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WORK TITLE: Factory Girl
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: -5.2187981108E-5
WEBSITE: http://www.josannelavalley.com/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
Died shortly after publication of “Factory Girl.” * http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?pid=184320343 * http://www.josannelavalley.com/about_me.html *
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2012042262
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2012042262
HEADING: La Valley, Josanne
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400 1_ |a Valley, Josanne La
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PERSONAL
Died February 19, 2017; married Bill Cass; children: Eric, Rolf (deceased).
EDUCATION:Graduated from Lawrence University and Smith College; Vermont College of Fine Arts, M.F.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and singer.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Josanne La Valley worked for much of her career as a professional singer, but she was inspired to become a writer while visiting the Uyghur people in Xinjiang, China. The region where the Uyghur live was once East Turkestan, and the small majority-Muslim people there have slowly been subsumed by China. Determined to portray their endangered culture, La Valley attended the Vermont College of Fine Arts to complete her master’s of fine arts degree in writing. She then went on to publish to novels about the Uyghur. The Vine Basket was released in 2013 and Factory Girl was released in 2017, though La Valley died soon after.
The Vine Basket
In The Vine Basket, La Valley introduces readers to Mehrigul, a fourteen-year-old Uyghur girl who lives in western China. She and her family are very poor, and their situation is dire. With her father’s drinking and her mother’s depression, Mehrigul has little chance of escaping poverty and the government-mandated factory work that threatens to come with it. Thankfully, Mehrigul has learned the art of basket-weaving from her grandfather; and instead of using traditional methods, styles, and materials, Mehrigul uses grapevines to create large cornucopias. Her handiwork catches the eye of an American buyer who stumbles upon Mehrigul while traveling through the region on a purchasing expedition. The buyer pays Mehrigul more money than the girl has ever seen, and the buyer also wants Mehrigul to make several more. Mehrigul works night and day to fulfill her orders, and both she and her family are relieved by their positive change in circumstances; yet, Mehrigul wishes she could return to her schooling.
Praising the novel in Kirkus Reviews, a critic announced that La Valley paints a memorable picture of this faraway people.” The result is “a haunting tale of artistic vision triumphing over adversity.” Linda Sue Park, writing in the New York Times Online, was also impressed, and she praised the “effective use of cinematic technique throughout.” Park then advised that “The Vine Basket is Mehrigul’s story first. The tight focus on her character engages the reader so that learning about Uighur village life happens as a consequence, all the more memorable for being rendered as story rather than lesson.” According to BookPage Online correspondent Deborah Hopkinson, The Vine Basket “would be a wonderful book to begin to explore questions about the lives of women and girls in other parts of the world.” Lauding the novel further, a Book Wars website reviewer announced: “I cannot stress how important The Vine Basket is. It does not just inform readers about people they may not have known about but they also let readers experience for themselves what it feels like when your very identity is threatened. But the most wonderful thing about The Vine Basket is how it portrays a people who live such difficult lives but who refuse to give up on both themselves and on hope.”
Factory Girl
Factory Girl also follows a teenaged Uyghur girl, but unlike Mehrigul, sixteen-year-old Roshen does not escape indentured servitude in a far-off factory. Faced with losing the family farm to bankruptcy, Roshen’s only hope is to travel thousands of miles from her family to work at a uniform factory in southern China. Roshen is joined by twelve girls just like her, and all in the same dire straights. Together, they board a box truck and head to their new lives, where they are told they are not allowed to wear headscarves or speak in their local dialect. In fact, if Roshen and the other girls fail to speak in Mandarin, their pay will be docked. From there, conditions only get worse. Roshen works fourteen-hour days, is fed as little as possible, and is given tea with stimulants to keep her productive throughout her shift. As the girls face wage-theft and even sexual assault, Roshen steps forward as a leader, offering comfort and hope.
