Selected Bibliography

Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti 2011 Theme: What makes life worth living?
It did not seem like a challenging theme, in fact, it seemed easy! However, the screening committee discovered, that in fact, to pick three books on this topic was very challenging. There were the usual guidelines that had to be considered (see book selection); and all ‘self-help’ and ‘spiritual’ type books were immediately dismissed to avoid any idea of proselytism. Each one of us holds a special view on ‘what makes life worth living’ – love, relationships, family, survival, good books, good food, and even, death.

Below is a list of the books (excluding the three suggested to the selection committee) that were read, or suggested, to consider for the 2011 Reads.
Reviews and/or summaries have been taken from a variety of sources, (Amazon, Ann Arbor District Library catalog, Barnes and Noble, NYT, Publishers Weekly, and San Francisco Chronicle).

Adventure
Davidson, Robyn. Tracks. Harper Perennial, 1989. ISBN: 06797582429
  Robyn Davidson walks 1,700 miles across the Australian desert accompanied by four camels.

Gilbert, Elizabeth. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia. Viking, 2006. ISBN: 0143118420
  Gilbert’s travels and adventures to three different countries after a bitter divorce.

Rodriguez, Deborah and Ohlson, Kristin. The Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil. Random House, 2007. ISBN: 1400065593
  Rodriguez's account tells the story of one Michigan woman's quest to help women in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban the best way she knows how: by opening a beauty school.

Thayer, Helen. Walking the Gobi: A 1,600 -mile Trek Across a Desert of Hope and Despair. Mountaineer Books, 2007. ISBN: 159485064
  Thayer (age 64 at the time) and her husband, (age 73) trek across the desert and tell the story of the people, the history and the flora and fauna of the Gobi.

Vollers, Maryanne and Nielsen, Jerri. Ice Bound: A Doctor’s Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole. Hyperion Books, 2007. ISBN: 0786866845
  The story of Dr. Jerri Nielsen’s year at the pole where she was the lone doctor for 41 research scientists and their support group. Ice Bound is not only the story of how Dr. Nielsen discovers her tumor and medical crisis, but it also is the story of the how the “Polies” live together, the conditions, and the beauty of the South Pole during the winter.
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Art
Hirsch, Edward. The Demon and the Angel: Searching for the Source of Artistic Inspiration. Harcourt, 2002. ISBN: 0151005389
  What is the ineffable force that drives artists, writers, and musicians to create? Poet and critic Edward Hirsch (How to Read a Poem) looks for answers in this book, an erudite exploration of the creative process.

Kimmelman, Michael. The Accidental Masterpiece: On the Art of Life and Vice Versa. Penguin Press, 2001. ISBN: 1594200556.
  As chief art critic for the New York Times, Kimmelman has developed a relaxed and welcoming approach to explicating art that makes this aptly unpredictable consideration of the role accidents and serendipity play in the making of art as pleasurable as it is enlightening. Kimmelman is interested in "how art transforms lives," and in how a life lived artistically can itself be seen as a masterpiece, and the examples he cites open up many new vistas of thought.
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Daily Living
Krouse Rosenthal, Amy. Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life. Three Rivers Press, 2005. ISBN: 978-1400080465
  Rosenthal likes lists: of low points in her life, codes that people memorize, sounds that seem loud though they're actually quiet.
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Death
Didion, Joan. The Year of Magical Thinking. Vintage, 2007. ISBN: 978-1400078431
  A memoir of Didion’s grief over the loss of her husband, fellow writer John Gregory Dunne.

Tolstoy, Leo. The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Bantam Books, 1981. ISBN: 0553210351
  The Death of Ivan Ilyich is the story of a worldly careerist, a high court judge who has never given the inevitability of his death so much as a passing thought. But one day death announces itself to him, and to his shocked surprise he is brought face to face with his own mortality. How, Tolstoy asks, does an unreflective man confront his one and only moment of truth?
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Fiction
Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee. One Amazing Thing. Hyperion, 2010. ISBN: 9781401340995
  A group of nine diverse people are trapped in the basement of an Indian consulate in an unidentified American city after an earthquake.

Gamble, Terry. Good Family: A Novel. Harper Perennial, 2006. ISBN: 0060737956
  Family relationships.

