13 Moons on Turtles Back

For my first teacher recommended book I read "13 Moons on Turtles Back" it was Recommended by Shawn Morgan who teaches 4th and 5th grade at Springport Elementary School. The book is written in prose and is full of Native American folktales. This book is really special as it is one that I explicitly remember from my childhood and after rereading it, its still just as great as I remember it being. Each page details the legend of each moon of the year as according to old Native American legend accompanied by a beautiful illustration. The legend begins with a grandfather explaining to his grandson that there are 13 moons in the year just as there are 13 squares on a turtles shell. He then proceeds to tell a story about each moon. The stories are all very clever and interesting and the illustrations are in my opinion mind blowing. Each portrays a stunning epic nature scene. The writing style of the author flows very nicely and includes many Native American words and phrases adding to the richness of the text. The passages all feel very meaningful and sincere and really create a sense of wonder and make you respect the amount of thought that Native Americans gave to everything they observed. When reading this book it really makes you look at the natural world from a new perspective. The book is full of stories of creation and how everything in nature came to be from the moons, to different animals, to the seasons, to mankind all according to Native American legends. The fact that the story is set as if it is a grandfather telling it to his grandson also makes it feel more genuine and as if someone is telling you a story from memory. It also really makes you respect what amazing story tellers Native Americans were and how impressive it was that everything they kept track of was by memory as there are very few written records. I really love this book and reading it again brought back memories from childhood when my mom used to read it to my siblings and I. Between the beautiful illustrations and the wonderful stories this book is really great.

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass

For my Belpre award winning book I read "Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass". by Meg Medina. The book focuses on school bullying on an extreme level. The main character Piddy Sanchez moves to a new school where a girl named Yaqui Delgado immediately targets her and begins bullying her violently. Piddy is frequently beaten and hurt by Yaqui and her friends. Piddy eventually becomes scared to even leave her house or go to school because of Yaqui and fells isolated and alone with no one to reach out to as she and her mother are not on good terms as her mother will not talk to her about her father who left them and causes Piddy to resent her for that. Piddy eventually reaches out to her childhood friend/love interest Joey about what's happening. She also reaches out to her coworker Lila at the salon where she works. Joey offers his own knowledge of abuse as his father is violent towards his mother and Lila offers her advice as she faced a similar situation as a child. Joey asks Piddy to run away with him as he flees his abusive household but she refuses and instead decides to take Lila's advice and stand up to Yaqui and not let her win. After she takes numerous beatings and suffers through all of the terror that Yaqui inflicts on her someone at school eventually reports Yaqui to the principal and when video evidence of one of the violent incidents is shown the school administration Yaqui is expelled and Piddy decides to transfer schools and finally finds acceptance. I think this book is great because it is very real and doesn't shy away from or sugar coat anything. The book really gives a good example of how bad bullying can get if it goes unnoticed or isn't stopped. I definitely thought this book was well written and stayed interesting throughout. I would definitely recommend this book to any reader as I think this issue is something that people should be aware of and this book does a very good job of portraying it.

The Giver

For my Newberry Award winner I read "The Giver" by Lois Lowry. I had never read this book before which I guess may be surprising since I know it is very popular and now I see why. This book was incredibly interesting and unique. The book takes place in a society where everyone is forced to conform to what those in charge have decided is best for them as a whole. There is no pain, war, disagreement, or choice in life. Everyone is assigned jobs when they turn 12, you may be assigned a spouse if you wish and married couples can be assigned a maximum of two children. If a member of society fails to fit in or adopt the ways of life that the community follows they are "released." The people in the community believe that being released means being sent to the world outside of their community when in reality it means death. The main character Jonas is assigned the role of the Receiver. Since there is no war or pain in the world the memory of these things is also absent from the minds of all the people in this society save for the receiver. The receiver alone holds on to these memories in order to keep them safe and prevent society from repeating the same mistakes. Jonas meets the current receiver who begins passing these memories down to him. When Jonas begins receiving these memories from the current receiver or the "Giver" as he calls him, he realizes how dull life in their society is and that everyone has lost the ability to feel any type of passion towards anything. He also finds out that release is actually death and becomes infuriated. Eventually Jonas becomes fed up with the system and with the Giver's encouragement he devises a plan to escape society and return these memories and emotions to the people. I thought the whole concept of this book was really amazing and in my opinion it offers a bit of social commentary on how people in today's world are constantly forced to either conform to the norms created by society or face being outcast. I absolutely loved this book and wish I had read it sooner as I think it is extremely relevant and well written.

