30. The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali

listened on Libby

327 pgs.

2024
Adult Hist Fiction
Finished 7/2/2025
Goodreads rating: 4.49
My rating: 5
Setting: Set mostly in Tehran, moving from the 1950s forward to contemporary America, but most was in Tehran.

My comments: What a wonderful read...full of history that I can remember, relationships, feminism, family, striving for a quality life, and so many of the past and current tensions/frustrations in our world.  Beautifully written....such a great story!

Goodreads synopsis:  An “evocative read and a powerful portrait of friendship, feminism, and political activism” (People) set against three transformative decades in Tehran, Iran—from nationally bestselling author Marjan Kamali.

In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown. Lonely and bearing the brunt of her mother’s endless grievances, Ellie dreams for a friend to alleviate her isolation.

Luckily, on the first day of school, she meets Homa, a kind girl with a brave and irrepressible spirit. Together, the two girls play games, learn to cook in the stone kitchen of Homa’s warm home, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their ambitions of becoming “lion women.”

But their happiness is disrupted when Ellie and her mother are afforded the opportunity to return to their previous bourgeois life. Now a popular student at the best girls’ high school in Iran, Ellie’s memories of Homa begin to fade. Years later, however, her sudden reappearance in Ellie’s privileged world alters the course of both of their lives.

Together, the two young women come of age and pursue their own goals for meaningful futures. But as the political turmoil in Iran builds to a breaking point, one earth-shattering betrayal will have enormous consequences.

“Reminiscent of The Kite Runner and My Brilliant Friend, The Lion Women of Tehran is a mesmerizing tale” (BookPage) of love and courage, and a sweeping exploration of how profoundly we are shaped by those we meet when we are young.

Picture Books Themed: Friendship

 Books:

Cyril and Pat by Emily Gravett
Boom Snot Twitty by Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Renata Liwska
One Cool Friend by Toni Buzzeo, ullustrated by David Small
Virgil & Owen by Paulette Bogan
Friends by Eric Carle

Two activities:
        Make a "Friendship Wreath" using tempera-coated palm prints
        String pony beads onto stretchy cord to make a bracelet for a friend and a matching one for yourself.

Songs/Wordplay:
     Make New Friends
          Make new friends, but keep the old
          One is silver and the other's gold.
     Will You Be a Friend of Mine (to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb)
          Will you be a friend of mine,
          Friend of mine,
          Friend of mine,
          Will you be a friend of mine
          Please meet my friend, _______________________

Picture Book - Cyril and Pat by Emily Gravett

Illustrated by the author

2018, Great Britain Simon & Schuster

HC $17.99

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  

My rating:  5
Endpapers: solid bright yellow

1^st line/s:  "Lake Park only had one squirrel,
all alone and sad (poor Cyril).
Until the morning he met Pat,
his new best friend, a big gray ..."

My comments:Great story and great illustrations!!  Written mostly in sets of couplets and full of humor with lots to look at in each illustration.  And what a great message - you can be friends with ANYONE!!!

Goodreads:  Cyril is the only squirrel in Lake Park, and he's very lonely. Until one day he meets Pat – Pat the big, grey . . . other squirrel. Cyril and Pat have lots of adventures and fun together and Cyril is so pleased he's made a friend. But everyone is adamant that Cyril and Pat simply cannot be friends, and they soon reveal why: Pat, as the reader has known all along, is actually a RAT!
          But Cyril's life turns out to be a lot duller and quite a bit scarier without Pat by his side, and in the end the two friends learn that some things are more important than being the same, or listening to others.          Cyril and Pat is a richly colourful, rhyming romp through the park from the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal-winning Emily Gravett. 

69. Neverworld Wake by Marisha Pessl

listened on Audio, borrowed from CCLS
read by Phoebe Strole (beautifully!)
Unabridged audio (8:47)
2018 Listening Library, (Delacorte Press)
328 pgs.
YA Mystery/Fantasy
Finished 7/27/2019
Goodreads rating: 3.79 - 9103 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary Rhode Island

First line/s:  "I hadn't spoken to Whitley Lansing -- or any of them -- in over a year."

