Best of All Worlds

Little Soldiers:  An American Boy, a Chinese School and the Global Race to Achieve was a super interesting and insightful.  Lenora Chu and her husband have decided to live in China and send their son to a Chinese school.  She has a lot of special insight because she is the daughter of parents who came from China and raised her in the US and now she is raising an American-born son in China.  He husband is from the US.  So there are all kinds of different POVs that figure in here. 
The conclusion that their family comes to is that hybrid of the US and Chinese school systems might be best.  And it just made me think about how good the grey is.  And how much better we all would be if we were willing to blend and mix and combine the best of certain things with the best of other things.  Great book.  It is super readable and so well done!

Ha Jin

After The Boat Rocker, I wanted to read another Ha Jin book and found A Good Fall, which was probably the best book of short stories I have ever read because all of the stories were consistent in excellent quality.  Now I just want to read more and more of his stuff!  So so good!

An Accident

The Boat Rocker was a book I read by total accident.  I didn't even realize it was an accident until I was 1/2 way through it, but I was hooked.  I saw a book with a similar cover and thought that I wanted to listen to it, then I saw this one available on audio and it completely hooked me.  Not knowing much about China, this makes me want to know more.  And I loved the main character, Feng.  It was just perfect.  Loved it.  Highly recommended.

A New Installment

It seems like it has been FOREVER since Grace Lin had a book for me to read!  Because it's all about me, right?  When the Sea Turned to Silver is another in the same line as Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and Starry River of the Sky.  If you enjoyed the first two books, you will enjoy this one!

A Red String that Connects

Just Like Me is told from the POV of Julia, who was adopted from China as a baby.  She has never made a connection with her Chinese birth, not like the other girls who were adopted from the same orphanage in China, Avery and Becca.  Avery and Becca and Julia's parents were all part of the same group who adopted their daughters at the same time.  Because of this, all of the parents have kinda forced them to be "Chinese sisters,"  which seems totally fine for Avery and Becca, but Julia just doesn't want to have any part of it.  When a newspaper (or maybe magazine) writer wants to do a story on the three girls their parents decide that the girls should spend a week together at a summer camp and journal about their experiences.
Becca and Avery are all excited about it in their own ways, but Julie just really wants to forget about being Chinese and embrace the Italian and Irish part of her, as those are the heritages of her adoptive parents.
As she journals on and the week goes on, Julie faces feelings that she has tried not to feel.  This was a very interesting book. I wonder if it rings true for children who were adopted internationally or even within their own country.
Also it was just a good story about girls getting a long and about foster care as well, as Becca and Avery and Julia share a cabin with three other girls with different life situations.

The Year of the Goat

This year is the Year of Goat.  But In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson is set in the Year of the Boar, hence its name.  This was one of the books that I have feel like I should have read a long time ago because EVERYONE has read it.
The book begins in China where a young girl finds out that she and her mother are going to be joining her father in America.  The year is 1947 and the rest of the book is set in Brooklyn.  Jackie Robinson is America's hero.
A lot of the book is about the young girl's (she names herself Shirley Temple) adjustment to American culture, but there are timeless and applicable to a kid moving from China to the US or from Bethel Park to Upper St. Clair.

Alvin, oh Alvin

When I first met Alvin I loved him.  But now, well, that third book...every little thing that used to endear me to Alvin now aggravates me.  He is whiny and his behavior is pretty much ridiculous.  Alvin Ho:  allergic to the Great Wall, the Forbidden Palace and Other Tourist Attractions will probably be the last in the series that I will read.  What I did really like were things I learned about Chinese culture and history.  But you know....if Look was so off base about Native American culture, how can anything she writes about anything be trusted?

Another Great Book from Grace Lin

Again, not surprising at all, as Grace Lin is such a wonderful writer.  Starry River of the Sky is a companion book to Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, so I kinda figured that I would really enjoy it, and I did.  This one has a male main character, Rendi, who has run away from home and has found himself in a little village where the moon never shines.  Once again, Lin takes stories from Chinese tradition and puts a new twist on them, while weaving them inside a new story of her own.  She is seriously creative.  Just a beautiful writer.  Reading her books has given me a whole new insight into Chinese culture.  Great stuff. 

When the Moon Comes Over the Mountian

My grandma, my mom's mom, we lived with her while I was growing up.  She and I were quite the buddies.  A great pair.  She really loved me and I really loved her.  My grandma was awesome.  But man, she couldn't really sing.  And she didn't sing, but sometimes she sang, "When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain" but just the title and the lines that followed, "every beam brings a dream dear of you" and something about strolling through the mountain.  It was by Kate Smith.  Who I have never heard of, apart from my grandma talking about her.  In fact, listening to the youtube video, it is the first time I've heard the song!
Of course, this song came to me when I thought about the book Where the Mountain Meets the Moon.  When this book came out, it started the Great Kate Smith Resurgence of 2009.  So that explains that!
I loved WTMMTM.  I was told that I would and I did.  I am big fan of Grace Lin, of course, and so I thought I would love it.  Lin mixes Chinese folk tales with her own story of a little girl who goes off on an adventure to change the fortune of her family.  On her way she meets a dragon and a lot of other cool characters.  Great and beautiful story.  Thank you, Ms. Lin for another awesome book!