The Dear America: The Fences Between Us Review

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(More customer reviews)I've just finished reading Kirby Larson's The Fences Between Us and learned more about what our Japanese American citizens had to endure during WWII than I ever learned from a history class. We re-live this tragic era in our history through the eyes of teen Piper Davis, whose father, a pastor for a Japanese Baptist church, decides to follow his congregants when they're sent to an incarceraton camp, bringing Piper with him. Larson's incredible artistry and skill is on full display as she creates a world that immerses you in the period and creates characters you don't want to say goodbye to, at the same time grounding her story in primary source details. I highly recommend this book to both middle grade students and teachers for use in history/social studies curriculum. Nothing draws students into history more powerfully than a beautifully told story!

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The Red Umbrella Review

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(More customer reviews)Lucia Alvarez wants what any fourteen year old girl wants--
to spend time talking about boys with her best friend Ivette, to go to the movies and dances, and to avoid babysitting her annoying younger brother Frankie. It's just that her parents are so old-fashioned. Can't they see Lucia is old enough for a little independence?
When soldiers from Castro's Revolution arrive in Lucia's small town, her life becomes more oppressive, not less. Freedoms and friends disappear overnight. Finally her parents make the heart-wrenching decision to send Frankie and Lucia to the U.S. Alone.
The Red Umbrella, set in Cuba during 1961, by debut author Christina Gonzalez brings a culture and its past to life with this story of two children who were part of Operation Pedro Pan. It is, in fact, a personal family story for Ms. Gonzalez as both of her parents were part of the exodus of 14,000 unaccompanied minors who were sent to the U.S. in the early 60's to escape Castro's regime. The story of Lucia and Frankie Alvarez is a part of history that's generally not well known. The Red Umbrella deals with their upheaval with warmth, pathos and sometimes heart-breaking sadness.
-- Reviewed by Michelle Delisle


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Countdown Review

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(More customer reviews)It's not just that Ms. Wiles so evidently has done her homework, and so clearly recalls personal feelings of that time; it is her absolute gift for recounting those dreadful tween feelings, of change, insecurity, and peer pressure, with that hideous Missile Crisis as a backdrop!
I first "discovered" her when I picked up EACH LITTLE BIRD THAT SINGS. That one helped me through the death of a close friend, and I never put it down till I was finished. Then, as now, I cried, I laughed, and I felt as if I had just had some sort of magical catharsis happen to me, through a children's book! I am a children's librarian, so I believe EVERYONE should read children's books--they are so life-facilitating, and one never outgrows them--but if you are only going to read ONE children's book this year, COUNTDOWN is the one.
I feel as if I have waited a very long time for this book; after I voraciously read, and made sure our library owned, everything Ms. Wiles has published, I could not bear that there were no more. Trite as this sounds, it was so worth the wait. Now, I have to settle down to anticipation of Book Two of this trilogy!
Give this book to the discerning upper-elementary/tween reader. That child will see himself/herself in every chapter. My fifth birthday was the day JFK was killed, so most of these echoes are very dim for me, yet I also saw myself.
Ms. Wiles, you are a gift to every reader and librarian everywhere.

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