My comments:  Just when I thought it was getting a bit too repetitious (a huge part of the story, actually), Pessl would change it up.  So many surprises that I didn't see coming!  Superlative storytelling with an interesting cast of characters, none of whom are particularly likable....  Strong setting in Rhode Island, at a rich mansion and a snazzy private school, everything works together really well and leaves you with all sorts of delicious questions, questions that you have to come to terms with within yourself.  Really cool read!

Goodreads synopsis:  Once upon a time, back at Darrow-Harker School, Beatrice Hartley and her five best friends were the cool kids, the beautiful ones. Then the shocking death of Jim - their creative genius and Beatrice's boyfriend - changed everything.
          One year after graduation, Beatrice is returning to Wincroft - the seaside estate where they spent so many nights sharing secrets, crushes, plans to change the world - hoping she'll get to the bottom of the dark questions gnawing at her about Jim's death.
          But as the night plays out in a haze of stilted jokes and unfathomable silence, Beatrice senses she's never going to know what really happened. 
          Then a mysterious man knocks on the door. Blithely, he announces the impossible: time for them has become stuck, snagged on a splinter that can only be removed if the former friends make the harshest of decisions. 
          Now Beatrice has one last shot at answers... and at life.

PICTURE BOOK - Up and Down by Oliver Jeffers

Illustrated by the author

2010 Philomel Books

Still in print 8/18 - HC $17.99

40 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 4.07 - 2849 ratings

My rating: 4

Endpapers: florescent orange

1^st line/s:  "Once there were two friends....who always did everything together."

My comments:  This is, apparently, the fourth book Oliver Jeffers has written about "the boy."  It's a heartwarming story of friendship - between this boy and his penguin buddy - and the penguin's desire to try out flying.  Very cute, very Oliver Jeffers.  Must find others about "the boy!
1 - How to Catch a Star
2 - Lost and Found
3 - The Way Back Home

Goodreads:  From the illustrator of the #1 smash hit The Day the Crayons Quit comes a humorous, resonant tale about the value of shared experiences.
          A penguin has wings for a reason . . . doesn't he? Having a best friend with his own airplane is one thing, but actually experiencing what it feels like to fly by himself? Here is one penguin who believes this is precisely what he needs to feel complete. Only . . . if flying by himself is so wonderful, then why does he feel so empty?Because some experiences are better shared. (And penguins are much happier on the ground.)
          Oliver Jeffers delivers the perfect companion to his much-loved Lost and Found. Penguins everywhere will take flight in delight.

PICTURE BOOK - Lucy Loves Sherman by Catherine Bailey

Illustrated by Meg Walters

2017 Sky Pony Press

HC $16.99

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 3.96 - 26 ratings

My rating:  4 (I had to take away a point for the red lobster...)

Endpapers"  Cute and simple, 1-inch circles of paler blue on medium blue, with Lucy, Sherman, and her cat's head sticking out of three of the circles.

1^st line/s:  "Lucy loved Sherman from the moment they met."

My comments: Oh my goodness, what a cute story!  Clever and illustrated beautifully!  I do have a problem with it, though, and some people would say, "author's license," but it gives kids misinformation....lobsters are NOT red or orange until they're cooked.  98% of lobsters are a greenish brown until then.  But I still loved it....

Goodreads:  Girl meets lobster. Girl loves lobster. But can girl save lobster?
          That’s the question at the center of this sweet and sassy picture book about Lucy, her shell-y friend Sherman, and the seafood-loving town they inhabit.
          Lucy loves Sherman from the moment they meet at Flotsam’s Fish Market. Oh sure, he’s an eighteen-pound, eighty-year-old crustacean, but he’s also polka dotted. And blurble-y. And he smells like the ocean! Unfortunately, Nana is not hooked on the idea of a pet lobster.
          Things only get worse when Lucy meets Chef Pierre and discovers that Sherman’s fate is on a plate! She must rescue Sherman, even if it means getting into hot water with all the grownups. So Lucy takes action. But will the efforts of one little girl be enough to save Sherman from the bib and butter?
          As humorous as it is inspiring, Lucy Loves Sherman explores an unlikely, yet utterly charming friendship, and the challenge and thrill of finding your voice and being an activist.

