Everything Sad is Untrue: (a true story). Audiobook

 

Rating: 4 out of 5 | a coming of age story that we have not yet heard

My Thoughts:

Plot/Theme--

This coming of age story, read by the author, is an interesting look into what it is like to grow up as an Iranian immigrant in middle America, specifically in Oklahoma. Khosrou, called Daniel by the white people, is a middle schooler in Oklahoma. His stories, long winded and tumbling like the tornadoes of Oklahoma, are likened to the kinds of stories Sheherazade must have told in One Thousand and One Nights. In other words, these stories  sound fantastically horrible and fictional, and yet I think they are told by 12-year old Daniel, as a way to live another day in this hostile classroom.

He uses the middle school strategy of talking about gross things like poop and blood, but in a way that is poetic and heartbreaking. . . because yes, we know that this is true. When Khosrou continues to emphasize why his mother is unstoppable, as well as how his father is immovable, it is heartbreaking. 

Recommendation --

As this child's culture is not familiar to me, and probably to most middle schoolers in Hawai'i, the audiobook, either as a read along or standalone, is the best introduction to this "window" memoir. Readers need to hear the patois of the author and how he pronounces those names and words that are not foreign to him, but foreign to our eyes and ears. That is the best way to respect his story. 

From the Publisher:

At the front of a middle school classroom in Oklahoma, a boy named Khosrou (whom everyone calls "Daniel") stands, trying to tell a story. His story. But no one believes a word he says. To them he is a dark-skinned, hairy-armed boy with a big butt whose lunch smells funny; who makes things up and talks about poop too much. But Khosrou's stories, stretching back years, and decades, and centuries, are beautiful, and terrifying, from the
moment his family fled Iran in the middle of the night with the secret police moments behind them, back to the sad, cement refugee camps of Italy...and further back to the fieldsnear the river Aras, where rain-soaked flowers
bled red like the yolk of the sunset had burst over everything, and further back still to the jasmine-scented city of Isfahan. Like Scheherazade in a hostile classroom, Daniel weaves a tale to save his own life: to stake his claim to the truth. And it is (a true story).

Publication Information:

• Author/Narrator: Daniel Nayeri
• Publisher: Listening Library
• Release Date: August 25, 2020

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter (Audiobook)

 

Stars: 5 for the potential to use this in a high school class

From the Publisher:

Perfect Mexican daughters do not go away to college. And they do not move out of their parents’ house after high school graduation. Perfect Mexican daughters never abandon their family.

But Julia is not your perfect Mexican daughter. That was Olga’s role.

Then a tragic accident on the busiest street in Chicago leaves Olga dead and Julia left behind to reassemble the shattered pieces of her family. And no one seems to acknowledge that Julia is broken, too. Instead, her mother seems to channel her grief into pointing out every possible way Julia has failed.

But it’s not long before Julia discovers that Olga might not have been as perfect as everyone thought. With the help of her best friend Lorena, and her first love, first everything boyfriend Connor, Julia is determined to find out. Was Olga really what she seemed? Or was there more to her sister’s story? And either way, how can Julia even attempt to live up to a seemingly impossible ideal?

My Thoughts:

Julia (Wholeeah) has American parent expectations from her Mexican immigrant parents. Think the mother from Like Water for Chocolate, but with a YA second daughter and in America. Her parents are immigrant parents, with first generation difficulties and struggles. They also have certain expectations that were brought over from their own country. Julia struggles with these non-American expectations because she wants to live like any American teen. She wants to not have everything figured out. She wants her parents to be ok with that, and as long Julia has her older sister Olga continued to be the good Mexican daughter, then Julia was ok. But when Olga gets killed in a pedestrian accident, Julia is full of anger. She finds something in Olga's room, and she just cannot let it go. This is where the text gets a little heavy handed. Julia is irritating in her immaturity, in the same way that I found Laura Jean Song irritating in To All the Boys I've Loved Before. Still, many young readers enjoyed it and I think they will like this one too.

