Book talk: The Great Wall of Lucy Wu by Wendy Wan-Long Shang (2011 Cybils Award)

Having a bedroom all to yourself is the best thing in the world. I'm Lucy Wu, and I've been waiting for my older sister, Regina, to move out for some time now. Finally: the room is mine…all mine! I'm about to start sixth grade, and things are looking good for me: I'm getting better and better at basketball (my favorite sport) and I have a great best friend, Madison, who plays it with me. And no, as you can see, I am not tall. This school year is going to be the best ever. I'll update you in a few days… [quick exit and return]

No way. I mean it. No way. So I go out with my family and relatives to this amazing Chinese restaurant: normally, I'd have a great time, but I want to mention two things. I'm getting criticized by certain people (cough, cough, Regina!) for not appreciating Chinese culture and food and then later I get the real catastrophe - I'll be sharing my room with my grandma's sister, Yi Po, who is coming here from China and speaks no English. Yeah: sharing MY room. Did I mention that my command of Chinese is not very good? This is terrible. I have to share a room with someone I can't communicate with! Maybe I'll put up a wall…..

The Great Wall of Lucy Wu by Wendy Wan-Long Shang. 312 p. Scholastic: 2011. Booktalk to intermediate grades and middle school. 2011 Cybils Award for Middle Grade Fiction.

Book talk: A Game for Swallows by Zeina Abirachad

Most of you have been at home alone while you waited for your parents to return home, right? It’s a fairly typical teen experience. But what if you had no way of contacting your parents when they were gone? What if you worried they’d get hit by sniper fire when returning home? In this graphic novel, Zeina drew us a map of how tricky it was to avoid the sniper near their apartment. 

Avoiding the sniper in A Game for Swallows

And what if the block and the area you lived in got bombed so regularly that all your neighbors would come join you in the foyer of your apartment because it was considered the safest spot? Imagine living with all your neighbors in a tiny room for hours and hours and even days. It’s a hard way to live, but Zeina and her little brother have grown up with this. They live in Beirut, Lebanon, during a time of civil war, a civil war which dragged on from 1975-1990. They know of people who have disappeared and were never seen again. But there’s humor in this novel: her neighbors – virtually family since they live in close quarters – are protective, loving, and quirky. If your world shrank to one room, would you be able to laugh?

A Game for Swallows: To Die, To Leave, To Return by Zeina Abirached. Graphic novel. 188 p. Booktalk to middle school, high school.