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47, by Walter Mosley; Little, Brown and Company: New York, 2oo5; $16.99 Walter Mosley pulls you into the heart of slavery in 1832. He depicts the brutality of slavery and the true meaning of freedom,...
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Book, movie, and media reviews by young critics
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47, by Walter Mosley; Little, Brown
and Company: New York, 2oo5; $16.99
Walter Mosley pulls you into the heart of slavery in 1832. He depicts the brutality of slavery and the true meaning of freedom, through the eyes of Forty-seven, an orphaned fourteen-year-old slave.
The King of Slippery Falls, by Sid Hite;
Scholastic Press: New York, zoo4; $16.95
Imagine it’s your birthday. Your parents gave you a surprising gift that revealed your origin. How would you react?
Lewis Hinton, an ordinary boy in The King of Slippery Falls, is shocked on his fifteenth birthday, when he discovers that he's adopted. For one year, he tries to learn about his real family.
Voices of War edited by Tom Wiener; National
Geographic: Washington D.C., 2oo4; $3o
Don’t get scared away by the title or how many pages in this book. It is really the Voices of Heroes. Veterans who served in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf talk about what happened to them in the wars.
The Rhyming Season, by Edward Averett;
Clarion Books: New York, zoo5; $16
When Brenda Jacobsen’s brother Benny died, basketball was never the same again. It wasn't just basketball that changed. Her mom and dad didn't get along well and then the lumber mill shut down. The whole town just seemed upside-down, especially when Brenda's high school basketball coach left for a better job at a college.
Ingrid and the Wolf, by Andre Alods;
Tundra Books: Toronto, zoos; $8.95
When I first looked at the book cover, I imagined how uneventful it would be. But I guess the saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover," is true. As soon as I read the first page, I felt like there was some invisible glue that held it to my hands. I just couldn't put it down.
There were two things that drew me to this book.
Powder Monkey, by Paul Dowswell; Bloomsbury
USA Children's Books: New York, 2005; $16.95
Imagine the fear of being blown to pieces at any minute! Thirteen-year-old Samuel Witchall constantly faced this horror in the action-packed historical adventure, Powder Monkey. Being blown up was just one danger Sam had to endure aboard a Navy fighting ship in 1800.
Underground Man, by Milton Meltzer; Harcourt
Children's Books: New York, 2006; $17
Milton Meltzer's Underground Man is a fictional but historically accurate account of life during the Civil War. Josh, a teenager, leaves his farm home to start a life of his own away from his parents. During his travels, he meets a runaway slave.
My Last Skirt: The Story of Jennie Hodgers, Union
Soldier by Lynda Durrant; Clarion Books:
New York, 2006; $16
To be free can have multiple meanings, but to Jennie Margaret Hodgers, in My Last Skirt: The Story of Jennie Hodgers, Union Soldier, it symbolizes having no skirts. For her, losing her skirt would mean losing all the limits that come with having the identity of a woman.
Project Mulberry, by Linda Sue Park;
Clarion Books: New York, 2oog; $16
“That's great but what about here?" That's the question I used to ask myself whenever my mom bragged about how well developed and strong and powerful Korea was. My parents were born and raised in Korea; I have lived in L.A. all my life.
Good Fortune, My Journey to Gold Mountain,
by Li Keng Wong; Peachtree Publishers:
Atlanta, Georgia, 2006; $14.95
Have you ever read a book that grasps you from the first page and won't let go until you have finished reading it? Good Fortune, My journey to Gold Mountain, is one of them. You will feel like you are not in this world.