A Newbery Award winner by Christopher Paul Curtis, the story is told by Kenny Watson, a preteen black youth living in Flint, Michigan.  Kenny lives with his parents, Daniel and Wilona, big brother, Byron and little sister, Joetta.  They live a nice life; mom stays at home, dad works at the auto plant and the three children go to school.  Mom is from Birmingham, where the winters are not so brutal as Flint.

When Byron is deemed uncontrolable and a trouble maker, his parents decide to send him south to spend the summer, hoping Grandma can straighten him out.  After careful planning by mom, the family loads into the "Brown Bomber", dad's big car and start the trip south, deciding not to take the 3 day trip but to drive straight through.  On the trip, the parents give the children a warning that they are going is nothing like where they are from.  "Separate but equal" still exists in the south.  The black population must keep in their places.  Civil rights is a very hot topic.

When the family arrives, the children find that the warnings their parents have given are true.  Kenny sees a big differece in what is acceptable here as apposed to Michigan.  It is also so hot that the children can't sleep.  They have a few adventures.   One scary adventure Kenny has is a battle with the "Wool Pooh",at Collier's pond, where he almost drowns until Byron saves him.  The next day is Sunday and Joetta goes to Sunday School. Kenny stays home, worn out from his near drowning that neither his brother nor he told their parents about.  Kenny goes outside to rest under the large magnolia tree, but before he rests much he is shaken awake by a loud noise and then frantic cries and running toward the church.  Kenny is fearful and heads toward the church himself, worried about little sister Joetta.  He sees bodies pulled from the bombed church and thinks one may be Joetta.

Fortunately, Joetta is safe and she tells Kenny that she thought she saw him motioning for her to come back home so she didn't go to church at all.  Kenny is puzzled but so shocked about 2 terrible events in several days that he withdraws from life.  Mom and Dad now decide that Byron can't stay so they load up the car and drive back home.

Kenny is still withdrawn.  He does not talk to anyone, quits spending time with his friends and retreats behind the sofa in the living room.  His only hope, he feels, is the healing power of "The Watson World Famous Animal Hospital" where the family's pets go when they are sick or injured.  He remains there hoping to feel better.  It takes some consideration from his parents and his brother to lure him out, and finally Byron is able to get him back to his regular life. 

The book is about social change and how you deal with it, as seen through a small boy's eyes.

A historical fiction novel about the travelling circuses of the 1920's.  Lewis Tully, who has circus in his blood, starts up a circus with a variety of performers and animals, including a camel, elephant, Gorilla, monkeys and horses.  Through hardships and hard work, the group travels thru Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado and Wyoming performing form town to town.  Complicating matters is a rival circus, whose owner sends his workers to harass the Blue Moon Circus, not to mention escapee monkeys who trash a small town, including the church.

A great story and some unusual characters and incidents make this book easy and fun to read.

This is a well written book about the establishment of the Indiana Junior Historical Society and some of its accomplishments.  Founded in 1938, it is a high school level historical society sponsored by the Indiana Historical Society.  In past years, the Junior HIstorical society has done surveys and clean up of cemeteries, archeological digs, and other activities pertaining to history.  I was interested in reading the book since in ancient times, I was a memeber.  It has lots of pictures and stories of the many services the group provided to the Indiana Historical Society.

Set in  1960's Missiissippi, this is a powerful historical fiction novel.  Celeste Tyree, an idealistic black college student from the University of Michigan volunteers to spend her summer helping the black Mississippi population register to vote.  She joins the One Man, One Vote movement and takes a train to Jackson, Mississippi, where she is trained and is then assigned to Pineyville, where she will run a half day school for the black childern and in the evenings she prepares the black adults to take the voter registration test.  All this sounds easy, but add into it that the white folks tried to make it impossible for the black folks to register.

Celeste endures searing heat and humidity, living in a house not more than a shack without indoor plumbing, using an outhouse for the 1st time. These things are nothing to the other challenges she faced:  the house being shot into after bedtime,sleeping on the floor for safety, a child drowning in the river, resistence from some of the black community to her programs, being arrested for taking a few folks to register to vote, having her church and classroom burned to the ground.  She even loses a tooth when she drinks out of a fountain and the sheriff takes offense. 

The writing is very descriptive.  You can almost taste the wonderul food of the south.  This is the author's 1st book, although she has written screenpalys and is an accomplished actress (Room 222; TV's version of In the Heat of the Night).  I hope she writes more.

This is the true story of Sarah Emma Edmonds, who disguised herself as a man and fought in the Civil War for 2 years.  Sarah was born in Canada on a farm.  Her father wished for sons to work on the farm, instead he got daughters and one invalid son.  Sarah took on the role of farmer helper.  When she was old enough to leave home, she figured she would never make much of herself as a woman, so she disguised herself and got a job as Frank Thompson, working as a travelling bookseller.  She was a big success and settled in Michigan. 

When the Civil War broke out, she was caught up in the excitement and ended up joining the Michigan regiments.  While serving in the army she took on may roles: nurse, orderly, spy, mail carrier and courier.  Supposedly, she made numerous trips behind Confederate lines to spy for the Union, but this was never proved.  She was severely injured twice.  When her commanding officer resigned, she went AWOL, because she feared she would be discovered. 

In her later life, she married Linus Seelye, a builder, tried to raise a family, but none of their children, except one adopted son, made it to adulthood.  Increasingly crippled by her old war injuries, she sought any army pension.  After many attemps, and many letters from her fellow officers and servicemen, she was able to receive a pension for her time in the Army.