PICTURE BOOK - Ella Who? by Linda Ashman

Illustrated by Sarah Sanchez

2017 Sterling Children's Books

HC $14.95

24 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  3.94 - 117 ratings

My rating: 5

Endpapers:  white background with 12 different "ropes" of leaves traveling from bottom to top of page.  Lovely.

1^st line/s: "The movers left the doors wide open.  That's probably how she got in."

My comments:  Super clever, funny, and cute story about a little girl whose family members are so "into" what they're doing that they pay very little attention to her (wise up, parents!).  The simple illustrations accentuate the story really nicely...this is the second Linda Ashman book that I've enjoyed tremendously!

Goodreads:  Mom . . . there’s an elephant in the living room. 
It’s moving day—and look who slipped in the door: an elephant! But when a little girl tries to tell her family about their unusual guest, the distracted grown-ups just say, “Ella WHO?” Even as children giggle at the girl’s adventures with the smallishpachyderm, and at the fun, recurring refrain, they’ll relate to the poignant theme about making—and sometimes letting go of—new friends.

45. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

Throne of Glass #1
read/listened to on Audible
2012 Bloomsbury USA Children
404 pgs.
YA Fantasy
Finished 8-4-17
Goodreads rating:  4.24 - 327,825
My rating:  3.5

First line/s:  "After a year of slavery in the Salt Mines of Endovear, Celaena Sardothien was accustomed to being escorted everywhere in shackles and at sword-point."

My comments:  3.5. I couldn't stand the protagonist and that makes enjoying a book a little tough. Celaena was pretty impressed with herself, to the point of cockiness. Granted, she did always come out on top - which was a bummer, in a way. Always? Seriously.
          I liked many of the other characters and see great possibilities for the future, although other than Celaena, the bad guys were very, very bad and the good guys were very good. I suppose that happens in a lot of fantasies when you have the good guys versus the bad guys, but this seemed a little overwhelming. I'm looking forward to more magic, more word symbols, and Dorian growing a little more spine - AND I'm sure we're going to discover that Celaena has hidden roots...

Goodreads synopsis: After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.
          Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king's council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she'll serve the kingdom for four years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilarating. But she's bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her ... but it's the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.
          Then one of the other contestants turns up dead ... quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.

43. The Odds of Loving Grover Cleveland by Rebekah Crane

read on my iPhone
2016, Skyscape
260 pgs.
YA CRF
Finished 7-26-2017
Goodreads rating:  3.96 - 8256 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary summer at a summer camp on a lake in Michigan

First line/s:  "The doorknob locks with a single key from the inside of the cabin.n  My bag hangs over my shoulder as I stare at the silver knob like it might start talking.  This can't be legal."

My comments:  Welcome to Camp Padua, where, on a lake in Michigan troubled teenagers spend the summer in cabins: living, eating, sharing (or not sharing) their problems and quirks and oddities.  Most of the story is told from the protagonist, Zander's, (or Z for short) point of view.  It's a good story, though a troubling one.  It's also the story of friendship between four young adults, two guys and two girls, all suffering from different mental problems.  Friendship.  Caring.  Trusting.  Loving.  that's what these kids ultimately found, but it wasn't easy.

Goodreads synopsis: According to sixteen-year-old Zander Osborne, nowhere is an actual place—and she’s just fine there. But her parents insist that she get out of her head—and her home state—and attend Camp Padua, a summer camp for at-risk teens.
          Zander does not fit in—or so she thinks. She has only one word for her fellow campers: crazy. In fact, the whole camp population exists somewhere between disaster and diagnosis. There’s her cabinmate Cassie, a self-described manic-depressive-bipolar-anorexic. Grover Cleveland (yes, like the president), a cute but confrontational boy who expects to be schizophrenic someday, odds being what they are. And Bek, a charmingly confounding pathological liar.
          But amid group “share-apy” sessions and forbidden late-night outings, unlikely friendships form, and as the Michigan summer heats up, the four teens begin to reveal their tragic secrets. Zander finds herself inextricably drawn to Grover’s earnest charms, and she begins to wonder if she could be happy. But first she must come completely unraveled to have any hope of putting herself back together again.

