling her to give back a wallet and starve. They help each other become better, and their romance is sweet and open-ended for them to meet again since we all know Storm will join the X-Men. 

My one complaint is that sometimes their dialogue felt a bit too Americanized considering Ororo hasn’t been there since she was 6 and he’s from Wakanda. I know she could pick it up from tourists but she sounded so mature in her internal dialogue and with other characters, it felt jarring the shift between her and T’Challa’s dialogue. 

Nonetheless, this was an excellent book that shows the coming of age story of a girl that would learn to fly and embrace her power. 

Unbecoming by Seema Yasmin

In her author’s note, Yasmin writes that this was originally a dystopian novel until 2020 happened and Roe vs Wade got repealed for real. Now this is just like a current events novel that reflects the worsening of the American system. 

In this case, where abortion pills are smuggled through cake trucks and dissent is squashed through tear gas in Texas where abortion and IVF are illegal. 

That’s bad news for Layleh whose straight As, Miss Rule Follower, future doctor life is put in jeopardy after a seductive romp in blue bonnets. She co-write a secret pamphlet on how to get an abortion, now she just has to put it to the test. 

Her co-author and best friend, Noor, is on the beat for a different cause by following the money trail of the mosque’s imam’s wife and is finding another conspiracy underneath the hallowed halls. 

This is a story that is at once hard-hitting, funny and a bit surreal. It feels like you’re driving a speeding truck from the police which Layleh experiences but it’s all too close to reality. 

As a MD, Yasmin, breaks down the economic, mental and emotional affects of abortion bans on those of lower income while skewering the healthcare system and white saviorism in one blast. Layleh and Noor are confident, messy and fierce, highlighting a different representation of Muslim women that are usually portrayed in media (as she points out within the novel through the ignorance of whites and self proclaimed allies). 

And I mentioned it has it’s funny moments too as Layleh processes big moments in her life through detailed Bollywood dance numbers.  

Also the Qu’ran like Judiasm also have religious allowances for abortion (although patriarchial culture ignores those lines to focus on female submission) who knew? 

This is a hard-hitting call to action and to community that will strike a chord with the young adults grappling in this crazy, power-shifting world.

Apple in the Middle by Dawn Quigley 

Apple feels like a ping pong most of her life. She lives in the richest part of town but goes to public school. She’s half white, half American Indian. 

She is a whole quirky girl with slight visions that cause her to blurt non-sequitar questions. Not to mention her nervous habit of speaking with an Australian accent. 

She just doesn’t belong anywhere. 

Until her Dad sends her to meet the grandparents she never met. Her mother died when she was born so she never connected with her Turtle Mountain tribe side. The most knowledge about Native Americans come from tv. She soon finds out how inaccurate that is and that while in Minnesota she’s considered native. In North Dakota, she’s not Native enough. She fits her name, “red on the outside, white inside.” 

Of course, that’s not true. Apple done her best to appear normal because she doesn’t want to be teased anymore but her maternal family show her that she’s not “different,” she’s being herself. And just like media doesn’t truly portray the indigenous experience, those that call Apple are wrong too. There’s not one way to be Native. 

Quigley’s novel is not a typical YA as Apple’s POV is an ultra-chatty, over dramatic and has a tendency to go on tangents. As she says, she’s quirky but she learns to embrace it as part of her maternal inheritance. Just as she learns more about the Michif, Apple comes to truly embrace the values of family and how we’re all connected.  

It also has a surprisingly hard hitting part near the end. It was completely unexpected and heartbreaking and added more pathos to Apple’s story to reconnecting with her mother and her roots. 

Books I read this month

Ballet Shoes, Theater Shoes, Dance Shoes and Skating Shoes by Noel Streisfield, Mary Poppins, Mary Poppins Comes Back, Mary Poppins Opens the Door, Mary Poppins in the Park, Mary Poppins in the Kitchen, Mary Poppins A to Z, Mary Poppins on Cherry Tree Lane and Mary Poppins and the House Next Door by P.L. Travers, The Heiress gets a Duke, The Devil and the Heiress and The Lady Tempts an Heir by Harper St. George, Hundred Oaks series #1-8 by Miranda Kenneally, Amazons, Abolitionists and Activists by Mikki Kendell, History vs Women by Anita Sarkeesian and Ebony Adams, Storm: Dawn of a Goddess by Tiffany D. Jackson, Apple in the Middle by Dawn Quigley, Oh My Gods 2: The Forgotten Maze by Stephanie Cooke, Starfire by Kami Garcia, Smash the Patriarchy by Marta Breen, If I Go Missing by Brianna Joannie, Proud by Ibhihaj Muhammad, Shelf Life edited by Gary Paulsen, My Diary by Lesley Arfin, Lost Soul, Be at Peace by Maggie Thrash, Goddess Girls: Time Travelers by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams, Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones by Dolly Parton, Taylor Swift and the Clothes She Wears by Terry Newman, Magic School Bus #1-14 by Joanne Cole, Thor by George O’Connor, Lil Pet Hospital: The Great Race by Scott Saible, In the Heights: Finding Home by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jeremy McCarter and Quiara Alegria Hudes, West Side Story: The Jets, the Sharks and the Making of a Classic by Richard Barrios, The Hitwoman Gets Lucky, and The Hitwoman and the Family Jewels by JB Lynn, The Woman I Wanted To Be by Diane von Furstenberg, The Making of Gone with the Wind by Steve Wilson

Archie the Married Life #31-36