Sarah Emma Edmonds was a brave woman who worked very hard for what she wanted. Wonder how many other women disquised as men actually fought?

  Another book by Jeannette Walls about her family.  This book deals with the author growing up in her dysfunctional family.  Jeannette's parents, Rex and Rosemary are the parents from hell.  Neither one seemed much interested in providing the necessities for their family, Lori, Jeannette, Brian and Maureen.  Rosemary was nothing like her mother, Lillian Casey Smith, who could make a meal from almost nothing.  Rosemary couldn't be bothered with cooking, washing or parenting.  She would rather read or paint.  She would only work if forced to do so.  The father, Rex, was a drunk and and was abusive to the family.  He would peridoically disappear or run off with  the grocery money and could not hold down a job. 

After living off Rosemary's inhertitance and working a few jobs, the family loads the car with their few possessions and heads to Rex's hometown, Welch, WV.  They move in with Rex's parents and his brother.  When that move doesn't work out, their father finds them a shack to live in.  The children are cold, hungry and have few clothes and terrible shoes.  The shack has a coal stove but they have no coal except what the children are able to pick up along the road after it falls from the coal trucks.  School is their savior; there they can get food, a warm place, and instruction, which all three take advantage of.  When Lori graduates, she leaves the town for New York City.  She soon sends for Jeannette, then Brian and finally Maureen.  Later their parents arrive in New York.

The book is packed full of hardships for the children.  I don't know how they survived.  It is unbeleivable that their parents did very little to support them and that they still turned out to be great people.  The three oldest made successes for themselves. 

I enjoyed the book very much except that parts horrified me.  I am glad for the family that they were able to make something of their lives despite their terrible upbringing. 

This is a very good historical fiction book about the Battle of Petersburg during the Civil War.  Colonel Henry Pleasants is a mining enigineer serving with men from Pennsylvania who are coal miners in civilian life.  The lines of the Battle are not moving, so the men and and the colonel decide that they can help the Union Soldiers get to Petersburg by tunnelling under and blowing up Cemetery Hill.  This is a great idea and improves the men's morale, but the task will be accomplished without all the supplies they need.  General Burnside refuses to give them all the tools and explosives, so they improvise.  A huge explosion opens up the enemy lines.

The sad part of the story is that even after the lines are open, ineffectual leadership leads to the Union Army not taking advantage of the opening.  If the Union had taken the lead and used the huge hole, the War may have been over in 1864.  Instead, by not taking advantage, the war went on for another year. 

An excellent book about Henry, a young Chinese American living in Seattle and his relationship with a Japanese American girl named Keiko.  Set in World War II, it tells the story of their love for each other and how much each one will do to make the other safe.  It is a very complicated life for any of the oriental families living in Seattle.  Henry wears a button saying "I am Chinese" so he is not taken away.  He meets Keiko when they work in the school cafeteria together, and they form a relationship.

Keiko's family is rounded up and sent to an internment camp and Henry gets a job with Mrs. Beatty, supplying meals to the Japanese in the camp so he can see Keiko.  When she and her family are sent to an Idaho internment camp, Henry, with his adult friend Sheldon, go to visit her.  Eventually, they lose contact with each other, Henry's life goes on and he eventually grows up to marry Ethel, the girl who worked in the post office and retrieved his letters from Keiko as he picked them up. 

After Ethel's death. Fifty-seven year old Henry starts looking for Keiko.  He searches the basement of the Panama Hotel for clues.  The hotel is where the Japanese refugees stored the belongings when they were taken away.  With his son's help. Henry is able to find Keiko, who now lives in New York City. 

This is a well written book.  It is a look at the treatment of the Japanese during WWII and also a sweet story of young love. It is sort of a Romeo and Juliet story.

Sweeping Up Glass is the first novel for this author.  It is set in southern Kentucky, near the Tennessee border.  Olivia Harker Cross owns part of a mountain, and on it are some transplanted wolves.  When someone starts shooting the wolves, she starts to investigate who is doing this, but uncovers all sorts of things about the people and community that she lives in.

Her mother is mentally ill and lives across the yard in a small hut.  Her daughter left her son with Olivia and set off for Hollywood.  Her father died in a truck accident where Olivia was badly hurt.  She now runs the general store during the Great Depression and has a hard time making ends meet.  She has many friends in the small town, including the black folks who seem to appreciate Olivia more than the rest of the community. 

When she uncovers a terrilbe secret, it puts her, her grandson and the whole Black community in danger.  Only when they band together, can they defeat the evil doers among them.  To tell much more about this book would give the secret away.  This is one of the books that will be discussed in next year's reading groups.  Join the group in October to help solve the mystery and the shocking ending to the book!

This book is a part soap opera, part history set in the Civil War. The war divides families, lovers, sisters, brothers, and the Virginia community in general.  The Quakers in the community refuse to fight.  Surry and Willa are friends, but are separated by race and by their beliefs in the usefulness of slavery.  Willa goes off to fight in the war after both her brothers are killed.  She disguises her self as a man.  After Surry's father is killed because he is a black slave and owner of some tools a black man can't possess, she and her brother and sisters take off to the North.  She becomes divided from part of her family when her brother and sister are captured and returned to the plantation.  Willa becomes friendly with the Quakers, especially Levi, who later helps Surry and her sister escape to the north.  

I almost needed a roadmap and a list of characters to help keep the plot straightened out.  There are supposed to be 3 more books following this one, but I think one will be enough for me.  There were more entanglements than I could keep up with.