RM Winter 2017 FINAL

70 / 72

Reading Matters
Literature Matters
| 70| Reading Matters | Volume 16 • Winter 2016 |
Enchanted Air: Two Cultures,
TwoWings: A Memoir
Engle, Margarita. (2015). 224 pages.
Atheneum. 978-1-481-43523-9 $17.99
(Intermediate/Young Adult)
–Amy Bray
Have you ever wished your
body could be in two places at
once? Maybe that your body was
physically present, but your mind
and heart where somewhere else?
This feeling of incompleteness
is exactly how Margarita Engle felt growing up as a Cuban
American in the big city of Los Angeles. Through a series of free
verse poems, the reader is taken through Engle’s childhood and
the lacking sense of belonging she feels while not being in her
mother’s country of Cuba. She goes on to describe how others
treated her and how her family was deeply affected during the
ColdWar. One poem, “Revolutionary” reads, “I remember the
island as a quiet place/ of peaceful horses and cows, but now/
all I see are crowds of bearded soldiers/ in dull green uniforms,/
with dark machine guns/ balanced/ on rough shoulders” (p. 70).
Through the lyrical words, readers feel her sorrow about her two
worlds being in turmoil. When Margarita feels alone and different
from the friends and people around her, she finds comfort in words
and the hope of returning to Cuba during the summer after the
war passes. The memoir concludes with Margarita looking into
what she hopes for her future. She writes in “Hope,”“All I know
about the future/ is that it will be beautiful./ An almost-war/ can’t
last/ forever./ Someday, surely I’ll be free/ to return to the island
of all my childhood/ dreams” (p. 185). For those in the upper
elementary grades, this is an incredibly written book that will get
readers thinking about the variety of cultures surrounding our lives.
Listen, Slowly
Låi, Thanhhà (2015). 260 pages.
HarperCollins. 978-0-06222-918-2. $16.99
(Intermediate)
– Laura Dekle
Mai has grown up hearing
just enough about wartime
Vietnam to know that it was bad
– enough to make her parents
and family leave – but no one
ever tells her what about it was so
awful. Mai grows up in California,
privileged, with hardworking parents and her Vietnamese
grandmother, Bà. Because Mai doesn’t know much about
Vietnam, she does not appreciate her parents pushing her to
learn SAT word after SAT word, nor is she aware of the value
and history of her Vietnamese heritage. Then, when Mai’s
father tells her that someone needs to go to Vietnam with Bà
to investigate the location of Bà’s long-lost husband, Ông, Mai
learns more about Vietnam than she had ever wanted to.
Mai would rather be at the beach with her best friend
Montana. She would rather spend her summer obsessing
over “him.” She would rather be in California. But spending
the summer in Vietnam with limited access to her cell phone
and the constant presence of family members and villagers,
Mai is part of the classic tale of realizing that there is more to
the world than herself. She is awakened to new perspectives
and new ways of life. Listen, Slowly is written in witty voice, it is
chock-full of SAT words (thanks to Mai’s mother), and it educates
readers about Vietnamese culture and trying new things.
Pool
Lee, JiHyeon. (2015). Unpaged. Chronicle.
978-1-452--14294-4 $16.99. (Primary/
Intermediate)
– Valerie Samani
Have you ever wondered what
you could find if you opened your
imagination to all the possibilities
the world has to offer? In this
picturebook, a young boy dives
into an unseen world that others
do not dare to explore. Because
the book is wordless, it offers open interpretations for readers.
All of the pictures throughout the book move horizontally,
having the pictures on the left side flow into the right page,
showing continuous movement throughout. As the pictures
flow into one another, the soft texture of the pencil sketching’s
represent a strong sensual feeling to the artwork, making the
reader feel connected with the story. In some pictures, there
are sparks of different colors, such as the girl’s red swimsuit, and
the different colored fish. This variation in colors throughout
the story draws the reader’s eye to specific objects the author
feels are important without having to directly tell the reader
to look for them. The variation in color also highlights the
idea of escaping the ordinary, a main theme throughout
the story. The two children are the only characters that hold
color, identifying them from the other, ordinary people in the
pool. The colors and scenes found throughout this book tell
a story of being brave enough to exploring the unexplored,
something that children must be able to do in order to gain
experience and knowledge of the world around them.
Ling & Ting: Together
In All Weather
Lin, Grace. (2015). 48 pages. Little, Brown.
978-0-316-33549-2 $16.00 (Primary)
– Mary Vilcheck
Ling and Ting are twins who
are never apart. In this fourth
book of the series, the six chapters
take the twins on an adventure
through all the seasons. The
stories in this book are simple, yet
relatable to young readers. This
book is the perfect opportunity to teach young children about
winter, fall, spring, and summer. Ling and Ting go from selling