The People Could Fly

For my Coretta Scott King award winner I read "The People Could Fly" by Virginia Hamilton. The book is Illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon. The book is a collection of black folktales. The first thing I noticed about the book is the way that it is written. The folktales in the book don't really use what's considered "proper grammar" and instead are written as if they are told by a narrator speaking with a southern African American dialect. I thought this was very interesting and unique and in a way refreshing. It was nice to read something that was different than what I was used to and I think the fact that the author is African American makes it more genuine as well. Although the writing was in a different style it was never incomprehensible or even hard to understand really and I liked how that really reinforced my belief that proper English isn't always necessary in literature. The stories in the book are also very interesting as they aren't really the folktales that I'm used to. I also really enjoyed how at the end of each story there was a paragraph explaining the story and its relevance in black culture. I think this gives a reader like myself who isn't necessarily familiar with black culture or history a better understanding of how the tale came to be and why its relevant. Overall I think this collection is very well put together and is full of really great stories. I really enjoyed how each story had a lesson that it was trying to teach. My favorite story from the book is called "Manuel Had A Riddle" and tells about a boy who out smarts the king and queen to win their riches and teaches a lesson about honesty and integrity. I also really enjoyed "He Lion, Bruh Bear, and Bruh Rabbit" The story is about a prideful lion who learns a lesson about modesty the hard way. It has a good message about being humble and I thought it was great. This is definitely one of the better books that I have read and I would definitely recommend it.

Double Dutch

For my first Librarian recommended book I read "Double Dutch" by Sharon M. Draper. The book was recommended to me by Leona Keeler who is the librarian at Springport Elementary School. The book follows the stories of two middle school students named Delia and Randy.  Delia and Randy are on the double-dutch team and are very good. Their team has a chance at competing at the national championships. However both have a secret. Delia can't read and if she can't learn she may not pass school and get to continue jumping on the team. Randy's father has gone missing and he hasn't seen or heard from him in weeks. Really I didn't enjoy this book too well. I thought it really dragged on and the dialogue was awful. Its full of pointless middle school banter and is not very concise. I think because the main story line is fairly complex and made up of multiple plots its very easy to lose track of everything that's going on with the pointless dialogue and other random sidetracks that the book goes on. In all this was not my favorite book that I've read although I think the idea is good. The complex story line is very interesting and its kind of unique to see the story lines of different characters develop and come together to see how they intertwine. I really just didn't line the writing style or the way that a lot of extra things distract from the main story.

The Keeping Quilt

For my second non-ALA award winner I read "The Keeping Quilt" by Patricia Placco. The book won the Association of Jewish Libraries, Sydney Taylor Award. The book tells the story of Patricia's great grandmother Anna coming to America from Russia. The only two items she had with her from home were her babushka and her dress. When she outgrew them her mother took them along with pieces of clothing from various family members and crafted a beautiful quilt. The story follows the family's tradition of passing the quilt down and using it for special occasions. Every generation since her grandmother has used the quilt as their wedding huppa (a sort of awning over the bride and groom during the ceremony) on the Sabbath during their traditional dinner the quilt is used as the table cloth, and when a child is born they are wrapped in the quilt to be welcomed into the world by the bit and pieces from past family members. The story also tells the tradition of the women's wedding bouquets. Each bouquet contains flowers, bread, gold, and salt so that they may always know love, never know hunger, never know poverty, and so their life may always have flavor. I thought this was a really beautiful story and I remember having it read to me as a kid and meeting Patricia Polacco. Something that I noticed after reading it this time though, that I had never really paid attention to before was that all of the illustrations are in black and white but the quilt is colorful. I think this is meant to represent the happiness and comfort that the quilt represents as it contains a piece of home and a rich family history. I think this book is also a wonderful representation of a rich culture and shows just how diverse the world is. I enjoy the small use of Russian language throughout the book as I believe it also keeps the book genuine and helps to uphold that family history. Overall I really love this book and author.

Zia

For my first award winning (non-ALA) book I read "Zia" by Scott O'Dell. This book won the Hans Christian Anderson Award. The book is a sequel to "Island of the Blue Dolphins." The book is historical fiction and follows the main character Zia after her people have been taken from their home island off the coast of California and moved to a Christian mission in California. The book also tells the story of a Native American woman named Karana narrated by her 14 year-old niece Zia. Zia and her brother Mando go to look for their Aunt after she was left on her own on an uninhabited island in order to rescue her and potentially take her back to the mission. Zia and her brother find a boat washed up on the shore and get permission to keep it and use it to rescue their aunt.  During the attempt to rescue their Aunt Zia is imprisoned and questioned thoroughly while Father Vincent a friend from the mission goes out to look for Karana. When they return a new Father is placed in charge and treats the people very poorly after which Karana leaves and eventually dies from what Zia believes to be "homesickness." I really enjoyed this book and thought it gave a very personal feeling account of ones way of life being threatened. I also really enjoyed the way this book was written. O'Dell's word use is very articulate and precise and I liked the fact that throughout the book he includes a good amount of Spanish which is something that I haven't really seen before. I thought the story was very interesting and it was, in my opinion, a good representation of how people have in a sense been forced to assimilate into "white culture." Overall I would definitely recommend this as a good read for any age. Its a very easy read an stays interesting throughout. It starts out at a pretty good pace and is concise and doesn't drag on like a lot of other books of this type that I have read.