The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai

The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai will be released on March 17, 2020. Luckily, I was sent an advance reading copy.

This book is beautifully written. This story is set during the Vietnam War, but it goes back in time to the Great Hunger and Land Reform. I liked the characters in this book. They are realistically flawed. In this story the grandmother, Tran Dieu Lan, shares her story with her grand daughter, Huong who is growing up amid the Vietnam War. Her mother, father, and uncles have gone to fight, and she is awaiting their return. I love the relationship between Huong and her grandmother. I loved her uncle Dat. I sorrowed for her mother and the pain she endured from PTSD.

I liked that this book shows the effects of war on children, on returning veterans, on the environment, and on families. War damages everything it touches.

I liked her dedication of this book: "For my grandmother, who perished in the Great Hunger; for my grandfather, who died because of the Land Reform; and for my uncle, whose youth the Vietnam War consumed. For the millions of people, Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese, who lost their lives in the war. May our planet never see another armed conflict."

At times this story is terribly sad, but it is also a story of resilience, hope, survival, and strength.

Quotes I liked:

"The challenges faced by Vietnamese people throughout history are as tall as the tallest mountains. If you stand too close, you won't be able to see their peaks. Once you step away from the currents of life, you will have the full view . . ." (3)

"I touched the front door before our departure. Through my fingertips, I felt my parents' and uncles' laughter" (10).

"A pink glow pushed through the eastern horizon. Birds sang on tree branches. The first sunrays glimmered on the husks under my feet. I held the broom, sweeping sunlight into a pile" (23).

"What my uncle said made me think. I had resented America, too. But by reading their books, I saw the other side of them - their humanity. Somehow I was sure that if people were willing to read each other, and see the light of other cultures, there would be no war on earth" (161).

"I wanted to tell my uncle not to blame himself but feared I'd interrupt his thoughts. Perhaps he had to untangle his feelings on his own by talking out loud, so the he could understand how it was to be alive, and to be dead at the same time" (164).

"Till this day, if you happen to listen to my heartbeats, you might hear the singing voice of my Auntie Tu. She nurtured my soul with songs so that I can sing on" (292).

"The turbulent events of our history had not just ripped people apart, they'd imprinted on them a sense of guilt about things over which they had no control" (326).

I connected to a lot in this book even though I haven't endured a war or armed conflict on our land.

Read to a child today even if that child is you.  

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate

Boy Meets Dog: A Word Game Adventure by Valerie Wyatt and Dave Whamond

Boy Meets Dog: A Word Game Adventure by Valerie Wyatt and Dave Whamond was published in 2013 and plays on the change a letter word game. The illustrations by Dave Whamond are fun.

The story begins in a bedroom where a cat was minding its business and a toy becomes a boy. "Strange things happen if you change just one letter in a word. A toy could become a boy. toy boy
A cat could become a dog. cat cot cog dog"

Words change into other words all through this adventure with a boy and a dog. This would be a good book to use in a classroom to build word power in a fun way, especially if the students illustrated their word game.

Some of the words take many changes to become the new words, but Wyatt shows the progression of each word with the changed letter in red. If you have a word lover in your life, this is a good book for them.

Read to a child today even if that child is you. 

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys was published in 2016 and is about a piece of history I'd not learned about before. Sepetys takes important but not as well know pieces of history and creates beautiful historical fiction.

From Goodreads: "While the Titanic and Lusitania are both well-documented disasters, the single greatest tragedy in maritime history is the little-known January 30, 1945 sinking in the Baltic Sea by a Soviet submarine of the Wilhelm Gustloff, a German cruise liner that was supposed to ferry wartime personnel and refugees to safety from the advancing Red Army. The ship was overcrowded with more than 10,500 passengers — the intended capacity was approximately 1,800 — and more than 9,000 people, including 5,000 children, lost their lives."

Blurb from the back of the book: "Each one born of a different homeland' each one hunted, and haunted, by tragedy, lies, war. As thousands desperately flock to the coast in the midst of a Soviet advance, four paths converge, vying for passage aboard the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that promises safety and freedom.

"But not all promises can be kept."

This story is told from the point of view of four different characters and each chapter lets you know whose point of view is being told. All four people meet and have a connection. This story is important. It shows the plight of the refugees and the damage war causes in the lives of all.

I listened to the audio version and it was well narrated.

Read to a child today even if that child is you. 

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Spirit Hunters by Ellen Oh

Spirit Hunters by Ellen Oh was published in 2017 and is a good haunted house and ghost story.

Blurb from the back of the book: "Harper Raine doesn't like her new house from the moment she steps inside. It make her skin crawl and her hair stand on end. There's an energy to the house that just doesn't feel right.

