PAPER SON by Julie Leung and PIE IN THE SKY by Remy Lai

We had a great meeting with lotsa great 'pot luck' dishes, a terrific discussion, and just fun being together. We began with our picture book, Paper Son by Julie Leung; illustrated by Chris Sasaki. We all felt that this story of Tyrus Wong, a Chinese-American who immigrated to the U.S. as a 'paper son', and went on to become a noted painter in multiple media who created all of the scenery for the 1942 world-famed Bambi film and as an older man a noted maker of Chinese-style 'flying' kites . We all agreed that this was an important story to know, and some were surprised to know of Wong's history with the Walt Disney film. But we had mixed feelings as to the book itself. A couple of readers liked the beginning pages that depicted young Tai Yow's entry at Angel Island and early days as a Chinese immigrant who had to lie about his identity in order to be admitted to the U.S., and whose name was Americanized to "Tyrus" by his teachers in his Sacramento school. We liked how it depicted his early talents in art, and how he used many Chinese art techniques in his work, even as a young boy. But many of us felt that as the story of the events of his life continued it became more 'adulty' with less emotion, and that a better-written story would have been more interesting to young readers. We all liked the illustrations, and were surprised to learn that they had been done digitally by Sasaki. But we did note the emotional feelings they evoked, as well as the very subtle portrayals of the prejudice Wong experienced from the moment he arrived and as he continued to function in the American environment of his time. We wished there had been more about Los Angeles during that time, which is where Wong had settled, as well as more about his family, who were only shown in one photo in the Back Matter of the book. We wanted to know more, and were sorry that the Author's Note basically repeated the story in the book, and provided no more details for readers. We felt that this book would have many uses at different grade levels -- as an introduction to the life of an important Chinese-American artist, and for art teachers or for class discussions related to immigration and the feelings of new immigrants in our country.

We also had mixed feelings about our novel, Pie in the Sky by Remy Lai. Although it had been billed as a 'humorous' book, many of us did not feel there was much humor...except maybe in Lai's 2-color cartoon-like depictions of many scenes in the story between 12-year-old Jingwen and his 9-year-old brother Yanghao, who had been taken by their mother from an unnamed country to Australia after their father, a bakeshop owner, had died in an auto accident. We wished we knew where they came from and why they chose to move to Australia. We liked the fact that the story dealt with the issues of relocation, not knowing English, not really having friends, sibling rivalry, lying to his mom, etc., but -- we felt that this had been done so many times before, and this book added nothing new, and could have been shorter. The crux of the story (and what made it so long) was that the brothers tried to bake the 12 different cakes that Jingwen felt  could honor his father, but we never really knew why. (...and we wished there had been recipes!) Some of those situations were implausible, and details here would make this recap too long also. We felt that by the time we got to the end of the book (which a few readers couldn't even finish) we were tired of the baking scenarios, and the 'climax' of WHY Jingwen wanted to do that was finally revealed. We did, however, agree that young readers would probably like this book, many of whose pages resembled a graphic novel, and that the humor in the illustrations might keep them reading. It wasn't a bad book; just not a thrilling one.

TREE. TABLE. BOOK. by Lois Lowry and CLEVER CROW by Chris Butterworth

We had a great meeting on Sept.18. We discussed our novel, Tree. Table. Book. by Lois Lowry first. We all agreed that Lois Lowry, who has published more than 40 books for young readers, still 'has it' and knows how to create a good story and keep readers engaged. However, a few readers were bored by the beginning and felt that this book started too slowly, and they were not really interested in knowing so many of the details of middle-schooler Sophia's life in small town-New Hampshire. Others of us thought Sophia's voice was perfect, and knowing all these details about her enhanced our understanding of her relationship with her 88-year-old neighbor Sophie who liked many of the same things she did, and shared an offbeat sense of humor...even as she was entering the early stages of dementia. But we all agreed that Sophie's stories, as she was being put through various memory tests by her information-gathering young friend, were the most engaging part of the book, and that she was actually the star of the story. We also appreciated the depth of Sophie's memories as she told of her early life during what was obviously the beginning of the Holocaust -- prompted by three words: Tree. Table. Book. We also liked the depiction of the relationship between young Sophia and her best friend Ralphie, and the way they dealt with another little boy, Oliver, who was brilliant, quite eccentric, and appeared to be on the Autism syndrome -- although it was never necessary to mention that by name. We loved that the kids were very sensitive to him and to his needs, and were protective without trying to change him. The only thing we all felt could have been left out was a whole section about an abandoned house that Sophia imagined they could smuggle Sophie into when her son wanted to move her to an assisted living facility. We talked about several more of the details from this story, but to add them here would make this Recap almost as long as the book. We agreed that the ending was plausible, and probably the best outcome for all. Some readers wondered about the target age group for this book, since they felt that kids that age wouldn't know anything about the Holocaust or Autism. But others of us thought that didn't really matter, since it was the understanding,  humanity, sensitivity, and love between these two almost identically-named females -- one young, one old -- that were the strength of this engaging story.