In the classroom:

There are many standards that will fit this book:

• Determine a text's theme or central idea
• Analyze complex characters
• Analyze a case in which another culture is being portrayed
• For literature circles - if you want similar books try:
• The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
• Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
• Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan

 Publication Information:

Author: Erika L. Sanchez

Narrator: Kyla Garcia

Publisher: Listening Library October 17, 2017

The Other Side of Tomorrow, Graphic Novel

 

Stars: 5 for beautiful illustrations and a story that is not familiar to American YA and middle grade readers (yet). The last star for a 5 is in the ability to use this in your English or social studies classroom as a learning resource. 

My Thoughts:

The marketers say this book is similar to Illegal  and When Stars are Scattered which are both about harrowing immigration stories. Besides the topic of migration, these are all graphic novels told from the point of view of young people who are searching for families and/or searching for better lives. In addition, the three of these are atypical in that they are not coming from Central or South America.

In this case, the story is told by two narrators, Yunho, whose mother escaped to China and Myunghee. The two are seen separately at first as they care for an elder, but they soon start traveling together to escape from North Korea. 

Yunho does eventually find his mother, and the three of them stick together, but the ups and downs in this graphic novel are just stressful. Just when things seem to be looking up, and even when they are in other countries, horrible things happen. 

Like the other books, the historical (maybe contemporary) non fiction in this will help students get interested in researching more. The other aspect of this particular graphic novel is the striking artwork. Artwork is its own form of text. If teachers want to learn more about that, check my post on the picture book Where Butterflies Fill the Sky. There is a link to learn more about enhancing literary engagement though pictures and graphics using the peritextual literacy framework.

Finally, the graphics are so stunning because they are by Deb J.J. Lee. If you have not read Lee's graphic memoir, In Limbo, well you must. Their tone comes through in their use of light and dark shades, white and black spaces. All of that skill is brought to this graphic novel too which is why it is so stunning. I did not even realize that this is a graphic novel in verse because the pictures tell the story first and then I read the words.

From the Publisher:

Perfect for fans of Illegal and When Stars Are Scattered, this poignant and moving graphic novel in verse captures the dangers and hope that come with fleeing North Korea and reaching for a brighter future through the lives of Yunho and Myunghee.

From never knowing where they’ll find their next meal to avoiding soldiers lurking at every corner, many North Koreans have learned that sticking around can be just as deadly as attempting to flee . . . almost. 

Both shy, resourceful Yunho and fierce, vibrant Myunghee know this. So when they each resolve to run away from the bleak futures they face, it’s with the knowledge that they could be facing a fate worse than death.

While Yunho hopes to reunite with his omma, who snuck across the border years ago, Myunghee is reaching for dreams that are bigger than anything the regime would allow her to have. The two are strangers to each other until a chance encounter unwittingly intertwines their fates and Myunghee saves Yunho’s life.

Kept together by their dreams for a brighter future, they face a road plagued by poisonous jungle snakes, corrupt soldiers, and the daily fear of discovery and imprisonment. But with every step toward freedom, there is also hope. Will it be enough for both of them to make it to safety without losing each other along the way?

Publication Information:

Author: Tina Cho

Illustrator: Deb JJ Lee

Publisher: HarperAlley (November 12, 2024)

Paperback: 224 pages

Grades: 3-7

Twice as Perfect

My Thoughts:

The voice of Adanna, Ada, Sophie is so intriguing. I like when she code switches and although I don't understand everything they say, I am still captured by it. This is a diaspora story about the stifling pressures of being children of immigrants. Even if this family is in Canada, the family dynamic and the large extended family that creates their own community is still familiar to American audiences. There is a pressure to be good over happy. There is a question of whose dreams should matter? 

I did try to listen to the audiobook, but I somehow have a different voice in my head so I am reading this instead. Ada in my head sounds like some of the teens I worked with when I was training teachers in Durban, South Africa. 

This is also a love triangle. Although I cannot reveal who she chooses in the end, suffice it to say, I am more than satisfied. I was cheering!  I started this book before it came out in the summer of 2022, but I just was not in the right space to start it. However, now that I have finished it, it was a great read for teens that need a bit of mystery, family drama, social media realness, friendship drama, and a realistic coming of age dilemma. 

