Monday Reading - Books For All Ages

Visit Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders and Jen at Teach Mentor Texts to see what they've been reading, along with everyone else who post their favorites. 

        I have a second post today, a giveaway of a new book about how money works, for young readers!

             I haven't ended a book with tears for a long time, and this time I did. When you read of twelve-year-old Hanako's family, coming from the internment camps, parents giving up their American citizenship to move back to the area around Hiroshima, you realize that war is not always over because the aftermath is also devastating. Hanako is American and now lost with her world broken, finding everything different and so hard to fit in. She's been rejected by her home country, the family's lost their restaurant, and now there is nowhere to turn but to her father's parents, tenant farmers in the countryside. The country, including Jiichan and Baachan, grandparents who shower Hanako and Akira, her young brother, with unconditional love, are starving. Yet they still make room in their small home, welcoming their son and family. They will do everything for family!

          Hanako is growing up and in that process, she questions so many things, including how to help orphans begging on the streets when her brother cries out constantly that he is hungry. In this turmoil, Grandfather Jiichan explains: "This is 'kintsukuroi'. Thing break, you must fix with gold. It is only way to live your life." This is fixing broken objects with gold lacquer, making them stronger and more beautiful than ever. Discovering that 'gold' for fixing is an underlying theme for each family member. 
         I loved another part when Hanako decided "Maybe sometimes you just had to go out into the world and trust what would happen." She has decided that gold can come in many forms, as I found in many parts of this story. Cynthia Kadohata shares the history that will enlighten those who do not know what happened to these Japanese people who were part of our country in this loving novel of hardship, love, and always hope. Julia Kuo has added a few illustrations to the story. It's a 'best book' this year for me.


        This, this book--sometimes hard to read because of the heart-rending scenes, but so hard to stop, too, because there is an underlying tension that pulled me to discover what in this world is really going on, and who is possible to trust. The girls at Raxter, a private camp, have been attacked by some kind of virus. One never knows when, or who, it will hit again. Quarantined, now with a set of rules for it, the three main characters, including the ins and outs of all relationships, stick together. The power of their love and the horrible experiences they must figure out how to survive creates an 'out-of-this-world' story that's a bit close to home when reading news of a new ebola outbreak.