28. This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel

listened on Libby/borrowed from the library

narrated by Gabra Zackman  beautifully

Unabridged audio (11:00)
2018
338 pgs.
Contemporary CRF
Finished 3/27/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.25 - 129,079 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: contemporary Wisconsin, then Seattle, then Thailand

First line/s: "But first, Roo was born.  Roosevelt Walsh-Adams.  They had decided to hyphenate because --- and in spite of --- all the usual reasons but mostly so their firstborn could have his grandfather's name without without sounding too presidential, which seemed to his parents like a lot of pressure for a six pound, two ounce, brand-new tiny human."

My comments: The husband is a stay-at-home author dad, the wife's an outstanding ER doctor.  Four sons, and the then fifth Claude, who really wants to be Poppy, right from the start.  A move from Wisconsin to Seattle, for safety, and then on to Thailand for clarity.  Great parents raising great kids amid turmoil and questions and wanting to do the right thing.  There were a few places where I burrowed my brow or scratched my head, a few places there was just a little too much fairytale telling or philosophical thinking, but all in all this was a great story, beautifully narrated.

Goodreads synopsis:  This is how a family keeps a secret…and how that secret ends up keeping them.
          This is how a family lives happily ever after…until happily ever after becomes complicated.
          This is how children change…and then change the world.
          This is Claude. He’s five years old, the youngest of five brothers, and loves peanut butter sandwiches. He also loves wearing a dress, and dreams of being a princess.
          When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl.
          Rosie and Penn want Claude to be whoever Claude wants to be. They’re just not sure they’re ready to share that with the world. Soon the entire family is keeping Claude’s secret. Until one day it explodes.
          This Is How It Always Is is a novel about revelations, transformations, fairy tales, and family. And it’s about the ways this is how it always is: Change is always hard and miraculous and hard again, parenting is always a leap into the unknown with crossed fingers and full hearts, children grow but not always according to plan. And families with secrets don’t get to keep them forever.
          "This is a novel everyone should read. It’s brilliant. It’s bold. And it’s time.”
―Elizabeth George, #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Banquet of Consequences

Who Says Women Can't Be Doctors? - Tanya Lee Stone

The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell
illustrated by Marjorie Priceman

Ella (6 yrs. old) says:  "I liked the book because she was the first woman doctor.  It was hard getting there, but she worked harder and harder and then she got there."

2013 Christy Ottaviano Books, Henry Holt
HC$16.99 Carlisle's Bosler Library

40 pages

Goodreads rating: 4.28

My rating: 4/ Super story

Endpapers:  Dark royal blue

Title Page:  Sweeping across the double pages are a stethoscope, necklace, bonnet, open book, bottles of medicine - plus font that is cursive-y.

Illustrations: Unfortunately, a little too Chris Raschka-y for me, though Ella liked them a lot and noticed  some of the details well before I did.

1^st line:  I'll bet you've met plenty of doctors in your life.  And I'll bets lots of them were women."

Goodreads: In the 1830s, when a brave and curious girl named Elizabeth Blackwell was growing up, women were supposed to be wives and mothers. Some women could be teachers or seamstresses, but career options were few. Certainly no women were doctors.   But Elizabeth refused to accept the common beliefs that women weren’t smart enough to be doctors, or that they were too weak for such hard work. And she would not take no for an answer. Although she faced much opposition, she worked hard and finally—when she graduated from medical school and went on to have a brilliant career—proved her detractors wrong. This inspiring story of the first female doctor shows how one strong-willed woman opened the doors for all the female doctors to come.

My comments on Goodreads: I really like the way that Elizabeth Blackwell's story is told in this charming picture book.  My 6-year old granddaughter loved it, and I will read it to my fourth grade class and talk about the woman AND about the way the book was written...the inserted quotes, using prepositions to begin sentences, the use on incomplete sentences and their impact on the story. Priceman's illustrations are not my favorites - as with Chris Rashka's I find them a little too abstract (although my favorite art is abstract), it doesn't work for me in a picture book.