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NOTHING HERE BUT STONES

Name: NOTHING HERE BUT STONES
Author: Nancy Oswald
ISBN: 0-8050-7465-1

by Nancy Oswald ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2004

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In 1882, a small group of Russian Jews left the inhospitable environment of Tsarist Russia to establish a colony in America where they could own land and grow crops. Though 11-year-old Emma and her family have come with high hopes, they face difficulties in establishing the Cotopaxi Jewish Colony in Colorado. Bitter cold and snow, bears and rats, hunger, loneliness, and death must be faced, and though the colony proves unsuccessful, the dream and the bravery shine in this testament to a people finding their way in a new world. Emma’s first-person story is nicely realized; sensory language and strong dialogue carry the tale, inspired by Oswald’s discovery that the remains of the Cotopaxi Jewish Colony are on land she now owns. A strong addition to the growing body of immigrant stories. (author’s note) (Fiction. 10+)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2004

ISBN: 0-8050-7465-1

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Henry Holt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2004

Categories:

CHILDREN'S FAMILY | CHILDREN'S HISTORICAL FICTION | CHILDREN'S RELIGIOUS FICTION

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SEE YOU IN THE COSMOS

by Jack Cheng ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 28, 2017

Riveting, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious.

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If you made a recording to be heard by the aliens who found the iPod, what would you record?

For 11-year-old Alex Petroski, it's easy. He records everything. He records the story of how he travels to New Mexico to a rocket festival with his dog, Carl Sagan, and his rocket. He records finding out that a man with the same name and birthday as his dead father has an address in Las Vegas. He records eating at Johnny Rockets for the first time with his new friends, who are giving him a ride to find his dead father (who might not be dead!), and losing Carl Sagan in the wilds of Las Vegas, and discovering he has a half sister. He even records his own awful accident. Cheng delivers a sweet, soulful debut novel with a brilliant, refreshing structure. His characters manage to come alive through the “transcript” of Alex’s iPod recording, an odd medium that sounds like it would be confusing but really works. Taking inspiration from the Voyager Golden Record released to space in 1977, Alex, who explains he has “light brown skin,” records all the important moments of a journey that takes him from a family of two to a family of plenty.

Riveting, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious. (Fiction. 10-14)

Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-399-18637-0

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Dial Books

Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

- BOOK REVIEW
THE MANY MASKS OF ANDY ZHOU
by Jack Cheng ; illustrated by Jack Cheng

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NOWHERE BOY

by Katherine Marsh ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 7, 2018

A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high...

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Two parallel stories, one of a Syrian boy from Aleppo fleeing war, and another of a white American boy, son of a NATO contractor, dealing with the challenges of growing up, intersect at a house in Brussels.

Ahmed lost his father while crossing the Mediterranean. Alone and broke in Europe, he takes things into his own hands to get to safety but ends up having to hide in the basement of a residential house. After months of hiding, he is discovered by Max, a boy of similar age and parallel high integrity and courage, who is experiencing his own set of troubles learning a new language, moving to a new country, and being teased at school. In an unexpected turn of events, the two boys and their new friends Farah, a Muslim Belgian girl, and Oscar, a white Belgian boy, successfully scheme for Ahmed to go to school while he remains in hiding the rest of the time. What is at stake for Ahmed is immense, and so is the risk to everyone involved. Marsh invites art and history to motivate her protagonists, drawing parallels to gentiles who protected Jews fleeing Nazi terror and citing present-day political news. This well-crafted and suspenseful novel touches on the topics of refugees and immigrant integration, terrorism, Islam, Islamophobia, and the Syrian war with sensitivity and grace.

A captivating book situated in present-day discourse around the refugee crisis, featuring two boys who stand by their high values in the face of grave risk and succeed in drawing goodwill from others. (Historical fiction. 10-14)