Paradise Book Report

Bibliography: Tan, Shaun. The Arrival . New York: Scholastic, 2007. ISBN: 0439895294 Plot Summary: A man gently wraps a family photo in cloth and twine, placing it in his suitcase. So begins his journey to a new land. His wife and daughter walk him to the train beneath dragon-like monsters which loom above the city in huge, threatening shadows. After a voyage across the windswept ocean on a ship full of travelers, the man disembarks in a new world, standing in line to be processed in a surreal reimagining of Ellis Island. The language is an incomprehensible system of strange symbols, and he attempts to communicate with hand gestures. His papers are stamped and he takes an elevator-like sky-taxi suspended by a balloon across the city, which is sprawling with conical buildings and massive statues of winged figures cradling giant eggs. He finds himself in a street market filled with musicians, vendors, barbers, and curious creatures that appear to accompany most of the individuals

Bibliography: Sáenz, Benjamin Alire. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe . New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2014. ISBN: 1442408936 Plot Summary: Aristotle, a 15-year-old loner, navigates the confusion and melancholy of adolescence in El Paso in the late 80s. Haunted by the silence of his father, a Vietnam War vet, and his parents’ unwillingness to speak of his imprisoned older brother, Aristotle churns with nightmares and the creeping feeling that something is wrong with him. When he meets Dante at the local pool, a sensitive, playful, and confident young man with a passion for poetry and art and a distaste for wearing shoes, Ari finds friendship for the first time in his life. After a devastating car accident that leaves Ari with broken legs and complicated feelings about saving his best friend’s life, Ari must begin to confront the secrets that keep him and his family trapped in silence. In the end, not only Ari and Dante, but their