Our Darkest Night (Jennifer Robson)

 

I'm a big Jennifer Robson fan and again, I'm not disappointed. This book had me hooked. I loved it and I'll probably read it again. Jennifer Robson usually has happy endings and I really figured this one was not going to have a happy ending...the twists were good and she had me tricked. I've read a lot of World War II books and I thought the question on her website was good: There seems to be a lot of these books the past few years. Why are they so popular? .....great question for book club!  I read it in just two days....two work days....so I did find it quite compelling and hard to put down.

Goodreads says:

To survive the Holocaust, a young Jewish woman must pose as a Christian farmer’s wife in this unforgettable novel from USA Today bestselling author Jennifer Robson—a story of terror, hope, love, and sacrifice, inspired by true events, that vividly evokes the most perilous days of World War II.

It is the autumn of 1943, and life is becoming increasingly perilous for Italian Jews like the Mazin family. With Nazi Germany now occupying most of her beloved homeland, and the threat of imprisonment and deportation growing ever more certain, Antonina Mazin has but one hope to survive—to leave Venice and her beloved parents and hide in the countryside with a man she has only just met.

Nico Gerardi was studying for the priesthood until circumstances forced him to leave the seminary to run his family’s farm. A moral and just man, he could not stand by when the fascists and Nazis began taking innocent lives. Rather than risk a perilous escape across the mountains, Nina will pose as his new bride. And to keep her safe and protect secrets of his own, Nico and Nina must convince prying eyes they are happily married and in love.

But farm life is not easy for a cultured city girl who dreams of becoming a doctor like her father, and Nico’s provincial neighbors are wary of this soft and educated woman they do not know. Even worse, their distrust is shared by a local Nazi official with a vendetta against Nico. The more he learns of Nina, the more his suspicions grow—and with them his determination to exact revenge.

As Nina and Nico come to know each other, their feelings deepen, transforming their relationship into much more than a charade. Yet both fear that every passing day brings them closer to being torn apart . . .

White Bird (RJ Palacio)

Sometimes, when looking at all the follow up books after Wonder, I snubbed them. Too much of a good thing? This one is definitely worth the time. I loved the story. It's a great twist that Julian was named after someone so brave and kind. I hope he lives up to his name!


Goodreads says:

In Auggie & Me, which expands on characters in Wonder, readers were introduced to Julian's grandmother, Grandmère. Palacio makes her graphic novel debut with Grandmère's story as a young Jewish girl hidden away by a family in Nazi-occupied France during World War II. Her experience demonstrates the power of kindness to change hearts, build bridges, and even save lives.

The Chinese Emperor's New Clothes ( Ying Chang Compestine)

Since I have many Chinese students in my class, they were really keen to read this book. They all listened attentively. The story moves quickly enough but still is a good story for a substantial read at the carpet. I wondered if it really is a Chinese legend or just the creativity of the author. The author's note at the end was fascinating. The author loved to read forbidden books. It was a way to trick the rulers in China who banned certain books. She said due to the lack of books and other entertainment, she and her friends would pass the time by reciting stories from the illegal books they had read. This story is one she made up, adding her own twist to it, after hearing The Emporer's New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen. The picture of the author at the end, taken during the Cultural Revolution in China, is delightful!



Goodreads says:

Ming Da is only nine years old when he becomes the emperor of China, and his three advisors take advantage of him by stealing his stores of rice, gold, and precious stones. But Ming Da has a plan. With the help of his tailors, he comes up with a clever idea to outsmart his devious advisors: He asks his tailors to make “magical” new clothes for him. Anyone who is honest, the young emperor explains, will see the clothes’ true splendor, but anyone who is dishonest will see only burlap sacks. The emperor dons a burlap sack, and the ministers can’t help but fall for his cunning trick.

The Storyteller (Jodi Picoult)

It took me a while to get into this book. Actually, I started it, then left it for a while, which caused me to not make some connections - but luckily this was a book club book so my book club friends cleared that up for me!

I seem to read a Jodi Picoult book every summer. This was a lot like the other ones I've read - some big topic (this one was forgiveness), multiple narratives and a twist at the end.

