If you dig a hole to China…..

In this YA novel, an African American girl faces the taunts and teases of her peers everyday due to the dark pigmentation of her skin.  She really has a hard time fitting in, making friends, and just basically surviving her 7th grade year, until a teacher comes along and changes her life.  She has many conflicts with the teacher, one in which she burns down part of the classroom!!  The teacher never stops believing in her and shows her that honesty and trust conquer all.  The main character learns to love the skin she’s in by the end of the book!!!

This book is so great!  It tells the story, via parallel stories in alternating chapters, of Hollis who is left as an orphan in Hollis Woods, Queens, just a couple days after her birth.  She is placed in foster family homes, but runs away every time she gets close to the family and close to being adopted.  The agency continues to place her in various homes, and she tells the story of her life via flashbacks and vivid descriptions of artwork she has drawn while in foster care.  Great read!!

In this YA novel, Bethany finds out that she has been cloned from the cells of her deceased sister.  Her mother and father kept this from her for 13 years, and she only realizes it as her life starts spinning out of control.  This is a great read, and adolescent readers with enjoy the twisting plot that keeps you guessing!

One of the BEST memoirs I have read in quite a while.  I laughed, I cried, I got angry and sad.  It is amazing the impact that parenting has on children’s lives…it is such an important task that seems to be taken for granted in our society!  Read it…you will thoroughly enjoy it.

My boyfriend insisted that I read this book, because he loved it so much and it’s a classic.  I must admit that it got better with each page, but it started out very, very slowly.  If you are into adventure and mineralogy, then this book is for you.  The narrative form makes it interesting to see what they are going to do with the movie format!

This book has done so much for me as a teacher.  I couldn’t put this memoir down!

You may know the name Frank McCourt as the author of Angela’s Ashes, in addition to many other works.

He has definitely reassured me to follow my original goal in teaching (a high school English teacher).  I couldn’t have read this account of his HS teaching days in NYC at a better time.  I have been trying to decide among 2 or 3 Master’s Degree Programs and secure an interview in NYC for the upcoming school year.  Well, both have happened!

Great book!  I highly encourage it to all teachers.

I was so excited to read this book.  I had read a book back in the 90s called Manhattan Hunt Club.  Even though this latter one was a fictional account, The Mole People is based on facts the author collects while interviewing the people who choose to live underground in NYC.

I was sorely disappointed.  The style was dry, and I just felt that maybe the accounts from the subjects were embellished at certain points throughout the book.  More than anything, I wasn’t impressed with the style of writing.

I don’t even know why I’m bothering to write a book review on this book.  I got to page 327 (out of 456), and I had to quit.  It was dragging, shallow, uninteresting, and I kept thinking about cooking and loosing track of what was going on.  You know what I say:  “Life’s too short!”  I put this book away and picked up a new one.

Wow! I read this graphic novel (memoir) in just 2 days. I loved it! A big thanks to Lee and Ali for recommending it to me. I can’t wait to read Persepolis 2 and Persepolis 3.