From the Publisher:

She thinks the only things worth doing are those that will lead to success.

For seventeen-year-old Adanna Nkwachi, life is all about duty: to school and the debate team, to her Nigerian parents, and even to her cousin Genny as Adanna helps prepare Genny’s wedding to Afrobeats superstar Skeleboy. Because ever since her older brother, Sam, had a fight with their parents a few years ago and disappeared, somebody had to fill the void he left behind. Adanna may never understand what caused Sam to leave home, but the one thing she knows is that it’s on her to make sure her parents’ sacrifices aren’t in vain.

One day, chance brings the siblings together again and they start working to repair their bond. Although she fears how their parents will react if they find out, Adanna’s determined to get answers about the night Sam left—Sam, who was supposed to be an engineer but is now, what, a poet? The more she learns about Sam’s poetry, the more Adanna begins to wonder if maybe her own happiness is just as important as doing what’s expected of her.

Amid parental pressure, anxiety over the debate competition, a complicated love life, and the Nigerian wedding-to-end-all-weddings, can Adanna learn, just this once, to put herself first?

Publication Information:

Author: Louisa Onomé

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends (July 26, 2022)

 

The Family Chao: Audiobook

My Thoughts:

This audiobook kept me company as I cleaned out my apartment and made the drives back and forth from work to the two different houses.  I did not know prior to listening that this was inspired by The Brothers Karamazov, but the pacing, and the way the characters seem stuck to the environment does seem more like Russian literature. 

I enjoyed the seven plus hours of going through this mystery even though the mystery still remains a mystery to me. However, the three stars is more because this is not really for my audience. It just so happened that I had time to immerse myself in this and was not really concerned about getting to some kind of conclusion. In addition, the youngest son, James was a bit immature and underwhelming of the three brothers. 

What I appreciate about this book is the ability of the author to take a story, like the Brothers Karamazov and filter it through a time, place and culture that is wholly different. I would like to see this as a movie. It will stand up against other "remakes" like Kurosawa's Ran a medieval Japanese revisioning of Shakespeare's King Lear. 

From the Publisher:

The residents of Haven, Wisconsin, have dined on the Fine Chao restaurant’s delicious Americanized Chinese food for thirty-five years, content to ignore any unsavory whispers about the family owners. Whether or not Big Leo Chao is honest, or his wife, Winnie, is happy, their food tastes good and their three sons earned scholarships to respectable colleges. But when the brothers reunite in Haven, the Chao family’s secrets and simmering resentments erupt at last.

Before long, brash, charismatic, and tyrannical patriarch Leo is found dead—presumed murdered—and his sons find they’ve drawn the exacting gaze of the entire town. The ensuing trial brings to light potential motives for all three brothers: Dagou, the restaurant’s reckless head chef; Ming, financially successful but personally tortured; and the youngest, gentle but lost college student James. As the spotlight on the brothers tightens—and the family dog meets an unexpected fate—Dagou, Ming, and James must reckon with the legacy of their father’s outsized appetites and their own future survival.

Brimming with heartbreak, comedy, and suspense, The Family Chao offers a kaleidoscopic, highly entertaining portrait of a Chinese American family grappling with the dark undercurrents of a seemingly pleasant small town.

Publication information:

Author: Lan Samantha Chang

Narrator: Brian Nishii

Recorded Books, Inc. February 1, 2022

 

Aniana Del Mar Jumps In

 

My Thoughts:

Ani is a 7th grade swimming prodigy, but Papi is the only one who comes to watch her. Ani would love to see her family in the stands, including Mami and her baby brother, but Mami is haunted by the ocean, so even if Ami is only in the pool, the two of them are keeping a secret from Mami. This secret, though, is literally destroying Ani's life. 

When Ani is debilitated with a mystery illness over the summer, not only is she not allowed to swim, but Mami makes her feel like the lying is her punishment for her illness. Ani wishes that she could speak up for herself and explain how swimming saves her and makes her feel free, but she does not want to hurt her mother, even if it hurting her instead. 