Last year, I read Small Great Things, which is about a white supremacist and a black nurse in a hospital. I was reading it at the same time as the stuff was happening in the USA in Charlottesville. It was surreal. There's a story in the news right now about a holocaust denier. The holocaust was terrible and this book has some incredibly descriptive accounts of it. You can't make that stuff up.

Goodreads says:

Some stories live forever . . .

Sage Singer is a baker. She works through the night, preparing the day’s breads and pastries, trying to escape a reality of loneliness, bad memories, and the shadow of her mother’s death. When Josef Weber, an elderly man in Sage’s grief support group, begins stopping by the bakery, they strike up an unlikely friendship. Despite their differences, they see in each other the hidden scars that others can’t, and they become companions.

Everything changes on the day that Josef confesses a long-buried and shameful secret—one that nobody else in town would ever suspect—and asks Sage for an extraordinary favor. If she says yes, she faces not only moral repercussions, but potentially legal ones as well. With her own identity suddenly challenged, and the integrity of the closest friend she’s ever had clouded, Sage begins to question the assumptions and expectations she’s made about her life and her family. When does a moral choice become a moral imperative? And where does one draw the line between punishment and justice, forgiveness and mercy?

In this searingly honest novel, Jodi Picoult gracefully explores the lengths we will go in order to protect our families and to keep the past from dictating the future

Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L`Engle)

Reread April 23, 2018
This is the third time reading this book. We did it for book club this month in conjunction with the new movie coming out. I haven`t seen the movie yet. I plan to. In the meantime, I have to say that every time I read this book I appreciate it a little bit more. It wasn`t a huge hit with our grade three students. They thought it was kind of boring. It got low ratings from all but one student (a science crazy student). 

I think there`s a lot more in this book than I even realize so far. I`m looking forward to reading it again one day!


March 15, 2015
There are so many awesome themes in this book. We read it with our grade three book club. I was a little leery to read it with them. I wasn't sure they were old enough. I can't remember how old I was when I first read A Wrinkle in Time, but I do remember that I didn't really understand it and didn't enjoy it that much. When our book club met, after reading it, I was pleasantly surprised with the number of children who read it. Not only that, we had an amazing discussion. Lesson learned. Don't underestimate!

It was a great introduction to science fiction. 

Themes: love, courage, working together, being proud to be yourself, individuality, love conquers all and more.

Later we watched the movie as well. That is an intense movie. It made me want to read the book again!

Number the Stars (Lois Lowry)

This book has reminded me how glad I am that I blog. I came across some posts from when I had previously read this book. I have actually read this book a few times. I read it first in 2008. I had forgotten that Jill wrote to Lois Lowry and even got a reply! What a great lady Lois Lowry is.

This time around I've read it a couple times. I read it through once just simply reading. Then I read it again to make questions for each chapter for my students. I still need to do it one more time to get a good list of vocabulary words. The re-reading has caused me to have an even greater appreciation for this great book.

We are discussing the book in book club next week. I will add more to this post then!

Re-read January 10, 2017
This book is a great read for reminding yourself of the greatness of people in difficult times.

Small Great Things (Jodi Picoult)

I haven't done a great job of reading this summer. One reason is I seemed to have this sub-conscious need to stay focused on my husband, which meant I couldn't really get lost in a book. I tried, but I was reading a book that I couldn't quite get into and I was dragging myself through it. I finally put it aside and decided to read Small Great Things. It was a great break!

Goodreads says:

Ruth Jefferson is a labor and delivery nurse at a Connecticut hospital with more than twenty years' experience. During her shift, Ruth begins a routine checkup on a newborn, only to be told a few minutes later that she's been reassigned to another patient. The parents are white supremacists and don't want Ruth, who is African American, to touch their child. The hospital complies with their request, but the next day, the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is alone in the nursery. Does she obey orders or does she intervene?

Ruth hesitates before performing CPR and, as a result, is charged with a serious crime. Kennedy McQuarrie, a white public defender, takes her case but gives unexpected advice: Kennedy insists that mentioning race in the courtroom is not a winning strategy. Conflicted by Kennedy's counsel, Ruth tries to keep life as normal as possible for her family—especially her teenage son—as the case becomes a media sensation. As the trial moves forward, Ruth and Kennedy must gain each other's trust, and come to see that what they've been taught their whole lives about others—and themselves—might be wrong.

