During a term I spent as a grad student in Yokohama, Japan, I wandered every free afternoon through nearby Tokyo with camera in hand. Knowing my time was limited, I even planned out a detailed schedule for which neighborhood (Tokyo is sprawling!) I would go...
Had I not been so enthralled with Room, I don't know if I would have discovered Emma Donoghue's many other titles, but I've definitely been enjoying reading newly discovered authors' works backwards. Take a look at the cover and you can probably guess what Landing is about....
To reduce this rich, complicated, multi-layered story into a few sentences seems almost disrespectful ...
As her children grow, author Melissa Fay Greene decides to extend parenthood by adopting five more You just know that a book’s going to be good if you’ve already guffawed and the type has started to blur (even though you’re trying not to get overly emotional)...
Here's an uncommon venue for an East/West cultural exchange: manga across borders! Under the auspices of the French Institutes and Alliances in Japan, 10 French-speaking "comic creators" and seven Japanese manga artists wrote 16 chapters (two French creators worked together) inspired by their experiences visiting...
The idea is fascinating; so obviously simple yet undeniably clever. Six French graphic book artists were sent to Korea to be "completely immersed." Six Korean manwha artists were also asked to participate. All 12 were given "complete carte blanche" to convey their individual views of...
Hatshepsut of Egypt Artemisia of Caria Sorghaghtani of Mongolia Qutlugh Terkan Khatun of Kirman Isabella of Castile Nur Jahan of India Happy birthday to the world's most famous queen (still!) who turns 85 today, making her son the oldest prince-waiting-to-be-king in British history. Next week, on April 29, Queen E2 will...
International storyteller Ashley Ramsden retells a Norwegian tale about the rich rewards of patient tenacity. "One winter's evening, a lone traveler trudged down a winding forest road looking for a place to spend the night ...
Sometimes, nothing satisfies like a sweeping family saga: convincing enough to believe the characters truly existed beyond the bound pages, long enough to feel like they've become a part of your lives, inspiring enough to mourn their company once the words are finished. Thus is Julie Orringer's...
Two brothers, a girlfriend, and a part-time fox set up what will certainly be a multi-volume, another-world adventure from internationally bestselling Cornelia Funke, creator of Inkworld, her last alternate universe series. While definitely filled with swash-buckling fun and heart-thumping adventure, Reckless aims at an older...
In spite of the "Afterword" being at book's end, I feel like I need to begin this post with the final line: "I write this especially so that the story of Dina and her beloved, Johann, will be remembered by our family," explains two-time Newbery...
If Gregory Maguire is not exactly a household name, his signature work, Wicked, certainly is known throughout the world, living an everlasting life on stages everywhere in its Tony...
Given the somber subject matter of this title, I realize this probably verges on sacrilegious, but no disrespect is intended in any way ...
While the story of abandoned Nicoletta in search of her wayward mother was a single-volume deal fully contained in Ristorante Paradiso, the staff of said Ristorante, the charming Casetta dell'Orso, merit their very own series. And why not ...
Nicoletta arrives in Rome with a very specific goal: she's determined to confront the mother who abandoned her 15 years ago. The reason her mother gave then remains just as inexcusable now: "'There's a man I'm destined to be with. But he'll never marry a...
Lola Rein Kaufman's "'memory button'" got turned on on September 17, 1939, when Russian tanks, trucks, and soldiers entered her small hometown of Czortków in what was then Poland. She was not yet 5 years old. Before she reached her 10th birthday, she lost her...
Here's something else that APAs and Jewish Americans have in common: we share the same heritage month! Yup, as of April 2006, May is not only our Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, but May is also Jewish American Heritage Month! Various stereotypes have long linked...
In a tony New Jersey suburb, artistic Jaya, outspoken Lola, and shy Maria find an instant bond with each other, recognizing their outsider experiences of being the daughters of immigrant mothers who work as housekeepers and nannies for the wealthy families of their eighth-grade classmates. Jaya...
Eva Mozes Kor survived the Holocaust because she was an identical twin. After a grueling journey from her native Romania which eventually ended at the infamous Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz, Eva and her twin Miriam were immediately separated from their parents and two older sisters....
In just over a hundred pages of sparse, haunting verse, LeZotte illuminates a part of the Holocaust tragedy that takes up little shelf space in libraries today: the organized mass murder of mentally ill and physically challenged people, as well as the massacre of European...
