Esperanza Rising

 

 

 

Esperanza Rising

Ryan, P.M.  (2000).  Esperanza Rising.  Austin, Tx.: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

This book won the Pura Beltre Award for the year 2000.

Esperanza was born and raised on the beautiful El Rancho de las Rosas, the vineyard owned by her parents, in Mexico.  The day before her 13th birthday, banditos robbed and killed her father.  Her step-uncle Luis was the banker and took control of the land where the house and vineyards stood.  Luis want to marry Esperanza's mother and would not allow her to have control of her money.  She refused so he burned the house and vineyard.  Mama had no income and no house to stay in.  Mama decided to go to America to work as a migrant worker in California.  They had to be very careful not to allow Luis to catch them before they left Mexico, so they hid in a fake panel of a wagon all the way to the train station.  They did not ride in comfort like Esperanza wanted, but mama said they didn't have the money for it.  Esperanza had to learn

many things before she could fit into her new life style.  Among the many jobs she had to learn were to cook, wash clothing, take care of children, work in the packing house, sweep and be humbled.  After mama got sick, she had to work along with her relatives and former servants to keep mama alive in the hospital.  After 3 months in the hospital, mama finally got to come home and about the same time, Miguel brought Abuelita to them in California.  Mama was so happy and I believe Esperanza and Miguel eventually married and had a family in California.

I really liked this book.  I was afraid for Ezperanza and her mother when Luis tried to bully them into doing what he wanted.  Setting the fire was an act of cowardice on his part, it didn't make him any better in my eyes.  He could have killed someone and probably felt no remorse.  I was really happy that they got away from him.

Revolution

Donnelly, Jennifer.  Revolution.


It's your senior year in high school and you might fail.  Andi Alpers is on the verge of failing her senior year and all because she hasn't written her senior thesis.  She doesn't even have a clue what to write about.  The worst part is that she feels angry at the world.  Her father for leaving, her mother for not being able to cope, and the loss of her brother, Truman.  She is taking her grief and anger out on too much drink and drugs.  She is slowly losing her grip on reality.  It doesn't make sense when her father tells her she will go with him to Paris over Christmas break where she will write her paper.

Paris is a ghostly place for Andi.  One day she finds a diary, hundreds of years old, and more ghosts appear in the lines of the writings.  The owner of the diary, Alexandrine, knew death and heartbreak also.  On a midnight walk through the catacombs under the city, Andi finds herself back in the time of the diary, the period of Louis Charles, the lost king of France.  She finds he has been imprisoned by Orleans to keep Charles off the throne.  The rest is history, they find the young king dead in his cell.  Andi finds her way out of the dream of being in Alexandrine's place, and home with her father.  She writes her paper and has only to complete the summary when it's time to go home.

I felt that the drugs and drinking were a little too much for some high school students.  Maybe, that was the only way to cope with their lives, but most people would not go that far to forget.  Andi was pretty hooked on her Quells, and chasing them down with bourbon or another hard liquor was super bad for her.  In the end, she does finally get her act together.  This book was a really good read, and would read this author again.

The Graveyard Book

Gaiman, Neil.  The Graveyard Book.

Have you ever wandered in a cemetery and felt the peacefulness of the place.  They used to creep me out, but in the last ten years or so they make me feel at peace.  Can you imagine living there?  I must admit being in one at night might make my skin crawl, but only because I would be alone with no one else there.  I have felt so much in tune with the peacefulness of being with my ancestors, listening for their voices calling to me that I have taken it a step further.   I have even had a picnic with my ancestors in a graveyard.

This book was a fantastic book to read.  I couldn't put it down the first or second or third time I read it.  Case scenerio:  Imagine yourself as a energetic two year old who was awakened in the middle of the night by a sound that you couldn't recognize.  Of course, as a two year old anything can awaken you and maybe you were scared and maybe you weren't.  What would you do?  Would you lay there and wonder what it was, or would you go and explore?  This youngster did just that, he went looking for what it was that awakened him.  Before he could find anything else, he found the front door open and wandered out.  This little boy wandered as fast as his little feet could take him up the hill to the fenced in graveyard.  He was small enough to get through the spokes in the fence.  He felt a presence or two with him there.  That presence hid him from the vicious killer who had just murdered the rest of his family.  This was the beginning of the rest of his life; a life uncertain of what would happen to him.  The presence was in the form of ghosts or spirits of people who were buried there.  Mr. & Mrs. Owens took to the young boy and raised him, in whatever way they could.  They called him Nobody Owens, "Bod" for short.