In the words of a Kirkus Reviews correspondent, Factory Girl is “a thought-provoking look at oppression and the power of words from a viewpoint not often heard.” Rebecca Kuss, writing in Booklist, was equally laudatory, citing “an impressive layer of emotion and authenticity, reminding readers of the ultimate power of words to change one’s world.” As an online Teen Librarian Toolbox columnist put it, “generally well-written, the story’s one real downfall is the lack of development of many of the Uyghur girls, who don’t feel necessary beyond showing they are part of the block of girls isolated and most abused. At the same time, it’s the development of the girls who do carry pieces of the story, and their friendships and support, that make this story especially interesting and powerful.” On the other hand, a Publishers Weekly reviewer called Factory Girl a “hard-hitting novel,” adding that “readers will admire Roshen’s resilience in the face of stark exploitation.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, April 15, 2013, Karen Cruze, review of The Vine Basket; December 1, 2016, Rebecca Kuss, review of Factory Girl.
Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2013, review of The Vine Basket; October 15, 2016, review of Factory Girl.
Publishers Weekly, March 11, 2013, review of The Vine Basket; October 24, 2016, review of Factory Girl.
ONLINE
BookPage Online, https://bookpage.com/ (April 9, 2013), Deborah Hopkinson, review of The Vine Basket.
Book Wars, http://thebookwars.ca/ (February 25, 2015), review of The Vine Basket.
Josanne La Valley Website, http://www.josannelavalley.com (July 10, 2017).
New York Times Online, http://www.nytimes.com/ (May 10, 2013), Linda Sue Park, review of The Vine Basket.
Teen Librarian Toolbox, http://www.teenlibrariantoolbox.com/ (July 10, 2017), review of Factory Girl.
Teenreads, http://www.teenreads.com/ (July 10, 2017), review of Factory Girl.*
About Me
Singing – No one would be more astonished to know that I have published a book than my English teachers from grade school through college. I struggled to put words on paper and only read books that were assigned. My time was spent practicing the bassoon and singing louder and higher than anyone else. With degrees in hand, I came to New York City and was paid to sing!
Fund Raising – It was time to reinvent myself. My sons and I needed a steadier income. I became a fund raiser for arts organizations. I soon found that raising money required very creative thinking, and I liked that. From time to time I was sent to places like Chicago, Santa Fe, London, Paris, Saint Petersburg, Tokyo. I especially enjoyed my trips abroad.
Traveling – I began to plan my own travels. A trip with World Craft Tours took a small group to northwest China, to East Turkestan (Xinjiang), where I met wonderful Uyghur craftsmen and their families. I visited the home of a basket maker who lived on a farm in the countryside surrounding Hotan. He sent his granddaughter to the orchard to gather peaches which she cleaned under a water spigot and offered to those standing in the yard watching her grandfather weave. I took a peach from her basket. She paused in front of me. Her eyes that had been so wary, so black and piercing, met mine and softened. She took the peach I had chosen and handed me another one. We smiled. Our communication was brief and had no words.
Writing – I reinvented myself again and received an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Maybe I didn't write when I was younger because I didn't know I had stories to tell. I discovered I had many and that I loved to tell them. The Vine Basket is my first published book. It is the story of the young girl who offered me a peach. In Factory Girl I imagined what a Uyghur girl’s life might be like if she were sent from her homeland to work in a factory in the south of China.
There are many more stories to come. The one book I remember from my childhood is The Little Engine that Could. That may be significant.
Josanne La Valley | Factory Girl | The Vine Basket
A wonderful moment at Vermont College with Katherine Paterson and Elizabeth Bluemle
How to Contact
I would like to hear from you. Please contact me at josannelavalley@gmail.com
Agent
Marietta B. Zacker
Gallt & Zacker Literary Agency
Credits
Book cover art – The Vine Basket – Kyung Soon Park
Map art – Jennifer Thermes
Website – Cevant Design Group
About My Work
The Uyghur (pronounced WEEgur) people have a long history of living in the land they call East Turkestan. During the early centuries BCE when travelers on the Silk Road treked across the Taklamakan desert they were greeted by Uyghurs living in the oasis towns. They ate from the bounty of Uyghur farms and pastured herds, traded at the bazaars and markets, coveting the precious jade and the fine works of the silk weavers and craftsmen. They found pleasure in the Uyghur songs and dances.
