Prairie Lotus

 Prairie Lotus

By Linda Sue Park

I think this book is wonderful! It is a compelling, interesting story, and also tackles some big issues that were relevant in 1880 and are still very relevant today.

Hanna and her father move across the West from Los Angeles, landing in a tiny town called LaForge, in Dakota Territory. Hanna's mother, who died a few years prior, was half Chinese and half Korean, while her dad is white. In LaForge in 1880 there are no other Asians, and Hanna faces racism from the white townspeople. She notices American Indians facing similar injustices.

But Hanna is determined and strong, standing up for herself and committed to helping her dad establish a successful dress-making shop in town.

This story counters Laura Ingalls Wilder's popular "Little House" books, contributing a rich new perspective in historical fiction.

Pie in the Sky

Pie in the Sky 

By Remy Lai

I really enjoyed this interesting story of a boy who moves with his mom and little brother to a new country, where he doesn't know the language or have any friends.
Jingwen (age 12) loves to bake, and by planning and secretly baking elaborate cakes he copes with all of the strangeness of his new home. Making cakes also allows him to grieve for his father, who died before he could open the bakery of his dreams.
This story is told partly through cartoons and other pictures, which comically illustrate how Jingwen feels like he is living on another planet!

I am Alfonso Jones

I am Alfonso Jones
By Tony Medina
Illustrated by Stacey Robinson & John Jennings

I read this graphic novel for a book club--it is a powerful, intense story. This description is from Library Journal: 

Alfonso's playing Hamlet's ghost-father in his school's hip-hop version of the play while hoping for a second role as Danetta's boyfriend. But buying his first suit, he becomes a real ghost when a police officer mistakes a coat hanger for a weapon and shoots him. In the afterlife, he awakens in a subway train among other ghosts, who share their own experiences with police brutality. A gut-punching trip into a Black Lives Matter story, with black-and-white art.

(January 1, 2018)

Carry On

Carry On
By Rainbow Rowell

Simon Snow and Baz Pitch are pretty much opposites; Simon is the Chosen One, Baz is a vampire. Simon is full of magic but not a very controlled magician, Baz is super capable with a wand. Simon is an orphan, Baz is from a wealthy, old-school family of Mages. These two teens are sworn enemies, as well as long-time roommates Watford School of Magicks. They are also secretly in love with each other.
In Rainbow Rowell's silly, fun spin-off from Harry Potter, good and evil are not as black and white as they first appear. There are mysteries to be solved and secrets to be revealed! If you enjoyed Harry Potter, and like the genre of magic boarding school stories, you're in for a treat with this one.

Listen, Slowly

Listen, Slowly
By Thanhha Lai

Thanhha Lai also wrote Inside Out & Back Again, a novel in verse (poetry) which I loved. This story Listen, Slowly is not in verse but touches on similar themes of family, adjusting to a new culture, and friendship.
The main character is Mai, a twelve-year-old Vietnamese American girl from Laguna Beach, California. Instead of hanging out at the beach with her best friend and new crush, Mai is sent to Vietnam with her grandmother to spend the whole summer in a tiny village--where she can't even communicate very well with the locals. Despite her misgivings about Vietnam, Mai makes some new friends (and rethinks her old ones) and learns some important stuff about her family's past. This novel is really funny!

Snow & Rose

Snow & Rose
By Emily Winfield Martin

Two sisters, Snow and Rose, once lived a fancy life with their loving parents in a fancy house with a beautiful garden. But their father disappears one day, and the girls and their grieving mom move to a tiny cottage in the mysterious and possibly dangerous woods. Snow and Rose meet a quirky boy named Ivo, who has a vast knowledge of mushrooms, and they discover a library in the woods filled with magical objects (instead of books!). There is also a bear who befriends the girls and helps them out of some trouble...
This fairy tale is illustrated with gorgeous pictures and is full of mystery, magic, and bonds of friendship and sisterhood.

The Family Romanov

The Family Romanov; Murder, Rebellion & the Fall of Imperial Russia
by Candace Fleming

I also read this book before I visited Russia last summer, along with Symphony for the City of the Dead.
Tsar Nicholas Romanov II of Russia was shot and killed along with his entire family--his wife and five children--during the Russian Revolution, in 1917.
Leading up to that, the Romanov family was one of the wealthiest royal families in the world, ruling over 130 million people, most of whom were poverty stricken. Tsar Nicholas--the last emperor of Russia--barely acknowledged the hardships people were living with, while his own family frolicked in luxury.
This nonfiction narrative describes the rise and fall of the House of Romanov, complete with their bizarre connection to a mystic, Rasputin. The photographs in the book are fascinating, as is the story!