YA and Children’s

While shopping for our school library at the Scholastic warehouse nearby, we picked up this little gem of a book. “Kimchi and Calamari” centers on 14-year-old Joseph Calderaro, a Korean boy adopted in infancy into a NJ Italian family. Joseph struggles with his identity and his unknown past when his English teacher assigns his class to write about their family’s past. Joseph creates a fictional story based on an Olympic athlete, which gets him into hot water when his essay is selected as a winner for a local contest. He also secretly posts on a Korean adoptee website in an effort to track down his birth mother.

This was such a charming book to read. I couldn’t help but like Joseph right from the onset as he endured the daily ups and downs of your typical 8th grader: friends, girls, little sisters, and family matters. Joseph’s quest to better understand him past and thus himself is a touching one, and one I would think many adopted individuals would relate to. Kent does a good job in making Joseph believable and likable, and I appreciate that while the story has a happy and positive ending, she does not tie up all the loose ends in a neat package with a bow on top!

This would make a good summer read for 5th through 7th graders, in my opinion, especially if you are looking for a male protagonist and for something in the realistic fiction genre.

Patricia Reilly Giff is one of those children’s authors who has written numerous titles and seems like an old friend. When we were purchasing books at the Scholastic Warehouse sale for our school library birthday book program, I came across “Storyteller”. I wasn’t aware of too many YA titles by Ms. Giff, so I took it home to read. This novel tells the story of two Elizabeths – one who lives now and her ancestor “Zee” who lived during the Revolutionary War. When modern-day Elizabeth goes to stay with her aunt in New York state one summer, she is drawn to an old drawing of the first Elizabeth and becomes focused on learning her story. The two girls’ stories are juxtaposed, and readers move in time from present to past.

I enjoyed reading this novel and finished it in one evening. I did find the harsh realities of war at times disturbing – Zee is badly burned in a fire and her home destroyed and her mother murdered (there is a somewhat sinister passage where the mother is surrounded by a group of men who are destroying their home while she yells at her daughter to run away; later a family friend reports to Zee that her mother is dead). I wasn’t at all familiar with the Battle of Oriskany, which occurs in this novel, too (where a group of Patriots are ambushed and slaughtered while travelling through a gorge). For these reasons, I think this novel is best suited for middle schoolers. Using this in a classroom where you could also study daily life during the Revolution and talk about the events in this book would be ideal.

Historical period aside, young readers will enjoy the two Elizabeths’ stories as both girls learn to deal with changes in their life and recognize their gifts as storytellers. I look forward to more YA titles from Ms. Giff!