PICTURE BOOK - Shanghai Sukkah by Heidi Smith Hyde

Illustrated by Jing Jing Tsong

2015, Kar-Ben Publishing

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating:  4.07 - 29 ratings

My rating: 4

Endpapers: front:  Berline/ back: Shanghai streets

1^st line/s: "On his tenth birthday, Marcus found himself on an ocean liner, headed for Shanghai."

My comments:  Here's another wonderful picture book that sheds light on yet another aspect of history that I was totally unaware of.  It leaves me with many questions....are there still Jewish communities in Shanghai?  I'll have to research farther.  This was a book celebrating history, friendship, traditions, and cultures.  Wonderful!

Goodreads:  Fleeing the Holocaust in Europe, Marcus moves with his family from Berlin to Shanghai. With help from his new friend Liang, Marcus sets out to build a unique sukkah in time for the harvest festival of Sukkot.

PICTURE BOOK - Hattie & Hudson by Chris Van Dusen

Illustrated by the author

2017, Candlewick Press

40 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 3.82 - 173 ratings

My rating: 5

Endpapers:  All pale green - small island on a lovely lake/silhouettes

Illustrations:  Bright, bold, and completely covering most pages

1^st line/s:  "Haddie McFadden loved to explore.  Every morning after breakfast, she'd grab her life jacket, wave good-bye to her parents, and paddle out in the canoe to see what she could see."

My comments:  Chris VanDusen does it again! (I love his stuff.)  His illustrations amaze me - big and bold, covering the page from edge to edge.  Hudson is a "monster" who lives at the bottom of a quiet country lake.  (He looks more like a dinosaur to me.)  I can't wait to read it to my grandson - he's afraid to swim in fresh water, but LOVES the stories of Sasquatch and Bigfoot.  I'm betting he's going to love this.  And I like the end note that Mr. Van Dusen writes on the copyright page: "And to all the young explorers who will be spending time at a lake this summer: Remember, there are no such things as a lake monster.  They don't exist.  At least I've never seen one.  But I keep looking."

Goodreads:  A little girl and her colossal friend teach a monster-size lesson about prejudging others in a charming new offering from Chris Van Dusen. 
          Hattie McFadden is a born explorer. Every morning she grabs her life jacket and paddles out in her canoe to discover something new on the lake, singing a little song on her way. When her singing draws up from the depths a huge mysterious beast, everyone in town is terrified except Hattie, who looks into the creature's friendly, curious eyes and knows that this is no monster. So Hattie sneaks out at night to see the giant whom she names Hudson and the two become friends. But how can she make the frightened, hostile townspeople see that Hudson isn't scary or dangerous at all? 
          Chris Van Dusen brings his colorful, perspective-bending artwork to this satisfying new story about acceptance, friendship, and sticking up for those who are different.

PICTURE BOOK - Pop's Bridge by Eve Bunting

Illustrated by C. F. Payne

2006, Houghton Mifflin

32 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 4.07 - 210 ratings

My rating:  5

Endpapers:  Dark Evergreen

1^st line/s:  "My pop is building the Golden Gate Bridge.  Almost every day after school Charlie Shu and I go to Fort Point and watch."

My comments:  I am so fond of this book...I've read it many times, to myself and aloud to different groups of kids.  Last week I read it aloud to a group of nine to twelve-year-olds that were attending the "Bridges" STEM camp that I was facilitating, and it delighted me once again.  I love the Golden Gate Bridge.  I never saw it or drove over it until about 15 years ago when I went to visit a dear friend in Marin County, California.  Since that first visit there have been at least two visits a year, and we always drive at least one back-and-forth trip over "my" bridge.  My friend's mom was one of the thousands of people who walked across the span on opening day in 1937.  She's told me the story several times.  This is a wonderful book of two friends and the dads who built the Golden Gate Bridge.

Goodreads:  The Golden Gate Bridge. The impossible bridge, some call it. They say it can't be built.
          But Robert's father is building it. He's a skywalker--a brave, high-climbing ironworker. Robert is convinced his pop has the most important job on the crew . . . until a frightening event makes him see that it takes an entire team to accomplish the impossible.
          When it was completed in 1937, San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge was hailed as an international marvel. Eve Bunting's riveting story salutes the ingenuity and courage of every person who helped raise this majestic American icon.
Includes an author's note about the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge. 

