From the book:
"In this powerful, groundbreaking memoir, Ibtisam Barakat captures what it is like to be a child whose world is shattered by war. With candor and courage she stitches together memories: fleeing from her home and becoming separated from her family as the Six-Day War breaks out; the harshness of life as a Palestinian refugee; and her unexpected joy when she discovers Alef, the first letter of the Arabic alphabet, and his family of letters. As language becomes her refuge--a true home that can never be taken away--she begins to piece together the fragments of her splintered world."
Have you read this book yet? Let's talk!
Thursday, October 8, 2009
"What the Moon Saw" by Laura Resau
From the book:
"Fourteen-year-old Clara has never met her father's parents. She knows he snuck over the border from Mexico as a teenager, but beyond that, she knows almost nothing about his childhood. When she agrees to go to Mexico to visit her grandparents for the summer, she is stunned by their life: they live in simple shacks in the mountains of southern Mexico, where most people speak not only Spanish, but also an indigenous language, Mixteco. "What the Moon Saw" is an enchanting story of discovering your true self in the most unexpected place."
Imagine going to a country where electricity is uncommon, where there's no Internet, no malls, no swimming pool, nothing familiar. Af first Clara is sure she will be bored when she visits her grandparents in their small Mexican town, but she does want to connect with her family and she's feeling a restlessness that seems to be calmed by the thought of the visit. Soon she learns to feel the quiet rhythm of each day. She learns of the healing powers her grandmother has developed and knows that the same ability is in her own spirit.
Have you read this book yet? Let's talk!
"Fourteen-year-old Clara has never met her father's parents. She knows he snuck over the border from Mexico as a teenager, but beyond that, she knows almost nothing about his childhood. When she agrees to go to Mexico to visit her grandparents for the summer, she is stunned by their life: they live in simple shacks in the mountains of southern Mexico, where most people speak not only Spanish, but also an indigenous language, Mixteco. "What the Moon Saw" is an enchanting story of discovering your true self in the most unexpected place."
Imagine going to a country where electricity is uncommon, where there's no Internet, no malls, no swimming pool, nothing familiar. Af first Clara is sure she will be bored when she visits her grandparents in their small Mexican town, but she does want to connect with her family and she's feeling a restlessness that seems to be calmed by the thought of the visit. Soon she learns to feel the quiet rhythm of each day. She learns of the healing powers her grandmother has developed and knows that the same ability is in her own spirit.
Have you read this book yet? Let's talk!
Monday, February 23, 2009
"The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins
The book "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins is a great read. Set in the future, the government has "games" that happen every year...sort of a twisted version of Survivor, because the games are a fight to the finish...with one winner...the lone person who survives. Children are selected from their states and are pitted against each other in a fight to the death. The story moves right along, with plenty of plot twists and turns that keep things very interesting and hard to predict.
Have you read this book yet? Let's talk!
Have you read this book yet? Let's talk!
"Holding Up the Earth" by Dianne E. Gray
*From the book jacket:
"It has been eight years since Hope's mom died in a car accident, eight years of shuffling from foster home to foster home, eight years of trying to hold on to the memories that tether her to her mother. Now Sarah, Hope's newest foster mom, has brought them from Minneapolis to spend the summer on the Nebraska farm where Sarah grew up. Hope is set adrift, anchored only by her ever-present and memory-heavy backpack."
This wonderful story brings together three generations of women: Hope, Sarah, and Sarah's mother Anna. But beyond the three women who share the Nebraska farmhouse, Hope learns of other women who braved settling the prairie; the pioneer girl whose father first farmed the land, the hired girl who left her family to help another. At first Hope is distracted by the slow pace and quiet of the old house, but she comes to cherish the times there and the way she feels connected to the women who helped form this place.
The quote at the start of the story explains the title: "This land is the house we have always lived in. The women, their bones are holding up the earth." --Linda Hogan, from "Calling Myself Home" Many generations of women, working together, holding up the earth.
Have you read this book yet? Let's talk!
"It has been eight years since Hope's mom died in a car accident, eight years of shuffling from foster home to foster home, eight years of trying to hold on to the memories that tether her to her mother. Now Sarah, Hope's newest foster mom, has brought them from Minneapolis to spend the summer on the Nebraska farm where Sarah grew up. Hope is set adrift, anchored only by her ever-present and memory-heavy backpack."
This wonderful story brings together three generations of women: Hope, Sarah, and Sarah's mother Anna. But beyond the three women who share the Nebraska farmhouse, Hope learns of other women who braved settling the prairie; the pioneer girl whose father first farmed the land, the hired girl who left her family to help another. At first Hope is distracted by the slow pace and quiet of the old house, but she comes to cherish the times there and the way she feels connected to the women who helped form this place.
The quote at the start of the story explains the title: "This land is the house we have always lived in. The women, their bones are holding up the earth." --Linda Hogan, from "Calling Myself Home" Many generations of women, working together, holding up the earth.
Have you read this book yet? Let's talk!
"Together Apart" by Dianne E. Gray
Hannah has lost two of her brothers to a blizzard...a blizzard she herself survived by hiding in a haystack with Issac, who is on the run trying to escape his cruel step-father. It's a bit of a scandal that they were together during the storm, but Hannah and Issac have other things on their minds. They both need a quiet place to work out their feelings and thoughts, and to make a plan for their individual futures. They find this place with Miss Eliza Moore. Working together, they publish weekly editions of the Women's Gazette and turn Eliza's sitting room into a respite place for the farm women who also seem to need a safe haven.
The story, set in 1888 Prairie Hill, Nebraska, is told from the alternating points of view of Hannah and Issac.
