Book Review
When Mac Delaney is given a copy of Jane Yolen’s The Devil’s Arithmetic for literature circle, he’s surprised to find a few words blacked out. Since Mac Delaney is not a young person that keeps quiet when a wrong has been committed, he teams up with his friends to discover what the black rectangles are hiding.
Amidst the beauty of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, Akira and her father witness the unforgiving destruction of an intense wildfire that threatens to overcome them on a leisure horseback ride. In Miami, Florida, Hurricane Reuben barrels down a city ill-prepared to cope with a storm of a lifetime, and Natalie is trapped in Rueben’s path. In Churchill, Manitoba, Owen and his friend get stranded on the tundra and must survive a polar bear attack, struggling to fend off more starving bears as they trek back to their home.
Rufus Jackson Jones, Jr. and his family live in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. At the time, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. named it the most segregated place in the country. Day-in and day-out racism shapes the experiences of Rufus, his family, his friends, and his community. After his mother remarries, Daddy Paul brings his determination to fight for equality and freedom with him to the family.
Each day Minnie and her family struggle to get by in the poorest part of Mumbai. They struggle to make ends meet, have enough to provide for a decent education, and always wonder if there will be enough of necessities, primarily water. When a series of unfortunate events forces Minnie to take over her mother’s job in a fancy high-rise building, Minnie learns about the inequity of water access.
When Donovan leaves a novel, The Adventurers, on the kitchen table, his mother checks out this new assigned read by scanning the end. Her interpretation of the ending sets into motion a chain of events that leads to a community meeting pitting those that want to ban the book against those that support its inclusion in the curriculum.
Fawn Creek, Louisiana is the quintessential sleepy, southern, small town. Nothing ever seems to happen, and everything always seems to stay the same. That is until Orchid Mason, a new 7th grader moves to the area. Orchid’s tales of living in cities across the globe enthrall Fawn Creek’s young people, giving them hope that they can break free from their community’s small, confining expectations.
