So here I find myself facing a bit of a conundrum: how best to tell you about this whimsical delight without spoiling that giddy sense of discovery ...
If you don't like spoilers, might I suggest you click here to catch up. This series is so uniquely delightful, you really shouldn't miss a volume; trust me, they do need to be read in order. This latest installment officially hits shelves tomorrow. Welcome to junior high school...
When Dani can't sleep, she doesn't count sheep, she "counted all the times she'd been happy." Now she's also excited, as well as happy: "She'd waited her whole life to start school." Her first day is "'[m]aybe a little bit scary, but lots of fun,'"...
First, to catch up: click here for previous volumes (all of which, of course, you need to read for yourself). If these covers placed next to each other above are a bit jarring, I think I might have unintentionally, wrongly grouped the latest volumes together. Let me...
Here's the perfect companion to Mar Pavón and Nívola Uyá's A Very, Very Noisy Tractor which posted Saturday. Young Nasreddine's answers his father Mustafa's request to ready the donkey for their journey to the market. Mustafa and their large sack of dates sit atop the donkey, while a...
An unnamed lady with "an enormous beehive hairdo" – in glorious auburn, no less! – chugs down the road ...
Since we're talking four volumes here, allow me attempt to offer a set-up without too many spoilers. "One thousand years ago," a boy named Teito Klein (not sure of the kanji for 'Teito,' but his last name means "small" auf Deutsch – you'll find many German-inspired references throughout)...
* STARRED REVIEW Recipient of the James Joyce, Prix Courrier International, and Premio Grinzane Cavour awards for novels such as To Live (adapted to film by director Zhang Yimou) and Brothers, shortlisted for the 2008 Man Asian Prize, Yu Hua is an international sensation. His latest...
Get ready to linger: every panel – and I do mean every! – is a wonder to behold, inducing that slack-jawed 'gawwww, how does she dooooo that?'-sort of reaction! If you've picked up this volume without first reading the previous others, I would definitely recommend going back. Following the...
Although the cover bears the designation, "A Novel," Enaiatollah Akbari – whose name also appears on said cover (who is not the book's author, Fabio Geda) – is a real person. A kid, really. In case you need a face to place with the name, the back...
Sometimes, it takes a village to create a book this magnificent. Award-winning author and publisher Gabriela Olmos gathered "[s]ome of Mexico's best illustrators" who donated their art to create this stunning prayer for peace. "I dreamt of pistols that shoot butterflies ...
Almost a quarter century has passed since two French brothers – in their early 20s at the time – decided to visit their Aunt Thérèse in Lebanon. In September 1990, the country is a 15-year-old war zone, but the brothers plan to deliver supplies, medicine, and a...
Earlier this year, I received an email from a Chinese Canadian author, May Q. Wong, inquiring about "a shipload of Koreans who sailed to Mexico to find a better life." Clueless, I forwarded her request to a few of my scholar friends and colleagues ...
Welcome to Myanmar, the latest stopover in the bilingual I See the Sun series from internationally-minded boutique press Satya House. This sixth installment again reinforces the series' focus: as diverse as children's lives might be in the details, their basic needs for family, nourishment, health, and...
Kim Thúy is one tough writer to get to, although she declares in our first email exchange when I finally track her down, “I am not at all the kind who plays hard to get :-) .” Attempts to contact her included pleas to both her...
Clearly, my kiddies grew up too quickly. Wasn't it just yesterday when I would hear their plaintive "Waaaaaiiiittttt!" on our regular hikes in random places all over the world? One of us old folks would answer with "ketchup," matched with an indignant "mustard" or – even...
Kim Thúy’s Ru: An Apple for the Reader Ah, well . . . better start with true confessions: my words appear on the back cover of the U.S. edition (at least the first printing) of Vietnamese Canadian author Kim Thúy’s debut novel, Ru. The blurb is...
The brilliant Satoshi Kon clearly left us too early – he passed away at age 46 of pancreatic cancer in 2010. Surely, his fertile imagination had many, many more stories left to tell. Thankfully, he did leave quite a visual legacy, including such intriguing anime films...
In my crotchety old age, sleep is a major challenge, so I usually end up taking a pile of must-reads to bed. In spite of the lack of zzzzs, my stacks aren't exactly shrinking, but how grateful am I to never be without bookish company...
A dear friend lost her mother this week; even if a parent is granted almost a century of life well lived, the surviving child's loss resonates for always. When a parent dies while the child is still very young, to understand and accept such loss...