With incredible empathy, intelligence, and candor, Jodi Picoult tackles race, privilege, prejudice, justice, and compassion—and doesn't offer easy answers. Small Great Things is a remarkable achievement from a writer at the top of her game.

My thoughts:

Right now there is some awful racial issue stuff going on in the states that totally parallel this story. It was surreal to be reading it at the same time.

It was crazy to see inside the mind of a white supremacist. Crazy.


I had to stop and take a break after this bit:


p. 377: Ruth talks about helping a mother who has just had a stillborn baby: Then I handed her a damp cloth I pressed it into her palm water shocked her into awareness, or if it was the baby. But with my hand guiding her she washed every fold and curve of her baby.She wrapped him in the blanket. She held him to her breast. Finally, with a Saab that sounded like she was tearing a piece of herself away, she offered the body of her child back to me.

.....speaking of the room in the hospital for grieving parents of newborns: I think I know now why it is called the kangaroo suite It's because even when you no longer have a child, you carry him forever

Ruby's Wish (Shirin Yim Bridges) Sophie Blackall (Illustrator)

We've listened to this story a number of times on Tumblebooks. My students are always captivated by it. The idea that girl's don't just automatically get an education, unlike boys, is a totally foreign concept to them. It makes no sense...and that is a wonderful thing. :)

Goodreads summary:

Ruby is unlike most little girls in old China. Instead of aspiring to get married, Ruby is determined to attend university when she grows up, just like the boys in her family. Based upon the inspirational story of the author's grandmother and accompanied by richly detailed illustrations, Ruby's Wish is an engaging portrait of a young girl who strives for more and a family who rewards her hard work and courage. 

A Telling Time (Irene Watts)

Sometimes you pull a book off the library's shelf and it's a win. Sometimes it's not. This one wasn't so great for our class. The story is quite deep and requires a lot of background knowledge of the story of Purim, Queen Esther and more. My kids were totally lost.

Our read a book a day goal is a real benefit to when we have Reading Buddies with the grade ones. They have many books that have been read to them and they're familiar with and as a result, they do a little better job reading with their  buddies. I don't think I'll put this one on the shelf for that. Just won't work for Reading Buddies.

Quite a beautiful story if you are familiar with those topics though!

Goodreads Summary:

This tale is told in three time-frames. On the eve of the Festival of Purim, a grandmother tells her granddaughter how, as a little girl, she heard the story of Queen Esther from her family rabbi. This was in 1939, in Nazi-occupied Vienna, on the eve of WWII. Soon after the rabbi begins the story of the brave queen, soldiers come to arrest him. The young girl begs for the rabbi to finish his story, and the soldiers allow him to do so. When the tale is over, the soldiers permit him to send the children home. But when the children turn to wave goodbye, the rabbi had vanished in the snowflakes, safe from harm, saved by the miracle of a story from long ago. The illustrations by Kathryn Shoemaker perfectly highlight the story's message of hope. 

A Night Divided (Jennifer Nielsen)

This is by the same author that wrote The False Prince trilogy.


I had never thought of what it was like when the Berlin wall went up. The author tells this story in a gripping way that teaches a lot about that time. It was very hard to put down.


I have recommended this to many students and many of them have said they are reading it and loving it.


Goodreads summary:


From New York Times bestselling author Jennifer A. Nielsen comes a stunning thriller about a girl who must escape to freedom after the Berlin Wall divides her family between east and west.

With the rise of the Berlin Wall, twelve-year-old Gerta finds her family divided overnight. She, her mother, and her brother Fritz live on the eastern side, controlled by the Soviets. Her father and middle brother, who had gone west in search of work, cannot return home. Gerta knows it is dangerous to watch the wall, to think forbidden thoughts of freedom, yet she can't help herself. She sees the East German soldiers with their guns trained on their own citizens; she, her family, her neighbors and friends are prisoners in their own city.

But one day, while on her way to school, Gerta spots her father on a viewing platform on the western side, pantomiming a peculiar dance. Then, when she receives a mysterious drawing, Gerta puts two and two together and concludes that her father wants Gerta and Fritz to tunnel beneath the wall, out of East Berlin. However, if they are caught, the consequences will be deadly. No one can be trusted. Will Gerta and her family find their way to freedom?

