RM Winter 2017

Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, TwoWings: A Memoir Engle, Margarita. (2015) . 224 pages. Atheneum. 978-1-481-43523-9 $17.99 (Intermediate/Young Adult) –Amy Bray Have you ever wished your body could be in two places at once? Maybe that your body was physically present, but your mind and heart where somewhere else? This feeling of incompleteness

Mai would rather be at the beach with her best friend Montana. She would rather spend her summer obsessing over “him.” She would rather be in California. But spending the summer in Vietnam with limited access to her cell phone and the constant presence of family members and villagers, Mai is part of the classic tale of realizing that there is more to the world than herself. She is awakened to new perspectives and new ways of life. Listen, Slowly is written in witty voice, it is chock-full of SAT words (thanks to Mai’s mother), and it educates readers about Vietnamese culture and trying new things.

Reading Matters Literature Matters

Pool Lee, JiHyeon. (2015). Unpaged. Chronicle. 978-1-452--14294-4 $16.99. (Primary/ Intermediate) – Valerie Samani Have you ever wondered what you could find if you opened your imagination to all the possibilities the world has to offer? In this picturebook, a young boy dives into an unseen world that others do not dare to explore. Because

is exactly how Margarita Engle felt growing up as a Cuban American in the big city of Los Angeles. Through a series of free verse poems, the reader is taken through Engle’s childhood and the lacking sense of belonging she feels while not being in her mother’s country of Cuba. She goes on to describe how others treated her and how her family was deeply affected during the ColdWar. One poem, “Revolutionary” reads, “I remember the island as a quiet place/ of peaceful horses and cows, but now/ all I see are crowds of bearded soldiers/ in dull green uniforms,/ with dark machine guns/ balanced/ on rough shoulders” (p. 70). Through the lyrical words, readers feel her sorrow about her two worlds being in turmoil. When Margarita feels alone and different from the friends and people around her, she finds comfort in words and the hope of returning to Cuba during the summer after the war passes. The memoir concludes with Margarita looking into what she hopes for her future. She writes in “Hope,”“All I know about the future/ is that it will be beautiful./ An almost-war/ can’t last/ forever./ Someday, surely I’ll be free/ to return to the island of all my childhood/ dreams” (p. 185). For those in the upper elementary grades, this is an incredibly written book that will get readers thinking about the variety of cultures surrounding our lives.

the book is wordless, it offers open interpretations for readers. All of the pictures throughout the book move horizontally, having the pictures on the left side flow into the right page, showing continuous movement throughout. As the pictures flow into one another, the soft texture of the pencil sketching’s represent a strong sensual feeling to the artwork, making the reader feel connected with the story. In some pictures, there are sparks of different colors, such as the girl’s red swimsuit, and the different colored fish. This variation in colors throughout the story draws the reader’s eye to specific objects the author feels are important without having to directly tell the reader to look for them. The variation in color also highlights the idea of escaping the ordinary, a main theme throughout the story. The two children are the only characters that hold color, identifying them from the other, ordinary people in the pool. The colors and scenes found throughout this book tell a story of being brave enough to exploring the unexplored, something that children must be able to do in order to gain experience and knowledge of the world around them.

Listen, Slowly Låi, Thanhhà (2015). 260 pages. HarperCollins. 978-0-06222-918-2. $16.99 (Intermediate) – Laura Dekle Mai has grown up hearing just enough about wartime Vietnam to know that it was bad – enough to make her parents and family leave – but no one ever tells her what about it was so awful. Mai grows up in California,

Ling & Ting: Together In All Weather Lin, Grace. (2015). 48 pages. Little, Brown. 978-0-316-33549-2 $16.00 (Primary) – Mary Vilcheck Ling and Ting are twins who are never apart. In this fourth book of the series, the six chapters take the twins on an adventure through all the seasons. The stories in this book are simple, yet relatable to young readers. This

privileged, with hardworking parents and her Vietnamese grandmother, Bà. Because Mai doesn’t know much about Vietnam, she does not appreciate her parents pushing her to learn SAT word after SAT word, nor is she aware of the value and history of her Vietnamese heritage. Then, when Mai’s father tells her that someone needs to go to Vietnam with Bà to investigate the location of Bà’s long-lost husband, Ông, Mai learns more about Vietnam than she had ever wanted to.

book is the perfect opportunity to teach young children about winter, fall, spring, and summer. Ling and Ting go from selling

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