Night Bus by Zuo Ma
I started Night Bus in November of 2022 and finished in January 2023. This was partly because I took my time reading as it was complex and needed time, I was unable to concentrate on it as I never found a good reading time where it was quiet without a lot of distractions, and I took a long break in between to read other things as my brain needed a cleaning out of the oddness of Zuo Ma’s story. The whole graphic novel can be […]
Shame Pudding by Danny Noble
Shame Pudding is a busy, funny, odd, strange, strong story growing up, even when you are an adult. Danny Noble’s memoir shows the years she and her wacky, crazy, bizarre, weird, off the charts amazing family had. From a young girl who performed on the performing stool, who told her brother Adam there was an invisible wolf in the cupboard, who would lick his hand, who would eat her marshmallows quickly while bemoaning Adam’s savoring of them to a teen who knew the pubs, the […]
The Yellow Ao Dai by Hanh Bui
I was thinking that The Yellow Ao Dai was going to be super sappy. The cover is cute and sweet looking, and the main character is a young child. The subject felt as if it was going to be a “feel good tale.” And it is but all that, but it is more, too. It is a feel-good story, but there is some meat with those potatoes. We follow a young Vietnamese girl excited to share part of her culture with her class, but her […]
Granny and Bean by Karen Hesse
When a grand mother and grandchild take a day to themselves, even the windy sea cannot stop them from enjoying themselves. Through the gray, cloudy skies, the wonders of the beach and ocean and the creatures around them come to life in Granny and Bean by Karen Hesse. The message is “stop and smell the roses” or in this case, pet the dogs that walk by, listen to the birds, and stop for teatime. And all this comes to life with the fun illustrations of […]
Something about Grandma by Tania de Regil
Julia goes to stay with her grandmother for the first time without her parents. And there is Something about Grandma and something about her house, the area she lives, the town and more. The things Julia does with her grandmother are different. They have sugar bread that is brought to them in a basket, that the lady delivery it places on her head. There are different smells, colors and hot chocolate can cure homesickness. Her grandmother knows when Julia has picked limes from the garden, […]
Dumplings for Lili by Melissa Iwai
La Princesa and the Pea by Susan Middleton Elya
A local school was purchasing a few titles for their library. I was unaware of the picture books Dumplings for Lili and La Princessa and the Pea. Therefore, I gave them a quick peak when they came in. Both were two of the sweetest books I have read all year! (Okay, got the year joke out early.) These two books are a modern fairytale and a reimaging of a classic. Dumplings for Lili by Melissa Iwai is a lovely, illustrated book about a young girl […]
