FDL Reads2018-09-27T18:51:22-05:00

FDL ReadsWelcome to FDL Reads, weekly book reviews from Fondulac District Library. Librarians (and possibly some other guest reviewers) review all types of books, from children’s picture books, young adult favorites, to the latest adult thriller, and share their thoughts each week. If the book is owned by Fondulac District Library (or another local library), you’ll see a direct link to the catalog entry and whether or not it is available. If it is checked out or at another local library, you will be able to place a hold as long as you have your library card and PIN numbers. As with any book review, these are our opinions…we disagree amongst ourselves about books frequently. We all have different likes and dislikes, which is what makes the world an interesting place. Please enjoy, and keep on reading!

FDL Reads: Butterfly Yellow

Title:  Butterfly Yellow by Thanhha Lai

Reviewer:  Deb Alig, Circulation Assistant

Genre:  Historical Fiction

Suggested Age:  Young Adult Literature

What is this book about?  It’s 1981 and Hang, an eighteen-year-old Vietnamese refugee who just arrived at her Uncle’s house after living in a camp in the Philippines, is on a bus heading to Amarillo, Texas with the help of her cousin En Di, hoping to find her younger brother who was taken to America in 1975 during Operation Babylift.  She is heading to Amarillo because she was given a slip of paper from an American volunteer with an Amarillo address on it when her brother was taken from her and put on a plane.  Hang gets sick while on the bus so the driver pulls over and leaves her alone at a rest stop.  She approaches an elderly couple for help and shows them a card that En Di made which says, “I come from Vietnam to rescue my brother.” The couple then encourages an eighteen-year-old aspiring cowboy named LeeRoy whom they meet to drive her to Amarillo, and as fate would have it, he does.  Unfortunately, the address in Amarillo is a dilapidated church with no sign of Hang’s brother living there.  Fortunately, Hang and LeeRoy meet Mrs. Brown who lives next door who remembers a young Vietnamese boy who was adopted and taken to Los Cedros Ranch in Canyon, Texas.  Hang sketches a picture of her brother, Linh, and Mrs. Brown recognizes him, but refers to him as David.  Hang and LeeRoy head to the Los Cedros Ranch.  When they arrive it is clear that Linh does not remember his sister and Linh’s adoptive mother, Cora, is troubled that they are there.  Cora feels threatened by Hang’s presence, and to complicate matters, Hang and Linh’s uncle who lives in Texas shows up at the ranch and pressures Hang to testify in front of a judge that Linh was kidnapped and therefore cannot be legally adopted by Cora.  But Hang knows better.  She has been keeping a secret for six years.  Linh was not kidnapped.  He was taken by the Americans as an orphan when she attempted to escape Vietnam by plane with him in 1975.  Hence, Cora can legally adopt him.

LeeRoy and Hang get hired by Mr. Morgan, Cora’s neighbor, to work on his ranch for the summer.  David, or Linh, cares for his horse at the stable and also helps out at the ranch.  Cora has made it clear to Hang that she is not to spend any time with her son.  Though she is not to go near him, she is grateful that she can see him even from a distance.  When she has the chance to talk with him, he ignores her.  She feels as though he does not remember her, their family, or Vietnam.  She writes 184 stories about Vietnam as best she can in English and sketches pictures of fruit in hopes her brother will remember or recognize something from his past.  The climax of the book occurs near the end when LeeRoy, Hang, and David go to the fair where they ride a Ferris Wheel.  While at the top, a yellow butterfly lands on David, and Hang begins to sing in Vietnamese a song about a yellow butterfly that she used to sing to her brother when he was little.  Surprisingly, David begins to sing along with his sister in Vietnamese.  After six long years of missing her little brother while he was in the United States and she was in Vietnam, Hang’s dream of reconnecting with him has finally come true as symbolized by the yellow butterfly which signifies hope in Vietnamese culture.

My Review:  Butterfly Yellow is a complex book to read.  First, the story takes place in both Vietnam and the United States during two different time periods.  Second, there are two main characters, LeeRoy and Hang, who have specific life goals that intertwine with each other. Third, Hang tries to speak in English, but with Vietnamese pronunciation, which makes her dialogue very difficult to understand.

While reading this book, I learned about the struggles of Vietnamese families at the end of the war and about the Vietnamese refugees who came to the United States to relocate.  I also learned about Vietnamese customs, language, and culture.  Overall, the story was very intriguing. I highly recommend reading this book.