Gruen, Sara. Water for Elephants. Algonquin Books of Chapel, 2006. ISBN: 9781565125605
  If you ever wanted to join the circus, here is your chance.

Hantover, Jeffrey. The Jewel Trader of Pegu. HarperCollins Publishers, 2008. ISBN: 9780061252716
  Jewish jewel trader Abraham, a widower at 28, leaves Venice in 1598 for Pegu, a Burmese kingdom halfway around the world, where he is to settle and acquire high-quality gems for the family business. ... He evokes the lush setting and gives clear voice to Abraham's doubts, fears and passions.

Li, Yiyun. The Vagrants. Random House Publishing, 2009. ISBN: 9780812973341
  Yiyun Li weaves together the lives of unforgettable characters that are forced to make moral choices, and choices for survival, in China in the late 1970s. 

Messer, Susan. Grand River and Joy. University of Michigan Press, 2009. ISBN: 9780472116997
  Grand River and Joy, named after a landmark intersection in Detroit. This is a story about the intersections between races, classes and religions exploding in the long, hot summers of Detroit in the 1960s.

Shaffer, Mary Ann. Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. Random House Publishing, 2008. ISBN: 9780440337973
  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society no ordinary book club. Rather, it was formed as a ruse and became a way for people to get together without raising the suspicions of Guernsey's Nazi occupiers. Written in the form of letters (a lost art), this novel by an aunt-and-niece team has loads of charm, especially as long as Juliet is still in London corresponding with the society members.

Stockett, Kathryn. The Help. Penguin Group, 2009. ISBN: 9780399155345
  Set in Stockett's native Jackson, MS, in the early 1960s, this first novel adopts the complicated theme of blacks and whites living in a segregated South.

Tyler, Anne. Noah’s Compass. Random House Publishing, 2010. ISBN: 9780345516596
  A story about a schoolteacher who has been forced to retire at sixty-one, coming to terms with the final phase of his life.

Zaslow, Jeffrey. The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and a Forty-Year Friendship. Gotham, 2009. ISBN: 978-1592404452
  This is the story of eleven childhood friends who formed a special bond growing up in Ames, Iowa and who built an extraordinary friendship.
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Food
Bourdain, Anthony. A Cook’s Tour: In Search of the Perfect Meal. HarperCollins Publishers, 2002. ISBN: 9780060012786
  Inspired by the question, "What would be the perfect meal?" Tony sets out on a quest for his culinary holy grail, and in the process turns the notion of "perfection" inside out. From California to Cambodia, A Cooks' Tour chronicles the unpredictable adventures of America's boldest and bravest chef.

Bullock-Prado, Gesine. My Life from Scratch: A Sweet Journey of Starting over, One Cake at a Time. Broadway. Crown Publishing Group, 2010. ISBN: 978-0767932738
  Bullock-Prado’s (sister of actress Sandra Bullock) memoir follows one day in a busy baker's life, from waking at three a.m. to prepare the batter (croissants, scones, sticky buns) and bake before opening shop at seven; through the hectic lunch (focaccia); and the three p.m. tea time.

Powell, Julie. Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously. Little, Brown and Company, 2009. ISBN: 978-0316042512
  Before the movie, there was a book! Powell became an Internet celebrity with her 2004 blog chronicling her yearlong odyssey of cooking every recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Ziegelman, Jane. 97 Orchard Street: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement. Smithsonian Institution, 2010. ISBN: 9780061288500
  Jane Ziegelman explores the culinary life that was the heart and soul of New York's Lower East Side around the turn of the twentieth century—a city within a city, where Germans, Irish, Italians, and Eastern European Jews attempted to forge a new life.
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Freedom
Purdy, Jedediah. A Tolerable Anarchy: Rebels, Reactionaries, and the Making of American Freedom. Vintage, 2005. ISBN: 978-1400095841
  Purdy, who teaches law at Duke, surveys the ways in which the ideals of individual liberty, dignity and fulfillment have made and remade America. He offers both a searching critique of America's ideology of freedom and an affirmation of the millions of small declarations of independence from hierarchy, constraint, and fear it has inspired.
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The Immigrant Story
Cleave, Chris. Little Bee: A Novel. Simon & Schuster, 2008. ISBN: 978-1416589648
  A haunting novel about the tenuous friendship that blooms between two disparate strangers—one an illegal Nigerian refugee, the other a recent widow from suburban London.

