International Children's Book #3, Dawn, by Elie Wiesel

  Dawn, by Elie Wiesel is the follow-up to his award winning book Night.  First published in French, Dawn is the story of Elisha, a 19-year-old Holocaust survivor turned terrorist.  Elisha has become apart of Jewish fight against the Bristish, and has seen death, survived death, and caused death.  He struggles with these three things as he has been assigned the job of assain.  Elisha was lured into the Movement by a man named Gad while he was living in France.  Gad has taught Elisha military skill, and has assigned him the role of God in the Movement, meaning tha the would be taking the life of British officier John Dawson.  Elisha has never met John Dawson, but he will be forever be tied to John as his executioner.  Struggling with coming to terms with his past, present, and future, Elisha tortures himself and has a hard time excepting this job.  Sure, he has killed before, but never has he had to look the person he was set to kill in the eye.  With visions of the past, the struggle of playing God, and the past memories of his executed family, Elisha must decide where his loyalities, what his moral conscieous his telling him, and where his heart lies.
Even though this book was very good, it lacked the personal connection that Night offered.  Elisha's journey is sad, and in the end he makes a quick decision that the will have to live with for the rest of his life.  However, I was shocked at the decision that he did make, and when I finished the book, I couldn't believe how it ended.  Honestly, I have to say that I was a little disappointed because I had high hopes for a different outcome. 

International Children's Book #2, A Time of Miracles, by Anne-Laure Bondoux

This Batchelder Award winner was first published in French and is the author's second award winning novel.  A Time of Miracles is a very powerful book, but for a children's book may be a little confusing for the American reader.  The story often jumps around from place to place around countries close to Russia, as well as in France.  However, if the reader sticks with the story and give the book a chance, it has a very compelling story about a young boy Blaise "Koumail" Fortune.  Blaise has grown up on the run from an on going war between the Chechnya people and the Georgians after the decline of the Soviet Union in 1989.  Traveling with a woman named Gloria, who took him in after she found his mother barely alive, clutching the young baby, she took Blaise with her and has helped him survive.  They have lived in compounds, met interesting and troubled people, learned to live on their own means, and become a family of sorts.  However, even though Gloria's love for Blaise is genuine, she has not always been honest with him.  Can they survive the journey to a "free" France, or will Gloria's secret tear them apart?
Even though this novel has somewhat of a slow start, the characters are likeable, and very easy for a child to connect with.  I like how realistic and detailed Bondoux's story is, and how she makes war very real.  For a child that has never seen war, or its effects, it is quite an eye opening book.  I think a lot of students can connect with the character of Blaise because he has been through a lot of obstacles at a very young age, and unfortunately most of students have also been through life changing events.  It is an excellent story about survivial, loyalty, and love.

International Literature for Children/ Book #1 Night, Elie Wiesel

I had not read a lot of , or even heard of a lot of books that were published in other countries and translated into English before, but I have to say that looking into these types of books has been eye opening.  With so many of the children I teach being from multi-cultural homes, I was kind of disppointed in myself that I had not researched these types of books before now.  I found two awards given to books that are published in other countries, the Mildred L. Batchelder Award and the Pura Belpre Award.  The Mildred L. Batchelder Award is given to a children's  book that is considered the best book that was originally published in another country and is translated into English.  This award begin in 1966.  The Pura Belpre Award was first given in 1966, and focuses more on the Latino culture.  It is given to the book that best illustrates or explains a part of the Latino world.

The first book I came across to read for this section was a novel called Night, by Elie Wiesel.  After reading this book, I decided that this would book would be the focus point of my Holocaust Unit for my 8th grade students.  Night was orginially published in French in 1958, and has been translated into English by Marion Wiesel.  I came across this book when I was researching with my librarian for our Reading Motivation Plan, and both us couldn't be happier that we did.  Not only did it give me another amazing Holocaust book that I could use along side of Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry, but it had a riveting affect on the way I taught this entire unit to my students.  The even more cool thing about this novel, is that it is a memior of Elie's experience in Auschwitz when he was just 15.  Walking through his footsteps, seeing the horrors that he saw, and feeling the pain and saddness that he felt was a life changing experience.  I had always taught the Holocaust through eyes of other people, but never had I found a book that gave such a descriptive account of what really happened to over a million people in the death camp Auschwitz.  I have never been more excited to teach a unit to students, and teach them about persuasive and propaganda techniques, but also a lesson in humanity and empathy.  Even though Elie survives Auschwitz, what he loses there makes such a significant impact on the rest of his life, that his story can only do one thing:  make an impact the readers.

Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky.
Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever.
Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never.

Elie Wiesel, Night.

