Groovy to you!
We're gonna take a second to relax, unwind, and inhale the moment as we take a gander between the epages of a title that came my way recently. It's the third release in The Beat Street series from author Jenna Zark, a collection of Middle Grade Historical Fiction tales that brings us to the streets during a time of change, and style. So if you can DIG IT, let's get between the epages of today's featured title...
North Beat Christmas
The Beat Street Series, Book 3
by
Jenna Zark
About the book...
When Christmas is weird instead of wonderful—you can’t just give up.
Twelve-year-old Ruby Tabeata and her older brother Ray are visiting their father in the artists’ neighborhood of North Beach, San Francisco as Christmas approaches in 1958. What should be a glorious holiday turns sour as Ruby and Ray discover their father’s growing addiction to alcohol.
When Ruby finds work at a popular bookstore near her dad’s home, new friends and adventures distract her from worrying.Ruby’s experiences lead her to a daring decision to help her father—and a surprise that brings new meaning to her life. Read more about Ruby’s Beat Generation family in The Beat on Ruby’s Street and Fool’s Errand.
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This is a story for all the cool cats and hip chicks out there. Whether you're an old soul, or someone that still revels in the culture, it opens the window on the beatnik lifestyle while tying in the everyday challenges that plague any/every generation. The desire to live our own way on our own terms. The ill taste that asking others for help can leave in our mouths. The want to love what we have while still looking to rise to the next level as we see it to be. I really felt for Ruby and her brother Ray. I mean, I didn't grow up in their lifestyle, nor do I know anyone that had first hand experience, but through reading these stories (as well as others), you gain some experience in their world. I wanted to reach in and help them so badly. All Ruby wanted was to be with her dad. All Ray wanted was to help his sister out while trying to take care of them both. All they both got were obstacles bigger than them both, a father that was lost in his own addictions, and more trouble than either deserved from SO many sides. What they also got, or rather saw more clearly, was who their true friends really were, and that hard choices have to be made sometimes for the greater good of both themselves and others.
This is not a light and airy tale, but it does give readers a glimpse into a time and place in history that was very real for many, for better or worse. It shows that strength can sometimes be hard to find on our own, but getting help from others is not a weakness. It also reminds us that prejudice and close-mindedness is not a symptom of yesterday, but rather an ongoing issue that is worth fighting against, one voice at a time.
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About the author...
Jenna Zark is a columnist, lyricist, playwright, and novelist. Her most recent book, Crooked Lines, was published under a traditional contract with Koehler Books and received 6 honors in 2023, including the first prize in the Overcoming Adversity Memoir category from Next Generation Indie Book Awards and the silver award in the Religious/Spiritual category from Nautilus Book Awards. Zark's first novel The Beat on Ruby's Street won the Gold Award in 2016 from the Wishing Shelf Awards. It is now joined by Fool's Errand, part two in what has become the Beat Street Series for middle-graders. Zark's play A Body of Water was published by Dramatists Play Service and produced at Circle Repertory Company in New York. Other plays were produced in the Twin Cities, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and elsewhere. Zark is also a member of a lyricist’s collective in the Twin Cities. She’s still trying to figure out if it’s harder to write a play, a novel, or a song. To share your thoughts on that or learn more, please visit jennazark.com .
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Special thanks to Pam (author assistant extraordinaire) for eCopy for review as well as the chance to bring this title to you. (THANKS!) For more information on this title, the series, or the author, feel free to click through the links provided above.
Until next time, remember...if it looks good, READ IT!
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