Kidder, Tracy. Strength in What Remains. Random House, 2010. ISBN: 9780812977615
  This book is global in outlook, addressing issues of immigration, world poverty, and violence -- again, by zeroing in on one man, a charismatic, sympathetic Burundian medical school student who survived Tutsi-Hutu massacres in his native Burundi and genocide in neighboring Rwanda.

Lahiri, Jhumpa. The Namesake: A Novel. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004. ISBN: 9780618485222
  Indian newlyweds Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli emigrate to Cambridge, Mass. in 1968.

Mengestu, Dinaw. The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears. Riverhead Books, 2007. ISBN: 9781594482854
  This novel is set over eight months in a gentrifying Washington, D.C., neighborhood in the 1970s. The story is told through Sepha Stephanos who fled Ethiopia during the revolution for a new start in the United States.

Scibona, Salvatore. The End. Graywolf Press, 2008. ISBN: 9781555974985
  It is August 15, 1953, the day of a street carnival in the Italian enclave of Elephant Park, Ohio, when Rocco LaGrassa receives an excruciating piece of news: his son has died in a POW camp in Korea. Against the background of immigration, broken loyalties, and racial hostility, the story presents everything Rocco sees through the eyes of various characters in the crowd.
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Inspirational
Cushman, Kathleen. Fires in the Mind: What Kids Can Tell Us About Motivation and Mastery. Wiley, Johns & Sons, Inc. 2010. ISBN: 978-470-64603-8
  Through the voices of students themselves, Fires in the Mind brings a game-changing question to teachers of adolescents: What does it take to get really good at something?
Grandin, Temple. Thinking in Pictures and Other Reports from My Life in Autism. Vintage, 1996. ISBN: 978-0679772897
 Grandin is a high-functioning autistic, who presents linked articles on her life and her work as an animal scientist.

Kamkwamba, William and Mealer, Bryan. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind; Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope. Harper Perennial, 2010. ISBN: 978-0061730337
     This book will inspire anyone who doubts the power of one individual's ability to change his community and better the lives of those on an entire continent.

Kidder, Tracy. Strength in What Remains. Random House, 2009. ISBN: 9781400066216
  An inspiring account of one man’s remarkable American journey and of the ordinary people who helped him–a brilliant testament to the power of will and of second chances. Deo arrives in America from Burundi in search of a new life and eventually becomes a doctor.

Kristof, Nicholas D. and WuDunn, Sheryl. Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. Alfred A. Knopf, 2009. ISBN: 9780307267146
  Two Pulitzer Prize winners issue a call to arms against our era's most pervasive human rights violation: the oppression of women in the developing world. They show that a little help can transform the lives of women and girls abroad and that the key to economic progress lies in unleashing women's potential.

Mortenson, Greg. Stones Into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Viking, 2009. ISBN: :9780670021154
  In this dramatic first-person narrative, Greg Mortenson ongoing efforts to establish schools for girls in Afghanistan.

Petit, Philippe. Man on Wire. Skyhorse Publishing, 2008. ISBN: 9781602393325
  The basis for the motion picture with the same title.: "By evoking his youthful passion for the World Trade Center, Petit brings the towers' awesomeness back to life."

Raji Codell, Esmé. Educating Esmé: Diary of a Teacher's First Year. Algonquin Books, c1999. ISBN: 1565122259
  Esmé's miracle is that she didn't lose faith in herself or her fifth-grade students during her first year of teaching in Chicago, battling all the ills of urban poverty and a principal who was soul mate to Dilbert's boss.

Trost, Margaret. On That Day, Everybody Ate: One Woman’s Story of Hope and Possibility in Haiti. Koa Books, 2008. ISBN: 9780977333899
  Following her husband s untimely death, Margaret Trost visited Haiti to heal her broken heart through service. Struggling to make sense of the extreme poverty he partners with a local community and together they develop a program that now serves thousands of meals a week to those in need.