This novel in verse captures the physical and emotional pain Ani is going thorough by playing with poetry forms and concrete imagery. This was a powerful read full of waves of panic and pain, and hope. 

From the Publisher:

Aniana del Mar belongs in the water like a dolphin belongs to the sea. But she and Papi keep her swim practices and meets hidden from Mami, who has never recovered from losing someone she loves to the water years ago. That is, until the day Ani’s stiffness and swollen joints mean she can no longer get out of bed, and Ani is forced to reveal just how important swimming is to her. Mami forbids her from returning to the water but Ani and her doctor believe that swimming along with medication will help Ani manage her disease. What follows is the journey of a girl who must grieve who she once was in order to rise like the tide and become the young woman she is meant to be. Aniana Del Mar Jumps In is a poignant story about chronic illness and disability, the secrets between mothers and daughters, the harm we do to the ones we love the most—and all the triumphs, big and small, that keep us afloat.

Publication Information:

Author: Jasmine Mendez

Publisher: Dial Books (Mar 14, 2023)

Messy Roots: A Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese American

 

Publication date: March 8, 2022

My Thoughts:

Messy Roots is a funny, self-deprecating coming of age and coming out memoir of Chinese immigrant, queer, Wuhanese American Laura Gao. Born in the idyllic countryside in Wuhan, "Laura" and her family move to Texas where she literally is the unctious stinky tofu in a land of McDonaldʻs french fries. 

Gao does a great job in her memoir of being both a timeless story as well as a timely story. For example, she has the typical immigrant experience of moving from Asia to the heart of America, where even in Texas there are a few Asians in her school, but none of them from Wuhan. She takes on a more American name, plays sports at school (basketball), realizes that she likes girls and comes out to some of her friends and her brother, all the while being afraid to disappoint her parents. That part of her story is timeless. 

But when COVID-19 hits, Wuhan and being from Wuhan, even looking Asian becomes a traumatic experience for Asian Americans, and Gao does not shy away from that timely story in this memoir. I appreciate how this soon to be released graphic memoir does not shy away from the difficulty, nor does it show Gao as a victim, but as  a strong, resilient artist. 

From the Publisher:

After spending her early years in Wuhan, China, riding water buffalos and devouring stinky tofu, Laura immigrates to Texas, where her hometown is as foreign as Mars—at least until 2020, when COVID-19 makes Wuhan a household name.

In Messy Roots, Laura illustrates her coming-of-age as the girl who simply wants to make the basketball team, escape Chinese school, and figure out why girls make her heart flutter.

Where Butterflies Fill the Sky (Picture Book)

 

Publication date: February 8, 2022 (post released early in celebration of Picture Book month)

My Thoughts:

Author Zahra Marwan shares the story of her family, and how with a stateless father, she and her family had to say goodbye to the desert of Kuwait to travel to the deserts of New Mexico.  Leaving a close knit family is sad for her, but she finds that like the deserts of Kuwait, New Mexico also brings magic. 

Peritextual features of books include information on dust jackets, end papers, title pages, etc. The value of this picture book in the secondary classroom is that it tells a historical story of immigration that is not as familiar to students. Teachers can enhance literacy engagement using the Peritextual Literacy Framework (PLF) developed by Gross and Latham (2017) my mining the rich information found in the "The Story of My Family" section and "About the Art."

From the Publisher:

Zahra lives in a beautiful place where the desert reaches all the way to the sea and one hundred butterflies always fill the sky. When Baba and Mama tell her that their family is no longer welcome here and they must leave, Zahra wonders if she will ever feel at home again--and what about the people she will leave behind? But when she and her family arrive in a new desert, she's surprised to find magic all around her. Home might not be as far away as she thought it would be.

With spare, moving text and vivid artwork, Zahra Marwan tells the true story of her and her family's immigration from Kuwait, where they were considered stateless, to New Mexico, where together they made a new home.

Cuba in My Pocket

 

Publication Date: September 21, 2021

From the Publisher:

By the author of 2021 Pura Belpré Honor Book The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez, a sweeping, emotional middle grade historical novel about a twelve-year-old boy who leaves his family in Cuba to immigrate to the U.S. by himself, based on the author's family history.

