Inside Out & Back Again, Thanhha Lai

Inside Out & Back Again, Thanhha Lai

Ha and her family narrowly escape the rise of communism in Vietnam and dangerously travel to America to start fresh, safe lives in Alabama. Growing up in a small hut with her mother and brothers, Ha misses her father who went missing in combat. She nurtures a precious papaya tree, and holds what is left of her family close. With the promise of a bright future, they bravely board a ship headed for America. There are pieces of their new life in Alabama that are better. Adequate clothes, enough food, daily schooling, and stable jobs to support themselves are new realities Ha's family did not experience in Vietnam. However, there are also new painful pieces that make Ha wish for her war-torn childhood home. Written in verse, Lai offers a raw view of immigration and family through a child's eye that is sure to leave the reader reeling for more.

Living in a country and attending classes where immigration, multiculturalism, and language barriers are an everyday reality for the majority of America's citizens, holds many difficulties. Prejudices are easily found and adopted. That does not have to be the case. Lai aids readers into the shoes of a young, scared, shy immigrant who just wants to fit in and discover what normal means. Teachers will be able to help their foreign students with more sympathy and students will develop empathy for their classmates that do things a little differently, after reading Inside Out and Back Again.

Wonder, R.J. Palacio

Wonder, R.J. Palacio

Encouraging all readers to exercise a little more kindness, Palacio explores different levels of what it is to be mean and inspires a desire to avoid everything mean and to build everything nice. Auggie was born with a facial deformity. His appearance is different enough to initially spark fear, distrust, and discomfort in almost all his first encounters. He's used to it. It's been that way his whole life, and while it is perpetually hurtful, he approaches the subject with humor. Making the switch from being home schooled, to entering the cruelty of middle school ignites a painful growing experience not only for Auggie, but all those he interacts with as everyone involved learns the importance of kindness.

Some kids are rude on purpose. Sometimes kids aren't trying to be blatantly rude, but still are due to an insensitivity. Sometimes adults are rude. Some adults place their objectives higher than anyone else and don't really care who they tred on to get what they want. Some adults simply give too much or too little attention to sensitive subjects. Palacio delves into a multitude of unkind behavior, helps readers recognize potential scenarios where they could improve, and convinces all of the importance and the potency of kindness. A vital read for middleschoolers or those about to enter middle school, but really anyone and everyone will walk away from this novel a bigger and more understanding person than before.

Unlikely Warrior, Georg Rauch

Unlikely Warrior: A Jewish Soldier in Hitler's Army, Georg Rauch

Georg Rauch's maternal grandmother was a Jew, thus making him Jewish by tradition. Because his father was a German captain in World War I, Rauch's family was spared the concentration camps, but not the horrors of battle. At age 19, Rauch leaves his family, and the other Jews hiding in their attic, to fight for Hitler. When he makes his heritage known to his superiors, he is sent to the front lines. In a detailed, but non-grotesque, account, Georg Rauch helps the reader experience first hand what it would have been like to fight in the trenches during World War II, starve in a Russian prison camp, and to finally see their home again, through blurred vision and alive, but an old man in a 21 year old body.

In his memoir, Rauch utilizes his own letters he wrote home to his parents during the war. Although he is aware of his desperate situation, Rauch somehow still captures what little humor is available in telling his tales. Citizen accounts of Nazi Germany are quiet common, but a solder's experience rare, quite possibly merely because not many of them made it home. Miracle after miracle, Rauch survives and goes on to inspire readers that they too can keep their chin up in the midst of difficulties, can encourage those around them, and most importantly, can use their experiences to help others. 

Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy by Karen Abbott

Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War, by Karen Abbott

Liar Temptress Soldier Spy follows the involvement of 4 women, 2 confederates and 2 unionists through their daring secrets and bold assertiveness during the Civil War. The title conveys an interesting mix of adjectives and all four women at some point portray each title. 

Abbott opened my eyes to the Civil War. Quickly I became aware of how simultaneously ignorant I was in regards to this American Historical landmark, and fascinated. Similar to The Devil in the White City, everything within quotations comes from original sources, be they letters, journals or court briefings. She does an excellent job portraying that women are capable even when their society tells them they aren't, without being annoyingly feminist. Abbott successfully corrals the sensitive topic of womanhood and declares to the world that females have roles to play. 

Tuck Everlasting, by Natalie Babbit

Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbit






Winnie Foster's childhood is suffocating her. Button up boots, tight lace dresses, and the stifling heat of summer makes her yearn for something more. Even just exploring beyond the iron gate enclosing everything she's ever known into a neat little square would suffice. Tampering with the idea of running away, she accidentally finds herself a victim of kidnapping. Her kidnappers, however, don't frighten her; they fascinate her and teach her lessons on life that she will not soon forget.

Tuck Everlasting explores ideas on what it means to actually live. Not merely to be alive, not merely to not have died, but to live. Natalie Babbit's writing style drips with sophistication that will entertain advanced readers, but tells a story that will captivate young audiences as well. Readers will juggle moral dilemmas around in their heads they haven't previously considered and view life through a different lens after having read Tuck Everlasting.

Bo At Ballard Creek

Bo At Ballard Creek, by Kirkpatrick Hill

When Mean Millie asked a gold miner for a favor, he had no idea she would hand him a swaddled, blond haired, tiny bundle and recite the name of an Alaskan orphanage. Outside the orphanage gates, the two gold miners who agreed to to the task fell in love with the baby's charm, were disappointed by the strict damp look of the place, and enthusiastically decided to raise the child themselves. They named her Bo, and set out on their way to raising a child on the Alaskan frontier. 

In a Little House on the Prairie kind of way, Hill masterfully tells stories of Bo's childhood. With no strong plot line to follow, Bo at Ballard Creek takes on a historical memoir feeling and wins the hearts of readers as they discover what it might have been like to live with, cook for, and learn from a gold mining crew in the 1920's in the middle of Alaska. 

The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, Maria Augusta Trapp

The Story of the Trapp Family Singers,

Maria August Trapp

They're real! Did you know she was only 20 when she married into 7 children? Did you know they escaped to America so they wouldn't have to sing at Hitler's birthday party? Re-experience the magic, the wonder, the romance and the music you grew up loving in The Sound of Music. Maria has a way of mystifying her audiences, both as the leader of her traveling singing group, as well as in her memoir. The Sound of Music resembles the truth, but that story ends by the 4th or 5th chapter while the lives of the Trapp family continue on in splendor.

Frauline Maria was determined to become a nun before she joined the Trapp family. She continually weaves her devout faith throughout the journey she travels one step at a time, never knowing what lays around the corner, but ever hopeful. I found it refreshing to discover a faith promoting, inspiring and hopeful story that didn't come from Deseret Book. This book was amazing. I will own it and I will read it over and over again.