35. Posted by John David Anderson

Read on my iPhone
2017, Walden Pond Press
384 pgs.
Middle Grades CRF
Finished 6-27-17
Goodreads rating:  4.34 - 254 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting:  Contemporary small town Michigan

First line/s:  "I push my way through the buzzing mob and freeze, heart - struck, dizzy."

My comments: This book looks bullying right in the eye and takes it on.  It doesn't give answers.  The writing is beautifully crafted, taking a few major themes and weaving them around and together, the unifying link being  friendship, where it comes from and where it goes.  Quite a book.

Goodreads synopsis:  From John David Anderson, author of the acclaimed Ms. Bixby’s Last Day, comes a humorous, poignant, and original contemporary story about bullying, broken friendships, and the failures of communication between kids.

In middle school, words aren’t just words. They can be weapons. They can be gifts. The right words can win you friends or make you enemies. They can come back to haunt you. Sometimes they can change things forever.          

     When cell phones are banned at Branton Middle School, Frost and his friends Deedee, Wolf, and Bench come up with a new way to communicate: leaving sticky notes for each other all around the school. It catches on, and soon all the kids in school are leaving notes—though for every kind and friendly one, there is a cutting and cruel one as well.

     In the middle of this, a new girl named Rose arrives at school and sits at Frost’s lunch table. Rose is not like anyone else at Branton Middle School, and it’s clear that the close circle of friends Frost has made for himself won’t easily hold another. As the sticky-note war escalates, and the pressure to choose sides mounts, Frost soon realizes that after this year, nothing will ever be the same.

PICTURE BOOK - The Uncorker of Ocean Bottles by Michelle Cuevas

Illustrated by Erin E. Stead

2016, Dial Books for Young Readers/Penguin

HC $17.99

40 pgs.

Goodreads rating: 4.94 - 974 ratings

My rating: 4

Endpapers: Dark sage green

Illustrations:  woodblock prints, oil pastels, and pencil.

1^st line/s: "The Uncorker of Ocean Bottles lived alone on a high spot with only one tree for shade.  He always kept his eyes on the waves, watchful for a glint of glass."

My comments:  A gentle book about loneliness.  It made me sad, actually.  I wonder how kids would feel about this story, and what ages would work best? Lovely illustrations, creative, and imaginative, three things I look for in a picture book.  This one will definitely work for adults and older kids!

Goodreads:  The Uncorker of Ocean Bottles, who lives alone atop a hill, has a job of the utmost importance. It is his task to open any bottles found at sea and make sure that the messages are delivered. He loves his job, though he has always wished that, someday, one of the letters would be addressed to him. One day he opens a party invitation—but there’s no name attached. As he devotes himself to the mystery of the intended recipient, he ends up finding something even more special: the possibility of new friends.

44. Raymie Nightingale by Kate diCamillo

listened to on Audible
2016, Candlewick Press
272 pgs.
Mid Grade CRF
Finished 8/4/16
Goodreads rating: 3.94 - 6,527 ratings
My rating: 4.5
Setting:  Contemporary central Florida

First line/s:  "There were three of them, three girls."

My comments:  This is a really hard book to rate.  There were many hugely depressing parts to the story, which I personally look down upon if it's a book for kids and there's an overwhelming amount of sadness.  However, there was humor and humanity and some really beautiful language, including high level vocabulary.  I loved listening to this, because the reader was just wonderful.  Talk about a quotation mark voice!  This book was plump full of voice, and the reader accentuated that.

Goodreads synopsis:  Raymie Clarke has come to realize that everything, absolutely everything, depends on her. And she has a plan. If Raymie can win the Little Miss Central Florida Tire competition, then her father, who left town two days ago with a dental hygienist, will see Raymie's picture in the paper and (maybe) come home. To win, not only does Raymie have to do good deeds and learn how to twirl a baton; she also has to contend with the wispy, frequently fainting Louisiana Elefante, who has a show-business background, and the fiery, stubborn Beverly Tapinski, who’s determined to sabotage the contest. But as the competition approaches, loneliness, loss, and unanswerable questions draw the three girls into an unlikely friendship — and challenge each of them to come to the rescue in unexpected ways. 

