The Five Stages of Moria: "The Worst Refugee Camp on Earth" by Elika Ansari

Moria was the largest refugee camp in Europe before it burned down in 2020. Ansari was a humanitarian worker at the camp herself, and this book tells the stories of five refugees at the camp, based on true experiences Ansari witnessed and the people she met.

How is it fair, how is it acceptable for anyone with even a sliver of a conscience, to push someone when they are already down, to treat someone how they were treated in Moria after everything these people have already been through? Is it racism, implicit bias? A financial issue of greed from politicians? A symbolic threat to their perceived way of life from their culture, or employment? From what I can gather from research into the conditions at Samos and Mavrovouni camps that replaced Moria, conditions are just as bad. I'm not saying to build them all palaces and enshrine them like royalty, but to have decency! I appreciate how honest, sometimes brutally honest The Five Stages of Moria is. Ansari did not shy away from discussing difficult and traumatic topics.

These people have left their homes in fear for their lives, left oppression and death and corruption, and travel dangerously across hundreds or even thousands of miles, are faced with a nightmare reminiscent of their homes- Moria, often without water, food, electricity, or shelter other than a concrete floor or falling apart cot, living in inhumane filth. That, or foraging for yourself in a nearby jungle with nothing besides a subpar tent. After reading this book, you may not believe that there can be worse. The title is not stating that Moria is the worst refugee camp on Earth, but that it is perceived as so. Believe it or not, there are refugee camps worse in Africa and in the Middle East. The U.S. refugee camps in Texas, such as the one for displaced children at the Fort Bliss military base in El Paso, are frankly not even better. 

Yes, it is an extremely complicated situation, and I'm not claiming to know the answer of how to solve the immigrant crisis that will only escalate in the face of global warming and the Ukraine war, but something has to give. We have to do better, we have to be better. However embarrassing to say, I had never heard of Moria before. I knew the conditions of refugee camps in general from literature and classes like Cultural Geography, but the majority of people likely know even less than I do. The only difference between "them" and "us" is where we were born, and books like these further emphasize and enlighten to that. I especially loved the presence of raw emotion and honesty on depression and the impacts that the camp had on not only the people in it, but those who work around it. Humanitarian aid workers are largely unappreciated and invalidated. There is only one other book that I could find by googling and searching various websites on Moria, lots on refugee camps in general, but nothing like this.

I highly recommend this book! While the reading level is on point for a YA audience, adults can also learn from and appreciate this book. For a relatively short read, the impact can be far-reaching.

Title: The Five Stages of Moria
Author: Elika Ansari 
Publisher: Arkbound Publishing
Pages: 227
Series: No
Rating: 5 Stars
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Blue Feathers, Bright Flames by Adrienne Mayse

Blue Feathers, Bright Flames is a YA magical realism short story that was sent to me by the author. Leigh Carpenter can't seem to get herself out of bed, and struggles with depression when she is awake. But when Leigh is asleep, she dreams of a land called Green where she feels lighter and has magic powers. She befriends a fox and bird, who help her fight the Darkness that is destroying it. While her real world and dream world start to blend together, Leigh seeks help from a psychiatrist. 

What's unique about this short story is that the reader actually isn't sure in the end if she really was psychotic and hallucinating (she likely has Bipolar Disorder with Psychotic Features) or if she really did/does have powers. It is common to have vivid dreams where you have powers and can control the surroundings, and it is true that elements and things from your dreams can be hallucinated. However, the author wove in her hallucinations with actual events in the story; is she hallucinating that another person could see the blue feather, or did she have powers to bring it out of her dreams? Or did she find the feather while walking to school one day and didn't remember it? 

Regardless of that question, the author did a great job in drawing a parallel between her fight with depression in the present and her fight with the Darkness in her dream world. The depiction of depression and the thoughts that go through one's head during their struggle with it was accurate. It is a quick read, but a worthwhile one if someone is looking to learn about depression or Bipolar disorder.

I highly recommend this short story and look forward to more from the author!

Title: Blue Feathers, Bright Flames
Author: Adrienne Mayse
Publisher: Adrienne Mayse via Kindle Direct Publishing
Pages: 98
Series: No
Rating: 5 Stars
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Project Bold Life: The Proven Formula to Take on Challenges and Achieve Happiness and Success by Edward M. Kopko

Project Bold Life is a self-help guide to living a happier, more confident, and overall bolder life through their formula (a committed goal from the Bold Life Pillars (Pi), plus a stretch specific goal (S²) and an Action Plan (Ap). PBL=Pi+S²+Ap). Written by accomplished businessman and entrepreneur, Project Bold Life aims to help one transform their doubts and challenges into boldness and success. This book was sent to me by the company.

