When I was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago

The book When I was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago is a memoir about Esmeralda Santiago's childhood. It is touching, and very real. I enjoyed this book very much, and it talked about many different struggles of growing up. I am not a big fan of memoir, but this book was very good

-Isabella, 7th Grade, Amigos

Lighter Than My Shadow by Katie Green

Read a nonfiction book or historical fiction book

Would you recommend this book? If so, who would you recommend it to, and why? If not, why not?

Lighter Than my Shadow is a non Fiction book about a girl strugling to eccept her self and her time being anorexic. She has other challenges through out her life that I will not disclose. I would recommend this book to people who enjoyed Speak By Laurie halse anderson or Friends with boys By faith Erin Hicks.

Lizzie, 6th grade, Amigos

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

If you could ask the author/illustrator of this book one question, what would it be?

If i could ask Jacqueline Woodson a question it would be ....
In the process of writing poetry do you struggle in writing about a fictional character?
Because poetry draws from your feelings and experiences is it hard to get in the minds of a characters who arn't you.

-8th grade, Amigos

Turning 15 On The Road To Freedom by Lynda Blackmon Lowrey

Describe a part of the book that made you feel something strongly (i.e. something that made you cry, laugh, get really angry, etc.).

The book Turning 15 on the road to freedom is a book about the Selma voting rights march. It was a sad story to hear. The author of this book is writing about her experience when she was in the road to freedom march. What turning 15 on the road to freedom means she turned 15 when she was marching. she went to jail 9 times before she was 15. It was a very sad and disturbing book to read. these types of books get me to ask a lot of questions like why were blacks treated like this, or who would hurt children like seriously she got hit so many times by the police that she was bleeding from all areas of her head and above her eye. It got me angry but happy that they continued to fight. I am happy that now blacks can fight but there are other things we still need to fix. blacks are not treated well and i hate that. They tried to change the world before and now we are going to try and try again. I will give this book a 10 out of 10. I loved it.

-Rafa, 6th grade, CSUS

Boris By Cynthia Rylant

This is a story about the life of a cat, Boris, but the book is all a very long poem. I think the best part of the book is how the person who owns Boris talks to it, gives it advice, and tells him his story. There is one part where the owner tells him about the eagles and how the people say they can carry cats and small dogs away from their homes, and the owner is just warning Boris to be carful when he's outside. Throughout the book though, it's clear Boris is not afraid of much. Cynthia Rylant makes the book seem so relatable, even for me someone who has never had a cat.

-Emilia, 7th grade, VLUS

Endurance by Scott Kelly

Describe a part of the book that made you feel something strongly (i.e. something that made you cry, laugh, get really angry, etc.).

Endurance is a book about Scott Kelly, a astronaut that went to the international space station as well as quite a few space shuttle missions. One even on Christmas.
The book starts kinda at the end because it describes his struggle coming back to earth after being in space for one year. It talks about the journey just to his bed. I don't like how in the middle of the book Scott starts talking about his training in Russia and stuff because I feel that he should have started with that.
What made me really sad is when he talked about how his identical brothers wife (Gabrielle Giffords) was shot in Tucson, Arizona in the head, luckily she survived, but the gunman killed a nine year old girl born on September, 11, 2001.
Overall the book was pretty great i would definitely recommend it to someone else.

So, i was thinking "this is great i dont need to add what else" but then i was like wait no, because scott kelly once had a tweet conversation with barrack obama
- Addison, 6th grade, RAUS

Red Scarf Girl By Ji-Li Jiang

If you could ask the author/illustrator of this book one question, what would it be?

If I could ask Ji-Li Jiang one question, it would be: How did you continue to act so grown up during such an awful time? This story takes place in China during the cultural revolution. Ji-Li comes from a family with a bad political status and this holds her back. Even though sometimes it seems as though Ji-Li is younger than she is, she is mature and collected during the book. Her whole childhood seems frightening and stressful, and I cant imagine living in a time where my grandfather's life could take away some of my opportunities. This book is slow moving, and possibly not very page turning, but it tells an amazing story about one girl living in an oppressive society, and that book taught me so much about the cultural revolution that I would not have known without it.
- Isabella, 7th grade, Amigos