Sparse free verse intensifies colors, sounds and feelings in this beautiful story based on the author's life. Ha is 10 years old when she escapes Vietnam with her family and they end up in Alabama. She describes the sweetness of papaya and the terror of gunfire in her homeland. Struggling to learn a new language and culture, she tells of her mother's determination to build a new life and her brothers' efforts to do the same. But most vivid are Ha's emotions and feelings - funny, scared, angry, questioning - as this young girl struggles to be accepted.

Similar books: Shooting Kabul, by N.H. Senzai

Awards nominated: 2013 Rebecca Caudill Nominee

Awards won: Newberry Honor Book 2012

Reviewed by: donna

Date read: 5/15/2012

ISBN-13: 9780061962783

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Paul Fleischman captures the world of insects in this book of poetry for two voices. The author instructs readers that each of the 14 poems should be read, aloud, by at least two readers, at the same time. Can't find anyone to read with you? Listen to the audio book, and enjoy how this poetry sounds.

Awards won: John Newbery Medal

Reviewed by: sc

Date read: 4/13/2009

ISBN-10: 0064460932

ISBN-13: 9780064460934

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Lyza loves to look through the kaleidoscope her mother gave her before her mother left the family. In the kaleidoscope, shapes break apart but come together more beautifully than before. Lyza is hoping her life will come together like that. In a series of poems, Lyza describes the summer of the treasure. It started when Lyza's beloved, sea-faring, Gramps died leaving Lyza a thick brown envelope. Inside are three maps and a letter. Using the maps as guides, Lyza and her best friends, Malcolm and Carolann, discover that Captain Kidd, the pirate, may have buried some treasure in their hometown. All summer long, Lyza and her friends secretly dig at night behind the church trying to find this treasure. Will they get caught? Will they ever find treasure? What will they do if they find the treasure? You won't be able to put the book down until the end.

Reviewed by: hap

Date read: 12/18/2009

ISBN-10: 0375940480

ISBN-13: 9780375940484

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As America is in the thick of the Vietnam War, thirteen-year-old Lyza inherits a project from her grandfather who has just passed away. All of the hours spent in her grandpa's basement pouring over maps with him have left Lyza well-equipped for this project of locating the lost treasure of Captain Kidd. She enlists the help of her best friends, Carolann and Malcolm. The essence of the year that this novel in verse is set in, 1968, is brought in very well. Lyza and Malcolm do not talk to each other in school since Malcolm is black. Malcolm's brother is drafted into the Vietnam War. As Lyza and her friends are searching for the treasure, Americans are searching for happiness amidst death (of all the soldiers, Martin Luther King, and Bobby Kennedy.)

Reviewed by: jb

Date read: 12/8/2011

ISBN-13: 9780375840487

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This clever collection of poems will have you laughing out loud. One of my favorites is The Last Piece of Cake. 'Whoever ate the last piece of cake, I hope that you get a bellyache, or bit when you sit on a poisonous snake. Perhaps all the bones in your body will break. What's that you say? It was me? ME who ate the last piece of cake? My mistake.'

Similar authors: Shel Silverstein; Jack Prelutsky

Reviewed by: JB

Date read: 11/25/2009

ISBN-10: 0152020845

ISBN-13: 9780152020842

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