Weiner, Jonathan. His Brother’s Keeper: A Story from the Edge of Medicine. HarperCollins, 2004. ISBN: 006001007
  The story is told through the lives of two amazing brothers: Stephen Heywood, a carpenter, who discovers he has A.L.S., and Jamie Heywood, an engineer who quits his lucrative job to start a foundation where he obsessively works with cutting-edge scientists in a race to find a cure.
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Memoir
Crawford, Matthew B. Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work. Penguin Group, 2010. ISBN: 9780143117469.
  A philosopher/mechanic's wise (and sometimes funny) look at the challenges and pleasures of working with one's hands.

Lennertz, Carl. Cursed by a Happy Childhood: Tales of Growing Up, Then and Now. Crown Publishing Group, 2004. ISBN: 9781616797966
  Cursed by a Happy Childhood is a warm, funny, bighearted collection of one dad’s reminiscences about the kinds of lessons we all learn—sometimes the hard way, often without even realizing it—on the road to becoming a grown-up.

Firlik, Katrina. Another Day in the Frontal Lobe: a brain surgeon exposes life on the inside. Random House Publishing, 2007. ISBN: 9780812973402
  Katrina Firlik’s life as a neurosurgeon.

Gilmour, David. The Film Club: A Memoir. Twelve, 2008. ISBN: 9780446199292     
   David Gilmour is a Canadian novelist who finally allows his tenth grade son to drop out of high school on the condition that together they watch three films a week.

Perry, Michael. Truck: A Love Story. HarperCollins, 2007. ISBN: 9780061460951.
  "All I wanted to do was fix my old pickup truck," says Michael Perry. "That, and plant my garden. Then I met this woman. . . ."

Raday, Sophia. Love in Condition Yellow: A memoir of an Unlikely Marriage. Beacon, 2010. ISBN: 9780807073308
  This story is about a marriage between a feminist social activist and an Oakland, CA police officer and soldier.

Waitzkin, Fred. Searching for Bobby Fischer: The Father of a Prodigy Observes the World of Chess. Penguin Group, 1993. ISBN: 9780140230383
  The chronicle of Fred Waitzkin and his son Josh, from the moment six-year-old Josh first sits down at a chessboard until he wins the national championship.
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Short Stories/Novella
Channer, Colin. The Girl with the Golden Shoes. Akashic Books, 2009. ISBN: 9781615571789
  A coming-of-age novella by Jamaica's best-selling writer.

Lahiri, Jhumpa. Unaccustomed Earth: Stories. Knopf Doubleday Publishing, 2008. ISBN: 9781615554911
  In this set of eight stories the gulf that separates expatriate Bengali parents from their American-raised children—and that separates the children from India.

Packer, ZZ. Drinking Coffee Elsewhere. Penguin Group, 2004. ISBN: 9781573223782
  Z.Z. Packer's first collection of short stories is rich with unexpected turns, indelible images, and penetrating insight that belies someone so young. Her stories plunge us into the worlds of people living on the edge and to the flashpoints that make or break them, that shape their worldviews forever.
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Survival
Beah, Ishmael. A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. Farrar, Staus and Giroux, 2008. ISBN: 9780374531263
 Beah tells his story of being a boy solider in Sierra Leone, his time in a UNICEF and NGO sponsored rehabilitation center, and Beah's eventual move to the United States as a college student at Oberlin College.

Rumberg, Hester. Ten Degrees of Reckoning: A true story of Survival. Penguin Group, 2010. ISBN: 9780425232101
  A remarkable true story of one woman's courage. In 1993, Judith and Michael Sleavin and their two children set out to sail around the world. Three years into their incredible journey, a nearby freighter altered its course by a mere ten degrees-and everything changed...

Wiesel, Elie. Night. Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, (revised edition). ISBN: 9780374500016
  Elie Wiesel’s masterpiece, a candid, horrific, and deeply poignant autobiographical account of his survival as a teenager in the Nazi death camps.
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Virtues and Morals: Exuberance, Kindness, Happiness, Humor
Bennett, Alan. The Uncommon Reader: A Novella. Picador, 2008. ISBN: 978-0312427641
  Popular British writer Bennett (Untold Stories; Tony-winning play The History Boys) sends Queen Elizabeth II into a mobile library van in pursuit of her runaway corgis and into the reflective, observant life of an avid reader.

