Literature Young Adult Fiction » Autobiography or Biography http://www.literatureyoungadultfiction.com YA Readers Reviewing Books. Sun, 05 Sep 2010 23:47:11 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Review: Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson http://www.literatureyoungadultfiction.com/review-hattie-big-sky-by-kirby-larson/ http://www.literatureyoungadultfiction.com/review-hattie-big-sky-by-kirby-larson/#comments Thu, 08 Apr 2010 09:15:17 +0000 PirateYarr http://www.literatureyoungadultfiction.com/?p=803

by BookWatch, guest reviewer

Title: Hattie Big Sky
Author: Kirby Larson
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 304
Grade Reading Level: Grades 7-9

Summary: This book is about 16 year old Hattie Brooks who is an orphan living with her aunt and uncle in Iowa in 1918.  She inherits a homestead in Montana and travels on her own to claim it.  It is the middle of winter and she must learn to survive alone in harsh conditions and determine how she will fence the homestead and cultivate a crop so she can keep it. She has less than a year to accomplish this. This book also confronts the prejudice against her closest neighbor, a German American farming his own homestead during World War I.  When you are reading this book you feel like you are right there with Hattie. It is a very personal account and it includes letters she writes to her home newspaper and to her best friend who is in Europe fighting World War I.

Why I started this book:

My favorite books are the Newberry Award winners.  I have a goal of reading all of them and I have quite a few to go. This is a Newberry winner.

Likes:

  • When you are reading this book you feel like you are right there with Hattie. It is a very personal account and it includes letters she writes to her home newspaper and to her best friend who is in Europe fighting World War I.
  • It is based on the true account of the author's great-grandmother. I found her courage amazing, not only in facing dangers and harsh conditions but in standing up for what she knew was right and being a true and loyal friend.

Buy: Hattie Big Sky

Rating: 5 treasure chests.

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by Second Mate Embry, guest reviewer

Title: Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison
Author: Lois Lenski
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 320
Grade Reading Level: Ages 9-12

Summary: Mary Jemison is living a normal life in the past during the years of British colonization of America until one day a man comes running by saying that the Indians are going to attack. Her dad ignores the warning and continues to plant his corn. They attack and she is separated from her family and kept captive amongst the Indians. They call her Corn Tassel for her hair. She’s tried to runaway to get back to her family but the Indians keep bringing her back. She is to become like them, but Mary doesn't want to be an Indian. It’s based on a true story.

Why I started reading this book:

It was a literacy book in my class and I read it for school as an assignment.

Likes:

  • Most books I’ve read about historical America usually have the European population capturing the Indians and I liked that this was the reverse of that scenario.
  • I enjoyed the different Indian names (Shining Star, Squirrel Woman, Red Bird, Little Turtle, Running Deer, etc.) and I thought that it was cool that their names sort of reflected the character and their personality.
  • The Indians only captured Europeans to replace dead members of their tribe.
  • The most interesting part of the book was when one of the captured Europeans was running the gauntlet! The Indians were trying to kill him and if he made it out alive he would be considered a true Indian.

Dislikes:

  • I wish it was more suspensful. I thought I would be very wrapped up in what would happen next and it was really more “Mary throwing herself a pity party, mumbling woefully about not being able to escape, and refusing to eat Indian food.” I just wanted to shake her to get her to stop moping and to start doing something.
  • Some of the language was hard to follow as it was full of older style dialogue instead of the contractions and language we use today.

Buy: Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison

Rating: 2.5 Treasure Chests

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by Cook Cutlery, guest reviewer

Title: Night
Author: Elie Wiesel
Format: Hardcover
# of pages: 108 pages
Grade Reading Level: 8.7

Summary: Elie Wiesel is a young 14 year old Jewish Orthodox boy. He's 15 at the end. He lived during the time that Adolf Hitler rose to power. He was one of very few to survive the Holocaust. Night is his journey of how he and his father survive the different concentration camps, one of which was Auschwitz. During the journey they are evacuated from Buna and sent to Auschwitz’s concentration camp.  Once they walk through the gate of Auschwitz it’s only the beginning of their rigorous journey to survive the horrors they are going to encounter and endure.

Why I Started This Book:

We read this book in language arts as part of our Holocaust unit. We read Night because he was the same age as many of us in class and this is the story of how he survived some truly awful terrible things.

Likes:

  • Elie Wiesel is a truly extraordinary human being. I'm glad he survived and I can only wish there had been more survivors.
  • I am grateful many of the descriptions were brief and that some things were condensed to a few sentences. It made it easier for me to read it.
  • I liked this book because it tells a tale of inner strength. If someone, especially a kid, survive all that, it really makes you think. It's sort of empowering because of that. It's a good lesson to teach kids. You can survive even the worst of troubles, fears, and experiences.

Dislikes:

  • This really isn't against the book so much as it's against human history. I can hardly wrap my mind around the fact that anyone could think doing this to people is okay. Ethnic cleansing is not okay and it made me really uncomfortable to read about it from someone's personal experience. It's impossible to understand such evil.
  • On the trip to Auschwitz a woman has visions and starts to scream out “Fire! Can’t you see it? Fire!” Many people run to the edge of the cattle cart to see if there was a fire and there wasn’t one, but still she persisted in screaming “Fire!” until some men beat her up. How awful. Then they tie her up and gag her to silence her. Then when they arrive at the gate of Auschwitz they realized why the woman was screaming “Fire!” because when they looked up they saw a huge crematory and they looked at the chimney, coming out of it was huge flames. This is even worse. I can barely stand imagining such a scene let alone living through it in real life.
  • I also disliked the fact that his father didn’t survive when they got to the other camp. I wish Elie was able to say goodbye to his father before he was taken in the night. I wish I could rewrite the ending if not the whole story. The whole thing is so sad.

Last Minute Thoughts: Reading this book is like squeezing your heart until you feel all bruised and hallowed out. It isn't pleasure reading and despite the rating I probably wouldn't read it again, but it's definitely a book you should made a point of reading.

Buy: Night

Rating: I give this book 3 out of 5 treasure chests.

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