MOVIE - I'll See You In My Dreams

PG-13 (1:35)

Limited release 5-15-15

Viewed 8-18-15 At Century Gateway with Sheila

RT Critic:  94  Audience:   71

Cag:  2.5 - It was okay, I liked some of it

Directed by Brett Haley

Bleecker Street

Blythe Danner, Sam Elliott, Rhea Perlman, Mary Kay Place, June Squibb, 

My comments:  Okay, big time depressing.  Good movie though, especially the scenes with Carol (Blythe Danner) and her three best friends, all living in little cottages in a retirement community in southern California - Rhea Perlman, June Squibb, and Mary Kay Place.  But looking at Carol's life, thinking about some of the things people in the movie say about death, seeing how suddenly a life can end....as well as watching the poor young man who's hopelessly stuck cleaning pools when he wants to be writing poetry (I know, I know, at the end there might be a teeny, tiny turning of events, but who knows....)  Too much leftover thinking for me.  The kind of stuff I don't want to think about. Hmmm.....

RT Summary:  In this vibrant, funny, and heartfelt film, a widow and former songstress discovers that life can begin anew at any age. With the support of three loyal girlfriends (June Squibb, Rhea Perlman, and Mary Kay Place), Carol (Blythe Danner) decides to embrace the world, embarking on an unlikely friendship with her pool maintenance man (Martin Starr), pursuing a new love interest (Sam Elliott), and reconnecting with her daughter (Malin Akerman).

48. Songs For a Teenage Nomad - Kim Culbertson

2007 Source Books
245 pgs.
YA CRF
Finished 8-2-2014
Goodreads rating: 3.80
My rating:  3/Liked it
TPPL
Contemporary San Andreas, CA

1st sentence/s:  "My dad named me Calle after a cat he had in ollege that ran away.  He really loved that cat.  I always thought that was funny since he was the one who ran away from me...and my mom."

My comments: This was a quick, interesting read.  There is one female protagonist and a number of minor characters - and the characters seem quite well developed.  The three major "players" in the book are all troubled kids whose jumbled up thoughts and "troubles" come directly from effed up parents. The ending was a bit too convenient, but I'm not complaining.

Goodreads book summary:  What is the soundtrack of your life?         
          After living in twelve places in eight years, Calle Smith finds herself in Andreas Bay, California, at the start of ninth grade. Another new home, another new school...Calle knows better than to put down roots. Her song journal keeps her moving to her own soundtrack, bouncing through a world best kept at a distance.          
          Yet before she knows it, friends creep in-as does an unlikely boy with a secret. Calle is torn over what may be her first chance at love. With all that she's hiding and all that she wants, can she find something lasting beyond music? And will she ever discover why she and her mother have been running in the first place?

Ten Things I Love About You - Daniel Kirk

Illustrated by the author

2013 Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin

HC $16,99

32 pages

Goodreads rating: 3.70

My rating: 4

Endpapers: blue & white illustrations of the path from Rabbit's house to Pig's house (and the surroundings)

Illustrations: Wide brown frames around pages - simple - made to look like crayon lines (or maybe they are!)
Title Page: Same wide brown frame, single page with Rabbit sitting on the floor, writing.

1^st line/s:
     Ring!
     Ring!
     Hello Pig,
     Hello Rabbit,
     Look at this ---
     I am making a list!

My comments:  A sweet keeper-of-a-book.  A book, actually, to give a friend!

Goodreads: Fans of Mo Willems' Elephant and Piggie will enjoy Rabbit and Pig’s clever back-and-forth which shows the funny ways friends bounce ideas and feelings off each other.
      Rabbit just adores his friend Pig. So he is excited to make a list of all the things he loves about Pig. And who better to help him write the list than Pig himself? But Pig is busy, and keeps sending Rabbit away. But no matter what Pig does, Rabbit is inspired to add another thing to his list. When Pig says, “Rabbit, I'm starting to lose my patience!” Rabbit has #6—“I love Pig because he’s not afraid to show his feelings!” Fortunately, Pig’s dwindling patience is rewarded when Rabbit completes his list—and the two realizeexactly why they are such good pals.