Maniac Magee, by Jerry Spinelli Newbery Award Winner Book #2

 I love Jerry Spinelli! I have read several of his books before Maniac Magee, and I am big fan of his writing!  Jeffrey Magee became an orphan at age 3 after his parents were killed by a drunk driver.  Jeffrey was sent to live with his uncle and aunt, which he hated because of their hatred toward each other. After having enough of their arguing and fighting, Jeffrey ran away, and when I say "ran" I mean he literally ran away to the town of Two Mills which was 200 miles away. Even though Two Mills is close to his home of Bridgeport, PA all is not well in their community.  Hector Street was used as a divider for a racial war, whites lived in the West End and the blacks lived in the East End of town. Through his adventure in Two Mills, Jeffrey meets some friends in Amanda Beale and her African-American family, Earl Grayson a washed up minor league baseball pitcher, he becomes a legend by hitting home runs off John Mcnab, and stands up to Mars Bar the East End bully.  Through all of his adventures though, Jeffrey just really want to find out who he is, he wants to be loved and have a family, something his uncle and aunt could not do. I highly recommend this book to young readers, it reaches out to some tough issues like death, divorce, homelessness, and finding out who you are along the way.  This book addresses a lot of issues that our students go through on a daily basis, and even though it is sad, they have to deal with growing up along with surviving.  I really like how Spinelli wrote Jeffrey's character.  He took this troubled kid, and turned him into a success story, which unfortunately does not happen near enough. This story has a great message, and I truly believe it is a book that many students will like, and place on the "favorites" shelf.

My Name is America: The Journal of Wong Ming-Chong: A Chinese Minor by: Laurence Yep Author Book #2

This type of book is not normally my cup of tea, I am more of a romance type of gal, but the story was good and it was a very easy book to get through.  The story begins in 1851 in Tiger Rock, a small farming town in southern China.  Our character Wong Ming-Chung is a young boy, and his family is suffereing to make ends meat. His uncle Precious Stone has decided to travel to America to work in the mines because gold has been found!  His family thinks that he is crazy, and that he would never make it through the journey, however, he does and ends up sending money back home to his family.  However, the money comes with some consequence, he wants them to send Wong Ming to American to live with him.  The family is outraged, but feel they owe Presious Stone this much, and agree to send their youngest son.  The journey to American is tough, Wong Ming sees lots of disease and death, but he mnages to make a few friends and survives the journey.  Once in Amercia he met up with his uncle to begin mining.   Wong Ming had to grow up very quickly, and without telling to much about the book, he felt racism from the American people and the Chinese were blamed for a lot of the problems they were having with overcrowding, as well as economics.  The Americans wanted the Chinese out, and they wanted their gold for themselves which sends Wong Ming on a dangerous journey.  This story's theme goes very well for this age group because it teaches them that greed will do nothing, but bring bad things to your life.  It is a very powerful emotion, and most of the time causes you to do things that you regret later, or causes your downfall.  Even though Wong Ming ends up back in China, he learned a very valuable lesson at a young age.  He learned that people are not always nice, and that to some people survivual will come at any cost!

Other Books By Laurence Yep:

Mountain Light
The Traitor
Sweetwater
The Ghost Fox
Tongues of Jade
The Butterfly Boy
Sea Glass

Cupid, Julius Lester

I was a little apprehensive when I first picked up this novel, however, I am glad that I did.  Even though it would probably not be a book that I read twice, I have to say that the spin on Roman mythology and their Gods and Goddesses was very creative.  In the end, the stories theme is about love.  Cupid, the son of Venus falls in love with a mere mortal, and not just any mortal, but a mortal that is said to be more beautiful than Venus herself.  Venus sends her son Cupid to make Psyche fall in love with an ugly monster, but fate has a different plan and Cupid falls deeply in love with Psyche.  Disobeying his mother Cupid sets into motion a plan to marry the mortal and try to keep her safe from his mother.  However, as most plans do Cupid's backfires, and it becomes a game of cat and mouse between Venus and Psyche.  Without giving to much away about the end of the story, this is the beginning of when love and soul come together to create pleasure in one's life.  This story was very creatively put together, and I really liked the ending, but for a middle school audience which this book geared toward, I thought it was kind slow getting started.  Most kids that I teach have to be hooked on a book within the first ten pages, if not fewer of the book to be interested.  However, once the story goes on, the plot thickens and it does move quicker.

Some other books by this author are:

What A Truly Cool World
To Be A Slave
Do Lord Remember
Long Journey Home
The Hungry Ghost

Holes, by Louis Sachar Movie Book #3

I have to say that even though I have seen this book several times in the library, and have heard my children discuss how great this book was,  I had never read it or watched the movie.  However, after reading the book this week and watching the movie with my daughter, I am sad that I didn't pick it up sooner! I think that Disney did very well making this book into a movie.  They stuck to the storyline very well, and minus missing a few small details the movie was great!  They acting was very good, and Shia Lebeouf is exactly what I pictured young Stanley to look like.  However, Stanley's character is so likeable, and you feel sorry for him because he is sent to Camp Green Lake so unjustly, but the way his and Zero's stories intertwine and break the "curse" is very well set-up.  I mean who would have ever thought that onions could save your life from lizards that guarded treasure!  This story may have a common theme in friendship, but Stanley and Zero's relationship is rare.  I love the fact that they go from enemies to saving each others lives, as well as ending a family feud they didn't even know existed.  I would definilty recommend this book to all 5th and 6th grade teachers, it is a loveable story, with likeable characters, a positive moral, and lots of adventure and mischeif along the way.  Not to mention, the movie is pretty good too!  I mean who couldn't love a character who last name is a palindrome of his first!