City of Orphans

City of Orphans by Avi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another good story from Avi, with a tale of turn-of-the-nineteenth century New York, very poor immigrant families, tough gangs and cruel gang bosses. This book is a detective story wrapped around a family story. The story moves along quickly, and young people today can see how life was quite difficult for the immigrants back in the old days. Children were working for very low wages in unsafe conditions, and there was no one to protect them. Maks, the main character, is a thirteen year-old newsboy, who is not in school, but works selling newspapers on the streets, to help out his family. His older sister, who works in the new, Waldorf Astoria hotel, gets arrested for stealing an expensive watch. It's up to Maks to try to get his sister out of jail. With the help of a new friend, a homeless orphan named Willa, the friends do their best to save Maks' sister.


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Sold by Patricia McCormack

This book was beautifully written, but tells such an ugly story. Lakshmi is a 13-year-old girl from Nepal. She is poor, but loves her life in the mountains. Unfortunately, she is sold (unbeknownst to her) to a brothel in India, and must endure this life, or die. Patricia McCormick writes in an almost free-verse style, simply giving Lakshmi a voice which breaks the readers’ heart. I believe this would be a great book for middle school students, because it is not too graphic, but tells this very realistic story in a compelling way

We added 2 new members today, Kiarah and Carlos. The group has decided to participate in the Battle of the Books competition. We have also decided to choose a book to read as a group. I guess we'll decide for next meeting.

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

I am a devoted fan of J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter saga. I just finished reading her newest addition to the HP story, the Tales of Beedle the Bard. Not quite your average fairy tales, these stories, with commentary by the beloved master wizard, Dumbledore, add to the Harry Potter story, while being able to stand on their own. I will be ordering this slim volume for the Maxson Library.

Welcome!

We have finally had our first 7th grade Maxson Library Club meeting. Eight students are on board right now: Jennifer, Juan, Jorge, Tyler, Justin, Rae'Anna, and Zaria.
They will be able to post their thoughts and suggestions to this blog.

These students will be the crew for our book fair in March, and will help out with Maxson's 4th Annual African American Read-in on February 20th.

Gary Soto is the author that many of them are reading right now, and they agreed that "Living Up the Street" was a favorite. I suggested they read "Taking Sides", one of my favorite Soto books.