Panama, book review

Panama by Shelby Hiatt

Let me start by saying I’m not a prude; I’m an open-minded librarian. However, there were parts of this book that made me cringe. This book reads more like a cheap romance paperback than a young adult title. It starts slow and is hard to read even before the ‘romance’ part of the book. The background stories were more interesting than the main story line.

I liked the author’s portrayal of the main character’s excitement and disappointment when she arrived in Panama. The author did not scrimp on details of the conditions of the workers and their living quarters, which was one of Panama’s best parts. The turmoil that takes place in that setting is shown realistically through the eyes of a teen. Having the Wright brothers as neighbors was a nice twist. However, the flood and earthquake seemed thrown in to lengthen the book, unless the author was trying to include actual events that occurred in those areas at that time.

The plot jumped around quite a bit, especially toward the end. The book mentioned that one of the Wright brothers was dead while the main character is home, but doesn’t mention how or why he died. As close as the main character was to the Wright brothers, there should have been some mention of the incident. The author did a good job of capturing the excitement of the people as the Canal was finally completed. I liked that natives were the first to use the canal. I also liked how she ended the book, with the entry in the Diary. I believe this is a 2 star book, at best. If it was marketed toward an older audience, I would probably give it a little better rating, but as is, I didn’t care for this book very much at all. The author should write for some other audience instead of teens.

Warning, Vent Inc!

So as I've said I'm a librarian in Chattanooga Tennessee and I know all of us librarians deal with the same things but it never fails to amaze me. I create book lists to help people find what they want. I just went through a book list that I've created and at least half the books have been stolen. We can't reorder them. We don't have enough money to waste more on books that people are going to come and steal again anyway. We can not help people create their own libraries from books they have stolen from our library. Yes it is Our library, yours and mine, if you live in Hamilton County. What these thieves don't get is they are stealing from themselves. They pay taxes, the taxes help us get the books. These people are so selfish, that they steal the books so no one else can read them. /rant off.