The Giver (Lois Lowry)

Earlier this month I read Son by Lois Lowry, and after reading that I decided it was time to go back and re-read The Giver as well as the other books in the series.

When I read The Giver in high school, it was really my first go at a dystopian science fictiony type of book. I really didn't get it. I could sense though, that there was something special about this story. Now, reading it again years later, it makes me smile that I have in fact grown up and grown in understanding.

There are many things I love about this book. I love the way it shocks you. Some of the ideas in the book, everyone being equal, for one, are ones that people often view as lofty ideals. Also, releasing people when they've served their time, or are not needed, might on the surface make sense. It works in Jonas' community for many people! However, as he starts to realize what he's missing, he can't swallow living in that community anymore.

This book makes me feel like I need to focus more on what is really in my heart. I need to not worry so much about tradition and ties to expectations from other people. I need to be more willing to do things I want to do. I need to follow my dreams and do what I really love.

Some might assume I'm reading this  because the movie is out right now. I'm a little curious about the movie, but a little afraid it might ruin the special relationship I have with the book (did I ever mention I'm not a huge movie fan anyway?). My book club picked Son for our read for this month, and perhaps that was because of the movie. Not sure. I'm leaving the option open. Still undecided.

It's always interesting to read a variety of opinions on GoodReads. Most people give The Giver a high rating. But there are a few ones. Check one out here. You can search others, if you're really interesting. I only bring this up because I remember talking with a friend who was really upset that her kid was reading this book in school. She thought it was a TERRIBLE book. I can't remember all her reasons. I just remember having the conversation and thinking, 'isn't it great that a book can bring out so many strong emotions?' There's one thing for sure - Lois Lowry does that with this one.

Under The Egg (Laura Marx Fitzgerald)

Next time I take my kids on a trip to New York, we will visit all the museums and definitely read this book first!

This is a good read. There are lots of interesting connections to art. It would be fun to read it if you were studying these artists in an art class or history class. 

There we're some things that didn't make sense to me. They were too easy and very unexplained:

- chickens in the back yard in NYC? Isn't there a by-law against that?

- how do you have paparazzi-deserving movie stars living down the street from crazy math ladies whose children have to take on the adult responsibilities?

- would an x-ray tech really get bamboozled into x-raying a piece of old art?

- poor kid who has to worry so much about money and sees no solution....but alas, in the end it works out with hundreds of thousands of cash found in the walls of the house. Of course!

....and on and on and on.

Besides that (and a few more) I did enjoy the read. I would say this book is best suited for middle school though. Might be too much for an 8 year old...but then,  you never know! It would be a great book to read with your favorite child because the adult and child can be well entertained by it.

The writing, itself, is lovely. There were a number of times I folded down a corner of the page so that I could add it to my list of favorites:

P. 9 Jack said my mom was always a big "off", even as a little girl. It's not that she was crazy or even slow. It's just that she always preferred the world inside her mind to the world outside. 

 P. 33 Mr. Katsanakis was not exactly a friend of the family. In fact, he was on my grandfather's list (The League if Nameses, I called it). Jack had an extensive catalog of personal grievances against most of his acquaintances, stemming from disagreements over art, politics, sports rivalries, money owed (or not owed), parking violations, and garbage can placement. And like a good lieutenant, I accepted Jack's grudges as my own.

P. 75: by the time I got home, it was clear the house was feeling neglected and was going to take it out  on me - starting right with the front door, which dumped its heavy brass doorknob into my hand. The upstairs toilet swirled spitefully. My mother "helped out" by dumping her dirty laundry in the hallway floor.

The garden was paying the heaviest price for my extracurricular activities: stems drooped, vegetables shrivelled in the heat. Love your garden, and it will love you back, as jack would say. Same goes for chickens. But today the chickens were peeved too, and Srtmesis pecked my foot when I scattered some beet greens as a guilt gift.

I spent the next morning atoning, and by the time I had stopped for breakfast, I had re drilled and replaced the stripped screws in the front door, accosted the upstairs toilet, cleaned our the chicken coops, and turned the compost heap.