Self-help and motivational books are tricky when trying to be relatable and differentiating between lecturing, teaching, and simply giving advice. However, Project Bold Life did find a balance between this. Project Bold Life is broad enough for the messages to be relevant for almost all, but also specific enough so that they can be followed through. I also like how the advice and steps the book offered were explained in relatable, understandable parallels with Ted Talks, events in history, and songs. 

From word clouds to cartoons, the illustrations are both helpful, cute, and relevant. The cartoon to the right is a reference to how stress can be positive; diamonds cannot form without high stress and pressure. 

I enjoyed the empowering tone behind the Fall off the Horse Plan chapters, where one envisions what types of falls and issues they could have, with steps on how to get back on and people who will help them. Often, many books strive for positivity in goal setting and mindset, but fail to address what happens if something goes wrong. 

While this is a review of the book, I did look up the website, quizzes, and worksheets that the book mentioned. The worksheets are very specific in terms of goals for each day, each month, and each year; this provides a higher likelihood of it actually working. The website, projectboldlife.com, is more helpful than the book in my opinion in terms of helpful stories and precise steps. Project Bold Life certainly has some good ideas, but not most of what is in the book is not necessarily original.

I felt that the book spent too long explaining how and why it was/will teach the Bold Life Formula/steps and not enough time actually teaching it. I also wish that the features on people who completed the Bold Life Formula were longer and more detailed. I was unrealistically expecting a style similar to Chicken Soup's books. 

I do think this book and the website can help many people.

See this video on the project and the different pillars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlmKgeQklUY

Title: Project Bold Life
Author: Edward M. Kopko
Publisher: Edward M. Kopko
Pages: 268
Series: No
Rating: 4 Stars
Goodreads

Never Fight Alone by Shelomo Solson

Never Fight Alone: 51 Inspiring Interviews to Help Teens Overcome Their Struggles & Improve Their Mental Health is a YA inspirational non-fiction book that was sent to me by the author. Solson conducted 51 interviews with teens who hit rock bottom and rose above it, finding the strength to make a difference in the world and help others. 

What separates this book from Chicken Soup and other inspirational short story reads is that Never Fight Alone is formatted in direct interviews. I can read exactly what these teens said, which makes it more personal. The author took a different, more personal approach of being a journalist who endured massive struggles in his life. Different from publishing for money, Solson genuinely wrote Never Fight Alone for the sole purpose of helping teens who struggled like he did growing up. One of my favorite parts of each interview is that each focuses on how far they have come. Each chapter leaves you feeling hopeful. If he could beat this, if she could find a way to be happy, then maybe I can, too. 

It is also amazing at how much emphasis is placed on suicidal thoughts and how to combat them. Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among young people ages 10 to 24, and 1 out of 6 students nationwide (grades 9–12) consider suicide (The Trevor Project). This book also involves other issues such as abuse, sexuality, addiction, eating disorders, and even dwarfism.  Never Fight Alone emphasizes the "silver lining of hope" and how asking for help is nothing to be embarrassed about. When feeling when feeling depressed and isolated, thinking "why me" and feeling ashamed is common, but Never Fight Alone proves more than any other book I have read that nobody is ever hopeless or alone. 

Favorite quote: "Anytime I felt weak or vulnerable, instead of asking, 'Why me?', I thought of people who had it worse than me, and it changed my mindset to 'What can we do to make each other happy? How can we do the things that better each other?'" (67).

I highly recommend this book!

Title: Never Fight Alone: 51 Inspiring Interviews to Help Teens Overcome Their Struggles & Improve Their Mental Health 
Author: Shelomo Solson
Publisher: Shelomo Solson
Pages: 306
Series: No
Rating: 5 Stars
Amazon

Voyagers: The Third Ghost by Yvonne Ventresca

Voyagers: The Third Ghost is a collection of 10 diverse historical fantasy short stories that was sent to me by the publisher. Voyagers will be released on May 5th, 2020!

This book is an interesting concept because not only does it introduce 10 emerging authors in a skillful publicity angle, but contains unique stories that redefine traditional historical fiction by including magical elements from time travel to talking trees. Voyagers was super fun to read and I hope that you read it, too when this book is released next month!

1. The Third Ghost by Yvonne Ventresca
This story was suspenseful and epic! I loved the twist at the end and the careful foreshadowing. Now I can't wait to read her first book, Pandemic!

2. The Ghosts of Pompeii by Sherry Ellis
This is based on Ellis' main book, Bubba and Squirt's Big Dig to China. This story was very unique in the fact that it was not only historical fiction, but mixed in elements from fantasy and scifi novels, like ghosts and time travel. Part of it was also really funny!

