Book-Reviews

Sugar

Sugar, by Jewell Parker Rhodes; Little, Brown Books for Young Readers: New York, 2013; $16.99 Ten-year-old Sugar lives on the River Road Plantation in Mississippi in the early 1800s. Sugar is a young African-American girl whose father died during the Civil War and whose mother died of sickness shortly after. As Sugar spends her time cutting cane, Mister Wills, the plantation owner, hires more cane workers from China. These men befriend Sugar as she learns a new culture, but the workers in River Road do not like the Chinese men because they are worried that the Chinese men will take over the land. Sugar wants the Chinese men to have equality in River Road. She says, “I like the Chinese men. Reverend, don’t you preach, ‘Treat other folks like you want to be treated’?” Sugar cut cane until the sun turned red, orange, yellow, and pink, and faded into night. As Sugar says one night, “I stare at our shadows, lying, side by side, on the porch wood.” In the first few pages, I was shocked that Sugar hates her name! She throws up and gags if she eats sugar. As soon as the villagers finish cane working, they would eat the stalks. But because Sugar worked on the cane farm since she was two days old, she is tired of smelling the scent of sugar. It reminds her of the life she wants to leave behind. Though I am very different from Sugar, my family’s history is similar to Sugar’s amazing life story. My grandfather worked on a sugar cane farm for years. He grew up in a small Indian village called Panetha. He woke up at four a.m., took a shower, and prayed to God, and then at six a.m. set out for farming. He was about Sugar’s age then, and he either worked until noon or sometimes until six p.m. He worked with at least ten to fifteen people beside him. He told me that he cut sugar cane with a big knife. Inside the sugar cane is a solid fiber, making sugar cane juice. On the outside, the cane is not prickly, but be careful about the leaves! They are sharp and pointy. He sweated in the over 100-degree summers in India. He said he loved to farm. But like Sugar, he had a dream. His dream was to study and to come to America. In the late 1960s he came to America from India, just like the Chinese men came from their home country. And like my grandfather, Sugar achieved her dream to leave the sugar cane farm. I also relate to how Sugar bridged cultures. On holidays, Sugar encourages River Road to celebrate Chinese holidays. I encourage my school to celebrate Hindu festivities such as our Lower School Diwali Assembly. I hoped for grades pre-K to sixth to learn about our holiday, a day filled with joy and happiness. I think you should read Sugar, by Jewell Parker Rhodes, because I learned so much from the story of her struggle. I think that reading from authors of different backgrounds shows you new perspectives. I also recommend this story because it shows love of friends and warmth of adults. I hope my review will encourage you to read the book. Sonia Patel Banker, 9San Francisco, California

The Lions of Little Rock

The Lions of Little Rock, by Kristin Levine; Penguin Young Readers Group: New York, 2013; $7.99 Have you ever read a book where you’re able to relate so much to the main character that it’s creepy? The Lions of Little Rock made me feel exactly that way. It’s 1958, and Marlee Nisbett is a twelve-year-old girl in Little Rock, Arkansas. She is extremely shy and won’t talk to anyone except her family. In this way, Marlee reminds me of myself. Like Marlee, I’m naturally shy, and for a long time I wouldn’t talk much except to my family and close friends, although I’ve never been afraid to speak up in class. One of my favorite passages in The Lions of Little Rock is when Marlee tells the reader about the lions she can hear roaring every night from the nearby zoo. Every night, as she hears the lions roaring, she thinks maybe, just maybe, the next day she’ll wake up and start talking. But by morning, the lions are silent again, and she loses her courage. One of Marlee’s most fascinating qualities is how she compares everyone to a drink. Being quiet allows her to observe anyone around her, so to keep track of people, everyone is a specific beverage. Whenever a character changes, their drink changes too. For example, when Marlee realizes that her maid, Betty Jean, isn’t as boring as she seems, Marlee remarks that Betty Jean wasn’t just plain water—“she had a twist of lime that was all her own.” On the first day of junior high, a day that Marlee is sure will be just as embarrassing as all other school days, Marlee meets Liz, a new girl who isn’t afraid to speak her mind. To Marlee’s amazement, Liz decides to sit next to her at lunch and agrees to work with her on a school project. Liz and Marlee practice at the zoo and Marlee starts to confide in Liz. But on the day of the big presentation, Liz is gone. When Marlee finds out that her friend was a black student posing for a white student, she decides she doesn’t care—she just wants her friend back. Unfortunately, no one else agrees with her. Her parents forbid Marlee to even call Liz. This book reminds me of Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. The girls come from two very different families—one black and one white. Romeo and Juliet also had two conflicting families who were in a feud. And just like Romeo and Juliet, Liz and Marlee sneak out without their parents’ permission because they need to be with each other. Betty Jean, Marlee’s maid, reminds me of Juliet’s nurse, because both are motherly figures. With Liz gone, Marlee starts to change. She sneaks out to see Liz and becomes more outgoing. However, she starts to become a little careless. Red Dalton, the dangerous older brother of one of Marlee’s classmates, notices how Marlee is friends with Liz. He comes up with a horrible plan to get Liz and her family out of town. And only Marlee can stop him. I love a good historical fiction novel, and this was definitely one of them. The only thing I would change about this book is that I think the plot would have been much more dramatic if Marlee discovered that Liz was black towards the end of the book. I’m sure anyone who reads this book will find it as fascinating and inspiring as I do. Pamela Picerno, 13Metuchen, New Jersey