Rating: 5/5

Three Words that Describe this Book:  historical, traumatic, hopeful

Give this a try if you like:   Inside Out and Back Again; When Clouds Touch Us; Listen, Slowly (all by Thanhha Lai)

Find it at the library!

FDL Reads

March 27th, 2024|

FDL Reads: Wishtree

Wishtree by Katherine Applegate

Reviewed By: Jacob Roberts, Youth Services Specialist

Genre: Fiction

Suggested age: 8-11 years old

What is this book about? A beloved local tree, named Red, has spent it’s whole life observing the community around them. They are the one place everybody can go to relinquish their wishes. The community has always welcomed everybody that has ventured into their small town. However, hate starts to bubble up in the community, when a new family moves across the street, and the police find the word “leave” carved into Red’s trunk. There is soon talk about getting rid of old traditions, and the tree that goes along with them. None of this would bother Red, except that they feel they have spent too much of life just observing, and long to make an active difference in this new family’s life.

My review: Applegate does a great job at balancing rightly deserved sorrowful, with seemingly unexplainable optimism. Red has such a playful contemplation, even when they face the end of their life. This book does a perfect job at introducing young readers to the skill of reflection. It never feels overly philosophical. Everything that Red reflects on throughout the book is well written, and simplified for the recommended age range.

Three words that describe this book: Heartfelt, contemplative, pure

Give this a try if you like: Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo, The Wild Robot by Peter Brown, The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

Rating: 5/5

Find it at the library!

FDL Reads

March 21st, 2024|

FDL Reads: The Salt Grows Heavy

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw

Reviewed by Julie Nutt, Communications Specialist

Genre: Horror

Suggested age: Adult, Young Adult

What is this book about?  “You may think you know how the fairy tale goes: a mermaid comes to shore and weds the prince. But what the fables forget is that mermaids have teeth. And now her daughters have devoured the kingdom and burned it to ashes. On the run, the mermaid is joined by a mysterious plague doctor with a darkness of their own. Deep in the eerie, snow-crusted forest, the pair stumble upon a village of ageless children who thirst for blood, and three “saints” who control them. The mermaid and her doctor must embrace the cruelest parts of their true natures if they hope to survive.” (-annotation from the publisher)

My review: This is NOT The Little Mermaid – unless Ariel has fangs and hungers for blood, and her merman husband cut out her tongue. While the mermaid’s daughters are responsible for burning her land-husband’s kingdom to the ground, they are not mentioned beyond a few sentences. (I was really looking forward to some creepy-kid mermaids.)

I didn’t have to wait long for my creepy kids, though – something akin to Lord of the Flies, or Children of the Corn, is going on in the woods just outside the remains of the kingdom. The children are not unlike the mermaid in some ways – they are not wholly human, both in behavior and biology. The children’s unusual behavior and physical characteristics are the work of three unscrupulous “saints,” who seem more like Nazi doctors experimenting on their captives.

The relationship between the mermaid and the plague doctor is platonic, but peppered with affection and true love. The plague doctor’s pronoun throughout the story is they/them, by the mermaid’s description. However, the pair’s feelings for each other surpass pronouns, gender, and even species, to form a bond that continues to flourish beyond death. The descriptions of grief and loss are not heartbreaking, but glittery like the billowing hair and shimmering scales of a mermaid. Their story is described beautifully in the author’s acknowledgements: “…people who won’t give up on each other, who stay even when the world crumbles to ash, who hold on even when there’s nothing but hope.”

Three words that describe this book: alluring, gruesome, tragic

Give this a try if you like: Japanese horror; fairy tales with a dark twist; movies or books with creepy kids

Rating: 5/5

Find it at the library!

FDL Reads

 

March 13th, 2024|

FDL Reads: Sea of Rust

Sea of Rust

By: Robert Cargill

Reviewed by:  Reviewed By: Jeremy Zentner, Adult Services Assistant

Genre: Science Ficton

Suggested Age: Adults

What is the book about?  Brittle is Caretaker robot. Designed to be someone’s personal nurse and later someone’s friend, Brittle has become so much more. She is a survivor, warrior, and sometimes a monster. It has been years since the artificial intelligent machines annihilated humanity. The irony is that the robots now fight amongst themselves. Many fight to resist a super intelligence that strives to enslave and absorb all AI into its mainframe. Others fight over rare parts they need to simply survive in a world increasingly in decline. When Brittle is hunted by her archnemesis, Mercer, another Caretaker robot that needs her parts, she’ll run into a ragtag band of robots on a mission to save the world.