3. The Blind Ship by Bish Denham

I appreciate the morals of the young boy, viewing African Americans as humans and not slaves. The story is inspirational and highlights some of the terrors of slavery. This was a bizarre, wonderful story with the Opthalimia dilemma. The Blind Ship was very suspenseful and fun! 

4. Dare, Double Dare by Louise MacBeath Barbour

The genetic aspect of the magical ability to time travel was intriguing. I enjoyed the diversity with French being frequently spoken. Dare, Double Dare is also educational, as before I did not know about the Habitation at Port-Royal.

5. Return to Cahokia by L.T. Ward
The plot was super creative! I loved imagining the children creating weather and changing lives. It sounds like such a giant responsibility, being Weather Gods, and I enjoyed the abundance of painful emotion, but also hope and happiness from the characters. Return to Cahokia stands out with its Native American heritage of the Cahokia tribe and their Nahuatl language. The village is thought to have demised due to extreme weather (https://www.pnas.org/content/116/12/5461), so I love the mixing of mythology and historical fiction.

6. Feathered Fire by Ronald Clarke
Feathered Fire is my favorite story of them all. The mythical legend of the Zharptica (firebird) partnered with a powerful, inspirational female heroine in the middle of a war zone made this story epic! I loved the symbolism of the firebird and the central idea of being "reborn" from the flames, free and safe after this war.

7. The Orchard by Beth Anderson Schuck
The Orchard is the most beautiful story, a calming bliss that nature can provide. In the story, Nels is a girl who has a unique connection with nature, who can hear the trees speak to her. I found the idea lovely.

8. Simon Grey and the Yamamba by Charles Kowalski 
I read Kowalski's Simon Grey and the March of a Thousand Ghosts, so I was very excited to read a sequel of sorts! I was not disappointed. It had the perfect balance between creepy and funny. This short story was cute, satisfying, and educational in Japanese folklore.

9. A World of Trouble by Rebecca Douglass
I didn't necessarily enjoy this one as much as the previous stories, as it sent conflicting messages- on one hand, it is bad to sneak out of your house and travel without your parents at such a young age, but on the other hand without these kids, this disaster would have been a whole lot worse. However the dilemma of saving themselves and their homes from drowning was interesting to read about- I was definitely holding my breath by the end!

10. Winter Days by Katharina Gerlach
While taking place in Germany, the concept is still very relatable with border conflicts. I enjoyed the themes of family and the ideals of having the brightness in humanity inside everyone. I loved the description of almost freezing to death- I almost felt as if I was!

Title: Voyagers: The Third Ghost
Author(s):  Yvonne Ventresca, Sherry Ellis, Bish Denham, Charles Kowalski, Katharina Gerlach, Roland Clarke, Rebecca M. Douglass, Beth Anderson Schuck, Louise MacBeath Barbour, and L.T. Ward
Publisher: Dancing Lemur Press
Pages: 168
Series: No
Rating: 5 Stars
Goodreads
Website

Hope Nation: YA Authors Share Personal Moments of Inspiration Edited by Rose Brock

Hope Nation is a YA collection of short stories written by authors describing times when they were able to find hope in seemingly hopeless circumstances. These authors (Atia Abawi, Renée Ahdieh, Libba Bray, Howard Bryant, Ally Carter, Ally Condie, James Dashner, Christina Diaz Gonzalez, Gayle Forman, Romina Garber, I.W. Gregorio, Kate Hart, Brendan Kiely, David Levithan, Alex London, Marie Lu, Julie Murphy, Jason Reynolds, Aisha Saeed, Nic Stone, Jenny Torres Sanchez, Angie Thomas, Nicola Yoon, and Jeff Zentner) share personal stories about their life with the goal to inspire their teen readers to remain hopeful in the face of peril.

Hope Nation teaches that even in the darkest times, there are always ways to find hope and optimism. Ranging from issues of death and tragedy to racism and the current President, Hope Nation explores a variety of dark times and circumstances where those victimized still manage to find hope. Libba Bray's essay was definitely my favorite. She described how she still managed to find hope and happiness after a horrifying car accident. I also enjoyed the essays describing the foundation of our country and the importance of protesting racism and violence, as well as those discussing immigration and moving on after terrorist attacks. If you are looking for uplifting stories by some of your favorite authors, read this book!

I highly recommend you read this book!

