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.

28. Home of the Brave - Katherine Applegate

Audio read by Dominic Hoffman (wonderfully)
Listening Library, 2007
3 unabridged cds
2 hrs 47 min.
256 pgs.
Excellent story, great descriptions that include many similes, believable point-of-view

Kek arrives in Minnesota, fresh from a refugee camp in Africa (Sudan is mentioned once, but otherwise "Africa" is the only reference) alone, with only a volunteer named Dave to guide him. He has learned a tiny bit of English in the refugee camp, but everyone talks too quickly and uses too many idioms for him to understand. He misses his family, the sunshine and heat, and his father's cows. His father and brother have been killed and his mother is missing. He goes to live with his aunt and older cousin, also fairly new to the U.S.

It's fascinating to hear the things people say and the way that Kek processess them. I listened to this in the car, and the reader did a superb job making it feel like you were in Kek's head. Imagine being in the fifth grade, totally displaced from your home and family....and even the language is different. I can't. No way. But this happens to thousands and thousands of regugees coming to our country all the time. This is a wonderful book that allows kids (and adulst!) to put themselves into those shoes.

Kek makes friends, has caring teachers, and is a survivor. After reading Katherine Paterson's book about refugess from Kosovo and the few picture books I've read recently about African refugees, it certainly makes me think about lending a hand in some way.

Even though some websites say this book is for 12+, I will certainly not hesitate to have my fourth graders read this. It talks about shooting and killing in a bit of an abstract way, and Kek's cousin has had his hand cut off. However, unless a fourth grader is ultra-protected and never watches any tv (including the news) and with the guidance of a teacher or parent, there's no reason I can think of to worry. And listening to this reader would be a great plus!

My Name is Sangoel - Karen Lynn Williams & Khadra Mohammed

Illustrated by Catherine Stock
Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2009
$17.00
32 pages
Tells of the pride of heritage and the heartbreak of leaving your homeland
Rating: 4
Endpapers: Rust

Sangoel leaves the refugee camp for American with the words of the village wiseman ringing in his ears - to be proud of his Dinka name, which has been passed down through many generations. However, that name is not pronounced as it is written and when he arrives in America no one pronounces it correctly. He comes up with a rebus-like way to pronounce it correctly (SUN-GOAL).

Sangoel seems lucky...he is only teased a little and his new home seems accepting and friendly. He already speaks English, since he is the one translating for his mother. The illustrations by Catherine Stock are wonderful - they seem to beautifully depict Africa as well as America.

Good book.

The Color of Home - Mary Hoffman

Illustrated by Karin Littlewood
Dial Books for Young Readers, 2002
$17.99
24 pages
Lovely book, sad of course
Endpapers: Blotches of color as if painted, orange on teh left-page and aqua on the right

Hassan has traveled with his family from his much-loved home in Somalia to the grayness of the U.S. This book tells his story, but in an unusual way...through the picture he paints during his first day in an American school.

This book definitiely puts us in the shoes of an immigrant forced from his country because of war.

8. Under the Persimmon Tree - Suzanne Fisher Staples

for: Middle Grades
Frances Foster Bks, Farrar Strauss & Giroux, 2005
HC, $17.00
275 pgs.
My rating: 4

This was a very interesting book, detailing, so sadly, some of the atrocities that have (and possible still are?) taking place under the Taliban in Afghanistan. This story has TWO interesting perspectives. We flip-flop, chapter by chapter, between an American woman living in Peshiwar and an Afghani girls fleeing from her destroyed home in the mountains. Both stories are heartbreaking.

It looks like Najmah has lost her whole family to the Taliban or American bombs. The 12-year old is rescued by fleeing neighbors, disguised as a boy, and set out on a difficult journey to the refugee camps on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. There is no food, little warmth or shelter, and a deep, deep sadness. Najmah stops talking, but uses her wits and determination to continue.

Nusrat has accompanied her doctor-husband from New York City to Pakistan so that he can help. She has converted to Islam, loves Faiz' family (who love and accept her) and has opened a school for refugee kids while she waits for him to return to her from the war zone, where he is working in clinics.

Najmah and Nusrat's stories progress until they come together. Incredibly sad, but an honest look at what's been going on for the last ten years in Afghanistan, to the population and particularly to the women.

There hasn't been a whole lot written (yet) for kids about what's been going on over there. I am so thankful for books like this. However, I'm such a Breadwinner (Deborah Ellis) fan that I must admit as much as I like Staples' work, I prefer Breadwinner over Under the Persimmon Tree and would recommend it first.

Such unbelievable despair. A whole country of people who have lost entire families, traditions, history, and freedom.

74. The Day of the Pelican - Katherine Paterson

for: Middle and Upper grades
Clarion (H/M), 2009
$16.00
146 pages
Rating: Incredibly mixed: I loved learning more about the plight of Albanians in Kosovo, there's so little we really know and understand. Some of the storytelling was terrific, but there were places where I know that kids will just put the book aside. And some of the storytelling was just that - a narrator telling a story. I was profoundly moved by the plight of this family. I do love Katherine Paterson's writing. This didn't seem like her extraordinary writing though. It was more....ordinary. I feel guilty and mean saying this about a powerful author. But it's the feeling I'm left with....