A traveler today can find traces of this ancient way of life. Donkey carts still amble along dusty unpaved roads, driven by peasants carrying goods to market. Mud-brick homes offer comfort. Since the 1950s much has changed. The Uyghur population of East Turkestan has shrunk from 90% to less than half. The Han Chinese are taking over the land and the vast resources of gas, coal, oil and precious metals. The Uyghur language, their culture and their Muslim religion are under assault; many of their traditional neighborhoods have been razed. Their land is now called Xinjiang.
In The Vine Basket and Factory Girl Uyghur girls are sent away to work in far-off regions of China so that they will not marry Uyghur men and have Uyghur babies. If they refuse to go they are denied a marriage certificate, their registration cards are taken away and the family is fined an impossible sum.
Uyghurs living in China are punished for speaking out. Rebiya Kadeer and other leaders who have fled their homeland, work tirelessly for improved human rights in their homeland.
Links
Listening Library - Audio Clip - The Vine Basket
Uyghur American Association
London Uyghur Ensemble
Uyghur Cultural Orientation
World Uyghur Congress
Radio Free Asia
"An elephant can crush an ant with one footstep. But an ant inside an elephant's trunk can madden it to death."
– Uyghur saying
JOSANNE LA VALLEY
Obituary
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LA VALLEY--Josanne,
passed away February 19, 2017, surrounded by family. She will be lovingly remembered for her enduring spirit, passion for travel and the arts, dedication to storytelling and moral integrity. She is survived by her husband, Bill Cass, her son, Eric Olsen (Jan Nelson), daughter-in-law, T. Therese Byrne, granddaughter, Chelsea Lawrence, (Brandon Lawrence), brother Richard LaValle, and sister Jeanne Hollenbeck. She was predeceased by her son, Rolf Olsen. Josanne received degrees from St. Lawrence University, Smith College and Vermont College of Fine Arts. She worked in arts management and as a professional musician before she turned to writing. Two of her recently published books for young readers, "The Vine Basket" and "Factory Girl," are narratives centered on the life of the Uyghur people, a Muslim population in Northwest China. Her legacy lives on through her family and her books, those she had finished and the ones she had just begun.
Published in The New York Times on Mar. 3, 2017
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Print Marked Items
Factory Girl
Rebecca Kuss
Booklist.
113.7 (Dec. 1, 2016): p54.
COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
Factory Girl. By Josanne La Valley. Jan. 2017. 272p. Clarion, $17.99 (9780544699472). Gr. 9-12.
How far would you go to save your family? For 16-year-old Roshen, a Muslim Uyghur girl from northwestern China,
that question brings her thousands of miles away from her tight-knit family, close friends, and quiet life to a soulless
uniform factory in southern China. When she and a group of other sheltered Uyghur girls are sold into years of
indentured servitude to keep their family's farms in Uyghur possession, Roshen must leave behind her shy nature and
become a leader, keeping hope alive for girls withstanding brutal factory conditions, including 14-hour work days, tea
mixed with stimulants, starvation, no wages, and, finally, forced sexual situations to save their own lives. A harsh and
provocative look at oppression, this novel brings to light the tense, yet infrequently discussed, relationship between the
Uyghur people and the people of mainland China. La Valley's time spent with the Uyghur, traveling across the
Taklamakan Desert, adds an impressive layer of emotion and authenticity, reminding readers of the ultimate power of
words to change one's world.--Rebecca Kuss
Kuss, Rebecca
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
Kuss, Rebecca. "Factory Girl." Booklist, 1 Dec. 2016, p. 54. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA474720395&it=r&asid=ae2a380b5196b61b77f5eb0fcfa3d78b.
Accessed 2 July 2017.
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Josanne La Valley: FACTORY GIRL
Kirkus Reviews.
