Paradise Book Report

Bibliography: Yep, Laurence. Dragonwings . New York: HarperCollins, [1975] 2001. ISBN: 0064400859 Plot Summary: At the dawn of the 20th century, young Moon Shadow leaves the Middle Kingdom (known in the West as “China”) to join his father in the Land of the Golden Mountain (the United States). Though they had never met, they soon learn to become father and son, working together in their laundry company in San Francisco in the part of town where the other Tang people live. To Moon Shadow and the others, this land is strange and inhabited by white demons with unusual customs and often dangerous enmity towards them, hurling rocks and slurs at them or hanging Tang men by their braided queues from lampposts. Moon Shadow also discovers that his father has a new name, Windrider, given to him in a dream by the Dragon King who reveals that Windrider is truly a dragon who has been sentenced to live a lifetime in a soft human body. Windrider must prove his “dragonness” in this life by passi...

Bibliography: Wein, Elizabeth. Code Name Verity (Audible Audiobook - Unabridged) . Read by Morven Christie and Lucy Gaskell. Tullamarine: Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd, 2012. ASIN: B0089CJZD4 Plot Summary: Upon her capture by the Gestapo in Nazi-occcupied France, secret agent “Verity” unfolds a complex and captivating tale in the form of a written confession, scrawled on scraps of paper between threats of torture from her captors. Like a modern Scheherezade, Verity (a woman of many names and code names) delays her inevitable execution by handing over memorized lines of code and recounting the details of her friendship with Air Transport Auxiliary pilot Maddie Brodatt. Verity, an upper-class Scottish woman with a knack for spy work, and Maddie, a working-class Englishwoman with a passion for mechanics and flying, discover a unique bond of friendship, trust, and teamwork as they navigate the harrowing landscape of World War II Europe. Gripping night flights, coded messages, secret miss...

Bibliography: Steptoe, Javaka. Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat . New York: Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 2016. ISBN: 9780316213882 Summary: In the heart of Brooklyn, a young boy dreams of becoming a famous artist. From morning to night, he scrawls messy drawings across scraps of paper, spilling his imagination onto the repurposed materials with serious focus and determination. Inspired by his Puertorican mother who draws with him and takes him to museums to see famous works like Picasso’s Guernica , young Jean-Michel Basquiat begins to channel his Haitian father’s jazz records and the energy and life of the city into his art. After a car accident leaves Jean-Michel in bed to recover, Jean-Michel’s mother gives him an anatomy book full of bones and skulls, which he learns to draw, giving him healing and comfort during a painful time. When his mother becomes mentally unwell, she must move out, and Jean-Michel’s heart is broken. Now a couch-sur...

Bibliography: Greenberg, Jan and Sandra Jordan. Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Through the Gates and Beyond . New York: Roaring Book Press, 2008. ISBN: 9781596430716 Summary: Can you imagine working on a piece of art for 26 years, only to show it to the public for a mere two weeks? Artist couple Christo and Jeane-Claude did exactly that with their installation entitled The Gates in New York’s Central Park. Twenty-three miles of shimmering saffron fabric panels fluttered from 7,503 aluminum frames to the delight and amazement of all who were lucky enough to witness them. Why would anyone go to all the trouble for such a temporary exhibition? Christo and Jeanne-Claude explain: “All of our projects have this fragile quality. They will be gone tomorrow. They have total freedom. That is why they cannot stay. Because freedom is the enemy of possession and possession is equal to permanence. We have to have freedom with no strings attached.” In fact, these massive installations are never ...

Bibliography:  Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group . Boston: HMH Books, 2010. ISBN: 9780544225824 Plot Summary: “The Sergeant and Scorpion are ready, Some Shall Weep and Some Shall Pray. Meet at Skull For Feast of the Wolf and Dance of the Muffled Skeletons.” In the wake of the Civil War, newspapers across the South printed cryptic “coffin notices” such as this to strike fear into the hearts of newly freed slaves and their white allies. Their source? The secret terrorist organization named the Ku Klux Klan. Susan Campbell Bartoletti thoroughly documents the disturbing history of the Klan’s efforts to stop the progress of racial equality in the United States. Through primary sources such as letters, court transcripts, newspaper articles, slave narratives, maps, photographs, and numerous etchings and illustrations printed in Harper’s Weekly , Bartoletti reveals how the KKK used intimidation, violence, and sec...

Dreamers by Yuyi Morales Don't miss this gorgeous book. Morales, Yuyi. Dreamers . New York: Neal Porter Books, 2018. ISBN: 0823440559

Bibliography:  Acevedo, Elizabeth. The Poet X . New York: HarperCollins, 2018. ISBN: 9780062662804 Plot Summary: Xiomara Bastista, a Harlem sophomore growing up in the shadow of her strict Dominican mother and her virtually absent Dominican father, struggles to find her voice and her identity as her body and mind grapple with young adulthood. Her name means “warrior,” and unlike her saintlike twin brother, Xiomara finds herself in conflict with the expectations of her family, the Catholic church, and the leering gaze of a society which views her as a sexual object. She finds escape and expression, however private, in her notebook, and gradually begins to risk sharing her internal world of words with her lab partner Aman, a young man who shares his earbuds and a caring, unaggressive interest in Xiomara. When she joins a school slam poetry club at the recommendation of her English teacher, a fire of poetic liberation ignites inside her, desperate to give voice to her deepest pai...