Heart of a Samurai

Author:  Margi Preus

Genre:  Historical Fiction

Setting:

• Japan, the United States, Hawaii,
• Whaling Ships
• 1841-1852

Themes:  courage, isolationism, whaling industry, racism, prejudice,

AR BL: 5.4
AR Points: 8.0

Awards:  Newbery Honor Book

"We can never go back to Japan, you know, " Goemon said, staring across the sea.

"Why not?"

The law says, "Any person who leaves the country and later returns will be put to death."

They brooded on this in silence.

Finally, Manjiro said, "But why?"

"Because, if we were to encounter any of the foreign devils, we would be poisoned by them."

"Poisoned!" Manjiro said.

"Maybe not our bodies, but they would poison our minds with their way of thinking.  That's why no fisherman are allowed to go very far from the coast -- they say contamination lies beyond the reach of the tides.  The barbarians would fill our heads with wrong thoughts!"

Heart of a Samurai is a great historical adventure book, based upon a TRUE story.  Manjiro is a young Japanese boy who must help provide for his family as a fisherman.  When a violent storm destroys the fishing boat, Manjiro and his friends find themselves stranded on a deserted island with little food and water, but that is only the beginning of Manjiro's story.  An American whaling ship rescues Manjiro and the rest of the crew from the fishing boat.  Manjiro and his mates do not know what to make of the strange looking men who they have always considered "barbarians."

Unable to return home to Japan because of the strict laws isolating Japan from the rest of the world in the late 1800s, but not sure of what the "barbarians" might do to them,  Manjiro and his mates must make the best of their lives.  Manjiro, always curious, asks lots of questions,  begins to learn English, and soon joins the whaling ship crew on a whale hunt.    As Manjiro continues to ask questions and learn, he catches the eye of the whaling ship captain.  The Captain soon makes Manijro an interesting offer.  What will Manjiro do?  Should he take the captain's offer or should he stick with the other Japanese fishermen?

This book is full of the exciting history and fascinating information about the early whaling industry, the U.S., Japan and Hawaii in the late 1800s (Hawaii was not a state then), and the true story of a young Japanese fisherman who dreamed of being a Samarai.  The illustrations in the book are reproductions of drawings actually created by Manjiro.  Also included is a glossary to help readers understand unfamiliar sailing and whaling terms and a bibliography for further reading for those interested.

Overall the book moves at a quick pace, although some may find some small sections drag a bit.  Stick with it, the pace picks back up again fairly quickly.

This website also offers more information about Manjiro's adventures.

One Crazy Summer

In Brief

Author:  Rita Williams-Garcia

Genre:  Historical Fiction

Setting: 1968 - Oakland, California

Themes:  abandonment, racism, oppression, poverty, responsibility, prejudices, discrimination, individuality, character

Highly Recommended:  Grades 4 and up

Accelerated Reader Book Level:  4.6

Awards:

• Nominee -- National Book Award for Young People's Literature (2010)
• Newbery Honor Book (2011)
• Scott O'Dell Historical Fiction Award (2011)
• Coretta Scott King Author Award (2011)
• Publishers Weekly's Best Children's Books of the Year for Fiction (2010)
• Many other nominations and awards. 

Review:

This is a powerful little gem of a read.  Rita Williams-Garcia's characters, especially Delphine,  leap off the page, grab hold of the reader, and just do not let go.

The story takes place in one of the most pivotal and chaotic years in the history of the United States -- 1968.  The year is also crazy for Delphine, Vonetta and Fern, traveling across the country for a summer visit with a mother who abandoned them seven years earlier.  Williams-Garcia chose to tell her story in first person, from Delphine's point-of-view, and Delphine's "old soul" voice shines through the prose, loud, clear and fabulous, as she balances the responsibility for caring for her sisters with her own need for someone to mother her. 

Eleven-year-old Delphine, the only one of the sisters to have any memories of their mother, has borne the role of "mother" for her younger sisters most of her life.  Although nervous about seeing her mother again, Delphine has visions of a glorious summer vacation and a joyful reunion with her mother.  The girls' mother, Cecile, however, resents the girls' visit and sends them to the community center run by the Black Panthers each day to keep them out of her way as she focuses on her writing. 

At the community center, Delphine and her sisters are immersed in the culture and propaganda of the Black Panther Movement.  They learn about the Movement's jailed leader Huey Newton and the tragic story of Panther martyr, Bobby Hutton.  As they learn more about the Movement and the discrimination that still existed during that time, the girls begin to balance what they learn with their own beliefs and experiences and are able to survive and thrive during One Crazy Summer.