(Oct. 15, 2016):
COPYRIGHT 2016 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Josanne La Valley FACTORY GIRL Clarion (Adult Fiction) 17.99 ISBN: 978-0-544-69947-2
When Roshen, a 16-year-old Uighur girl from northern China, is sent away for a year to work at the Hubei Work Wear
Company, a factory in the south, she faces cultural, societal, physical, and psychological challenges far beyond her
worst nightmares.Roshen is proud to be Uighur, an ethnically Turkic enclave with its own language, customs, and
culture apart from China’s and whom the Chinese government mistrusts. Before she leaves,
Roshen’s beloved, Ahmat, gives her a white jade pendant as a symbol of his faithfulness. Hoping for possible
email exchanges, they create secret codes, so as not to arouse governmental suspicion. On route to the factory, Roshen
meets Ushi, the cruel Chinese matron who favors the Chinese girls and forbids the Uighur girls to speak their native
language—they must only speak Mandarin. Forced to work long and to avoid food the Uighur can’t
possibly eat, Roshen bonds with her co-workers, including Mikay, the most outspoken, Zuwida, the most fragile, and
Hawa, perhaps the most misunderstood. It is through these friendships that the story engages the most.
Roshen’s perseverance sears as she struggles to preserve her sanity and her heritage by remembering and
secretly writing Uighur poems in her notebook. The Chinese and Uighur girls’ divisiveness feels familiar
when cultures clash. A senior editor at Radio Free Asia contributes an afterword providing context. A thoughtprovoking
look at oppression and the power of words from a viewpoint not often heard. (author's note) (Fiction. 14-18)
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
"Josanne La Valley: FACTORY GIRL." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Oct. 2016. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA466551491&it=r&asid=67845b89a465ae0ee2ed2bc613aa75d7.
Accessed 2 July 2017.
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La Valley, Josanne: FACTORY GIRL
Kirkus Reviews.
(Oct. 15, 2016):
COPYRIGHT 2016 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
La Valley, Josanne FACTORY GIRL Clarion (Children's Fiction) $17.99 1, 10 ISBN: 978-0-544-69947-2
When Roshen, a 16-year-old Uighur girl from northern China, is sent away for a year to work at the Hubei Work Wear
Company, a factory in the south, she faces cultural, societal, physical, and psychological challenges far beyond her
worst nightmares.Roshen is proud to be Uighur, an ethnically Turkic enclave with its own language, customs, and
culture apart from China's and whom the Chinese government mistrusts. Before she leaves, Roshen's beloved, Ahmat,
gives her a white jade pendant as a symbol of his faithfulness. Hoping for possible email exchanges, they create secret
codes, so as not to arouse governmental suspicion. On route to the factory, Roshen meets Ushi, the cruel Chinese
matron who favors the Chinese girls and forbids the Uighur girls to speak their native language--they must only speak
Mandarin. Forced to work long and to avoid food the Uighur can't possibly eat, Roshen bonds with her co-workers,
including Mikay, the most outspoken, Zuwida, the most fragile, and Hawa, perhaps the most misunderstood. It is
through these friendships that the story engages the most. Roshen's perseverance sears as she struggles to preserve her
sanity and her heritage by remembering and secretly writing Uighur poems in her notebook. The Chinese and Uighur
girls' divisiveness feels familiar when cultures clash. A senior editor at Radio Free Asia contributes an afterword
providing context. A thought-provoking look at oppression and the power of words from a viewpoint not often heard.
(author's note) (Fiction. 14-18)
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
"La Valley, Josanne: FACTORY GIRL." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Oct. 2016. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA466329241&it=r&asid=268205bdd4152b8765fe2c0166e47feb.
Accessed 2 July 2017.
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Factory Girl
Publishers Weekly.