“I don’t remember. Tell me everything, Pepito. Tell me about Cuba.”
When the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 solidifies Castro’s power in Cuba, twelve-year-old Cumba’s family makes the difficult decision to send him to Florida alone. Faced with the prospect of living in another country by himself, Cumba tries to remember the sound of his father’s clarinet, the smell of his mother’s lavender perfume.
Life in the United States presents a whole new set of challenges. Lost in a sea of English speakers, Cumba has to navigate a new city, a new school, and new freedom all on his own. With each day, Cumba feels more confident in his new surroundings, but he continues to wonder: Will his family ever be whole again? Or will they remain just out of reach, ninety miles across the sea?

My Thoughts:

This post will not be published until August, 2021, but know that I finished the book in the early morning hours of the last day of February as the rain and wind swirl in my valley, on another island two oceans away from both Cuba and Florida. As someone born and raised on an island that was once its own kingdom and nation before the overthrow by the "Yankees," I have had a long fascination with Cuba as a tale of parallel realities. In 1959, as a way to further colonize Hawaii under the thumb of the Big Five Sugar Plantations, and as a way to firmly secure America's military might in the Pacific, without any other viable alternative, the citizens of the US Territory of Hawaii became the 50th and last state of what we now know as the United States of America. A few years later, the Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba (covertly supported by American dollars) was a major failure of American foreign policy and it severed the relationship between US and Cuba until 2015. 

This historical fiction starts in 1961 when 12-year old Cumba, the son of a lawyer father and a dentist mother is sent to America alone in order to save him from being forced to join Fidel's Young Rebels. Although this is based on the author's father's story of being sent to the US alone to live with strangers, this is also about the story of thousands of Cuban children who fled the oppression of Cuba to forge new lives in a foreign country.  Perhaps the saddest sentiment in the book is Cumba's hope for an open Cuba where he can return to his grandparents and he can be back home in his beloved village. Knowing that Castro held on to power for 50 years until his retirement, as the reader, I know this boy will never see his grandparents again. It is too much knowledge to have over this young narrator. 

So how accurate is this particular story? Cuevas honors his father's story and memorializes this memory for future generations.  Although Cuevas' father was older when he first came (15), I like that he made Cumba younger because it places him in middle school where both magic and trauma can take place in the same space. The power of allies in America for these children is very poignant. I cannot help but think about the immigrant children over these past four years who have been separated from their families under American immigration policy. I wonder if these grown up Cuban immigrants and interned Japanese Americans have been able to be allies for these children. I also remember other historical times when families, out of desperation and hope have sent their children away to save them. One that comes to mind immediately is Lois Lowrey's  Number the Stars.  Their stories live on in our conscience through YA authors who continue to share these tales of hope and triumph. 

Don't Ask Me Where I'm From - Audiobook

 

Author: Jennifer De Leon

Narrator: Inés del Castillo

My thoughts: 

The narrator is easy to listen to. I was surprised when 7 hours went by so quickly. Part of it is the great story line, but I do think that the narrator keeps the story moving at a steady pace and the "reader" invests those hours in this very strong and like-able main character, Lili or Liliana. 

When she finally breaks through her mother's wall of silence and depression to find out that her father has been deported and is making his way back to America through a coyote, I just had flashbacks to another very powerful read: We Are Not From Here.  Liliana's story of being afraid for her parents, but also being afraid of the kind of racist backlash that could harm her family is definitely a centrifugal  book to other YA books around community, identity, the contemporary immigrant experience for children here and children making their way here. Another book coming out to read from after this book is the tween book Cuba in My Pocket (not out yet, but it will be posted here in August, 2021) about the authors's father's story when his family sent him from Cuba to America alone in order to escape being recruited for Fidel Castro's Young Rebels. 

This particular book starts great conversations around walls and how our walls represent parts of our identity. I can see this as a book club or alternative read to We Are Not From Here. 