"There are rumors that the Raine Family's new house is haunted. Unexplainable events and tragedy seem to have befallen every family who's lived there before. Harper isn't sure she believes those rumors, until her younger brother, Michael stars acting strangely - throwing dark tantrums and alienating the family. Is Michael being a normal kid, or is something more sinister in play?

"The whole atmosphere gives Harper a sense of deja vu,but she can't remember why. Harper knows that the memories she's blocking will help make sense of her brother's behavior and the dangerous sensations she feels in this house, but will she be able to put the pieces together in time?"

I like the family relationships in this story and found them realistic. I also like the layers of ghost hauntings in this house and in Harper's life and the explanation given for all these layers. I like that both parents are alive.

This is the first of two books.

Read to a child today even if that child is you. 

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini was published in 2003 and like his other books, is completely riveting. Hosseini has the ability to create a world makes you feel like you are living his story.

There is a situation that happened in chapter ten that made me feel the character's guilt as if it were my own.

What I like about this book beside the excellent writing is that it is a perfect story of the mistakes we make as children, the guilt we often carry because of those mistakes, and the ways we try to atone for out guilt in order to find redemption.

I love the relationship between Amir and his wife and the respect he showed to his father.

Quotes I liked:

"Now, no matter what the mullah teaches, there is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every sin is a variation of theft. When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness" (page 17, 18).

"America was a river, roaring along, unmindful of the past" (136).

"How seamless seemed love and then came trouble" (249).

"I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering it's things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night" (359).

Read to a child today even if that child is you. 

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

I Feel Better with a Frog in My Throat: History's Strangest Cures by Carlyn Beccia

I Feel Better with a Frog in My Throat: History's Strangest Cures by Carlyn Beccia was published in 2010 and like the title says, contains history's strangest cures.

I like the how Beccia set up this book. She shows the cures for a malady and lets the reader try to guess which ones worked. On the next page, the reader gets to see if they are correct and learn the science behind it.

The pictures in this book are quite fun, and this in no way reads like a textbook even though it is informational text.

If you have a young scientist, a budding physician, a child who enjoys humor, or one who likes things that are a bit disgusting, you need this book in your library.

At Christmas time, Corbin Canfield organized a book drive for his Eagle Project. As part of that project, he collected money for books. The book box arrived - eighty-eight new books for the NICU babies. Thank you to all who donated to his project. Thanks also to my friend, Marla. She allows me to order from her Scholastic book order and gives us the bonus books that come with it.

Read to a child today even if that child is you. 

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Bamboozled by David Legge

Bamboozled  by David Legge was published in 1994 by Discovery Toys and is currently out of print. This book can still be found used on Amazon.

In this story, a little girl goes to visit her grandfather, and she can't help feeling that something seems a little odd. The illustrations in this book are fantastic. There are a lot of odd things, but those are not the odd thing that she can't put her finger on. There is so much to see in this book. I enjoyed looking at all the illustrations. Kayana spent a long time looking at everything in every picture. She also gives this book a thumbs up.

This is a very clever book. I hope it comes back into print at some point.

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.

Rena's Promise: A Story of Sisters in Auschwitz by Rena Kornreich Gelissen with Heather Dune Macadam

Rena's Promise: A Story of Sisters in Auschwitz by Rena Kornreich Gelissen with Heather Dune Macadam was published in 1995 and republished with an expanded edition in 2015. This book is incredibly well written.

This is the story of Rena and her little sister, Danka. Rena was on the first transport of women to be sent to Auschwitz, and her sister joined her later. This story shows the resilience of the human spirit to survive against insane odds. How anyone survived what they went through astonishes me.

Rena's story, like other Holocaust memoirs, makes me wonder how human beings can be so cruel to other human beings.

Some quotes I liked:

"The heart is only so big, so I do not hate. To hate is let Hitler win" (preface xi).

"The potato that the Polish woman furtively slipped to her gave Rena the courage to continue, not only because it gave her physical nourishment but because it gave her spiritual sustenance. That gesture said: I see you. You are hungry. You are human" (preface xv).

"They asked me how I got over Auschwitz, and I said, 'I had babies'" (preface xv).

"The air is cooler up her, but the sun is strong and the wind, though it has a nip of winter, has none of its cruelty" (2).

'"I just want my children to read my story someday,' she says. 'I can't tell it to them. I tried, but it's too hard.' And that first day I know that if nothing else I will do that for her - she deserves that much" (3).

I found this book hard to put down.

Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit so their parents can read to them while they grow. You can also donate gently used books to our project by sending them to me or to Angie. Email me for a mailing address. We can use both English and Spanish books. If you have a graduate of the NICU, or if you have a baby whose life you would like to honor by donating books to this project, let me know, and I can make a book plate with their name for the books you donate.