263.43 (Oct. 24, 2016): p78.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Factory Girl
Josanne La Valley. Clarion, $17.99 (280p) ISBN 978-0-544-69947-2
This hard-hitting novel focuses on the indenture of 16-year-old Roshen, who is forced to leave her close-knit Muslim
Uyghur family in northwest China and work in a uniform factory. La Valley (The Vine Basket) sensitively conveys the
culture shock of the sheltered Uyghur girls during their harrowing journey--via van, train, and the cargo box of a truck--
and within the factory itself. Their cruel matron and draconian bosses dictate that they can no longer wear their
headscarves and must only speak Mandarin or lose pay. Roshen emerges as a quiet leader, inspiring the other girls and
protecting them when she can. The narrative strongly sketches the brutal conditions in the factory, including long hours
in windowless workrooms, tea laced with stimulants, surveillance cameras in bathrooms, acute hunger, and the refusal
to pay the Uyghur girls until they have worked off their trip. An already tense story becomes even more so as the
bosses try to force some of the girls into sexual situations. Readers will admire Roshen's resilience in the face of stark
exploitation. Ages 14--up. Agent: Marietta Zacker, Gallt & Zacker Literary. (Jan.)
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
"Factory Girl." Publishers Weekly, 24 Oct. 2016, p. 78+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA468771885&it=r&asid=3862ae1584a2d32580e5dc99f345ee2b.
Accessed 2 July 2017.
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La Valley, Josanne: VINE BASKET
Kirkus Reviews.
(Mar. 1, 2013):
COPYRIGHT 2013 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
La Valley, Josanne VINE BASKET Clarion (Children's Fiction) $16.99 4, 2 ISBN: 978-0-547-84801-3
In a remote corner of China, a Uyghur girl faces government oppression and family troubles. Mehrigul's people live on
a land they call East Turkestan, located south of Russia, north of Tibet and east of Pakistan. For centuries, their lives
had been defined by the Kunlun Mountains and the Taklamakan Desert as they eked out a living strong in cultural
traditions. Now under the control of the Chinese government, they are being forced off their mineral-rich land, and girls
are sent to work in factories far to the south. Mehrigul has a gift for weaving baskets--as does her beloved grandfather--
and when an American woman spots a purely decorative one she has woven to decorate the market cart and offers to
buy more, Mehrigul sees a way to preserve her family farm and continue her schooling. In her debut novel, La Valley
paints a memorable picture of this faraway people. Mehrigul's efforts to weave baskets that are beautiful rather than
functional fill the pages with absorbing detail and poignancy. She prays that her hands "might make beautiful work"
and that like the bamboo vine she "must learn to bend but not break." Her mother's withdrawal and her father's
alcoholism and gambling are countered by her steadfast determination to maintain her self-worth. A haunting tale of
artistic vision triumphing over adversity. (map, note from Mamatjian Juma of Radio Free Asia, afterword) (Fiction. 8-
12)
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
"La Valley, Josanne: VINE BASKET." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Mar. 2013. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA320397550&it=r&asid=4be49be30885fcfcb1322f863cd34220.
Accessed 2 July 2017.
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The Vine Basket
Publishers Weekly.
260.10 (Mar. 11, 2013): p67.
COPYRIGHT 2013 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Vine Basket Josanne La Valley. Clarion, $16.99 (256p) ISBN 978-0-547-84801-3
In this debut novel, La Valley introduces Mehrigul, a 14-year-old Uyghur girl growing up in western China, who
struggles with poverty, an alcoholic father and depressed mother, and government policies that could force her to be
shipped off to work in a factory. Mehrigul's grandfather has shown her how to create cornucopia-style baskets from
grapevines, a departure from the traditional handicrafts of her region, and one of them catches the attention of an
American buyer, who pays extraordinarily well and orders more baskets on a tight (and probably impossible) deadline.
The use of the grapevines as a metaphor for Uyghur resilience is a bit heavy-handed, but the blossoming of Mehrigul's
artistic abilities and confidence are inspiring. Her loneliness and hopelessness in the face of many obstacles are also
resonant, as is her longing to return to school, despite the pressure and need to help her family financially. For many
readers, this book may be their first introduction to the Uyghur people, and La Valley strongly evokes the culture and
struggles of an ethnic group whose future is less than certain. Ages 9-12. Agent: Marietta Zacker, Nancy Gallt Literary
Agency. (Apr.)
