I highly recommend Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai to all ages of chapter book readers, including adults. This memoir-like book in verse tells the story of Ha, a young Vietnamese refugee girl, and her family, who fled to the United States right before the fall of Saigon during the Vietnam War.

Ending up in a small rural community in Alabama, Ha struggles to learn English and assimilate to a foreign culture within a sometimes hostile environment.

Written in short poems, this would be a powerful read-aloud...it is poignant and compelling in Ha's authentic and often funny voice, and gives a very unique perspective on this time in history.

This novel, which is loosely based on the author's own childhood experience is a Newbery Honor recipient, as well as a National Book Award Winner.

I just read a cleverly written chapter book: The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale by Carmen Agra Deedy & Randall Wright.

Pip is an unusual mouse with an unusual talent: he can read, thanks to time spent with Nell, the daughter of the owners of the Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese shop, where Pip and many, many mice live because of the cheese-making talents of the cook there.

Pip meets Skilley, a cat with an unusual appetite: he does not hunt or eat mice....he prefers cheese, so Pip convinces the mice to strike a bargain where Skilley pretends to serve as a mouse-catcher for the shop, so they won't get a REAL mouse-catching cat.

Throw in an injured raven from the famous "Tower of London" ravens who is hidden upstairs, an evil mice-hungry cat named Pinch, comic relief as the author Charles Dickens sits in the shop attempting to write his classic, Tale of  Two Cities, AND great pencil sketches throughout the chapter book by Barry Moser, and you have a great story that would be fun for a family or teacher to read-aloud, or for kids to read on their own.

Someone Named Eva is a fiction book, but it is based on the true history of what happened to the residents of a small town in the former Czechloslovakia during the Nazi regime. Both hard-to-put-down, as well as sometimes hard emotionally to read, this story is told from the viewpoint of Milagra, who is taken from her family by the Nazis and sent to a Nazi "re-education" school where the goal was to wipe out any memories or connections the students had to their past, in order to create what they viewed as the ideal German, Aryan youth.

Renamed Eva by her Nazi captors, Milagra and the other students were forbidden to speak any language other than German, and then placed with new German families, who were told they were orphans of the war.

This book, for older students through teens/adults, is a powerful example of just one of the horrors that took place during the Holocaust and Nazi reign in Europe. This is a book geared toward young people, and therefore does not include the kinds of graphic details that some adult Holocaust stories might include. However, the pain that Milagra and the other students experience at being taken from their families, as well as plot elements that touch lightly upon, while not glossing over, some of the most horrific actions of the Nazis make the story difficult to forget.

The new youth non-fiction book: Surviving the Angel of Death: the true story of a Mengele twin by Eva Mozes Kor and Lisa Rojany Buccieri is written as engagingly as any fiction book. The heart-breaking content makes you wish that it was fiction. 

Eva Mozes Kor and her twin sister, Miriam, were one of many, many pairs of twins that faced sadistic and unbelievably cruel treatment at the hands of the infamous Nazi doctor, Josef Mengele of Auschwitz. The book is geared toward intermediate and teen readers, so while the content is disturbing, the details are not as graphic as an adult book on Holocaust horrors.

Eva tells the story of her childhood leading up to the sisters' lives at the concentration camp, while anti-Jewish sentiment increased in her small Hungarian village. The kinds of details included, like story problems in her elementary math textbook that referenced killing Jews, are chilling.
 
After losing the entire rest of her family, Eva was motivated by sheer will to survive with her sister during her time in Auschwitz and the aftermath. The story is amazing...not only the horrors they survive, but the triumph of the human spirit and ultimately, of forgiveness.

I just finished reading the novel in verse, The Surrender Tree by Margarita Engle, based on the history of Cuba's wars for independence, and on the real life of Rosa la Bayamesa, a healer who used her gifts to heal rebels, as well as (her enemy) Spanish soldiers.

Engle is really masterful at using this writing style to pull you into the history, as she did in a similar historical novel in verse, The Poet Slave of Cuba, that I read last year. The story in Surrender Tree is very suspenseful, and you learn a lot about the history of Cuba, including that Spain was responsible for the first modern use of "reconcentration" (or internment) camps in warfare during their fight against the Cuban people. The book ends showing the origin of the rocky relationship between US and Cuba, that continues to this day.

