grayson

grayson

By Lynne Cox

A lovely little book! Lynne Cox recalls an incredible experience she had as a 17-year-old long-distance ocean swimmer: a baby grey whale, separated from its mom and lost, followed her around as she swam in the ocean near Long Beach, CA one morning.
The author describes the amazing ocean animals she saw and the wild experiences of that day in vivid detail, sharing the magic of the Pacific ocean with those of us who usually stay on the beach!

The Schwa Was Here

The Schwa Was Here
By Neal Shusterman

I really enjoyed this bizarre and fun story of a boy called the Schwa who is "partially invisible"; that is, no one seems to notice him--not his teachers, classmates, bus drivers...not even his own dad.
But one classmate, Antsy, who sometimes feels invisible himself, befriends the Schwa and they team up to use invisibility to their advantage. One adventure leads to another, and eventually there are some hard realities to face, and a real mystery to be solved so that the Schwa doesn't truly disappear.

Neal Shusterman wrote Downsiders, which I also loved.

I Lived on Butterfly Hill

I Lived on Butterfly Hill
By Marjorie Agosín

This is a fictionalized account of a real dictatorship that happened in Chile, a beautiful country in South America. In the novel an 11-year-old girl named Celeste, from Valparaíso (the "San Francisco of Chile") experiences the disappearances of friends and neighbors as the General takes power over her country. Eventually her own parents, who are doctors helping the poor, are forced to go into hiding--and Celeste moves north to Maine to live with her aunt until Chile is safer for her family.
I Lived on Butterfly Hill is slow-paced, written by a Chilean poet and writer, and it has lovely illustrations throughout the story.
Celeste's experience of living far away from her parents--not knowing where they are hiding, for two years--and learning to adapt in a new country is very moving.