And We're Off - The 48 hour Book Challenge - Post 1

I'm 4 hours late! Busy day buying Nooks for the school library. This sets my goal to 26 hours this year!

I'm going to start off with One Crazy Summer. Most of my stack is realistic fiction so I'd better include some fantasy or I wont make it.  I'll see you at 10pm or when I finish the book.  Whichever comes first!
BTW, It's 8pm!

Review - Tropical Secrets: Holocaust Refugees in Cuba by Margarita Engle

Tropical Secrets
Margarita Engle
Henry Holt Books For Young Readers
198 pgs (Author notes included)

Summary
Daniel's parents get enough money together to send him to America to escape the Holocaust. His ship gets turned away from New York and he ends up in Cuba. In Cuba, he meets Paloma and David, two people who help him keep hope alive that one day he will be re-united with his parents.

My Thoughts
Tropical Secrets is a verse novel told in alternating voices. We hear from Daniel, the main character, David, an older refugee, Paloma, a Cuban who tries to help the refugees, and El Gordo, Paloma's father.

Tropical Secrets is historical fiction that takes place over almost three years. We arrive in Cuba with Daniel in June of 1939. He slowly learns to fit in: accepting clothing and food from David and Paloma. David has been in Cuba a long time and sells ice cream while Paloma's father is a crooked official who takes money to let the ships land in Cuba.

The alternating voices were jarring to me. I felt that once I was "into" a character and hearing their voice, the story shifted to someone else and I would have to work my way back into that voice. It was helpful that the speaker's names were listed when they spoke but it was also intrusive because even if the next page was the same speaker, the name was listed again.

The story itself was fascinating. I hadn't realized how many people were turned away from the USA and Canada during the war. Can you imagine if your boat was sent back? Margarita Engle was able to extract some beauty from this tragedy. Here are some lines that resonated with me:

"...there are always the drums of passing footsteps..."

"Joy and truth both have a way of peeking through any dark curtain."

"...the boy lost somewhere between the torment of memory and a few fragile shards of hope."

Overall I found this short tale engaging. It offers another view of the Holocaust which I believe students will want to read. Eighth graders will read Night by Elie Wiesel and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I'll offer this one through book talks. I give it four copies.

Review - Diego: Bigger Than Life by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand

Diego: Bigger Than Life
Carmen T. Bernier-Grand
David Diaz, Illustrator
Marshall Cavendish Children's
64 pgs.

Format
This biography of Diego Rivera is written as a series of poems with 14 full-sized illustrations interspersed. 3 of the illustrations are actually reproductions of Diego's work. Almost every poem includes a small illustration that acts as a summary. The penultimate poem, Still Lifes, features Deigo's ode to Frida Kahlo, titled The Watermelons. The poems are short and appear as visual poetry not so much the language or rhythm from the words. Immediately following the poetry is The True Life of Diego Rivera and it's written in expository text. The book also includes a glossary, a chronology and notes.

Summary
We meet Diego at the age of 1 1/2 when a tragedy forces his parents to send him away. He returns home at 4 and draws on everything. He enters an artist's school and wins a scholarship to travel to Spain. At 19 Diego enters a self-induced battle over whether to pursue art paid for by patrons or paint what his heart desired. We follow Diego through many loves and losses including his relationship with the esteemed Frida Kahlo.

Thoughts
"He told me to be whatever I want to be." (13) The first person narration pulls you into the story while Diaz's illustrations keep you there. Bernier-Grand's poems give you succinct slices into Diego's life and what influenced his art. Although she only touches briefly on Diego's love life, it might be enough to move this book towards the mature 7th or 8th grader. The expository text coupled with the chronology provide a clearer, more complete picture of Diego Rivera but I think an additional biography would be needed for students who want to focus on this artist for a report.

Carmen T. Bernier-Grand website has some teacher activities for her books including Diego: Bigger Than Life.

Booklist Online starred review for Diego: Bigger Than Life

Challenges! Update on my Reading Challenges

I don't join many challenges - I have this thing about wanting to do something vs. having to do something - a challenge usually makes me feel as I have to do it - so, of course, I don't want to do it!

But there are some challenges that are not too bad - so I joined some!

2009 Support Your Local Library Challenge hosted by J. Kaye's Book Blog - my goal is to read 50 library books by the end of the year. This helps support libraries while keeping cash in my pocket. My only hesitation being will I remember to return the books on time? Since I work in a library and knew I had to do an internship in yet another library I figured I would give it a try. So far I've read 31 of 50 library books and owe 12.00 in fines. Hmm...not really keeping cash in pocket?!? j/k

Diversity Rocks Challenge hosted by Diversity Rocks - my goal is to be more aware of my reading and try to read at least ONE book by an African-American writer per month. I've since decided to make sure I'm reading multiculturally with an emphasis on African American. I've only read 5 books that fit my criteria. This is out of the 60 something books I've read so far this year. Not too good. Need to step up on this!

A Shakespearean Summer Challenge hosted by Liv's Book Reviews - my goal is to read 3 of Shakespeare's plays that I don't remember ever having read even though I know the story. This short contest is part of The Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev release celebration that the Word Ninjas are putting together. It's over in August. So far I've read nothing. Noted and correcting!

The Everything Austen Challenge hosted by Stephenie's Written Word - my goal is to read 5 books and watch 1 movie by challenge's end which isn't till January! Yeah! I've watched Pride and Prejudice four times this month and it's only the fourth! Pretty good!

Newsweek 50 Books for Our Time Reading Challenge hosted by My Friend Amy - I only have one book to read for this new challenge: Brooklyn by Colm Toibin. I'm so excited because this book is on my Wanna Read It list! 50 bloggers are each taking one book to read by year's end and then decide if Newsweek was correct, are these really the books of our time. There were four books left when I wrote this!

Along the way I've participated in the Dewey 24hr ReadAThon and MotherReader's 48hr Book Challenge. Now that I've put this in the open, I'm hoping this will help me reach my challenge goals! Somehow, I also need to start on my 20 books I want to read plus all of the possible Newbery books, EEK! What have I gotten into? There has to be a way to link them all together....

Are you participating in any challenges? How are you doing? If no, why not?