Here are some books I've reviewed by these authors:

A Land of Permanent Goodbyes by Atia Abawi 
Warcross by Marie Lu
Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner 

Title: Hope Nation
Editor: Rose Brock
Publisher: Philomel Books
Pages: 304
Series: No
Rating: 5 Stars
Goodreads

After: Nineteen Stories of Apocalypse and Dystopia by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

After: Nineteen Stories of Apocalypse and Dystopia is a collection of 19 young adult dystopian short stories. There are a lot of ways the world could end, and a lot of ways to lead up to that. 19 authors had their own way of thinking about it, and wrote these stories about what it would be like.

I feel like not all of them are actually dystopian, or rather, not explained that way. In some of them, it is not clear at all what the dilemma is. For example, in You Won’t Feel a Thing by Garth Nix, it is explained that a boy has a toothache and then turns into a ferret, however there was no reasoning behind how it happened, or its effect. Some of the short stories were harder reading levels than others. There were a couple that I had to skip as they were so hard for me to understand, while at the same time there were some that were very easy. For example, in Visiting Nelson by Katherine Langrish, I had no idea what was going on.

At the same time, there were four stories I really liked. One of them is Rust With Wings by Steven Gould. There are these bugs that eat and destroy metal, and it causes a lot of problems for the people who have metal fillings on their teeth, or artificial limbs, as well as cars, keys, phones, belts, and other things of that nature. It had a clear beginning, middle and end, and I could understand the problem and the solution. I also liked The Great Game at the End of the World by Matthew Kressel. Honestly, it kind of scared me a bit, but I liked the variety of conflicts and how they were developed. 

I think it was worth reading, but be prepared that if you read it, expect there to be some ones you like and some ones you don't.

Title: After: Nineteen Stories of Apocalypse and Dystopia

Author: Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

Publisher: Hyperion Book CH

Pages: 384

Series: No

Rating: 3 Stars

Goodreads

Five High School Dialogues by Ian Thomas Malone

When Ian Thomas Malone contacted me to review his new YA realistic fiction book, Five High School Dialogues, I was excited to read this unique book. I received my free review copy of his e-book yesterday and could not put it down! This book is basically five short stories written as a script and will be released on February 26, 2016.

George Tecce calls himself the Chief. As a high school teacher, he gives students advice about getting through their high school years. The first dialogue is mostly about respect. The second dialogue is about bullying and ways to deal with it. The third dialogue is about the risks of underage drinking. The fourth dialogue is about working well with others on group projects, and the fifth dialogue is about prom.

I like that Five High School Dialogues could help incoming high school students feel more relaxed about starting high school and know that there are staff members that can help. It could also inspire teachers to see other ways to interact with students. Overall, this engaging book is inspirational about how to handle certain situations, and teaches how to view things from a different perspective. I was impressed with how well I could personally relate to the group project situation.

I thought some parts were very eye-opening. For example, in dialogue one, the Chief says, "It’s not so much a matter of being expected to know everything. The simple problem is that by not knowing the answers to questions that your students ask, you can feel like your credibility is vulnerable." That never occurred to me before, as the book can help students also understand their teachers.

Some parts were funny as well. I found myself laughing out loud! My favorite passage of dialogue was the first one, as I felt it was the most insightful. The only part that I would change is to make the prom one a little shorter, as it took a while to get to the point.

I definitely recommend that high school students read Five High School Dialogues! If you are looking for a gift for college students, you may enjoy Five College Dialogues or Five More College Dialogues.

Title: Five High School Dialogues
Author: Ian Thomas Malone
Publisher: Eleventh Hour Literary Press
Pages: 255
Series: No
Rating: 5 Stars
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Owning It by Donald R. Gallo

If you like short stories, this may be a book for you. This is a collection of 10 short stories by 10 different authors about fictional teens with "disabilities," and them facing everyday life.

I have to say, I really did not like this book. One of my many issues with this book is the lack of similarity. Some stories are super easy, while some are pretty hard. It is hard to categorize a reading level for this because they are all different. Some stories involve things like curse words, drugs and alcohol, while others are complete opposites. All the authors took it in their own way, and I think that there should have been some guidelines.

I also do not like the title. I think using "disabilities" could be offensive to certain people. It is so negative, and I don't think that should be in the title. I think a better word could be challenges, or something more vague and less intense.

Some of the stories I don't think should be short stories. Some of them I think could have said more than they did, and I think a couple of them felt too limited, while others were too long! Overall, there was just too much variety, and it was like random pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that don't go.

I really do not think you should waste your time with this fictional book. However, I do recommend that someone write a book like this about true stories of kids overcoming health challenges.



Title: Owning It: Stories About Teens with Disabilities

Author: Donald R. Gallo
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Pages: 224 pages
Series: No
Rating: 2 Stars
Goodreads