BookDragon Nature Tag

Eating Wildly: Foraging for Life, Love and the Perfect Meal by Ava Chin + Author Profile [in Bloom]

24 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Chinese American, Memoir, Nonfiction, Repost

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...

Avatar: The Last Airbender | The Rift (Part Three) created by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, script by Gene Luen Yang, art by Gurihiru, lettering by Michael Heisler

21 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Chinese American, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Middle Grade Readers, Pan-Asian Pacific American, Young Adult Readers

Before reading another word, click here to catch up. You need to know how we got here before you can go on! As Part Three opens, Toph Beifong is "literally carrying the weight of our world." She's trapped underground, with Katara, Satoru, her father, and many...

Heritage by Sean Brock, photographs by Peter Frank Edwards

13 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction

Thanksgiving is just two weeks away ...

Our Planet by Jimi Lee

12 Nov, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Korean

If pictures speak a thousand words, then you've pretty much got the whole of man's modern history right here in Jimi Lee's wordless, wondrous book about our ever-changing place in our world. In the beginning, we had plants and trees. And then the building began, and the...

Hi, Koo! A Year of Seasons by Jon J. Muth

25 Feb, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

What is it about panda bears that makes them soooo utterly irresistible? Click here to see if you could possibly be immune to those "chubbly-wubbly." Curmudgeon that I usually am, even I succumbed to "beary love." Jon Muth personally knows their inevitably undeniable appeal: his giant panda, Stillwater,...

Parrots Over Puerto Rico by Susan L. Roth and Cindy Trumbore, illustrated by Susan L. Roth

11 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Caribbean, Children/Picture Books, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Puerto Rican

Co-authors Susan L. Roth and Cindy Trumbore, whose last project  à deux was the glorious The Mangrove Tree set in the tiny African country of Eritrea, travel south to the Caribbean to present another memorable story of preservation and conservation. Welcome to Puerto Rico, home of the Puerto Rican parrot, also...

Triton of the Sea (vols. 1-2) by Osamu Tezuka, translated by Eugene Woodbury, edited by Eileen Tse

03 Jan, by SIBookDragon in Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Middle Grade Readers, Translation, Young Adult Readers

When I say 'brought to you by popular demand,' I have indisputable proof here: 715 supporters put up almost 150% more than the requested funds in answer to Digital Manga's 2012 Kickstarter campaign to bring Triton of the Sea (along with two additional Tezuka titles, Unico and...

Splash, Anna Hibiscus! by Atinuke, illustrated by Lauren Tobia

03 Nov, by SIBookDragon in African, British, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Hapa/Mixed-race

As gorgeous as the large snowflakes are where I am, just to be contrary, I'm wishing for sun and surf! I can't remember the last time I went splish-splashing, so clearly I'm overdue! For now, I'll just have to join Anna Hibiscus on her beckoning...

Tropic of the Sea by Satoshi Kon, translated by Maya Rosewood

13 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Graphic Title/Manga/Manwha, Japanese, Translation, Young Adult Readers

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...

My Father’s Arms Are a Boat by Stein Erik Lunde, Illustrated by Øyvind Torseter, translated by Kari Dickson

07 Sep, by SIBookDragon in Absolute Favorites, Children/Picture Books, European, Fiction, Translation

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...

Black Flame by Gerelchimeg Blackcrane, translated by Anna Holmwood

08 Aug, by SIBookDragon in Chinese, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Mongolian, Tibetan, Translation, Young Adult Readers

Winner of China's National Children's Literature Award, Black Flame is an engrossing, often heartstring-pulling adventure told from the point of view of a majestic, lion-like, blue-black Tibetan Mastiff. Two things kept going through my head as the pages turned swiftly: 1. the novel reads like an older...

Rainbow Stew by Cathryn Falwell

03 Jul, by SIBookDragon in Black/African American, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

This week has been especially stormy and wet, so I thought I needed to throw in a rainbow in the midst of bursting clouds. The waking glee of three young children staying with their grandfather quickly turns to "[w]himper, sigh, cloudy sky," when their plans for...

The Deep, Deep Puddle by Mary Jessie Parker, illustrated by Deborah Zemke

17 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

"On a busy street in the late afternoon, the rain begins ...

Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

21 Mar, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

Once upon a time, I loved every book Barbara Kingsolver wrote: The Bean Trees grew into me, then Homeland and Other Stories, Animal Dreams (still my favorite), Pigs in Heaven. Heresy, I know, but Poisonwood Bible was not a favorite, but after surviving Animal, Vegetable,...

Scat and Chomp by Carl Hiaasen

28 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Audio, Fiction, Middle Grade Readers, Nonethnic-specific, Young Adult Readers

Mega-bestselling author Carl Hiaasen might write formulaic young adult titles, but he's just so goofball funny, it's hard to put his books down – not to mention the covers are so irresistible, too. Following the massive success of his YA debut Hoot (which also got...

Larf by Ashley Spires

03 Apr, by SIBookDragon in Canadian, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

As we leave the wild mountains and head back to (so-called) civilization this morning, I'm convinced that Ashley Spires' Larf captures that disorienting journey just right, with lots of easy laughter offered on every page. Re-entry always requires maintaining a sense of humor! Larf thinks he...

Lila and the Secret of Rain by David Conway, illustrated by Jude Daly

24 Mar, by SIBookDragon in African, British, Children/Picture Books, Fiction, South African

Lila, her family, their animals are all too hot. Their Kenyan village has not had rain for far too long. The well has dried up, and the crops are failing. "'Without water there can be no life,'" Lila overhears her mother's worry. Then her grandfather...

Only the Mountains Do Not Move: A Maasai Story of Culture and Conservation by Jan Reynolds

04 Jan, by SIBookDragon in African, Children/Picture Books, Nonfiction

Surely this is one of the most dramatic before-and-after reading experiences I've ever had: I read Mountains last fall when it first landed on my desk and then again just recently after I landed back from East Africa. What a difference a few thousands of miles...

The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh

23 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, Indian, Indian American, South Asian, South Asian American

When Firdous Bamji – a veteran narrator – reads Amitav Ghosh’s haunting novel in his 'normal' voice, he's hardly memorable. But as soon as he 'becomes' the searching Piya, the sophisticated Kanai ("'[s]ay it to rhyme with Hawaii'"), the contemplative Nirmal, the grounded Nilima, and the many, many...

Grandpa Green by Lane Smith

12 Dec, by SIBookDragon in Adult Readers, Fiction, Nonethnic-specific

From the genius creator of It's a Book (still my personal battle cry!) comes another delightful low-tech celebration of things that don't require electricity! "He was born a really long time ago," the tale begins, "before computers or cell phones or television." Imagine that sort...