I loved this paragraph about the library:

P. 84. The public library is the closest I'll ever come to a shopping spree. Once, twice, sometimes three times a week, I'll drop in, raid the stacks, wielding my library card like a socialite with a Bloomingdake's charge account, I grab anything that Kim's interesting, flipping through a few pages before losing interest or devouring the whole thing in one sitting. And if I don't like it, I can return it. It's the only place where I can be wasteful with no consequences.

As long as I return the books on time.

The Stamp Collector (Jennifer Lanthier)

Beautiful and haunting. It doesn't really strike me as a children's book though. It is a wonderful way to tell the story if the need for story, or the tragedy if oppression, and how it can be overcome.

Goodreads summary:

A city boy finds a stamp that unlocks his imagination; a country boy is captivated by stories. When they grow up, the two boys take different paths – one becomes a prison guard, the other works in a factory – but their early childhood passions remain. When the country boy’s stories of hope land him in prison, the letters and stamps sent to him from faraway places intrigue the prison guard – and a unique friendship begins.

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared (Jonas Jonasson and Rod Bradbury, Translator))

This book has the longest title I have ever seen. The story kind of matched the title. I felt like it went on and on and on and on. It is quite funny. That kept me reading. Too often though, I found myself saying, "Oh come on!" to some of the humor though. 

There is a lot of history in the book. I am not up on history at all and I wondered if some of the things really did happen that he talks about. If they did, it makes the story even better.

I thought it was really well translated. It seemed like it had been written in English first (it was first written and published in Swedish).

If you are up for something silly, this book is a good one to pick up. I loved the concept if living life to the fullest and not worrying how things will work out.

Goodreads summary:

It all starts on the one-hundredth birthday of Allan Karlsson. Sitting quietly in his room in an old people’s home, he is waiting for the party he-never-wanted-anyway to begin. The Mayor is going to be there. The press is going to be there. But, as it turns out, Allan is not… Slowly but surely Allan climbs out of his bedroom window, into the flowerbed (in his slippers) and makes his getaway. And so begins his picaresque and unlikely journey involving criminals, several murders, a suitcase full of cash, and incompetent police. As his escapades unfold, we learn something of Allan’s earlier life in which – remarkably – he helped to make the atom bomb, became friends with American presidents, Russian tyrants, and Chinese leaders, and was a participant behind the scenes in many key events of the twentieth century. Already a huge bestseller across Europe, The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared is a fun and feel-good book for all ages

Hannah's Suitcase

In school, my son started reading Hannah's Suitcase, a holocaust story. He has talked about it endlessly. He was really taken by the whole story. I haven't read it, so I can't write about the book because I haven't read it, but I wanted to mention it because it would be a great story to read along with Number The Stars. Hana's surviving brother, George, lives in Canada now so it has an interesting Canadian connection as well.

Escape From Camp 14 (Blaine Harden)

Every now and then I read a book that makes me wonder about our humanity and how we look after one another on this planet. This is the story of a man who was born in a work camp in North Korea. These camps are brutal. People are beaten, they are killed for minor infractions of camp rules, they are starved, and they are void of any of what we would consider natural human feelings.

Shin, the man in this story escaped from a work camp and struggles still to make his way in the free world. As the author says on p. 121, he spent 23 years in a open-air prison run by men who hung his mother, shot his brother, crippled his father, murdered pregnant women, beat children to death, taught him to betray his family, and tortured him over a fire.

He is out now, and lives in the USA, but in many ways he is still a prisoner. Just like when I read Left To Tell, I am shocked that this can happen in our world today. While I sleep in my warm bed, have the freedom to go wherever I want, to learn whatever I want, and make decisions about my own life, this still happens in North Korea. Is anyone doing anything about it? What can be done? We have satellite images that show tha camp that Shin lived I. Why is it no one does anything about it??!

The Wall (Peter Sis)

The author of this book grew up in Prague. He tells the story of communism from 1948 to when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. It's the kind of book a kid would sit and read and look at pictures and think about for hours.

I have read a few books involving communism, and it is a difficult concept for them to understand, thankfully! This book would give them some good background on what was all involved in communism.