Its Your Choice

For the next month we will be doing literature circles. The class will
be reading 5-6 different books. You will have the choice of which book
you would like to read. After Ms. McFarlane gives the book talk, you
will be asked to research the texts and list your top three choices of
books. We only have a few books of each, so not everyone will get
their first choice.
As Ms. McFarlane is giving the book talk, please jot down notes about
what the novel is about so that you can make an informed choice.

Book Choices
1. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

2. The Devils Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

3. The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis

4. Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikelsen

5. Throwaway Daughter by Ting-Xing Ye

6. Blood Red Ochre by Kevin Major

Top 3 Choices: 1.

2.

Teacher Page: Novel Summaries for Lit Circles

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3.

1. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

-This quirky book is a fabulous introduction to the new generation of graphic novels, and
blends folklore with an exploration of racial stereotyping and the "right stuff" of America
immigration. It also won the Printz young adult literature award.
-When his family moves to a new neighborhood, he suddenly finds that he's the only
Chinese-American student at his school. Jocks and bullies pick on him constantly, and he
has hardly any friends. Then, to make matters worse, he falls in love with an allAmerican girl...
Born to rule over all the monkeys in the world, the story of the Monkey King is one of
the oldest and greatest Chinese fables. Adored by his subjects, master of the arts of kungfu, he is the most powerful monkey on earth. But the Monkey King doesn't want to be a
monkey. He wants to be hailed as a god...
Chin-Kee is the ultimate negative Chinese stereotype, and he's ruining his cousin Danny's
life. Danny's a basketball player, a popular kid at school, but every year Chin-Kee comes
to visit, and every year Danny has to transfer to a new school to escape the shame. This
year, though, things quickly go from bad to worse...
These three apparently unrelated tales come together with an unexpected twist, in a
modern fable that is hilarious, poignant, and action-packed. American Born Chinese is an
amazing ride, all the way up to the astonishing climax and confirms what a growing
number of readers already know: Gene Yang is a major talent.

2. The Devils Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

Who, who are those men in black suits blocking our wedding," Fayge exclaimed.
Chaya yelled,"They're Nazis. Nazis! They will kill six million Jews! Don't you
understand we have to run!" All the people including the Rabbi thought Chaya
(Hannah) was crazy, but she knew it was just a matter of time until they soon
found out the truth. Hannah, in the book The Devil's Arithmetic; is an ordinary girl
living in the present day, but when she goes to her grandfather's house she has a
strange experience. As she opens the door for the prophet Elijah, she looks foward
and finds herself in another time zone. She looks back into the house and sees all
of her family members with an elegant and delicious meal on the table. Curious
about what was on the other side of the door, she steps out and realizes that she is
in the time right before the Holocaust. She is no longer Hannah; she is Chaya, and
she is about to embark on a terrifying journey to a concentration camp. The author
of this book, Jane Yolen, shows that she has a great talent in writing books that
deeply touch your emotions. The content of the book is a great source of history as
well as a story filled with morals about life and the human race. Most of the book
is written in the form of conversations. This kind of writing style helps the reader
really understand the character's feelings and thoughts. In addition, Jane Yolen
uses the triple period often, which ;eaves the reader's mind open as to what the
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character was going to say. Her writing is extremely desriptive, and the detail she
includes makes it possible for the reader to imagine the setting. Overall, I think
Jane Yolen is a great, and superb writer. I think The Devil's Arithmetic is definitely
A Newberry Award winning book. It shows every aspect of being a perfect literary
book, including moving content, accurate historical information, desripive
vocabulary, and a plot that keeps your attention until the very end. Therefore, I
would definitely recommend this book. If you want to know what happens to
Chaya, you should read this book. Another reason you should absolutely read this
book is because it gives the history of the Holocaust in a unique way. Most
importantly it tells how Jews struggled from the best of times to the worst of
times.

3. The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis

Life for women under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan is not the stuff of which
happy children's books are made. There is no happy ending here, regardless of the
obstacles which are overcome, because the real-life ending has not yet come.
This book, while fiction, is the result of interviews with women who escaped from
Kabul and who were living in camps in Pakistan, including one mother who
disguised her daughter as a boy. The setting is true to time and place as it captures
life for one family in one short period of time. (Ellis is donating the book sales to
an organization dedicated to educating girls in refugee camps.)
It is a simple story, and engaging, as the reader follows the daily life of a fictional
family as they struggle to survive the imprisonment of the father. His absence from
the home means that they no longer have food, or communication outside the
home because the female members of the family cannot go out unescorted by a
male. Parvana, who is pre-adolescent, surrenders her long hair to help her family,
and disguised as a boy earns a little money by selling things from their home or
reading for the largely illiterate population. Thus she is able to shop for food. Her
bravery is the focal point of the story and the reader is reminded of the courage
and strength of children everywhere who survive against incredible odds.
4. Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikelsen

Cole Matthews is angry. Angry, defiant, smug--in short, a bully. His anger has
taken him too far this time, though. After beating up a ninth-grade classmate to the
point of brain damage, Cole is facing a prison sentence. But then a Tlingit Indian
parole officer named Garvey enters his life, offering an alternative called Circle
Justice, based on Native American traditions, in which victim, offender, and
community all work together to find a healing solution. Privately, Cole sneers at
the concept, but he's no fool--if it gets him out of prison, he'll do anything.

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Ultimately, Cole ends up banished for one year to a remote Alaskan island, where
his arrogance sets him directly in the path of a mysterious, legendary white bear.
Mauled almost to death, Cole awaits his fate and begins the transition from anger
to humility.

5. Throwaway Daughter by Ting-Xing Ye

Throwaway Daughter tells the dramatic and moving story of Grace Dong-mei
Parker, a typical Canadian teenager until the day she witnesses the Tiananmen
massacre on television. Horrified, she sets out to explore her Chinese ancestry,
only to discover that she was one of the thousands of infant girls abandoned in
China since the introduction of the one-child policy, strictly enforced by the
Communist government. But Grace was one of the lucky ones, adopted as a baby
by a loving Canadian couple.
With the encouragement of her adoptive parents, she studies Chinese and travels
back to China in search of her birth mother. She manages to locate the village
where she was born, but at first no one is willing to help her. However, Grace
never gives up and, finally, she is reunited with her birth mother, discovering
through this emotional bond the truth of what happened to her almost twenty years
before.

6. Blood Red Ochre by Kevin Major

Two parallel stories unfold tragically in this outstanding novel. In the first, David,
15, learns that the disagreeable man he thought was his father is really his
stepfather. In the second, David's counterpart, an Indian named Dauoodaset,
strives to save his family from the ravages of hunger and disease. Set in the same
part of Newfoundland some 200 years apart, the stories are strongly linked by
David's fascination with the history of Dauoodaset's doomed people (and by other
factors, too). Nancy, a mysteriously alluring girl in David's class, shares his
interest and eventually brings the two plots together. Although the conclusion is
perplexing and even a little disappointing, it forces a thoughtful reaction from
readers. What happens to Nancy, and how is David changed? Both stories are
affecting and skillfully written in different styles; taken together, they give the
book an unexpected dimension that is as unusual as it is provocative.

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