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Ten Good and Bad Thing About my Life (so far) by Ann M Martin

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Ten Good and Bad things about my life   written by Ann M Martin starts with a 5th grader, Pearl Littlefield, writing her first assignment in class. She has to write an essay about her summer. She begins with her dad losing his job right before summer break and how their vacation plans are cancelled to save money. She describes various things  her family does to save money - sell their car and take subways, shop at discount stores, cancel vacation to Wild West instead staycation in NY, avoid eating outside etc. Pearl and her sister, Lexie, get to go to a camp since they were pre-registered and could not be cancelled. Pearl also talks about her friends and how she interacts with them in her essay. The book goes through adventures of Pearl's summer and what she does during summer. Even though she is very upset at the start of the book about her dad losing job, but at the end she and her friend, James B III, start their own company where Pearl makes her art and sells i...
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The Buddha's Diamonds by Carolyn Marsden and Thay Phap Niem

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The Buddha's Diamond is a very deep story about a boy who lives with him family in Vietnam. The story is set in the time after the Vietnam war. Every day, Tinh heads out to sea with his father, Ba, to catch fish for their family and their market. While he may miss his simple life, flying kites with other children on the beach, Tinh is proud to work alongside Ba. Then a fierce storm strikes, and Ba entrusts Tinh to secure the family vessel, but the boy panics and runs away. Tinh feels sorry for not being strong and being courageous to take care of the boat. After the storm, their house is also damaged. Tinh helps his father to repair the house and also takes responsibility to take the boat's parts to another nearby village for repair.  The book is a very easy read but with depths of innocence, truthfulness and desires for a small boy. There is an instance in the book when Tinh gives away a red car that he saved from the storm (belonging to his cousin who is more wea...
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Breakout by Kate Messner

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One of the 2019 resolutions for our family was to read more together. Reading together provides an opportunity for bonding and building long lasting relationships. As a start for this resolution, my son, Satvik and I started reading Kate Messner's Breakout . Breakout is a fiction that addresses the issues of racism and how it affects kids. Kate Messner's approach to this book is very novel. Instead of chapters to narrate the story, she has narrated the story through a series of letters, text messages, poems and audio converted to texts. The book starts with introduction of a middle school project about kids writing a letter package as a Time Capsule Project addressed to future residents of Wolf Creek residents in NY suburban area. Wolf Creek community is largely comprised of residents who work in a prison. Their lives revolve around prison duties. Nora Tucker likes to write and wants to be a journalist. She is looking forward for end of school field day and for summer...
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