Boorstein, Sylvia (Ph.D.). Happiness Is an Inside Job: Practicing a Joyful Life. Ballantine Books, 2008. ISBN: 978-0345481320
  The whole idea of this book, she writes, is that restoring a caring connection... and maintaining it when it is present, is happiness.

Phillips, Adam and Taylor, Barbara. On Kindness. Picador, 2010. ISBN: 978-0312429744
  To live the successful modern life, we are enjoined to become less kind and more selfish. That is this small but profound volume’s animating premise. It looks at attitudes toward kindness from a historical perspective, from the Stoics to Christian thought; to Hobbes, Hume, Adam Smith, and Rousseau; to Freud; and to the current day.

Redfield Jamison, Kay. Exuberance: The Passion for Life. A.A. Knopf, 2004. ISBN: 037540144
  If exuberance is "the passion for life," then Jamison's enthusiasm and sense of wonder about the subject proves as fine an example as any examined in her newest work. Having in mind the simply put idea that "those who are exuberant act."

Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Crown Publishing Group, 2010. ISBN: 9780307589385
  A thorny and provocative book about cancer, racism, scientific ethics and crippling poverty…. 

Weiner, Eric. The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World. Twelve, 2009. ISBN: 978-0446698894.
  Weiner traveled to countries like Iceland, Bhutan, Qatar, Holland, Switzerland, Thailand and India to try to figure out why residents tell positive psychology researchers that they're actually quite happy. In the end, he realized happiness isn't about economics or geography. Maybe it's not even personal as much as relational.
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mcm:2010

Life Is So Good Reading Guide Questions

1. There are many reasons to admire George Dawson. What qualities did you notice and admire?

2. George often noticed and took pleasure in ordinary things like the taste of his mother's biscuits, seeing the stars, even the "wait in the station."
What are the ordinary things in your life that bring pleasure?

3. Growing up in the Jim Crow south, George often recalls his wary caution with whites.
Are there ways in which minorities and women still must be cautious in their interactions with society?

4. What factors may have contributed to George's long life span?

5. In chapter 20, George says “I had to work all those years, but I was glad to work. A man is supposed to work and take pride in what he does no matter what the work is.” Do you think many people feel this way about work?

6. How does George cope with his illiteracy? How might his life have been different if he'd had the opportunity to go to school as a child?

7. George faced hardships and injustice, he never had much money; yet he still led a successful life.
Did he also have some advantages? Was he “rich” in other ways?

8. Why do you think students in the adult education program and other young students are so drawn to George?

9. In chapter 1, George's father told him "You have no right to judge another human being. Don't you ever forget."
How does this advice effect George's life?

10. How do you think George would answer the question "what makes life worth living"? Why does he think "life is so good"?

11. In Chapter 24, George says “there are some parents these days that are growing children , not raising children.”
What does he mean by this? Do you agree with him?

12. Given that George Dawson's life was limited by racism and poverty, it would be understandable if he was bitter about opportunities lost--but he chose not to feel bitter and instead adopted a willed optimism. How did Dawson's attitude effect his life?

13. Have you ever thought of writing a book? If you had a book in you, what would it be?

Youth Reading List - Curated by Ypsilanti District Library

What makes life worth living?

Grades K-5

• The Dangerous Book for Boys
by Conn Iggulden, 2007, 0061243582
The overall premise of this nostalgic book is that action and adventure are fun and worth the risks.

• The Daring Book for Girls
by Andrea Buchanon, 2007, 0061472573
See above – it’s all ok for girls to be adventurous too.

• Is There Really a Human Race
by Jamie Lee Curtis, 2006, 0060753463
While thinking about life as a race, a child wonders whether it is most important to finish first or to have fun along the way.

• Complete Adventures of Curious George
by Margret and H. A. Rey
I’m a sucker for Curious George – nobody is more fantastically curious or adventurous or intrepid than this little monkey.

• And the behind the scenes story of the Reys’ escape, The Journey That Saved Curious George : the true wartime escape of Margret and H.A. Rey
by Louise Borden
An extraordinary story about escaping death.

