BUNNY'S BOOK CLUB by Annie Silvestro and PRAIRIE LOTUS by Linda Sue Park

We began with our picture book, Bunny's Book Club by Annie Silvestro. We all loved this book for the following reasons: 1) the poetic, flowing, clever, sometimes alliterative language; 2) the warm and loving illustrations which fit the story perfectly; 3) the fact that it was a perfect read-aloud; 4) the titles of the books that each animal chose to check out from the library; and 5) because anything that encourages young children to become readers is a good thing. That pretty much says it all.

For our novel, Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park, we basically all liked it, with a few caveats. Some readers felt that this re-imagining of the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder was a bit didactic, as the author tried to 'right some of the wrongs' from the historical series. A couple of readers felt that the language was a bit too sophisticated for the protagonist, Hanna, a bi-racial Korean-American 14-year-old girl who had migrated from Los Angeles in 1888 to the Dakota Territory with her white father after her Korean mother had been killed in the Chinese Massacre of 1871. We loved the stress on the importance of school and reading, and the many mentions of the wisdom Hanna remembered from her deceased mom. We liked Hanna's bravery, her growth as she found her own voice, and learned to deal with bullying, racism, communicating with her dad, and the work it would take to reach her own goal of becoming a dress designer and seamstress for the town in which she lived. We also liked the role of the teacher, who, though seemingly nonjudgmental, ultimately acted in ways that were very helpful to Hanna's endeavors. One reader was enchanted by the title, but then became disappointed that was an "issue book." Some felt that Hanna's 'inner voice' was great, and really felt for her, while others were not moved by Hanna's voice at all and felt that it didn't really come from her heart. A couple of readers thought there were too many scenes that could have been more fully developed. We all liked the Author's Note at the end, where Park explained why she undertook the writing of this story, as well as all of the first-hand research she had done related to Native tribes, their language and culture, and Asian-Americans who settled on the Prairie in the late 1800s. We thought it was an important book, and look forward to a Native American writer perhaps creating another version of this time and place in history.