Al Capone Shines My Shoes

Al Capone Shines My Shoes, by Gennifer Choldenko; Penguin Young Readers Group: New York, 2011; $6.99 Though I am fascinated with American history, including Alcatraz, I was drawn to the book Al Capone Shines My Shoes, by Gennifer Choldenko, for different reasons. The main character’s name is Moose, a nickname that I have been called for years. He has an autistic sister. After reading a review in Stone Soup by Richard Ma [May/June 2013] about Temple Grandin, a world-famous animal rights advocate with autism, I became interested in the symptoms of autism and how autism affects people. Choldenko has written a wonderful novel full of action and solving crimes and the importance of communication. This is the second book in the trilogy. In Al Capone Shines My Shoes, Natalie, a sixteen-year-old girl faced with a severe case of autism, and her twelve-year-old brother, Moose, who is entrusted to take care of her, go on adventures with their friends. At first their life is more hectic than usual because they move to Alcatraz. Moose hates the move because he has to leave his old friends and make new ones, which he is not sure he can do. I know exactly how he feels because my parents are diplomats, so I have moved four times in eleven years. Moose makes a few friends on the island, such as Jimmy, a boy interested in science and flies; Annie, the best baseball player on the island; and Piper, the warden’s daughter and a giant troublemaker. Moose faces many difficulties throughout this book, because in the first book, Al Capone Does My Shirts, Moose asks Capone to help him get Natalie into a school for autistic children. In this book we learn that, as recompense, Capone asks Moose to get yellow roses for his wife. The first problem is that if Moose is found helping Capone, his family will be thrown off the island. The second challenge is Moose needs to keep Annie quiet after she finds out about his deal with Capone when she accidentally gets Moose’s laundry. Though I have never been in a situation where I have needed to repay a prisoner for something, I can imagine how nerve-racking it would be. Throughout the second book, Moose shows cunning and quick thinking. For instance, Jimmy’s younger sister gives their baby brother a penny. When Moose hears the baby stop crying, he discerns that something is wrong. He runs with the baby to the doctor’s office and saves the baby’s life. Moose also shows quick thinking when he and Piper spy on an event with Capone and other prisoners. When a guard spots them, Moose quickly comes up with an alibi. At the end of the book, a conflict arises between Jimmy and Moose, and they stop talking to each other. Later they work as a team to elude capture. Throughout the book, danger and action play vital roles. They help build the suspense but also assist in the telling of the story and create vivid images that the reader can picture from the wonderful descriptions. The book also talks about the importance of relationships and how friendships can be broken apart but also mended once again. I would like to read the third book in the series for it is bound to have wonderful descriptions and great plot lines. Jacob Zacks, 11Herzyllia Pituach, Israel