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
"The Vine Basket." Publishers Weekly, 11 Mar. 2013, p. 67+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA322564248&it=r&asid=1c97cd0ae285224065335bbc4c8602af.
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The Vine Basket
Karen Cruze
Booklist.
109.16 (Apr. 15, 2013): p61.
COPYRIGHT 2013 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
The Vine Basket.
By Josanne La Valley.
Apr. 2013. 256p. Clarion, $16.99 (9780547848013). Gr. 5-8.
"A stranger had thought her simple twist of vines to be of value." This thought buoys Mehrigul, a Uyghur (a Turkic
ethnic group), even while her impoverished family struggles to exist in the northwest region of China once known as
East Turkestan, where ethnic populations, as in Tibet, are being culturally marginalized. Mehrigul endeavors to become
an artisan whose basketry is appreciated. Of course, more is at stake than selling some baskets to an interested
American woman. Because the girl's disgruntled gambler father needs her to do farmwork, she is no longer attending
school and, therefore, is a target for government cadres to send south to work in a factory. A grandfather who believes
in her gift inspires her determination to make something worthy for her benefactor's shop and dream of a different life.
La Valleys debut is at times slowed by copious amounts of background on the region and its residents' daily lives. But
when the focus is squarely on Mehrigul, it both engages and teaches. --Karen Cruze
Cruze, Karen
Source Citation (MLA 8
th Edition)
Cruze, Karen. "The Vine Basket." Booklist, 15 Apr. 2013, p. 61. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA327988544&it=r&asid=7d840121bd99b304900c19c4e8a1448f.
Accessed 2 July 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A327988544
Web Exclusive – April 09, 2013
THE VINE BASKET
Weaving baskets to change her stars
BookPage review by Deborah Hopkinson
For The Vine Basket, her first novel, Josanne La Valley drew on personal experience to present the heartfelt story of a young girl in Xinjiang, a region the Uyghur people call East Turkestan. On a trip to visit local craftspeople, the author met a young Uyghur girl who offered her a peach as the girl’s grandfather wove a traditional willow basket. When La Valley learned that girls in this region are forced to leave their families to work in Chinese factories, she was inspired to create the character of Mehrigul, who is caught between helping her family and her own dreams of an education.
One day in the market, a foreign lady from America named Mrs. Chazen buys one of Mehrigul’s baskets made from old grapevines and is interested in purchasing more. Mehrigul is excited—this could mean money for corn meal or even for school fees for herself and her little sister.
But lately, since her brother left, things have been difficult in her family. Her mother is distant and depressed. Her father is likely to throw any extra money on gambling or drinking wine. Not only that, Ata thinks little of his daughter’s skills. “It’s men who are craftsmen, not women,” he tells her scornfully. In her father’s eyes, Mehrigul knows she is worth more to the family as a factory worker.
Mehrigul is up against tremendous odds until the day her grandfather, Chong Ata, takes a stand. His belief and support help Mehrigul to begin to believe in her own worth and speak up for her own future. The Vine Basket is sure to evoke young American readers’ curiosity about this culture and would be a wonderful book to begin to explore questions about the lives of women and girls in other parts of the world.
The Book Wars The Book Wars 💕📚💕
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Review: The Vine Basket by Josanne La Valley
POSTED ON FEBRUARY 25, 2015 IN DIVERSE, DIVERSITY, MIDDLE GRADE, REALISTIC FICTION, REVIEW, REVIEW COPY
15814464
Hardcover, 256 pages
Published April 2nd 2013 by Clarion Books
Source: Publisher
The Vine Basket is dedicated to:
The Uyghur (Weegur) people of East Turkestan in their struggle to preserve their language, culture, and religion and to live freely in their own land.
Josanne La Valley is an American author who lives in New York City. The Vine Basket is her first novel.
Before I read this book, I had no idea who the Uyghur people are and what atrocities are being visited on them. Though the novel is fictional, the events that play out in this novel could very well be reality. As such, though I will evaluate this novel as a fictional piece of work, I believe it is important to keep in mind that the setting and the people are real.