Our discussion of our picture book, Clever Crow by Chris Butterworth was significantly shorter! We all liked the mostly-shades-of-grey-and-black illustrations by Olivia Lomenech Gill, which -- though very accurate --were not actually photographic. But many of us felt that they would have been even better with more color. Our main problem was with the text, which didn't flow in any meaningful way, and merely contained random facts presented in a dully-written manner. We couldn't really figure out why various parts of the text were presented in differently sized fonts -- from 'normal' for the 10"x10" large page size to larger to huge. However, we did feel that this book could be useful in a school setting for any primary class studies of different types of birds. We especially liked the end papers: the front ones showed pictures and relative sizes of various crows' family eggs; the rear ones showed very accurate depictions of the various birds in the crow family. Many of us had not been aware of most of them! And the short 'lesson' for using an Index shown at the very end of the book could also be very helpful in a classroom.

ONCE UPON A BOOK by Grace Lin and Kate Messner and THE TENTH MISTAKE OF HANK HOOPERMAN by Gennifer Choldenko

We were all glad that we had two winners for May! We began with our picture book, Once Upon a Book by Grace Lin & Kate Messner. We loved the illustrations and the story of a little girl, Alice (!!) who is bored on a rainy day and is beckoned by a white rabbit to join him inside the pages of a book, where she is invited to 'turn the page and come in' by a variety of animals (and some clouds) who share their humid, rainy, hot, wet, airy, stormy habitats with her. Each page turn leads to another experience in another place, ending up in the sky, close to the moon, but when she has had enough, Alice is invited to a place of coziness and warmth -- home! -- and a loving family and a bowl of dumplings is there waiting for her. We loved how the white rabbit was shown on ever page, as well as the other details in the very brightly-colored gouache paintings.  A couple of readers thought the text wasn't so interesting, but others felt that young readers/listeners would enjoy the repetition and would soon 'join in' as the story progressed. We also felt there were many details in the illustrations that lent themselves to further discussion. This book was seemingly an homage to Alice in Wonderland and Where the Wild Things Are, and we were sure that young readers would enjoy it.

Many of us felt that our novel, The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman by Gennifer Choldenko, had a very slow start, and looking at the cover illustration we feared it might lead to the (now very common) trope of the travails of middle school. But! -- NO! We were all ultimately captured by this very compelling story of 11-year-old Hank and his 3-year-old sister, 'Boo', whose mother has left and after a week still hasn't returned. The kids are hungry and scared, and the remainder of the story centers around Hank's resourcefulness as he tries to find a way for both of them to be safe, and ultimately to have a good normal life. We thought all of the characters were well-drawn, and we loved the realistic voice that put us inside of Hank's head as his devotion to his little sister and his resilience led him to trust other adults throughout the twists and turns of the plot. A couple of the readers felt that some of he middle part of the story meandered, and perhaps could have been shortened. We thought young readers would stay engaged in this heart-warming, life-affirming story, and that it needed to be on every library shelf, because of its realistic treatment of a situation in which, sadly, many youngsters find themselves today.

GOOD NIGHT LITTLE BLUE TRUCK by Alice Schertle and THE LAST MAPMAKER by Christina Soontornvat

Because of an expected heavy rainstorm we decided to have our meeting on Zoom. (We were correct!) We began with our picture book, Good Night, Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle. All of us mostly liked this rhyming story of several animals rescued from a severe thunderstorm by Toad and his friend Little Blue Truck. (It was quite appropriate for the day we met!) We appreciated the feeling of safety it provided, the theme of animals helping one another, and the humorous, appealing illustrations which showed a lot of action, gave the feeling of a thunderstorm, and provided many humorous details. Animals in pajamas! A pig holding a teddy bear! A toad sleeping in 'his own bed' on the top of the cab of the truck! One reader was not thrilled with the rhymes, and felt that unnecessary words had been added just to create the rhymes. We had a bit of discussion about this, and most of us were not bothered by it. We all agreed that this was a good read-aloud, a sweet story for the intended audience, and definitely a good bedtime read.

We all felt that our novel, The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat, labeled as a fantasy because of a (good, well-meaning) dragon, presented a quite believable world with seemingly real characters. We entered life with Sai, a young girl who was an apprentice to the most famous mapmaker, Paiyoon, as she got the chance to travel with him on a very dangerous expedition by sea to explore and discover new lands. We appreciated how it showed the struggle of people in the lower classes of their society who tried to improve their lot in the world. We lived through their adventures on a stormy sea, through several 'page turners', some deceitful actions by various characters, and a happy ending which some felt was a bit 'too neat'. We thought the book was very well written and showed that the author had done a great deal of research. Some felt there were too many coincidences, and it was a bit unbelievable that all survived the ordeals that were described in the story. One reader who was unable to attend our Zoom meeting wasn't so thrilled with the book. She didn't really relate with Sai at all, and felt that her relationship with her father needed to be better developed, as did the class distinctions within their society. She also felt it needed some editing in various places. But we felt generally that it would be an exciting read for the target age group and that young readers would enjoy many of the suspenseful adventures.