CHENGLI AND THE SILK ROAD CARAVAN

Name: CHENGLI AND THE SILK ROAD CARAVAN
Author: Hildi Kang
ISBN: 978-1-933718-54-5

by Hildi Kang ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 11, 2011

Not likely to be an easy sell due to the unusual time period and slow beginning, but readers who forge ahead will enjoy an...

bookshelf

A 13-year-old boy joins a caravan to find someone who knew his dead father and encounters a sand sea of dangers in ancient China, 630 C.E.

A ghost wind calls Chengli to leave the Imperial City of Chang’an, which he loves, and Old Cook, who raised him, to sign on as a lowly camel boy with a trade caravan carrying silk and thousands of precious items. They trek west, leaving the protection of China’s Great Wall, and skirt the edge of the fearful desert until they reach Kashgar, where hundreds of caravans come together to buy and sell everything imaginable. When a princess betrothed to marry the ruler of a nomad kingdom joins the caravan, the 2,000-mile journey becomes even more dangerous. The rigors of sands and winds aren’t the only hazards Chengli faces: There are also a traitorous new friend, horse-riding thieves who abduct the princess, beatings and imprisonment. Cultural practices and beliefs are detailed, and descriptions depict the setting and era though the dialogue slips a few times into the colloquial. Three pages of historical notes serve as a glossary, but there is no map, which would be helpful. All in all, this is reminiscent of the work of Lloyd Alexander, though, sadly, not as sparkling.

Not likely to be an easy sell due to the unusual time period and slow beginning, but readers who forge ahead will enjoy an interesting adventure. (Historical fiction. 9-13)

Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2011

ISBN: 978-1-933718-54-5

Page Count: 184

Publisher: Tanglewood Publishing

Review Posted Online: Aug. 23, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HISTORICAL FICTION

bookshelf

A SEED IN THE SUN

by Aida Salazar ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 25, 2022

Compelling and atmospheric.

bookshelf

Twelve-year-old Mexican American Lula longs to speak out and stand up against oppression in 1960s Delano, California.

Lula lives with her migrant farmworker family in bedbug-infested barracks. Her older sister, Concha, loves school just like Lula does; big brother Rafa works the fields with Mamá and Papá while youngest siblings Gabi and Martín tag along. Papá drinks, has an unpredictable temper, and only shows love to the littlest ones. Lula dreams of being able to make Papá smile. When Mamá becomes gravely ill, she’s turned away from the emergency room due to lack of money. A local curandera thinks she’s been poisoned by pesticides used in the fields and treats her with herbs. At school, Lula befriends Leonor, a Filipina and Mexican American girl, and is inspired by her powerful voice and grit. Leonor’s family is involved with the Filipino strikers’ union, the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee. The AWOC are recruiting the Mexican National Farm Worker’s Association, led by Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chávez, to join them in striking for better wages and conditions. This introspective novel with a well-developed sense of place features free verse in varied layouts that maintain visual interest. The character development is strong; as Papá is influenced by Chávez, who speaks of nonviolence, his behaviors change. Lula shows tenacity as her seeds of potential are nourished.

Compelling and atmospheric. (author’s note, further reading) (Verse historical fiction. 9-13)

Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2022

ISBN: 978-0-593-40660-1

Page Count: 272

Publisher: Dial Books

Review Posted Online: July 12, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HISTORICAL FICTION | CHILDREN'S POETRY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ULTRAVIOLET
by Aida Salazar

- BOOK REVIEW
CALLING THE MOON
edited by Aida Salazar & Yamile Saied Méndez

- BOOK REVIEW
JOVITA WORE PANTS
by Aida Salazar ; illustrated by Molly Mendoza

- PERSPECTIVES
9 Middle-Grade Reads for Hispanic Heritage Month

bookshelf

THE PORCUPINE YEAR

From the Birchbark House series , Vol. 3

by Louise Erdrich ; illustrated by Louise Erdrich ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2008

The journey is even gently funny—Omakayas’s brother spends much of the year with a porcupine on his head. Charming and...

bookshelf

This third entry in the Birchbark House series takes Omakayas and her family west from their home on the Island of the Golden-Breasted Woodpecker, away from land the U.S. government has claimed.

Difficulties abound; the unknown landscape is fraught with danger, and they are nearing hostile Bwaanag territory. Omakayas’s family is not only close, but growing: The travelers adopt two young chimookoman (white) orphans along the way. When treachery leaves them starving and alone in a northern Minnesota winter, it will take all of their abilities and love to survive. The heartwarming account of Omakayas’s year of travel explores her changing family relationships and culminates in her first moon, the onset of puberty. It would be understandable if this darkest-yet entry in Erdrich’s response to the Little House books were touched by bitterness, yet this gladdening story details Omakayas’s coming-of-age with appealing optimism.

The journey is even gently funny—Omakayas’s brother spends much of the year with a porcupine on his head. Charming and enlightening. (Historical fiction. 9-11)