Though the period depicted was somewhat violent and the issues addressed in the novel are serious and mature, Rita Williams-Garcia reveals her themes in a child-friendly format.  There is some mild racially-based name calling, but the violence of the period is not graphically depicted.  Cecile's abandonment of her family and her cavalier attitude toward her daughters is addressed in a way that can be understood according to each reader's individual maturity level.

As evidenced by the sheer number of awards for One Crazy Summer, this is a book not to be missed.

Zora and Me

Authors: Victoria Bond and T.R. Simon

Genre: Historical Fiction

Setting: Early 20th Century Eatonville, Florida

Themes:  social justice / injustice, race relations, discrimination, prejudices, racial identity, economic class, poverty, employment, migration / migratory workers

Highly Recommended :  Grade 4 Up

Awards:  Corretta Scott King John Steptoe New Talent Award

Zora and Me won the 2011 Coretta Scott King John Steptoe New Talent Award, and I can see why.  I loved this book.  Told in first person narrative, this fictional story introduces middle grade readers to American literary great Zora Neale Hurston, author of the classic Their Eyes Were Watching God.

The fictional story is very loosely based upon events from Hurston's autobiography, Dust Tracks on the Road.  Hurston spent much of her early life in the town of Eatonville, Florida, one of the few all black incorporated towns in the US in the early twentieth century.  Told through the first person narrative by Zora's fictional best friend, Carrie, the prose begs to be read aloud.  It is through Carrie's rich voice that readers discover Zora's insatiable curiosity, tenaciousness, and her greatest gift -- the ability to spin stories that could capture anyone's attention.

The authors do not shy away from the issues and violence faced by African Americans living during this time.  Zora Neale Hurston's indomitable spirit shines through as she explores the swamps surrounding her community and discovers that the gators are not the only monsters in the area.  The girls also ponder and seek answers to the questions they have about their own identity (both personal and racial) -- who they are, how they see themselves, and who they want to be.  Thus, this novel, though short, is not a book for  readers younger than nine or ten.  It is a serious work, told with a child's sense of wonder, that should be savored and discussed.

Parents and Educators:  Be aware that the "n" word is used in its historical context.  (For the record, I do not believe in sanitizing such language in children's books as it was a part of our history.  If we refuse to acknowledge this, it is impossible to learn from it and move on from there. I merely mention this to alert parents and educators to be ready to discuss these issues with their children and students.)  In addition, there are a few instances of mild swearing (exclamations of Deity).  While the violence of the area and period is present, it is not graphically described, although there is a incident where a decapitated body is found.

Eleanor: Crown Jewel of Aquitaine

Eleanor of Aquitaine lived a life few would ever dream.  She reigned as Queen of France and Queen of England, the only woman to ever be Queen of both of those countries.  However, she was first the beloved daughter of Aquitaine, a region in the south of present day France, and she is one of my top ten favorite historical women. 

Eleanor: Crown Jewel of Aquitaine by Kristiana Gregory, one of Scholastic's Royal Diaries series, retells the story Eleanor of Aquitaine's early life in the format of a fictionalized diary.  Readers are offered a glimpse of what life in the Middle Ages was like through each "diary" entry.  As this book only covers Eleanor's early life it leaves out many of the more exciting events of her life.  The story, however, does cover her marriage at 15 to Louis, heir to the French throne and how Eleanor becomes Queen of France.

For readers who enjoy princess tales, books written in diary format, historical fiction, the Middle Ages, or for fans of Eleanor of Aquitaine, this book is a worthwhile read, but is probably not a good choice for readers who do not fall in one of those categories.

For those readers who would like to read a fuller account of Eleanor's life, I suggest A Proud Taste for Miniver and Scarlet by E. L. Konigsburg.  Another fictional account of Eleanor's life, Konigsburg's book offers a better picture of Eleanor's vibrant personality and includes several events not covered in Crown Jewel of Aquitaine, including her participation in the Second Crusade and her turbulent marriage to Henry II, King of England.

Thoughts While Reading The Death Cure

One of the upper school instructors at my school recently gave her class the following assignment to complete on their class blog site.

This weekend’s homework is to read for at least 30 minutes.