• Anne of Green Gables
by L. M. Montgomery, 1908
Anne is an orphan, sent to help out a lonely middle-aged brother and sister on a farm on Prince Edward Island. Anne has a feisty spirit and exuberance for life that captivates everyone around her.

• Loser
by Jerry Spinelli, 2002, 0060540745
Even though his classmates consider him strange and a loser, Daniel Zinkoff’s optimism and exuberance and the support of his loving family do not allow him to feel that way about himself.

• Thank You Mr. Falker
by Patricia Polacco, 1998, 0399237321
An autobiographical account of a teacher that goes the extra mile in helping her overcome her dyslexia when others make her feel dumb.

• Goin’ Someplace Special
by Patricia McKissack, 2001, 1416927352
In segregated 1950s Nashville, a brave African American girl braves indignities and obstacles to get to one of the few integrated places in town, the public library.

• Uncle Jed’s Barbershop
by Margaree King Mitchell, 1993, 0689819137
At age 79, after a lifetime of obstacles, Uncle Jed finally fulfills his lifetime dream of owning his own barbershop.

Grades 6-12

• Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl
by Anne Frank, 1953
We all know this story

• Zlata’s Diary: a child’s life in Sarajevo
by Zlata Filipović, 1994,
Similar to Anne Frank’s diary only in Sarajevo. A privileged 11 year old, only concerned with Madonna and MTV has to get used to bombing, snipers, shortages of food, gas, water and electricity.

• Farewell to Manzanar
by Jeanne Wakutsuki Houston, 1986, 0618216200
Yet another Anne Frank-like autobiography. The author was 7 years old when her family was forced to leave their home and their fishing business in Long Beach, CA and move to a Japanese Internment camp called Manzanar in the California desert.

• Stargirl
by Jerry Spinelli, 2000, 0679886370
Spinelli shows what it means to be a human being on a planet that is rich with wonders. "She was elusive. She was today. She was tomorrow. She was the faintest scent of a cactus flower, the flitting shadow of an elf owl."

• The Book Thief
by Markus Zusak, 2006, 0375842209
This is a mesmerizing, moving story of a young German girl in World War II Germany who steals books and survives amidst a dreadful existence. The story is narrated by Death, himself, who is funny, self deprecating and unsentimental.

• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian
by Sherman Alexie, 2007, 0316013684
A semi-autobiographical account of a budding cartoonist who transfers from the reservation school to a rich, white school. Amidst daily struggles of reservation life, Arnold Spirit is determined to improve himself and overcome poverty.

• A Long Way Down
by Nick Hornby, 2005, 1573223026
This is a book written for adults but I know several teens who have read this book through word of mouth. 4 people independently meet on New Year’s Eve at an infamous suicidal destination to commit suicide and unlikely bonding occurs.

• Make Lemonade
by Virginia Euwer Wolff, 1993, 0805022287
A triumphant, hopeful story about a bright, loving 14 year old who wants very badly to go to college. To earn money she babysits for a 17 year old with 2 children who live in squalor. As she helps Jolly make lemonade out of the lemons her life has given her, LaVaughn learns some lessons outside the classroom.

Youth Reading List - Curated by Ann Arbor District Library

What Makes Life Worth Living?

• John Denver's Sunshine on my Shoulders
Adapted & illustrated by Christopher Canyon
Dawn Publications, c2003 9781584690481
Picture book adaptation of a John Denver song which celebrates the simple things in life such as sunshine, being in nature, and loving relationships.

• Eight Days: A Story of Haiti
by Edwidge Danticat Orchard Books c2010 9780545278492
Junior is seven, and he is trapped under his house for eight days. We know from the first page that he is rescued, as we see him surrounded by news crews with huge cameras. But then we find out what he has played in his mind during his time in the rubble. Here are all the normal things Haitian children do, like marbles, kite-flying, hide and seek, visiting Papa at his business, singing in the choir at the church, soccer. Here is a beautiful Haitian family, welcoming back their rescued son. There is grief in this story, but it is understated. The main message is that Haiti is a place worth rebuilding, a place of hope.

• Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge
by Mem Fox; illustrated by Julie Vivas
Kane Miller c1989 (1985) 9780916291266
A small boy tries to discover the meaning of "memory" so he can restore that of an elderly friend.