Meli's family goes through unbelievable cruelties in the three years between living a comfortable life in their home in Kosovo, then taking very few belongings and fleeing to a remote mountain KLA hideaway, then to live in a tiny farmhouse with uncle, aunt, elderly granny, cousin and her three kids (14 of them in all, I think), to trudge for days without food or water to be thrust into a freight car, dumped on the Macedonia border and put into a refugee camp....to traveling to Vermont to a new life. Horrible injustices. So much hate. And killing. Cruelty. Subhumanity. And this is going on in many places in the world RIGHT NOW! The story ends shortly after 9/11, which is another huge blow to this non-practicing Muslim family.

When we look around and see immigrants, we must realize how much they've left behind to be here. Huge pieces of themselves left behind. Family and friends that will never been seen again. I'm almost speechless with sadness. What can I do to help?

Here's another review, from Twenty by Jenny. It includes an interview with Katherine Paterson and her editor about the writing of the book. Quite interesting.

Muktar and the Camels - Janet Graber

Illustrated by Scott Mack
Christy Ottaviano Books/Henry Holt, 2009
$16.99
32 pages
For: Kids
Rating: 3.5
Endpapers: Sky blue

Muktar is a Somalian regugee, living in an orphanage in Kenya. He misses his life as a nomad traveling with his parents and their camels. He had learned everything about caring for the camels, and he misses his old life and his family, who were killed in the wars in Somalia. One day a librarian from Garissa brings books on the backs of three camels to the orphanage. Muktar notices that one of the camels has a cut on his foot, and he repairs it. The librarian realizes that having a helper versed in camels would be a great help to him, so Muktar's fate is happily found.

You can see the texture of the canvas in the paintings. I'm thinking that Mr. Mack used pastels, the illustrations have a chalky look. A good story to share to help make kids more aware of what's happening in different parts of our world. The map of Africa at the beginning of the story is pretty cool. There's a short Author's Note at the end that gives a little more infomration about the civil war in Somalia and the camel convoy that delivers books eight times a year to schools and orphanages in the boonies of Kenya.

Brothers in Hope - Mary Williams

The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan
Illustrator: R. Gregory Christie
For: School age children
Published: 2005
Rating: 4
Read: Jan. 3, 2009
Coretta Scott King Honor Award
Endpapers; Evergreen

Written by the founder of the Lost Boys of Sudan Foundation, this story is told from the point-of-view of 8-year-old Garang and is based on true stories. While tending cattle in the countryside, Garang's village was attacked, and all the adults and girls were killed - all the boys were out tending cattle. This happened all over southern Sudan, so that thousands of boys were left alone and homeless. They banded together, taking care of each other, and walked all the way to Ethiopia, where they had heard there were refugee camps. We follow Garang through ups and downs as the leader of a group of 35 boys, all the way to America at age 21. What kept them alive? Each other, determination, faith, a yearning for education -- it is a story of bravery and courage.

The prose is easy to understand, written in the first person, and although not what I'd consider "great" writing, it is good storytelling. The illustrations seem to be thick acrylic paintstrokes, and although not my favorites, do the job well. There are excellent AUTHOR'S NOTES and AFTERWORD as well as a map of Africa with Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya clearly labeled. The Lost Boys of Sudan Foundation was begun in 2000, and I wonder where the boys and the foundation stand now.

Four Feet, Two Sandals - Karen Lynn Williams & Khadra Mohammed

Illustrator: Doug Chayka
For: School age kids (to be able to understand refugee camps)
Published: Sept, 2007
Rating: 4
Read: Jan. 3, 2009
Endpapers: Dirt Brown

Lina and Feroza meet in a refugee camp in Peshawar, Pakistan, after trekking from Afghanistan. When relief workers throw clothing from a truck, each girl finds half of a pair of sandals. Shy at first, they become friends, sharing the sandals, telling each other about their journeys, watching the boys getting lessons in the school tent, then trying out the letters and lessons in the sand for themselves..... A shalwar-kameez is mentioned, as is Ramadan, but this is the story of friendship and survival in a modern-day refugee camp.

Illustrations cover the entire page, no white edges or backgrounds, lots of browns and tans giving the story a real desert/sand/dirt/refugee feel.

This would be a good discussion-starter in class to get the kids thinking and talking about what's going on in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

How I Learned Geography - Uri Shulevitz

For: Kids (just not TOO young)
Pub: 2008
Rating: 3/5
Read: Aug. 25, 2008
2009 Caldecott Honor


"When war devastated the land, buildings crumbled to dust. Everything we had was lost, and we fled empty-handed."

Accompanying illustrations by the author depict a very young boy with his parents. Shulevtitz states in his ending AUTHOR'S NOTE that he is four when they flee Poland, living in what is now Kazakhstan In the Soviet Union for six years. The story tells how they lived, in total poverty, in one room with another couple who were strangers. One day his father returns, not with the small amount of bread he has gone to the marketplace to obtain, but with a large rolled-up world map written in Russian. This map takes him for the next few years, via his imagination, to snowy mountains, burning deserts, wondrous temples, and cities of tall buildings. He dreams of being transported to exotic places, and this is how he survives.

The illustrations are pretty cool, beautifully drawn and colored. There's a little too much negative white space on each page for my liking, but the double-page illustrations of the bazaar and of his flying dream above the waterway make up for that, they're really great.

Okay. He was a little guy with a great imagination. But.....how did he know about all these exotic places? How did he know about stone carvings and papayas and mangoes and the shade of palm trees? It sure doesn't sound like they could afford books. It doesn't say that his father told him stories. I guess I want a little more information. The writing is simple, yes, but a little too sparse for me.

This book has gotten quite a few starred reviews, so it may end up getting awards. Yeah, I liked it, but there are others written this year that I like better.