The Vine Basket is the story of Mehrigul, a young Uyghur girl who desperately wants to learn but after her brother leaves, has no choice but to stay at home and help her family with their farm. This, though necessary, puts her in danger of being sent to work in factories far away from home by the Han Chinese who have invaded their land and are steadily ensuring that Ughur culture, religion and people die out. Mehrigul sells vine baskets made by her grandfather in the marketplace. She sometimes helps her grandfather weave the baskets and once created her own work that hangs from the cart on which she lays out her wares. One day an American lady buys that basket and asks Mehrigul to make more. But in Mehrigul’s culture, women are not the craft-makers; that privilege belongs to the men. Her stormy relationship with her father, who spends whatever money they have on alcohol, and her mother, who prefers being numb to the harsher realities of life, also contributes to her struggle to create these baskets which have become an opportunity. Her relationship with her sister and the responsibility she feels for her are the only things that anchor Mehrigul. The work on the farm is difficult and without her brother, Mehrigul finds that she often has to do it alone as her father disappears for hours on end. Her only support are her infirm grandfather and her well-off friend.
Though the novel deals with heavy themes, it is not overwhelming in its depiction of Ughur life. Mehrigul is an easy to like character because young as her voice is, her anger at her parents who fail in their duty as adults and as parents make her easy to relate to. Oftentimes, in books written by North American authors, parents get a free pass whenever they act like jerks and in fact, are often forgiven in weepy scenes at the denouement of the novels but La Valley portrays the parents with a lot of sensitivity. While she does not shy away from showing them in a way that would seem cruel to someone raised in the West, she also is careful to keep Mehrigul in character as a Ughur daughter. She does not express Western rebellion and Mehrigul gives in at times and in situations that I, for example, wouldn’t
Mehrigul’s awareness of the graduation decline of her culture is expressed in her insistence that her sister speak the Ughur language at home and in the little traditions, especially song and dance, she pays attention to. There is a skein of unavoidable sorrow that runs throughout the narrative because the Ughur people have seen, understood and perhaps come to accept their own end.
I was afraid that the whole American lady buying the vine basket and offering great opportunities would be a chance for the dreaded colonial narrative to make an appearance but thankfully, La Valley avoids that by not giving the foreigner a major presence in the book. Though the American lady is important to the narrative, it is what she offers with her wealth that’s important. There is no “white saviour” (as they say).
I appreciated the author’s note at the end of the novel where La Valley narrates her experiences with the Ughur people and goes into some detail about the events that inspired her to write the novel. She talks about how important it is to spread awareness about what is essentially a genocide. I appreciated even more the note written by Mamatjan Juma, Ughur service editor, Radion Free Asia, who puts to rest any thoughts about misappropriation by his/her verification of the portrayal of Ughur lifestyle/culture in the book.
I cannot stress how important The Vine Basket is. It does not just inform readers about people they may not have known about but they also let readers experience for themselves what it feels like when your very identity is threatened. But the most wonderful thing about The Vine Basket is how it portrays a people who live such difficult lives but who refuse to give up on both themselves and on hope.
SUNDAY BOOK REVIEW
Endangered Daughters
‘The Vine Basket’ and ‘A Girl Called Problem’
By LINDA SUE PARKMAY 10, 2013
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Middle-grade and adult fiction share territory largely ignored by young adult literature: the exploration of countries and eras beyond the borders of the contemporary teenager’s navel. Two new middle-grade novels, “The Vine Basket,” by Josanne La Valley, and “A Girl Called Problem,” by Katie Quirk, are set, respectively, in a Uighur community in Central Asia and rural Tanzania in the late 1960s.
Writers who portray cultures unfamiliar to their readers face the challenge of establishing the milieus without getting mired in a bog of detail. These two novels use different approaches that can be discussed in cinematic terms. “The Vine Basket” begins with a close-up shot: “Mehrigul scanned the crowds at the market, looking for Ata. Surely by now her father had spent the yuan they’d made from the sale of a few peaches.”
