Hard to Believe SPOILER

That Nine, Ten:  A September 11 Story is historical fiction.  Just like I am sure that my mom would feel that way about a JFK assassination story.  Just like some people might have felt about a sinking of the Titanic story. Nine, Ten was really good.  Very good.  I guess the reason I didn't give it five stars was because I just kept comparing it to Towers Falling which was just masterful.  But this was excellent, too.  The ending might have been too nice (the main characters don't die, nor do their loved ones.) but I didn't have a problem with that at all.  No, this is for sure a recommended read. 

Really Different

The Locals was not my usual kind of book.  But these days I think that I am not sure if I am getting to the point where I no longer have a "usual kind of book!"  Maybe that is one of the good things about limiting myself to audiobooks.  My sweet friend Rebeky recommended this to me and I knew nothing about it when I started it.  The first chapter is WHOA and it is just WHOA and the rest of the book is so...interesting and it is very thought-provoking.  It is different and funny and disturbing in some ways and I would highly recommend a listen! 

This One

This has to be the Newbery this year.  I loved Towers Falling.  A 9-11 story, but more than a 9-11 story.  Set 15 years after 9-11 in a Brooklyn school where teachers are beginning to talk about the horror of 9-11 as history to middle school students.  But more than that, though because the characters are so real and so good and so engaging.  Recommended for the Newbery. Wow.  Wow. Wow.   There were so many cheesy traps that the author, Jewell Parker Rhodes could have been sucked into but she didn't at all and it was just so so good to read about characters who acted like real people.  I see she has written many more books!  I must read them now!!!!!!

A lot to think about

Ask Me No Questions actually left me with a lot of questions. It is one of those books I want someone I know to read so that I can talk about it with them. Nadira is fourteen years old, from Bangladesh, living with her mom, dad and older sister Aisha who is a super student in Queens. They are living in the country illegally and have been for many years. They have been trying to become citizens but it's been one thing after another, including a lawyer who ripped them off and their money.
Now it is right after 9/11 and there are new crackdowns on immigration, especially people from Muslim countries. A lot of folks are going to Canada to ask for asylum. Nadira's family tries but instead they are turned away and her dad is jailed.
The book is short and I read it in one night because I really wanted to find out what happened to Nadira and her family. They are really sympathetic characters but life-like. The book doesn't paint them out to be put-upon victims, Nadira acknowledges that what she and her family have been doing is illegal. It is just a really complicated thing though, because the whole crackdown is racially motivated because of 9/11. I have no answers about the right and wrongness of the whole deal, but I have a lot of conflicting feelings and so I can't wait to find someone who has read it, too!