I would strongly recommend this book...and because of the poetry format, it is a very fast read. This book was also awarded the Pura Belpre honor award in 2009.

I am almost done reading City of Thieves by David Benioff for my high school book club group, LOL @ MHS meeting tomorrow. Here is my "six word book review":

"Funny moments, in between the horrors."

This is an interesting--although graphic and mature-- account of two young men on a strange "military mission" in Russia during World War II (after Germans have invaded.) The characters are very likeable as they alternatively banter about girls and life, and experience harrowing, deeply disturbing things that, unfortunately, are likely realistic facts of war.

I recently read Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose, a biographical account of  the impact of teenager Colvin on the civil rights movement, and specifically the bus boycott and segregation laws.

This book, which has multiple starred reviews and several awards, is a Miller Battle of the Books title for the upcoming year, but should also be read by any teacher or student who is studying the civil rights era.

Claudette refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white woman in  Montgomery, Alabama several months before the famous act by Rosa Parks spurred people into action that ultimately changed the laws of our country. Frustrated by the unfair treatment she witnessed daily, Claudette took a stand that had very negative consequences for her personally, but really helped the civil rights movement gain momentum.

The book is an easy, engaging read, and gives a very good sense of the step-by-step process that lead to the organized boycotting of the bus lines in Montgomery, and the huge sacrifices made by those involved.

I highly recommend this book to all ages from elementary students through adults as a great example of how young people have had a huge impact on positive social change.

Both Teresa and I would highly recommend The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had by Kristin Levine. Set during segregation in Moundsville, Alabama, this novel gives a great sense of that time period.

Harry Sims, who goes by "Dit," is excited to meet the new postmaster in his town, especially to see if there are any kids he can hang around with. He, and the whole town, are surprised when the new postmaster is black, and Dit is even more surprised that the kid his age is a girl named Emma. Originally less than enthusiastic about each other, the two become great friends and Dit introduces Emma to his world of baseball and fishing. Emma shares her world of reading with Dit. When a racially charged tragedy befalls the town barber, they come up with a plan to make things right again.

This story is as much about strong friendships between boys and girls, as it is about racial discrimination and bigotry. This book would be a great read aloud, and I think that adults and teens would enjoy it as much as elementary aged kids. It reminded me, in different ways, of two other great novels with boy/girl friendship: The Liberation of Gabriel King by K.L. Going and The Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson.

The American Library association has announced the award-winning books for kids for 2008. To see a list of winners, as well as explanations of the criteria for various awards, go this this ALA link.

Interestingly, the Caldecott medal--the award for the best illustrated book-- this year was awarded to a chapter book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznik. This book is a one-of-a-kind suspenseful reading experience about a young boy who lives secretly on his own after his clockwinder uncle disappears. Set around the era of the silent film, the pages of this thick book are as full of detailed pencil illustrations--giving a feel of film frames---as print pages.

The format of this book really stretches the boundaries between picture and chapter book, as the art is truly integral to the story in a way that is unusual for a book for this intended audience. I would highly recommend this book to elementary through adult age readers. Aside from the interesting story, this novel gives a fascinating glimpse at the history of the film and entertainment industry.

I am just finishing up reading Parvana's Journey by Deborah Ellis, about a girl trying to survive in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. At the beginning of the story Parvana's father has just died and she is on her own, masquerading as a boy so she could work and travel freely (which wasn't allowed for girls under Taliban rule.) I was drawn to this book, after reading the adult novel, The Kite Runner, which high school students at MHS chose for our book club.

This is a powerful, short book....that really pulls you into the plot as you wonder how Parvana  will make it on her own (as she searches for her mother and sisters). You will be rooting for her as she struggles to survive with Leila, Asif, and Hassan, a baby she finds and "adopts" into their makeshift family of children.

Those who enjoy the television show "Kid Nation" may be interested to read this story representing children left on their own to survive. Author Deborah Ellis based her fictional story on accounts she heard from real children in refugee camps in Afghanistan, where for many children survival is not a "reality show" but simply reality.

This book is a sequel to The Breadwinner, which tells of Parvana's life before she was separated from her family.