There’s a wealth of information in these simple sentences. The judicious use of two foreign words — “Ata” and “yuan” — quickly establishes the setting; we may not yet know where we are, but we know we’re not “here.” Selling peaches at a market: Mehrigul’s family makes a living through farming, and the modifying “few” indicates that it’s a poor living. Mehrigul is either anxious or annoyed, for while the first sentence is straightforward third-person narration, the second opens from her point of view: “Surely by now . . . ”
La Valley continues this effective use of cinematic technique throughout. The narrative cleaves closely to Mehrigul’s psyche, with cultural information woven in where relevant. Seldom does the “camera” pull back to show a wider view. Mehrigul, 14, struggles with concerns beyond her years, caring for her family while her alcoholic father and depressed mother all but abandon their parenting responsibilities. Her beloved brother has vanished, probably to join the Uighur independence movement. And the work required to support the family means Mehrigul must leave school: Chinese officials often send truant girls to work in factories far from their homes.
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Mehrigul’s one hope rests on her skill as a basket weaver. An American woman on the hunt for indigenous crafts visits the market and admires a basket Mehrigul has woven from grapevines. The woman plans to return in three weeks’ time and wants to buy all the baskets Mehrigul can produce.
But between planting crops, preparing food, repairing the damage done by a vicious dust storm, and caring for her mother and younger sister, Mehrigul can barely find time to weave. Her only support is her frail, gentle grandfather, himself a skilled artisan. Heartened by his encouragement, Mehrigul makes several baskets — all of which are stolen. Only a few days remain before the American woman’s return. With Mehrigul’s hands injured and bleeding from farm work, will she be able to make anything the woman might buy?
“The Vine Basket” is Mehrigul’s story first. The tight focus on her character engages the reader so that learning about Uighur village life happens as a consequence, all the more memorable for being rendered as story rather than lesson.
“A Girl Called Problem” takes a different approach, opening with a wide-angle panorama:
“Tum, tum, tum, ratta, tum, tum, tum. The village’s talking drums cut through the humid air. From as far away as the base of the distant hills, the people of Litongo hurried toward the drums, across the rocky landscape and through fields of cotton, rice and maize.”
Shida’s entire village has been asked by Tanzania’s president, Julius Nyerere, to relocate in an attempt to create ujamaa, the spirit of African familyhood. “Shida meant ‘problem’ in Swahili,” Katie Quirk writes. “A family that had been cursed around the time of a child’s birth named their baby Shida to mark the curse.” After the village is moved, the curse Shida has carried all her life follows her, with the devastating death of a loved one. Although torn by doubt and grief, Shida must figure out who is committing acts of sabotage to force villagers to return to their former homes.
The story gets off to a bumpy start as passages pull away from Shida to explain setting and culture. While informative, these sections have a distancing effect. Cultural information and back story are also conveyed through dialogue included for the reader’s benefit, rather than as intrinsic to the story, in a way that can feel stilted or forced. Where the story is strongest, though, is in Shida’s determination to reconcile traditional beliefs with what she learns from the nurse in the new village. Her quest to become a healer parallels the village’s effort to integrate modern ideas without dishonoring tradition, and readers will relate to her struggle between family and independence.
Quirk and La Valley are both white Americans. Portraying a culture that is not one’s own can be fraught with peril, from ensuring accuracy to avoiding condescension and stereotype. What is perhaps paramount is the writer’s respect for characters with lives of emotional complexity. These novels achieve this, one immediately, the other eventually, which makes them welcome and worthwhile.
THE VINE BASKET
By Josanne La Valley
252 pp. Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. $16.99. (Middle grade; ages 10 to 14)
A GIRL CALLED PROBLEM
By Katie Quirk
256 pp. Eerdmans. Paper, $8. (Middle grade; ages 9 to 12)
Linda Sue Park is the author of many books for young readers, including “A Long Walk to Water” and the Newbery Medal winner “A Single Shard.”
A version of this review appears in print on May 12, 2013, on Page BR21 of the Sunday Book Review with the headline: Endangered Daughters. Today's Paper|Subscribe