• Mama, Do you Love Me?
by Barbara M. Joosse; illustrated by Barbara Lavallee
Chronicle Books c1991 9780877017592
In this universal story, a child tests the limits of independence and comfortingly learns that a parent's love is unconditional and everlasting.

• The Thanksgiving Bowl
by Virginia Kroll; illustrated by Philomena O'Neill
Pelican Pub. Co. c2007 9781589803657
Each member of a family writes an anonymous "I'm thankful for" note and places it in the Thanksgiving bowl. When the bowl is accidentally left outside, various creatures find and put the bowl to good use.

• Guess how Much I Love You
by Sam McBratney; illustrated by Anita Jeram
Candlewick Press c2008 (1995) 9780763641757
During a bedtime game, every time Little Nutbrown Hare demonstrates how much he loves his father, Big Nutbrown Hare gently shows him that the love is returned even more.

• Thank you World
by Alice B. McGinty; illustrated by Wendy Anderson Halperin
Dial Books for Young Readers c2007 9780803727052
Eight children from eight different countries express their thanks for many special things including the sun that colors the sky, breezes that lift kites, clouds that paint cotton pictures and send rain, and sparkling stars that "shine like Mommy's eyes."

• Inside All
by Margaret H. Mason; illustrated by Holly Welch
Dawn Publications c2008 9781584691112
Takes the reader on a nesting doll-like journey, from the edges of the universe into the heart of a child at bedtime, showing how we each have our place inside the universe and the universe has a place inside each of us.

• The Bee Tree
by Patricia Polacco
Philomel Books, c1993 9780399219658
When Mary Ellen complains to Grampa that she's tired of reading her book, he proposes they hunt for a bee tree. After an adventurous chase, Grampa spoons a drop of honey onto Mary Ellen's book, saying "There's such sweetness inside books too . . . adventure, knowledge, wisdom. But these things do not come easily. You must pursue them…"

• Let's go Home: the Wonderful Things about a House
by Cynthia Rylant; illustrated by Wendy Anderson Halperin
Simon & Schuster c2002 9780689823268
Describes the individual rooms in a house, moving from porch to attic, stopping by the living room, kitchen, bathroom, and bedrooms in between. In a quiet, warm mood, the narrative delineates the gestures and activities of a multigenerational household. “No matter the kind of house, it is the living inside that makes it wonderful.”

• City Dog, Country Frog
by Mo Willems; illustrated by Jon J. Muth
Hyperion Books for Children c2010 9781423103004
Two seemingly incompatible animals--a free-range frog and a curious urban dog--discover the endless possibilities that unfold when we share the best of ourselves with each other.

• Biblioburro: a True Story from Colombia
by Jeanette Winter
Beach Lane Books c2010 9781416997788
After amassing piles of books, Luis, a voracious reader, dreams up a way to share his collection with “faraway villages.” He starts with two burros—one for himself, one for books—and heads off. Both understated and full of life, this satisfying story is a vibrant reminder of the pleasures of books and the difference one individual can make.

• The Story Blanket
by Ferida Wolff and Harriet May Savitz; illustrated by Elena Odriozola
Peachtree, c2008 9781561454662
With no wool to be found in the village, Babba Zarrah, the storyteller, starts unraveling her story blanket bit by bit, to secretly supply the needs of the community, and when the villagers realize what is happening they return the favor.

Reviews of The Living Great Lakes

The Living Great Lakes: Searching for the Heart of the Inland Seas, by Jerry Dennis, c. 2003

Publishers Weekly
In his newest book, Dennis (From a Wooden Canoe) offers an engrossing description of being a crew member on the schooner Malabar on a six-week trip through the waters of Lakes Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior. Capt. Hajo Knuttel and other crew members such as Tim, the ship's creative cook, spring to life in this modern adventure tale. Dennis weaves anecdotes from his childhood, such as a family-fishing trip on Lake Michigan, together with informed commentary on the natural history of the lakes and the people who live there as well as evocative descriptions of the enchanting view of the forests along Lake Superior from the schooner. His narrative is a continual reminder of the dangers inherent in navigating the waters of these magnificent lakes as he details their current condition; he explains that in the 1970s, Lake Erie's waters were saved from an ecological disaster by a public outcry, yet other waters are still in danger from commercial dumping. But all does not go smoothly for the Malabar; Dennis's narrative takes on an air of adventure when, toward the end of the trip, the Malabar and its crew encounter a terrifying storm.