Then, please comment on this blog post with:

1. a brief summary of what you read,
2. 2 interesting facts/ideas, unique to the author, or challenging words, thoughts, or pieces of figurative language you found in the book, and
3. 1 prediction you make about the book.

Can’t wait to see what the class is “up to” in our reading!!

As I am the Library Media / Technology Integration Specialist at my school, I try to participate in assignments such as these as often as I can.  Dr. Salemi and I set high expectations and expect quality responses, so we both responded to the prompt based on our own current reading.  Our purpose in doing this is two-fold:

1. The students see us as readers also.  It's important that they know that the adults in their lives READ.  If we do not have time to read and to think about our reading then the work we are having them do is not authentic.
2. By modeling high quality responses, students have a better idea of the thought and effort that they should put into responding to the prompt.  We have found that students are more likely to produce quality work when they have examples to follow.

I have re-posted my response below:

I’m currently reading The Death Cure, the last book of The Maze Runner trilogy, by James Dashner, recommended to me by my nephew and oldest daughter. While I liked the first book and found it interesting, the last two have seemed to just be stretching the story out in order to have three books. (I am not sure that was necessary; we shall see.) The author just isn’t really giving enough clues about how the action in the story is advancing the plot to hold my attention, and there is not enough character development to keep me interested in continuing to read. Although for people who enjoy a lot of action and excitement in their books, there is more than enough action and excitement in these books. What a roller coaster!

I predict the characters will be able to find a cure for the “Flare,” the awful disease that has struck the inhabitants of earth after a massive solar flare, but I’m not sure if everyone will survive. I’m extremely worried about one of my favorite characters, Newt. What I want to know most is how all the horrible experiences the characters have been through in these books are supposed to help them find the cure for the Flare! The characters have been treated basically like lab rats, and they have been put through some absolutely awful experiences. I do hope that there is a very good reason for all of those experiences, or I may just have to figuratively throw the book across the room.

The author of these books has made up his own language of sorts so that his characters’ don’t actually say ugly things to each other. For example, the characters will tell each other to “Slim it” when they want to tell someone to be quiet so they use that phrase instead of “shut up.” It is pretty obvious what the characters mean when they talk in “Maze” speak, but I think this writing device would have been much more effective if it had been used less frequently. It is used so often that it has gotten to be rather annoying as some characters communicate almost entirely in “Maze” speak. It also bothers me that the characters are so unkind to each other. Even though, they don’t use the unkind words we might say, the meaning is still obvious and that bothers me. It makes it much harder for me to develop any real empathy for the characters because they are so unkind to each other.

Dashner was much more effective in using an acronym and oxymoron in his work to make his readers think. In the Maze, there were signs stating that “W.I.C.K.E.D is good.” Of course, the word spelled by the acronym W.I.C.K.E.D makes you think just the opposite of good, thus creating a oxymoron. Oxymorons are usually word pairs that are opposites. For instance, “jumbo shrimp” or “open secret,” but they can also be longer phrases that create a paradox such as “invisible ink” or something wicked being good. The reader has to wonder, “Is W.I.C.K.E.D really good?” or since they don’t know what the acronym W.I.C.K.E.D stands for is it good in another sense — is it good at being bad? Confusing, I know. Considering the horrible things that the boys must survive in The Maze Runner and during The Scorch Trials, the first two books in the series, it is hard to imagine that W.I.C.K.E.D is good as we think of something being good, especially given the title of the third book, The Death Cure.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

The first in a young adult sci-fi trilogy, The Maze Runner by James Dashner, grabs the reader's attention immediately and never lets go.

While many questions remain unanswered at the end of this first installment, I thought the sci-fi concept and world building were plausible and well drawn.  A group of boys, have been dropped into a Glade located in the middle of a Maze where monsters called Grievers roam.  Their memories wiped clear of everything but their first names, the boys must learn to work together to survive, and avoiding the Grievers as much as possible, they must try to figure out where they are, why they have been put there, and how they can escape.  At regular intervals, new arrivals and supplies are delivered to the Maze.  Thomas has barely arrived in the Maze when the regular schedule of deliveries is abruptly changed with the arrival of a GIRL!   This throws everyone into a real tizzy as Teresa arrives with a message that everything is about to change.

What fascinated me the most and kept me reading, as usual, were the characters.  I wanted to know more about Thomas, Newt, Albe, Chuck, Minho and Theresa, why they were placed in the Maze, who they really were, and how their relationships developed as the story progressed.