The problem became in the way of what to feed the boy.  The only person who could leave the graveyard was a non-resident by the name of Silas.  Silas wasn't dead, but he might as well have been.   He slept in the graveyard during the day and did his venturing during the evening and nighttime hours.  During this time he would go out for food for the boy.  It became a routine to feed, clothe, and educate the young one.  He would be safe there until such a time as he became old enough to take care of himself or the killer was no longer in the picture.  I must have been a strange life for Bod.

I felt really scared for this tiny little boy who just couldn't stay in his crib.  The best thing he did was go to the cemetery for there he found a family and protector. His adventures take him to all parts of the cemetery and it's inhabitants.  Things he would learn would be useful to him whenever the need arose to help save himself from the killer.  See if you can figure out what happens to Bod.  Read this delicious murder mystery and find out. I can attune to this book because I love to find cemeteries and old graves but not necessarily at night.  I like to be by myself there.

Silence

Fitzpatrick, B.  (2011).  Silence.  New York: Simon & Schuster


Wow, was I ready to read this book.  I began by reading Hush, Hush, a must read if you are going to begin this series.  The characters are starting to develop there.  Read them in order too, for you wouldn't want to know something happened but not why it happened.  There are many characters in books out there that you can dream about, Edward Cullen and Jacob Black from the Twilight series, Gale and Peeta from Hunger Games series and then there is Patch from this series.  Patch is in a word heavenly.  All angels usually are.  But his kind of heavenly is on the bad boy side.  What would you do with an angel for a boyfriend?

Nora Grey has awoken from a dream.  She can't place why she is in the cemetery or what happened to her before she came here.  Then she discovers that she can't place five months of her life.  She has amnesia.  No one has any idea where she was or who she was with. Nora was desperately trying to find something that she could wrap her head around. Then she meets Jev in a dark alley that she really shouldn't be in.  Jev is everything that she wants but thinks she can't have.  She starts to have flashbacks in her memory.  Jev is there in her mind.  Did she know him before?  She doesn't recognize the name.  She keeps recalling Patch, but who is or where is he?  Her friend Vee says that he was bad and she is glad he is gone.  Nora does remember and realizes that Jev is Patch.  He had to change his name to stay safe.  He needs her to keep his secret since the man who kidnapped her is also dating her mother.  She feels threatened.  Then she finds out that he is her father.  He gave her up when she was young to protect her, yeah right.  He wants something from her and she isn't willing to give it to him.

Patch saves her many times during the next few days, and then she finds out he has captured her father and has him tied up in his digs.  She claimed she wanted to do him in for killing her father, the only one she knew.  When it comes down to it, she can't.  Then sees that he has Patch's feather from his wing and is about to burn it up.  She doesn't hesitate, she shoots him dead.  Now she must guide his army and keep them from fighting with the angels.

Nation

  

Pratchett, T.  (2009). Nation.  New York: Harper Collins Publishers.

This fantastic tale takes you on a journey that seems very incredible.  A gigantic tidal wave wipes out an entire nation, the Island called Nation.  Mau, a young native boy, has just spent his time on an island to make himself a man.  Upon his return, he finds his whole world has been wiped out, nothing is left of the life he knew.  On the other hand, a ship was beached that had no survivors but one, a girl named Daphne.  In the beginning, they were the only people on the island, but soon others begin to arrive.  They all came looking for something that they had all lost, companionship.  By the time her father finds her, the island has many inhabitants.  The plot is a little choppy but it can be followed.  The point of view is told by Daphne, first person omniscience.  Imagery of things found in the cave was clear enough to visualize and the description of the pantaloon birds makes you believe they actually wear bloomers.  There were many areas that were my favorites but I guess the best part for me was when Daphne took poison to bring Mau back from his semi comatose state.  I really thought she would stay and they would marry, but their lives were too different.  It could have worked out if no one had come for her.

Lafayette and the American Revolution

 

Freedman, R.  (2010). Lafayette and the American Revolution.  New York: Holiday House.

The book takes Lafayette from childhood, to marriage at a very young age, to his burn to join the American cause in fighting for Independence from England.  Although he missed his wife and children, he felt that it was his duty to travel to America to help them fight for their freedom.  He has to fight for no pay and almost no commission having to prove that he could obey orders and control a bunch of volunteers.  I think the appeal to teens would be the compact storyline of the events that happened to Lafayette in his chance to prove to himself and his family that he was worthy of holding a command and capable of winning battles.  My favorite scene was when Cornwallis’ troops were holed in at Yorktown and Lafayette had the common sense to wait until General Washington arrived to begin the battle.  Had he taken the advice of the French commander, they ultimately would have lost and the war would have battled longer.  It was also interesting to see what the young man looked like during all this.  He was a good looking man.