On a recent trip with my family, I chose a few audio books that I thought would appeal, not only to me, but also to my husband and my mother-in-law (who really likes westerns.) I really enjoyed listening to The Misadventures of Maude March, Or Trouble Rides a Fast Horse, a historical novel by Audrey Couloumbis (who also wrote Getting Near to Baby, which I loved reading a few years ago!)

Interestingly, we listened to this story about two twice-orphaned sisters who started an adventure on horseback from Cedar Rapids, Iowa to Missouri, as we ourselves were traveling from Iowa to Missouri, so that was kind of a cool coincidence. The story is suspenseful because Maude, the older sister of the narrating character, Sallie, goes from being a prim and proper young lady who is always correcting her sister's grammar and criticizing her for reading dime adventure novels to being wanted for horse-thieving and bank robbery...

Since we are done with our trip, and I only listen to books on CD in my car, I am still waiting to see how it turns out...but I also just ordered a sequel that should arrive at the library soon. I highly recommend this title to readers of all ages (either the print book or the CD.)

I just finished reading Harriet Tubman, Secret Agent: how daring slaves and free Blacks spied for the Union during the Civil War by Thomas Allen and would highly recommend it. I started reading it because it is not very long and I thought it would be a good one to recommend to go with the Get a Clue @ Your Library...but was surprised how it was hard to put down.

The book has quite a bit about Harriet Tubman, who is best known for being the escaped slave turned conductor on the Underground Railroad (and the subject of the recent award-winning picture book biography Moses: When Harriet Tubman led her people to freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford, beautifully illustrated by Kadir Nelson).

However, this is not a biography of Tubman, but a tribute to the efforts of many former slaves who worked "undercover" gathering intelligence that strongly impacted the outcome of the Civil War. For example, Mary Jane Richards, worked as a house slave for Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, and passed on overheard conversations. She not only read war documents left around at the Davis home (even though it was illegal for a slave to learn to read or write), but had a photographic memory enabling her to pass them on almost verbatim.

Confederate officers and soldiers were often unguarded in their conversations around slaves because of their horribly misguided notion that the slaves hadn't the capacity to understand what was being said.

Another interesting area covered in this book was spy techniques and codes that were used, including a "clothesline code" that passed on information by slaves working undercover within a Confederate camp...for example hanging a pair of pants upside down indicated a specific direction that troops were being sent.

Overall, this book gives you a strong appreciation for the brave and cunning efforts of spies--mostly escaped slaves--during the Civil War. I highly recommend this to students and teachers.

 

 

We just received Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine which tells the true story of one of history's most famous escaped slaves, Henry "Box" Brown. With just a few words, Levine manages to evoke such strong emotions about Henry's childhood and adulthood as a slave and his subsequent escape. This would be a great read aloud for older elementary students just being introduced to the history of slavery and the underground railroad...but I would really recommend it to teens and adults as well. The pictures, by one of my favorite illustrators Kadir Nelson, are beautiful and life-like. Nelson also illustrated Moses: when Harriet Tubman led her people to freedom, the new mutiple award-winning picture book biography of Harriet Tubman, as well as some other favorites of mine, Ellington was not a street and an illustrated version of He's got the whole world in his hands.

I just read an excellent newer picture book, The Cats of Krasinski Square by Karen Hesse. Hesse is most well known for her historical fiction novels, and her talent for making history come alive is evident in this picture book title as well. This story is based on a true event that happened in Warsaw during the Holocaust, when the Jewish Resistance fought back in many ways against the Nazis, in spite of terrible odds. This story tells about the cleverness of these resistance fighters in smuggling food and medicine to those imprisoned inside the Warsaw Ghetto walls...even when the Nazis came with dogs. It would be a great story for older children who are just beginning to learn about the Holocaust, as well short enough for a teacher to read with middle and high schoolers during class. Read-alikes or read-beyonds: The Yellow Star: the legend of King Christian X of Denmark by Carmen Agra Deedy is another picture book about the resistance of the Danish people against the Nazis. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry is an excellent chapter book novel about this topic, as well. We also have some great titles in the juvenile non-fiction, like Resistance: Teen partisans and resisters who fought Nazi tyranny by Charles Anflick. You might also want to check out the movie, Uprising, about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943.