Unfortunately, I didn't get many answers to my questions in this first installment.  Dashner does not share a lot of background information about the world outside of the Maze or the characters themselves, leaving the reader just as confused and lost as the Gladers.  The action in the story, on the other hand, is non-stop, as disaster after disaster occurs, leaving the Gladers little choice but to try to escape a situation becoming more desperate by the hour.  The reader must just hang on for the roller coaster ride.

I felt Dashner's style worked well to build suspense for awhile, but it ultimately left me as frustrated and exhausted as the characters. In addition, I felt I was more of an observer than a participant of the action as Dashner has a tendency to tell the story rather than allowing the reader to experience it. I never felt comfortable enough with this story or the characters to become one with the story.  This may partially be due to the fact that I listened to the Audible production of the book.  Dashner tends to over utilize  incomplete sentences, certain catch phrases, and exclamations, and this writing style may be more distracting in audio book form.  On the other hand, my oldest daughter and my nephew, both avid action-adventure fans, loved the non-stop action of the story and were extremely anxious to begin the next book in the series, The Scorch Trials.

The final verdict:  The young adults in my family who love dystopian literature raved about this series, this book, in particular. On the other hand, I thought The Maze Runner did not rank among the best of the many dystopian science fiction books written for young adults.  However, I liked the book well enough to finish it and I did eventually read the sequels.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

I recently finished reading Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card.  This book won both the Nebula and Hugo awards for the best science fiction novel the year it was published.  I had often looked at it in the bookstore and finally decided I needed to read it as Orson Scott Card won the Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award for his writing for young adults a few years ago.

The plot itself is rather simple, a young boy (only six) is taken from his home to be trained by the military to fight the “Buggers,” an alien race that attacked the earth in the past and who the government is afraid will attack again.  The earth managed to defeat the “Buggers” in the previous war due to the leadership of one space ship captain, but there is currently no military leader capable of devising a plan and leading an army that can defeat the enemy in another war.  The government believes that Ender Wiggins has the empathy, intelligence, creativity, and courage that will make him the brilliant commander they need to defeat the “Buggers” once and for all.

What makes Ender’s Game a difficult read then isn’t the plot.  It’s the ideas and violence that drive the plot that disturb the reader.  Taking a young child from his home and guiding his development with one particular career / goal in mind whether this is what that child would have freely chosen or not, causes the reader to pause and think about his or her own choices and how they might affect their eventual career or even life.  How does our upbringing make us into the people we are as adults? The extremely strict stucture and violence of the military training especially when it involves such a young child makes the plot and this question even more disturbing.  This is not to say that the book is not suitable for younger readers, I think it is, but only for those who truly enjoy the genre or who are mature enough to handle the depictions of violent fights and battles.

I didn't care for most of the characters in the novel, but I did like Ender.  I can't say that I liked all of the decisions he made throughout the novel, but I did understand how he was manipulated into making those decisions.   The blame for those decisions lies not with the young Ender, but with the adults who created the situations that Ender found himself.  The path that Ender must walk throughout the novel is not one that I would have liked to trod, for I am not sure that I would have behaved any differently.

Ender’s Game is a book for readers who love science-fiction or war stories.  It is a traditional sci-fi novel and does not have the cross genre appeal of The Hunger Games series or Divergent.   It is a worthy read, however, especially for students who would like to broaden their reading background in preparation for middle school.

Read the first chapter of Ender's Game on Orson Scott Card's Website.

More Ender’s Game:

• The Enderverse Books and Stories
• Ender's Game Series
• Ender's Game
• Speaker for the Dead
• Xenocide
• Children of the Mind
• The Bean Quartet
• Ender's Shadow
• Shadow of the Hegemon
• Shadow Puppets
• Shadow of the Giant
• Additional Spinoffs
• A War of Gifts 
• Ender in Exile 
• Shadows in Flight
• Shadows Alive (Forthcoming)
• Card has also written several short stories set in the Enderverse.
• Other Reviews
• Kidsreads Review by AshleyH88
• Book Review on Sci-Fi Net  
• Mentions on Prominent Book Lists
• Ender's Game #3 on NPR's All Time Favorite Sci-fi/Fantasy Novel List
• Note: Not all of the titles on this list are appropriate for younger readers.  
• 1999 American Library Association's Outstanding Books for the College Bound
• Ender's Game The Movie (to be released 2013)
• Harrison Ford (Hans Solo, Indiana Jones) is playing Colonel Graff.