"My Tata has been helping people feel better for as long as I can remember," young Aaron explains about his beloved grandfather. "He helps my family and me when we get hurt or feel sick. He helps the neighbors too. All anyone has to do is...
In case you've missed the recent headlines, Cuba has been in the news a lot: "We are separated by 90 miles of water, but are brought together through shared relationships and the desire to promote a democratic, prosperous, and stable Cuba," a recent official White...
Winner of the 2011 New Voices Award from innovative multi-culti press Lee & Low, journalist/new author Jennifer Torres’ Finding the Music hit shelves earlier this month. [In case you need the exact details, the original title was Live at the Cielito Lindo, the publisher is Children's Book Press – one...
Orhan's Inheritance cleverly intertwines first love, ancient betrayal, secrets, and war crimes At age 8, Aline Ohanesian’s great-grandmother interrupted her seventh viewing of The Sound of Music with a promise: “I have a story, too.” That was the first and last time Ohanesian heard about her Nene’s...
In real life, Linda Lavin (known to a certain generation as TV's Alice, also known to others for her almost-half-century of on-stage success) isn't quite as old as the titular Boston Girl, but she absolutely epitomizes the ideal narrator here. The year is 1985, and...
Here's a narrative I haven't seen often: a not-yet-an-immigration story. Young Aref has one more week left to spend in his idyllic home in Muscat, the capital city of his native Oman. In too-few days, he and his mother will fly to the other side of the...
Well, of course, the year I'm mostly out of DC, Brando Skyhorse is the Jenny McKean Moore Writer-in-Residence at George Washington University. Not that I have any affiliation there now (only a leftover GWU ID from when I took a couple of classes 3.5 decades...
After such a bountiful weekend, food might not be the first thing on your mind this Cyber Monday morning ...
Thanksgiving approach-eth! Don’t you want to know what will be on the Urban Forager’s table? Read on! Ava Chin, author of recently published Eating Wildly: Foraging for Life, Love and the Perfect Meal, chats about family, motherhood, writing, and the art of foraging – complete with...
Eating Wildly for the Belly and Soul with Ava Chin These days, Ava Chin is living her happy beginnings: she’s the mother to an energetic toddler, wife to the man of her dreams, professor of creative nonfiction and journalism at her undergrad alma mater, and – whenever...
Thanksgiving is just two weeks away ...
When she made her Stateside debut last year in Sita Brahmachari's Mira in the Present Tense (titled Artichoke Hearts in the original edition across the Pond), hapa Jewish Indian British tween Mira Levenson seemed wise beyond her 12 years in the midst of losing her paternal grandmother...
So as not to prolong the disappointment and annoyance, I'm going to try to keep this short. I actually skip posting about duds more often than not because the energy feels so wasted, but this title has history: it was attached to a 'how-many-of-these-have-you-read?"-query from a...
Probably my brain is showing its advancing age, but I can't remember the last time I stayed up half the night to finish a book unless I had an impending deadline (procrastinate? me?!). While I started Sleepwalk-ing in daylight stuck in the ears (debut novelist Mira Jacob...
Canadian author/artist Irene Luxbacher found the inspiration for her latest title from her own "childhood memories of watching her father at work in his tailor shop." That reality clearly infuses her story with heart-warming poignancy, highlighting multi-generational family bonds. "Mr. Frank was a tailor," the book begins. Throughout the...
Open this penultimate volume, and the belly begins flip-flopping over how it might – must? – end. Creator Shuzo Oshimi has clearly shown himself to be one scary manipulator, so already I'm trying to prepare for the inevitably shattering shock this October when that final installment comes out. Oh, but the agony of...
So here I sit facing a familiar conundrum ...
Micah is a boy. Micah is a girl. Micah is 17, a senior in a progressive New York City private school. Micah's father went to Marseille in search of his unknown black French father and came back with a white French wife. Micah's father is an...
And you thought you knew Little Red and the Big Wolf? Look again ...
Some time in the recent past, a video link came through that began with birthday wishes for Anne Frank, as if she had miraculously survived the Holocaust and lived many fulfilling decades. [I can't seem to find the link again, so if anyone recognizes the description...
