bella books review

Sunday Salon: Into The Arms of Strangers (2000)

After reading Anne C. Voorhoeve's My Family for the War, I knew I had to find out more about kindertransport. I was quite happy to learn there was a documentary all about it, a documentary with interviews from many of the children who were transported safely--if not exactly happily--to England. (This film even won an Academy Award in 2001 for Best Documentary!!!)

A little bit more about kindertransport...

Great Britain agreed to permit Jewish children between the ages of 5 and 17 to come to the U.K. -- without their parents. Between December of 1938 and August of 1939, some 10,000 German children gained refuge in the U.K. Most were adopted by British families, and many of the older boys served in the British Army, fighting against the Nazis, but the majority were never to see their birth parents again.

Think about that. Really think about that. The choice of it all. To send your kids away to safety knowing that likely you'll not see them again because your own chances at survival are so very slim...or to keep your kids with you to the end and face death all together as a family. Not that there would be any guarantees that you'd be able to stay all together...as it turns out many families were separated in the camps. Husbands from wives. Parents from children. But still. It wasn't an easy choice for parents to make...or for children and teens to accept. The documentary talks about this a great deal.

Watch Into the Arms of Strangers

If you are interested in learning more about Kindertransport
If you are interested in learning more about the Nazi's treatment of Jews in the late 1930s and throughout the war, leading, of course, to the Holocaust
If you are interested in World War II
If you are looking for personal stories as a way to effectively share what this time period was really like (the Holocaust is about so much more than numbers)
If you enjoy great documentaries

Library Loot: First Trip in March

New Loot:

11/22/63 by Stephen King
Midnight in Austenland by Shannon Hale
Explorers of the Nile: The Triumph and Tragedy of a Great Victorian Adventure by Tim Jeal
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Fire by Kristin Cashore
1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up, edited by Julia Eccleshare
1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die edited by Peter Boxall

Leftover Loot:

The War to End All Wars: World War I by Russell Freedman
The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer
The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History by John M. Barry
All That I Am by Anna Funder
A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City: A Diary by Anonymous
Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell
No Time to Wave Goodbye by Ben Wicks
Elsie and Mairi Go To War: Two Extraordinary Women on the Western Front by Diane Atkinson
The Cult of LEGO by John Baichtal, Joe Meno

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire and Marg that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries.

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Rereading Hattie Big Sky

Hattie Big Sky. Kirby Larson. 2006. Random House. 290 pages.

December 19, 1917
Arlington, Iowa

Dear Charlie,
Miss Simpson starts every day with a reminder to pray for you--and all the other boys who enlisted. Well, I say we should pray for the Kaiser--he's going to need those prayers once he meets you!

Oh, how I LOVE Hattie Big Sky. I just love and adore this historical YA novel set, for the most part, in 1918. The heroine, Hattie, has inherited her uncle's claim in Montana. If the claim is to become truly hers, she'll need to prove the claim. She'll need to plant/harvest a certain number of acres, and lay a certain number of fence/fence-posts. Intimidating work to be sure--physically and emotionally demanding work. True, she'll have almost all winter to prepare herself mentally and emotionally for the challenge--time well spent reading up on farming and such--but once spring comes, the work is neverending. Unfortunately, some people do have more time on their hands. Time to spend being too patriotic. Time to spend bullying your German neighbors. And believe me, it gets cruel and ugly and brutal. But Hattie is different from the rest--not that every single person is a hater. She knows that she wouldn't stand a chance of making it on her own without the friendship--deep friendship--with her closest neighbors. Yes, her neighbors are German. But never for a second has she felt they were her enemies, that they should be her enemies.

Read Hattie Big Sky

If you like or love historical fiction; this one is a must in my opinion!
If you love pioneer-type stories; yes, this one is set in 1918, but proving a claim and homesteading hadn't changed all that much
If you like or love coming of age novels; Hattie is a great heroine, and she learns so much about herself during these tough months!
If you like novels set during World War I

Fever (YA)

Fever. (Chemical Garden Series #2). Lauren DeStefano. 2012. Simon & Schuster. 352 pages.

We run, with water in our shoes and the smell of the ocean clinging to our frozen skin.

Fever is the sequel to Wither. I definitely enjoyed it. I'm not sure if I liked it--or loved it--more than the first in the series. But I definitely found it compelling! I do think you'd need to read the series in order. I wouldn't recommend Fever to those who haven't read Wither. I think each book will, most likely, continue to get better and better. (Unless something weird happens like in Stephenie Meyer's Breaking Dawn. Oh, how I wish I would have known to stop with Eclipse.)

I enjoyed seeing what happened next to Rhine and Gabriel....after their escape. Fever is very exciting, very compelling, very different from the first book, at least I thought so. This isn't a sequel that really copies the first book. We actually get to see more of this world, this society. We meet a handful of characters. Some we learn about in greater depth, some just brief sketches. But even brief sketches can help readers see the big picture. And it isn't exactly pretty and full of hope.

I definitely am enjoying DeStefano's writing, her characters, her pacing, her world-building.

Read Fever

If you're a fan of Wither, if you have to know what happens next
If you're a fan of dystopias, of science fiction, with a medical twist

Inside Out & Back Again (MG)

Inside Out & Back Again. Thanhha Lai. 2011. HarperCollins. 262 pages.

1975: Year of the Cat
Today is Tet,
the first day
of the lunar calendar.

