#50BookPledge Book 36 Vaclav and Lena

Before I start on this post let me first say that it is easier to write reviews immediately after reading a book rather than waiting until you have time.

Vaclav and Lena by Haley Tanner from Vintage Canada 2012

Vaclav and Lena is a very interesting book on so many levels.  When one first starts reading it you might expect it to be a young adult/coming of age book but it is so much more and requires a lot of attention to the story.  There are so many layers of to the story and to the characters covering everything from immigration to adoption to fitting in to abuse to growing up.  I greatly appreciate Ms Tanner's ability to stay true to her characters by writing them in English as a Second Language text especially in the early chapters.  While I found the ESL dialogue difficult at times it really does help to establish the characters.  On top of that Vaclav and Lena both lose their Russian accent as they grow into what Rasia deems "American Teenagers."

Vaclav, the male lead in this book seems like a very normal individual with a strong relationship with his mother Rasia.  He also shows that love at first site happens and doesn't disappear just because that person is no longer in your life.  I commend Vaclav on his desire to help/protect Lena while finding out the truth about her past without requiring her to face the history directly.

I really felt for Lena, the female lead, because even though it isn't explicitly stated until near the end of the book, you know that something bad is happening to her.  Lena turns out, or so it seems, to be a very well adjusted young lady until her secret is revealed to her and those around her.  Lucky for her she has people around to help her including Emily who she calls her Real Mom, Rasia - Vaclav's mom and even though it doesn't initially seem that way her Aunt Ekaterina who tries to shelter her from the seedy world that she was a part of thanks to her method of immigration.

Vaclav and Lena is a book that will take you time to read and make you think about what you are reading, but it is worth reading because you will grow as a result.

Pictures - Preserving Memories

This is where the old saying, "A picture says a thousand words," really holds true. I am not a huge picture person and think my husband's aunt is a bit crazy when she tries to get 75+ people between the ages of 0 and 80 together for the annual family photo.

Pictures are a very important part of who we are and do a great job of telling our stories.  We regularly print pictures we've taken from vacations and special events or just a part of everyday life. We find these pictures helpful when our daughter asks a question about something that happened in the passed.

We regularly display pictures around our house, changing them to keep current.  My daughter has photo albums she looks at regularly along with the photos on our computers.  This encourages me to want to take me more pictures just because.  Of course this is becoming more fun as our daughter is starting to take her ourn photos, often of her feet.

Two of the biggest photo events for our family, however, are the slide shows my husband put together for a couple big events.   The first was for my dad's 65th birthday and we had a difficult time locating enough pictures to fill five minutes plus nothing from his childhood.  Luckily with the help of his coworkers and friends we were able to pull it off.  The second slide show was to celebrate our daughter's adoption and baptism.  This time the problem was limiting the number of photos.

So enjoy your photos.  Share them often, download them and see how they can brighten someone's day.

Memories

We all have important stuff from our childhood and even though I try to keep clutter to a minimum I have some including my baby book.  This doesn't mean that I'll keep every craft my daughter makes or every card she receives by rather some key important things including her hospital bracelets.  Several of these items are kept in a beautiful wooden box my husband made for my daughter last year.  She keeps the box in her bedroom and often asks to look at the items in it.  The contents in this box all have a story to them, however every so often I clean out the box removing somethings.  In particular what I am looking for items that are going to have meaning in a year, 10 or even 20 years from now. Luckily the important school things will be maintained in a book and will tell it's own story.  For my daughter some of the items we've kept deal with her adoption so they are needed to tell the whole story and luckily we have this information.  It is funny that she has a teddy bear from the hospital where she was born, even though they no longer deliver children, as well as a note from the photographer who took her picture during her first few ours adding her encouragement to our adoption story.  We also have the dress and some jewellery aptly named court clothes because this is what she wore to the court house on the day her adoption was finalized.  I'm not trying raise a pack rat, but rather a person who understands the value of things that can tell a story.

Melting Moments

We all know that children can surprise us but there are a few moments that are absolute melt moments.  My daughter is adopted and doesn't necessarily look like either one of us.  She has the same bolour eyes as my dad and her strawberry blonde hair apparently like mine when I was younger.  One day I was colouring my hair and my daughter was watching closely.  When I was finished she looked at me and said "I want to colour my hair and eyes!|  When I asked her why she said "I want to look just like Mommy!"  As soon as she said this I gave her a huge hug and then had to explain why she was beautiful just as she was. 

Another big melt for me dealt with the whole innocence of childhood.  My parents have an adorable little dog that my daughter claims is hers.  On Victoria Day weekend while my parents were away another dog attacked their dog leaving a couple large gashes.  After my parents came home they visited and asked my daughter if she saw where the dog got hurt.  I gently told my parents that she had not been told what happened even though it was 10 days earlier.  After the adults in the room explained what happened my daughter went to the fridge to get her boo boo dog to put on the cuts.  She then said to my mom that the mean dog's mommy should make the mean dog say sorry to their dog so they can be friend.