I think someone at a conference recommended this book. Whoever it was I’m grateful. So Far From the Bamboo Grove rates “Excellent” on my list. It all felt so real. The story made me feel pain for what 11-year-old Yoko had to go through, yet felt honest because she shares the times she whined. It taught me about a situation I wasn’t previously familiar with–when the Japanese living in Korea in 1945 had to leave their homes and return to Japan.
Originally published in 1986, the book was reprinted by HarperCollins in 1994 and is still for sale. Anyone wanting to understand the bigger picture of WW2 should read this book!
Yoko Kawshima Watkins also wrote a sequel called My Brother, My Sister, and I.
Bruce Colville‘s Thor’s Wedding Day (Harcourt, 2005) is told by Thialfi the goat boy. Meet talking goats, one who holds a grudge against, Thialfi, and the gods and goddesses of mythology. See Thor get dressed up as a bride to go marry a giant who has stolen Thor’s hammer. It’s a story of mistakes and actions taken to rectify those mistakes. It makes me smile whenever I think about it.
Queen Sophie Hartley by Stephanie Greene (Clarion Books, 2005) is another humorous story. This light-hearted book is fun and sweet. 8-year-old Sophie is good at crying. It’s the only thing she does well. Oh, and stopping crying. Her “things I’m bad at” list is much longer, so Sophie decides to discover what else she’s good at doing. Along the way she learns about friendships, Queens and commoners, and how to curtsy. 
reaching for sun by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer will be coming out from Bloomsbury in March 2007.
“Imagination is the highest kite that one can fly,” Lauren Bacall once said. Not only is English author/illustrator Alan Snow flying high in his book Here Be Monsters (Atheneum, 2005) but he’s definitely having fun and giving the reader a good time as well. The middle grade graphic novel has a whole cast of interesting characters that live in the city of Ratbridge. We get to meet most of them through a boy named Arthur, who came above ground to get food for himself and his grandfather. Arthur is captured by Snatcher and the Hunt, while they’re out hunting cheeses. Yes, you heard right. Not only will you meet cheeses, but Mr. Nibble, some friendly boxtrolls, a cabbage head or two, some fresh water sea cows, the rabbit women, and the rats and pirates from the Ratbridge Nautical Laundry.