Have you read this book yet? Let's talk!
The story, set in 1888 Prairie Hill, Nebraska, is told from the alternating points of view of Hannah and Issac.
Have you read this book yet? Let's talk!
"12 Again" by Sue Corbett
Twelve-year-old Patrick McBride has a unique problem: his mother has vanished. He keeps trying to contact her through e-mail, since she took her laptop with her, but she doesn't answer. Now, adding to the mystery, there's a new girl in school who is vaguely familiar. Add to the mix a black rabbit, a hidden key, an amber-colored elixir, and a full moon on Halloween night, and you've got a story that keeps the surprises coming.
Have you read this book yet? Let's talk!
Have you read this book yet? Let's talk!
"Love, Football, and Other Contact Sports" by Alden R. Carter
From the first chapter (A Girl's Guide to Football Players) to the last, this series of short stories moves the reader through the school year and tells the tale of a football team that is a cast of unforgettable characters. Add the characters that are not on the team, but part of the school and general community, and you've got a winning combination.
Set in Marshfield, Wisconsin, the story incorporates all the great local stuff that Wisconsin is made of, including hunting and travel in questionable weather. Wisconsin author Alden Carter brings the characters to life and brought back many memories of Friday night football games on crisp Wisconsin nights.
Have you read this book yet? Let's talk!
Set in Marshfield, Wisconsin, the story incorporates all the great local stuff that Wisconsin is made of, including hunting and travel in questionable weather. Wisconsin author Alden Carter brings the characters to life and brought back many memories of Friday night football games on crisp Wisconsin nights.
Have you read this book yet? Let's talk!
"Al Capone Does My Shirts" by Gennifer Choldenko
From the book jacket:
"When Moose's family moves to Alcatraz Island so his father can work as a guard and his sister can attend a special school in San Francisco, he has to leave his friends and his winning baseball team behind. But it's worth it, right? If his sister, Natalie, can get help, maybe his family will be normal. But on Alcatraz his dad is so buy, he's never around. His mom's preoccupation with Natalie's condition (today, it would be called autism) is even worse now that there's no extended family to help with her tantrums and constant needs. And of course, there's never enough money."
But Natalie is too old for the special school her parents had counted on, and Moose doesn't know how he can help. With the aid of Piper, the warden's daughter, Moose tries to communicate with the most notorious and famous prisoner on Alcatraz...Al Capone.
Have you read this book yet? Let's talk!
"When Moose's family moves to Alcatraz Island so his father can work as a guard and his sister can attend a special school in San Francisco, he has to leave his friends and his winning baseball team behind. But it's worth it, right? If his sister, Natalie, can get help, maybe his family will be normal. But on Alcatraz his dad is so buy, he's never around. His mom's preoccupation with Natalie's condition (today, it would be called autism) is even worse now that there's no extended family to help with her tantrums and constant needs. And of course, there's never enough money."
But Natalie is too old for the special school her parents had counted on, and Moose doesn't know how he can help. With the aid of Piper, the warden's daughter, Moose tries to communicate with the most notorious and famous prisoner on Alcatraz...Al Capone.
Have you read this book yet? Let's talk!
"The Game" by Walter Dean Myers
Walter Dean Myers has written a captivating, exciting book that is a wonderfully entertaining read. The basketball games are described in great detail, with all the drama of live games. Life off the court is also detailed, with family, friends and neighborhood all woven beautifully into the story. Highly enjoyable.
Have you read this book yet? Let's talk!
Have you read this book yet? Let's talk!
"Shooting the Moon" by Frances O'Roark Dowell
Once again, Frances Dowell brings characters to vivid life in this wonderfully written novel. Readers get a glimpse into a family that is tying to cope with the stress of a son who volunteers for the Army and is anticipating being sent to Vietnam. A captivating read, sure to generate Newbery talk.
Have you read this book yet? Let's talk!
Have you read this book yet? Let's talk!
"Paper Trail" by Barbara Snow Gilbert
From the book jacket:
"Someone was calling his name.
The boy stopped wriggling.
His mother. No. She was supposed to be running in the other direction, decoying the Soldiers of God away from him. The boy's father was the one who was supposed to circle back, and he wouldn't do so unless the woods were clear.
The boy edged up to the knothole. He blinked against the light. And the distinctive crack of a Sako TRG-21 sniper rifle shattered the glassy stillness of the April morning."
So the stage is set...the fifteen-year-old boy is on the run, with his parents, and he's peering through a knothole in a hollow log. They are trying to escape from the Soldiers of God, a militia group that the father has infiltrated as an undercover agent for the FBI. What follows is a story that kept this reader on the edge of her seat...not being able to read and turn the pages fast enough, and yet not wanting this story to end. It's a story that will stay with you.
Have you read this book yet? Let's talk!
"Someone was calling his name.
The boy stopped wriggling.
His mother. No. She was supposed to be running in the other direction, decoying the Soldiers of God away from him. The boy's father was the one who was supposed to circle back, and he wouldn't do so unless the woods were clear.
The boy edged up to the knothole. He blinked against the light. And the distinctive crack of a Sako TRG-21 sniper rifle shattered the glassy stillness of the April morning."
So the stage is set...the fifteen-year-old boy is on the run, with his parents, and he's peering through a knothole in a hollow log. They are trying to escape from the Soldiers of God, a militia group that the father has infiltrated as an undercover agent for the FBI. What follows is a story that kept this reader on the edge of her seat...not being able to read and turn the pages fast enough, and yet not wanting this story to end. It's a story that will stay with you.
Have you read this book yet? Let's talk!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)