Every Tet
we eat sugary lotus seeds
and glutinous rice cakes.
We wear all new clothes,
even underneath.

Mother warns
how we act today
foretells the whole year.

Everyone must smile
no matter how we feel.

No one can sweep,
for why sweep away hope?
No one can splash water,
for why splash away joy?

Inside Out & Back Again is a verse novel with wow-factor. If you like compelling novels with great narrators, then it's definitely a must-read. The heroine of the novel is a young girl named Ha. Her family faces a difficult choice, but they make the only choice they feel they can make at the time, they choose to leave war-torn Saigon. They could apply to go anywhere, they could try to find a sponsor in a number of countries, but they choose America. The family ends up in Alabama. For better or worse as Ha herself can tell you. For this sensitive, well-spoken young girl is made to feel ridiculous, stupid, and worthless. She's bullied by many of her classmates. There are days Ha feels that even a war-torn country would be a better place to live than Alabama. But the novel isn't without hope. For Ha's life isn't hopeless, good things can and do happen to her and her family.

I definitely recommend this one!!! I loved it SO MUCH MORE than Dead End in Norvelt. (Have you read both books, which one did you like better?!) I thought the poems were so well-written. Here's one called "Two More Papayas"

Two More Papayas

I see them first.
Two green thumbs
that will grow into
orange-yellow delights
smelling of summer.

Middle sweet
between a mango and a pear.

Soft as a yam
gliding down
after three easy,
thrilling chews. (21)

And one called "First Rule." It is one of many, many, many poems about Ha's experiences learning English/English grammar.

First Rule

Brother Quang says
add an s to nouns
to mean more than one
even if there's
already an s
sitting there.

Glass
Glasses

All day
I practice
squeezing hisses
through my teeth.

Whoever invented
English
must have loved
snakes. (118)

Read Inside Out & Back Again

If you are interested in Vietnam
If you are interested in historical novels
If you are interested in verse novels
If you are looking for heroines with heart
If you are looking to read this year's Newbery honor book
If you are looking for books about grieving and healing
If you are looking for family books
If you are looking for books with school settings and bullying

2012 Completed Challenge: Science Fiction Experience

I read 31 books for this non-challenge, reading challenge!!!

The Books I Read:

1. To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
2. Babylon 5: To Dream in the City of Sorrows by Kathryn M. Drennan
3. Babylon 5: The Shadow Within by Jeanne Cavelos
4. Babylon 5: In the Beginning by Peter David
5. Babylon 5: Legions of Fire: The Long Night of Centauri Prime. Peter David.
6. Babylon 5: Legions of Fire: Armies of Light and Dark. Peter David.
7. Babylon 5: Legions of Fire: Out of the Darkness. Peter David.
8. A Million Suns (Across the Universe #2). Beth Revis.
9. The Pledge. Kimberly Derting.
10. The Predicteds. Christine Seifert.
11. Scored. Lauren McLaughlin.
12. Shadows in Flight. Orson Scott Card.
13. Blackout. Connie Willis.
14. All Clear. Connie Willis.
15. Enchantress from the Stars. Sylvia Louise Engdahl.
16. The Way We Fall. Megan Crewe.
17. Tankborn. Karen Sandler.
18. All Good Children. Catherine Austen
19. Cinder. (The Lunar Chronicles #1). Marissa Meyer.
20. Crossed. Ally Condie.
21. Awaken. Katie Kacvinsky.
22. The Demolished Man. Alfred Bester.
23. Alas, Babylon. Pat Frank.
24. The Worthing Saga. Orson Scott Card.
25. Earth Abides. George R. Stewart.
26. Time for the Stars. Robert A. Heinlein.
27. The Puppet Masters. Robert A. Heinlein
28. The Door Into Summer. Robert A. Heinlein.
29. Double Star. Robert A. Heinlein
30. The Stars My Destination. Alfred Bester.
31. We. Yevgeny Zamyatin.

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

Breaking Stalin's Nose (MG)

Breaking Stalin's Nose. Eugene Yelchin. 2011. Henry Holt. 160 pages.

My Dad is a hero and a Communist and, more than anything, I want to be like him. I can never be like Comrade Stalin, of course. He's our great Leader and Teacher.

Sasha Zaichik, the young hero of Eugene Yelchin's historical novel, Breaking Stalin's Nose, makes quite an impression. When readers first meet him, he's confident--perhaps over-confident that communism is the best thing that ever, ever happened to Russia. He worships his father and Stalin. When readers first meet him, he's so thrilled to be on the verge of joining the Young Pioneers. But the night before the ceremony, the night before his big opportunity, his father is arrested. It seems their neighbors have turned him in. Just minutes after the arrest, they take advantage of the situation and move into his rooms, Sasha Zaichik is forced onto the streets. But even his father's arrest can't thoroughly shake his belief that Stalin is a good man, that his father is a good man, that there has been a great misunderstanding, that a day--or two, at most--will right all wrongs. But is that the case? The novel follows Sasha for just two days, but in those two days, everything seems to change.

I would definitely recommend this one! The story is definitely compelling. And the illustrations complemented the text well. I think they definitely added to this novel for young readers. It was refreshing to see historical fiction set in a different time and place. While I've read more than a few novels (for this age group) about the Cold War--from the American perspective--I've hardly read anything at all set in Russia during this time period--after World War II.

Read Breaking Stalin's Nose

If you enjoy historical novels for children
If you enjoy coming-of-age stories
If you want to read this year's Newbery Honor Book