From the Publisher:

First-generation American Latinx Liliana Cruz does what it takes to fit in at her new nearly all-white school. But when family secrets spill out and racism at school ramps up, she must decide what she believes in and take a stand.

Liliana Cruz is a hitting a wall - or rather, walls.

There’s the wall her mom has put up ever since Liliana’s dad left - again.

There’s the wall that delineates Liliana’s diverse inner-city Boston neighborhood from Westburg, the wealthy - and white - suburban high school she’s just been accepted into.

And there’s the wall Liliana creates within herself, because to survive at Westburg, she can’t just lighten up, she has to whiten up.

So what if she changes her name? So what if she changes the way she talks? So what if she’s seeing her neighborhood in a different way? But then light is shed on some hard truths: It isn’t that her father doesn’t want to come home - he can’t...and her whole family is in jeopardy. And when racial tensions at school reach a fever pitch, the walls that divide feel insurmountable.

But a wall isn’t always a barrier. It can be a foundation for something better. And Liliana must choose: Use this foundation as a platform to speak her truth, or risk crumbling under its weight.    

Update: (08/18/21)

The publisher actually sent me a hard copy of this book so I am giving it to one of my teacher cndidates for their future classroom library but I wanted to share these other resources freely:

1.   The author, Jennifer De Leon tells a fabulous story about a proposal in the Boston Library but also how she won a key to that same library that led to the draft of this book "Jennifer De Leon's Marriage Proposal story"
2.  Simon and Schuster Publishing is sharing a reader's guide for this book that can be adopted, adapted, or used as a template for student discussion.

We Are Not From Here

 

My Thoughts:

This 2020 book by Jenny Torres Sanchez about three teenage migrants crossing from Guatemala through Mexico to try and get to the United States deserves all of the praise it has been receiving. The text is beautiful and heartbreaking. The chapters, told from the point of view of Pequeña and her younger brother Pulga are so wrenching that I had to remember to breathe. In the same way that the characters, through pain, hunger, dehydration, and fear start to lose grip of what is real and not real, I found myself drifting from their story to other stories of migrant teens and children separated from their families. The NPR stories of predators along our border as well as the desperate conditions in South America for these teens started mixing with this text. Fiction as a window to non fiction? Non fiction as a mirror of fiction? Both as doors to compassionate action and policy change? As the teens are on their journey I continued to wonder - who is watching? Who will listen? Who can help? I am hoping that the praise for this, including many "best book" honors will awaken in the spirit of young readers an opportunity for advocacy and action.

From the Publishers:

A poignant novel of desperation, escape, and survival across the U.S.-Mexico border, inspired by current events.

A Pura Belpré 2021 Young Adult Author Honor Book!
A BookPage Best Book of 2020!
A Chicago Public Library Best of the Best of 2020!
A School Library Journal Best Book of 2020!
A New York Public Library 2020 Top 10 Best Book for Teens!

Pulga has his dreams.
Chico has his grief.
Pequeña has her pride.

And these three teens have one another. But none of them have illusions about the town they've grown up in and the dangers that surround them. Even with the love of family, threats lurk around every corner. And when those threats become all too real, the trio knows they have no choice but to run: from their country, from their families, from their beloved home.

Crossing from Guatemala through Mexico, they follow the route of La Bestia, the perilous train system that might deliver them to a better life--if they are lucky enough to survive the journey. With nothing but the bags on their backs and desperation drumming through their hearts, Pulga, Chico, and Pequeña know there is no turning back, despite the unknown that awaits them. And the darkness that seems to follow wherever they go.

In this striking portrait of lives torn apart, the plight of migrants at the U.S. southern border is brought to light through poignant, vivid storytelling. An epic journey of danger, resilience, heartache, and hope.

Other goodies for teachers:

Learning guide for We Are Not From Here Thank you to Penguin Classroom. I especially appreciate the focus on pre-reading strategies. 

Possible pairings (or replacements) for some classics in your classroom closet:

Outsiders by S.E. Hinton - this also is the struggle of teens/young adults having to make their own way in the world and change things, especially when the adults are not able to guide them.