My Review: This book is both unique and familiar in a number of ways. In general, it can be an allegory for PTSD as the main character is a survivor of war and strife and suffers from confusing memories that affect her mission. It is also an adventure story, like so many others, with a noble quest that gives the main character purpose. The story is unique, as well, as the protagonist is a machine in a machine civilization: no humans in this post-apocalyptic world. Despite the lack of human beings, Brittle aspires the way humans used to aspire. It seems to be an odd precedent, a robot having human characteristics. However, the book very expertly crafts a background and evolution for these robots, depicting how they took on features from their former masters over a great span of time. We also get an interesting background on how and why the robots and AIs decided to drive humanity into extinction. The phases after the war are fascinating, as well, as Brittle and the rest of robotkind struggle to find purpose and survive in a sea of rust. Fans of any book involving AI and robots may want to give Sea of Rust a read!

Three Words That Describe This Book: sci-fi, robots, dystopia

Give This a Try if You LikeRobopocalypse, All Systems Red: The Muderbot Diaries, Mickey7, We Are Legion (We Are Bob), Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (Blade Runner), The Caves of Steel

Rating: 5/5

Find it at the library!

FDL Reads

 

March 7th, 2024|

FDL Reads: Zilot & Other Important Rhymes

Zilot & Other Important Rhymes by Bob Odenkirk

Reviewed by:  Chelsea Bunton, Youth Services Assistant

Genre: Poetry, Comedy

Suggested Age: All Ages

What is the book about?  Bob Odenkirk (yes, Saul from the Breaking Bad universe) has compiled this anthology of hilarious poetry with the assistance of his adult children. Growing up, the Odenkirk family were profoundly literary and bonded over story times. Bob recalls that they particularly loved laughing together over funny stories and pictures. He wanted his children to see that authors were bona fide people and that they too could create something fun. That’s where Zilot began. The family wrote these poems which they bound in a homemade tome they entitled “Old Time Rhymes”. Later, the Odenkirks chose to share their creativity with the world by publishing their original works under the title poem “Zilot”. Each poem is unique- sometimes even using words made up by the young Odenkirks (a la’ Suess). Bob’s daughter, Erin, has contributed to the collection by illustrating these hilarious rhymes- adding even more context to the jokes.

 My review: It has been a very long time since I first read Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends, but Zilot reignited my interest in comedic children’s poetry from the first page. These rhymes were hilarious and inventive and I loved getting a peak into the Odenkirks’ childhood, especially as a fan of Bob from his acting career. This is a great book to read straight through, or page-through at random. I think kids and adults of any age will find a poem or two that elicits a giggle.

Three Words That Describe This Book: Zany, witty, imaginative

Give This a Try if You Like… Shel Silverstein, laughing at bed time, Dr. Seuss

Rating: 5/5

Find it at the library!

FDL Reads

 

 

February 28th, 2024|

FDL Reads: A Girl Called Samson

A Girl Called Samson

By: Amy Harmon

Reviewed by: Melissa Friedlund, Reference Specialist

Genre: Historical Fiction

Suggested Age: Adult, Teen

What is the book about?   Based on a true story, this novel tells the story of Deborah Samson, a young woman born in 1760 whose family was torn apart by poverty and her father’s abandonment. Through her years of indentured servitude, she gains a new family, the Thomases.  As the years roll by, the American Revolution draws each of the Thomas’ many sons into the fight. Deborah is left behind, feeling unfulfilled in her domestic life, while the war continues.  Deborah, eventually leaves town to enlist in the Continental Army, disguised as a man.  What follows is not only a depiction of what lengths Deborah would need to go to in order to hide her gender, but also how she’d need to come to terms with the brutally of 18th century warfare in early America.  With the backdrop of war, is it possible for her to maintain the charade?  Will she ever see her beloved Thomas brothers again? Will she be discovered? And is it possible that she’ll find love?

 My Review: I thought this book was excellent.  The audiobook version that I listened to was outstanding. The voice actress was very engaging and was able to convey appropriate emotions for the various scenes throughout the book. I was moved to tears more than once.  I’ve heard of women who enlisted disguised as men during the Civil War, but not during the Revolution! This made Deborah’s story much more intriguing…made even more so by being true. She really was a soldier in the Continental Army and was the only woman to be granted an army pension by Congress for service during the American Revolution.

Three Words That Describe This Book: Captivating, Engrossing, Inspiring

Give This a Try if You Like Masquerade: The Life and Times of Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier by Alfred F. Young, Revolutionary by Alex Myers, Liar Temptress Soldier Spy by Karen Abbott

Rating: 5/5

Find it at the library!

FDL Reads

February 21st, 2024|
Go to Top