Booklist
Dennis surveys the Inland Seas through the viewpoint of his lake-faring rambles in three different vessels: schooner, racing yacht, and voyageur canoe. As he passes the numerous spectacular sights the Great Lakes afford sailors, Dennis recalls their associated history in a vibrant blend of personal observation and geological, historical, and environmental anecdote. The main focus here is a schooner trip in 2000 from Grand Traverse Bay to Maine (via the Erie Canal). As the Malabar negotiates the treacherous Straits of Mackinac, Dennis not only covers the French missions, British forts, and innumerable shipwrecks in this storied area but also recollects his experience in the annual Chicago-to-Mackinac yacht race. Working in a separate, French fur-trapper style canoeing adventure on Lake Superior, Dennis touches on all five lakes in this compendium, endowing his chronicle with a breadth that makes it a fine introduction to the lakes' ecology.

Reader reviews on Amazon

Year Of Wonders

Year Of Wonders: A Novel Of The Plague, by Geraldine Brooks, is an international bestselling work of historical fiction, chosen as a Notable Book by both the New York Times and the Washington Post. Exploring love and learning, fear and fanaticism, and the struggle of science and religion to interpret the world at the cusp of the modern era, Year of Wonders is at once a story of unconventional love and a richly detailed evocation of a riveting moment in history. This gripping historical novel is based on the true story of Eyam, the “Plague Village,” tucked in the rugged mountain spine of England. In 1666, when an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to the isolated settlement of shepherds and lead miners, a housemaid named Anna Frith emerges as an unlikely heroine and healer. Through Anna’s eyes the reader follows the story of the plague year, as her fellow villagers make an extraordinary choice: convinced by a visionary young minister they elect to quarantine themselves within the village boundaries to arrest the spread of the disease. As the death toll rises and people turn from prayers and herbal cures to sorcery and murderous witch-hunting, Anna must confront the deaths of family, the disintegration of her community, and the lure of illicit love. Year of Wonders blends learning and romance into an unforgettable read. What did you think of this book? Tell us!

The Undertaking

The Undertaking: Life Studies From The Dismal Trade, by Thomas Lynch, is an unforgettable collection of essays written by a Michigan undertaker, which became a National Book Award Finalist and won the Heartland Prize for non-fiction and The American Book Award. Poet (and undertaker) Lynch stands between “the living and the living who have died” with outrage and amazement, awe and calm, straining for the brief glimpse we all get of what mortality means to a vital species. “Each year, I bury a couple hundred of my townspeople.” So opens the singular testimony of the poet Thomas Lynch. Like all poets, inspired by death, Lynch is, unlike others, also hired to serve the living by caring for the dead in the small Michigan town where he serves as the funeral director. In this wholly unique collection of essays, the two vocations meet as Lynch shows himself to be a competent functionary of mourning, a reliable witness to life’s mysteries and a poet poignantly tuning language to the right tones of private release. The Nation says that this collection of essays is “life affirming….(and) brims with humanity, irreverence and candor.” What did you think of this book? Tell us!

Life Is So Good

Life Is So Good, by George_Dawson_(author)">George Dawson and Richard Glaubman, is a winner of the Christopher Award for Non-Fiction. In this remarkable book, 103-year-old George Dawson, a slave’s grandson who learned to read at age 98, reflects on his life and offers valuable lessons in living as well as a fresh, firsthand view of America during the twentieth century. Richard Glaubman captures Dawson's irresistible voice and view of the world, offering insights into humanity, history, hardships, and happiness. From segregation and civil rights, to the wars, presidents, and defining moments in history, George Dawson's description and assessment of the last century inspires readers with the message that-through it all-has sustained him: "Life is so good. I do believe it's getting better." This inspirational autobiography was published in 2000 and received much attention in the national media. Dawson appeared on Oprah and told his story in the June 2001 issue of Guideposts. USA Today remarked that “Dawson had become a literary hero, a testament to the power of perseverance.” What did you think of this book? Tell us!