American Born Chinese (741.5) by Gene Luen Yang, 2006
Diversity – Asian Am
Discrimination
Myth, Fairy, Folkt, Legd (Chinese fable)
School Story
Comic Book format
Prinz Award winner, National Book Award finalist
Rating : Liked
This book intertwines three, seemingly unconnected stories. The first one is about a monkey king that is adorned by his subjects but wants to be hailed as a god. The next one is about Jin Wang. When his family moves from San Francisco’s China Town to a new neighborhood, he finds himself the only Chinese-American at school. He is picked on by jocks and bullies, has hardly any friends, works hard to fit in, and falls for an all-American girl. The last story is about Chin-Kee, exhibiting every ultimate negative Chinese stereotype, and his cousin Danny, a basketball player and popular kid. Every year Chin-Kee comes to visit, and every year Danny must change schools to escape the shame. Only on the third cycle of stories do the stories begin to intertwine in unexpected ways.
Being a graphic novel, I didn’t enjoy the reading of this book very much. Moving back and forth between the images and the words was choppy and unsatisfying to me. However, I liked the story and its messages. The crudeness, especially for a graphic novel, was minor and I thought the author used the negative stereotypes to good effect as well as capturing the angst of being a teenager AND a minority.
John Muir : America’s First Environmentalist (333.72) by Kathryn Lasky, 2006
Science – Nature & Environment
Biography
Picture Book
Rating : Liked
Muir, originally from Scotland, was an adventurer, living in the wild with the song of wind and the beauty of snow flakes for company. He grew up in Wisconsin and spent most of his adult life in the west. Though he didn’t get much formal schooling, he read widely and invented many things in his early adulthood. To avoid fighting in the Civil War, he spent some time in Canada. He is largely responsible for the National Park designation for Yosemite and Sequoia, and influenced Pres Teddy Roosevelt who did a lot to preserve open lands. He developed the theory that glaciers sculpted the mountains, an idea that sounded preposterous at the time.
This book is a nice introduction to Muir and his life’s work, but it left me feeling like I didn’t get to know enough about him to feel I’ve met him as an individual.
Phineas Gage : A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science (612.8) by John Fleischman, 2002
Science – Health & Medicine
Biography
Rating : Liked
This book weaves together Gage’s personal story with the science of brains and the evolution of the medical profession and common practices. Gage became one of the first case studies for brain science when working on the railroad, his iron tamping rod – 13 pounds, 3 feet 7 inches long, 1.75 inches diameter on one end and a sharp point on the other – was blasted upward on a trajectory that took it though his face and out the top of his head. Though he walked away conscious and talking, Gage’s personality was forever changed. The author describes how and why he survived the spearing and the consequent infections, as well as how his particular case influenced the debate surrounding the theory of brain function at that time.
The details of the accident are completely riveting, while the details of brain science are presented within the context of understanding at that time. It is a very interesting read.
Aleutian Sparrow by Karen Hesse, 2003
Historical Fiction – World War II (Aleutian Islands, Alaska)
Discrimination
Overcoming
Poetry (novel in verse)
Rating : Loved
With simple, free verse poems that rarely extend beyond a page and woodcut images illustrating the five main sections, this book tells the story of Vera, one of thousands of Aleut villagers who were forced to leave their homes for their own “protection” when the Japanese occupied some of this island chain at the beginning of World War II. The displaced people feel suffocated by the forests after a life time in the open, wind-swept grasses and endless vistas of open sea. They are helped occasionally by folk in the town eight miles away, but mostly their needs are ignored, their way of life disparaged, and their character slandered.
The history of this people is largely unknown, and this story captures their suffering and lose in a memorable way. Though there are not many words on each page, the author gives you many images and much to think about.
Smiles to Go by Jerry Spinelli, 2008
Family Life
Character Dev. & Growth
Best Friends & Friendship
Romance & Relationships
School Story
Science Hook (photons, astronomy)
Rating : Liked
Will Tuppence's life has always been ruled by science and common sense but in ninth grade, he is shaken up by the discovery that protons decay. His little sister Tabby is always bugging him. She drops all her black jelly beans into the garbage can, for instance, because she knows they are Will’s favorite. His weekly game of Monopoly with his two best friends, Mi-Su and BT (Anthony Bontempo), is disrupted when he sees them kissing at the star-gazing party. He shares his angst with a lot of humor when he talks about his new romantic feelings for Mi-Su, his little sister’s annoyances, trying to defend his chess championship, and the uncomfortable uncertainty that comes with decaying protons.
There is growth, there is humor, there is teenage angst, there is romance anxiety, there is annoying little sister who gets hurt and really just wants big brother’s attention. Good story, but nothing that really grabbed me.
Enter Three Witches : A Story of Macbeth by Caroline B. Cooney, 2007Historical Fiction – Medieval & Renaissance Era (Scotland)
Politics & Rulers
Language Arts hook (dovetails with Shakespeare’s Macbeth)
Rating : Loved
Young Lady Mary's future suddenly becomes uncertain after her father is killed for being a traitor while she is living as a ward of Lord and Lady Macbeth, and she must use all her wits and skills to figure out how she should proceed. Her betrothed is killed in battle and she becomes betrothed, for the third time, to Seyton, a man who is loyal to Macbeth. She still has property, but is forced to serve Lady Macbeth as a maid.
I liked Mary. She was resourceful and thoughtful, without being unrealistically so. She was living in an age that didn’t give women any rights, but she uses what she can to be true to herself and find safety in a corrupt world. Cooney tells a good story. I liked looking back and seeing how each Macbeth quote fit in with the actions of Cooney’s story, though reading them at the beginning of each chapter interrupted the flow of the story too much for me.
The River Between Us by Richard Peck, 2003Historical Fiction – U.S. Civil War (Illinois)
Family Life
Discrimination - Slavery
Rating : Loved
The story begins with a road trip in 1916 in a Model T Ford touring car when Dr William Hutchings takes his 15-year-old son, the narrator, and younger twin sons to southern Illinois to visit with his family. Living together on the old homestead is Grandma Tilly and her husband, the first Dr William Hutchings, and Tilly’s twin brother, Noah, with his wife Delphine. Once the boys arrive, grandma Tilly begins telling her story of life on the Mississippi River across from the slave state Missouri during the Civil War. During the early days of the War, Tilly’s family took in two mysterious young ladies who had fled New Orleans to come north to Illinois. One fair and one dark, these women brought strange social customs and attitudes with them that were completely foreign to this small northern town. When Noah runs off to war, Tilly’s mom can’t cope, and Tilly and Delphine go to try to bring him home, witnessing some of the harsh conditions of a soldier’s camp at that time.
Because the history of these two women is morally edgy, I decided not to use this book for our school’s historical fiction book club, but the story is engaging, and the voices of the characters totally realistic. The mystery is worth the wait. I also liked how the story begins with the road trip and then moves into the grandma’s story. The reader gets a taste of both eras through the excellent skills of the author.
