Tag: diversity

Posted in MG Novels, So Many Good Books

reaching for sun

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Arriving in March…
ReachingForSunreaching for sun by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer will be coming out from Bloomsbury in March 2007.

 This novel written in sparse verse hooks you with the first poem as it dives right into the life of 13-year-old Josie Wyatt.  We see her loneliness and feel the anguish of being different.  We tread in her shoes via snippets of the year where she gains a friend, defies her mother, and almost loses someone close to her.  Josie is so real, we’re left wanting to hear more from her.
Check out more about the author at http://www.tracievaughnzimmer.com/

Posted in So Many Good Books, YA Novels

Cruise Control – Stuck in Neutral

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

“They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” (Carl W. Buechner)  Terry Trueman‘s book Stuck in Neutral is a book which fit that adage perfectly for me a few years ago.  So it was with excitement when I discovered Cruise Control, a companion story to Terry’s Newbery Honor book.

stuck-in-neutralIf you’ve read neither, start with Stuck in Neutral and be ready to be touched by Shawn McDaniel.

cruiseThen go on to read and sympathize with his older brother Paul in Cruise Control (Harpercollins Harper Tempest imprint, 2004). You’ll be hooked by Paul’s voice right from the first:  “My only brother is a veg.  Yep, a full-fledged, drooling, fourteen-year-old idiot.  If you were to call him that, you’d have a big problem on your hands–namely, me!”  And, then, if you’re like me, you’ll keep reading and be unwilling to put the book down until the very satisfying end is reached.

Read about the award winning author on his website.

Posted in MG Novels, So Many Good Books

Why Does the Coqui Sing?

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

“Young readers are asking for substance. They are asking for respect. They are asking for books that challenge, and confirm, and console. They are asking for us to listen to their questions and to help them find their own answers,” Karen Hesse said in her 1998 Newbery acceptance speech. Except that this book wasn’t published yet, she could have been talking about the novel Why Does the Coqui Sing? (Holiday House, Inc., 2004).

Author Barbara Garland Polikoff drew me in with her first two sentences. Luz’s relationships with each of the people in her life all feel so real.  This story about adapting and accepting change takes Luz, her mother, brother, little sister, and stepfather from Chicago to Puerto Rico. Through the new friends she makes and the things she learns to like about Puerto Rico and her stepfather, and the importance of being in Puerto Rico to care for her grandfather, Luz learns that it’s not so important to go back to Chicago.  She also heals from the hurt of her father’s abandonment.

Posted in Award Winners, So Many Good Books, YA Novels

Chanda’s Secrets

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

ChandaSecretsChanda’s Secrets by Allan Stratton, 2004, Annick Press is well written.  It shows the volatility of people’s emotions–one minute Chanda loves her neighbor Mrs. Tafa and the next she is totally mad at her.   The setting is Africa; the problem is Aids.

16-year-old Chanda and the rest of her family and neighbors don’t talk about people having Aids, but say they have cancer or something else.   Yet Aids is rampant and many people are dying from it.   This brave teenager not only survives her own grief, but speaks out about the problem which gives the people around her the chance to speak openly.

Sidney Sheldon says, “You get your readers emotionally involved in your characters by being emotionally involved yourself. Your characters must come alive for you. When you are writing about them, you have to feel all the emotions they are going through–hunger, pain, joy, despair. if you suffer along with them and care what happens to them, so will the reader.”   Allan Stratton must have suffered with his characters.   No wonder this book has won so many awards.

Read about Allan at his publisher’s website:   http://www.annickpress.com/ai/stratton.html

Want to help fight the battle of AIDS in Africa?   Help a caregiver serving the sick by participating in assembling Caregiver Kits.  Learn more by calling 866-962-4453 or go to www.worldvision.org/kits/caregiver-kits.html.  (I’ve been involved with World Vision for over 20 years–mainly through their Child Sponsorship organization–it’s a trustworthy organization.)