41. The Language Inside - Holly Thompson

2013, Delacorte Press

522 pgs. (but it's in verse, so it's a quick read)

YA CRF with a multicultural twist

Finished 6/26/2014

Goodreads Rating: 3.80

My Rating: 4/Very, very good

Amelia Given Library, Mt. Holly Springs

Setting: a contemporary Lowell, Massachusetts suburb

1^st sentence/s:
       third time it happens
       I'm crossing the bridge
       that slides through town
       on my way to a long-term care center
       to start volunteering

My comments:  This book certainly had many layers, and many, many themes.  One of those books that keeps you thinking.  Imagine having a stroke in your 30s that only allows you to move your eyeballs?  Imagine living in America, being an American, and having half of your thoughts and dreams in another country? And then on top of that, having your mom very ill, prognosis uncertain.  Tsunami devastation in Japan, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, Japanese and Cambodian dance, volunteering in a rehabilitation center, living in a new culture and missing the old one as well as living with immobilizing migraines...well that's a lot for one book.  But it works.  Beautifully.
          The book was written in verse and included a lot of references to poetry, which was wonderful.  But some of the verses in the book did not flow well, for me, as I read them (of course, some did). Line breaks and page breaks seemed to come in weird places.  Was it the way it was edited or the way it was written?  No matter, the story was extremely well done.

Goodreads Summary:
          Emma Karas was raised in Japan; it's the country she calls home. But when her mother is diagnosed with breast cancer, Emma's family moves to a town outside Lowell, Massachusetts, to stay with Emma's grandmother while her mom undergoes treatment.
          Emma feels out of place in the United States.She begins to have migraines, and longs to be back in Japan. At her grandmother's urging, she volunteers in a long-term care center to help Zena, a patient with locked-in syndrome, write down her poems. There, Emma meets Samnang, another volunteer, who assists elderly Cambodian refugees. Weekly visits to the care center, Zena's poems, dance, and noodle soup bring Emma and Samnang closer, until Emma must make a painful choice: stay in Massachusetts, or return home early to Japan.

35. After the River the Sun - Dia Calhoun

2013, Atheneum Books for Young Readers

348 pgs.

Written for middle grades

Finished 9/1/2013

CRF told in verse

Goodreads Rating: 4.0

My Rating: 4/ Loved it

TPPL

Setting: contemporary eastern Washington state

1^st sentence/s: 

"Eckhart rode a Greyhound bus

that charged down'the icy mountain road

like a knight's steed,

heedless of danger.

Lost in a game

on his Nintendo 3DS,

Eckhart didn't hear 

the tire chains rattle, didn't see

the snow pelting the window,

didn't think

about where he was going."

My comments:  Gorgeous writing. Really beautiful. Storyline is also excellent, but there are a few downfalls for me - two, actually. Uncle Al's turnaround towards Eckhart is just too sudden. A 360-degree turnaround practically overnight? I know he'd had the revelation of Eckhart's bravery, but only a few hours before this turnaround he wouldn't even look or speak to the boy? I don't care how much this adult was suffering, other personality traits didn't jive with his actions. And the second, for me personally, there was too much King Arthur. I know much of the book's premise was following the King Arthur story, but it was too much for me. It would be great for the King Arthur lover. Oh, and one more thing? $500,000 for a violin? I'm with Uncle Al on that one!  And isn't the cover gorgeous?

Goodreads Review:  Will Eckhart find the courage to rise from his past—and climb to his future? This quest for home is a stunning companion to Eva of the Farm. When Eckhart Lyon arrives at Sunrise Orchard, all he wants to do is play video games and read about King Arthur’s knights. Anything that helps him forget that his parents drowned in a river, forget his own cowardliness. Eckhart doesn’t want to clear the dead orchard, or explore the canyon, or do anything else that stern Uncle Al asks. After all, Uncle Al is only taking him in on trial, and Eckhart can’t imagine the orchard ever becoming his real home.  Then, up in the canyon, he meets Eva—a girl with a wild imagination and boundless hope who knows all about King Arthur’s knights. With her help, Eckhart sees that he is on a knightly quest of his own: a quest for home and courage. But what if he’s forced to choose between a new home and his most treasured possession—a gift from his mom?