Witch Week and Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones

I think I have read one other Chrestomanci book, but it has been a while. I think they are OK, but, for some reason, I am not really very fond of the parallel worlds plot device. I do like the idea of alternate histories, though, so it is somewhat puzzling to me that I don't care for the parallel worlds. I guess one thing I don't like is the characters traveling back and forth between all of these parallel worlds. It is too confusing - and leaves too many open questions - how do they get back and forth, how do they arrive just in the nick of time, how do they know which world to stop off in, etc.

Characters: I really got tired of Gwendolyn in Charmed Life. You are supposed to, but it got so annoying that I could hardly read those sections any more. I guess it reminds me too much of some of the students I get in not-so-great classes that I sub for. I found Eric a bit too passive, but still interesting. I liked Charles (Witch Week), but I would have liked a little bit more information about why he changed his mind at the last minute. Feeling sorry for Chrestomanci didn't feel quite strong enough to me.

Still, they were good reading and I think kids would enjoy them.

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

I still don't know what I think about this book. I think I should like it, because it just won the Printz award for Young Adult Literature, but I don't really quite get it. The metaphor of the transformer and all of the transformations seems a bit too complicated for me. What I really need to do is to read it again. I read it rather quickly during an SSR time while I was subbing, so I was a bit more distracted than I would have been, had I read it at home. I do like most of the art work, though. I am still not sure what I think about graphic novels. I really like character development more than they allow, but this novel has more character development than I would have expected. Must re-read.

Replay by Sharon Creech

I wouldn't say this is Sharon Creech's best book ever, but it was enjoyable. I especially like dreamer Leo, who sometimes feels he disappears in his big active family. And I like how the kids in the play are thinking about what people were like when they were younger. It is interesting to see what goes through their minds as they watch the children and adults around them through the lens of "How have they changed from when they were younger?".

Something's Fishy, Hazel Green by Odo Hirsch

This book is for a slightly younger set than what I usually read - the blurb on Amazon says 3rd through 5th grade, which I would judge to be about right. The plot revolves around the mystery of some stolen lobsters, but the thing that is most interesting about the book is the way the main character, Hazel Green, interacts with the people in her neighborhood and school. Hazel seems to know all of the shop keepers and visits them regularly. She also has some interesting child friends - a mostly faithful follower and a mathematician kid. And Hazel herself is quite an interesting character. I love the way she muses about people and things that happen around her - I guess it is because I am rather that way, too - with my mind going off on rather chaotic tangents at times. All in all, a rather enjoyable read.

Shug by Jenny Han

The first thing I want to write is that Shug is pronounced like sugar and not like Thug or Rug. That makes the title of this book a little more bearable. I am still not overly fond of it (the title), but I did enjoy the book. The author really gets down well what it is like to be 12 years old in our current culture. I enjoyed this book - read it in one day. It is targeted for a slightly younger group than YA novels are usually set for - the early adolescent, not the later one - and it plays that role well. The only complaint that I would have is that Annemarie (Shug) is a bit more self-aware than most kids her age, but that is probably necessary in order to get all of the rest out in the open.

Kalpana's Dream by Judith Clarke

I like several things about this book. I like the English essay assignment and the glimpses at how several students dealt with it ("Who Am I?"). I like the intergenerational conflict - the great grandmother who speaks only Hindi and the great granddaughter who speaks only English. There is really only one aspect of the book that just doesn't work for me and that is the Dracula / Bride of Dracula sub-theme. I got really tired of the descriptions of the English teacher as being very pale and getting paler. And her male friend with his Count Dracula allusions. It seems like all of that is just a hook to get kids to tolerate the real story. I would like to have had more of the part of the story about the Nirolimi, the great granddaughter, and the great grandmother.

Under the Persimmon Tree by Suzanne Fisher Staples

This book is about the war in Afghanistan. Although written for children, it doesn't spare much of the violence and pain of war. It is toned down a bit, but is still devastating. Najmah's brother and father are taken from their poor mountain home by the Taliban and Najmah and her mother are left alone, as the rest of the village flees to neighboring Pakistan. Najmah's mother is expecting a baby any day and cannot travel. The baby is born, but soon the war returns to their village, and it is bombed. Najmah's mother and infant brother are killed. Najmah is taken in by a villager's relative who is on his way to Pakistan with his family. Najmah's hair is cut and she is dressed like a boy for safety. After a dangerous and exhausting trip, they finally make it to one refugee center, but Najmah escapes to a second, the most likely place for her father and brother to find her. There she is taken in by an American woman who keeps a small school for the refugees while her Afghani husband works as a doctor in field hospitals. Eventually the American woman finds that her husband has most likely been killed and Nur, Najmah's brother shows up to tell her that their father was also killed.

We always hear of American casualties in these wars, but this book brings home the casualties of the common people in those countries.

This book isn't quite as good as Shabanu, but it is certainly close.

P.S. Later. There is one minor detail that keeps nagging at me. The way the American woman finds out that her husband has probably been killed is that there are several people who talk about a field hospital having been bombed and an American doctor having been killed. The problem is that, although he was trained in the U.S., her husband is/was Afghani. It seems strange to me that people would refer to him as an American doctor. I would think that they would think of him as an Afghani, not as an American.