SFHS Summer Reading

Friday, March 14, 2014

Finalists!

These are the finalists as chosen by the Summer Reading Committee. If you have read any of the titles below please take a moment and add a comment to help us make the final decision.

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Selecting books for 2014 Summer Reading!

We are starting the selection process once again! Below is a listing of all the books we are looking at for consideration for the 2014 Summer Reading. Feel free to add comments to the books you have read on the appropriate books blog posting.

Dancing with Butterflies By: Reyna Grande

Summary:

Dancing with Butterflies uses the alternating voices of four very different women whose lives interconnect through a common passion for their Mexican heritage and a dance company called Alegría. Yesenia, who founded Alegría with her husband, Eduardo, sabotages her own efforts to remain a vital, vibrant woman when she travels back and forth across the Mexican border for cheap plastic surgery. Elena, grief stricken by the death of her only child and the end of her marriage, finds herself falling dangerously in love with one of her underage students. Elena's sister, Adriana, wears the wounds of abandonment by a dysfunctional family and becomes unable to discern love from abuse. Soledad, the sweet-tempered illegal immigrant who designs costumes for Alegría, finds herself stuck back in Mexico, where she returns to see her dying grandmother. Reyna Grande has brought these fictional characters so convincingly to life that readers will imagine they know them.

Across a Hundred Mountains By: Reyna Grande

Summary:
Across a Hundred Mountains is a stunning and poignant story of migration, loss, and discovery as two women -- one born in Mexico, one in the United States -- find their lives joined in the most unlikely way. After a tragedy separates her from her mother, Juana García leaves her small town in Mexico to find her father, who left his home and family two years before to find work in America, el otro lado, and rise above the oppressive poverty so many of his countrymen endure. Out of money and in need of someone to help her across the border, Juana meets Adelina Vasquez, a young woman who left her family in California to follow her lover to Mexico. Finding each other -- in a Tijuana jail -- in desperate circumstances, they offer each other much needed material and spiritual support and ultimately become linked forever in the most unexpected way. The phenomenon of Mexican immigration to the United States is one of the most controversial issues of our time. While it is often discussed in terms of the political and economic implications, Grande, with this brilliant debut novel and her own profound insider's perspective, puts a human face on the subject. Who are the men, women, and children whose lives are affected by the forces that propel so many to risk life and limb, crossing the border in pursuit of a better life? Take the journey Across a Hundred Mountains and see.

Cantora By: Sylvia Lopez-Medina

Summary:

With this self-assured first novel, Lopez-Medina takes her place among a talented new generation of Hispanic American women writers. Her multigenerational saga begins as a rather disaffected modern-day young woman, Amparo, sets out to explore the "varicolored threads" that form the "quilt" of her family history. In highly visual prose, the author describes how Amaro's great-grandmother Rosario thwarted plans for an arranged marriage in turn-of-the-century Mexico to run away with Alejandro Perez, a follower of Pancho Villa. At age 24, having given birth to nine children and seen three of them as well as her husband die during the Mexican Revolution, Rosario returns home to discover her father has disowned her. She begins a harrowing journey west across the mountains, leaving one of her daughters, Pilar, to be raised by nuns. Thirteen years later, Pilar rejoins her family, but she is clearly unsuited for life in their rough-and-tumble town. When a wealthy older man, Gabriel Calderon, falls in love with her, the family arranges for Pilar to become his mistress. Lopez-Medina has a marvelous knack for capturing the emotional intensity of women, and the detailed descriptions of both love affairs--Rosario's with Alejandro and Pilar's with Gabriel--are exquisitely handled. Drawing on Lopez-Medina's own family history, the novel has resonance, authenticity and a natural drama.

Thief Lord By: Cornelia Funke

Summary:

Imagine a Dickens story with a Venetian setting, and you'll have a good sense of Cornelia Funke's prizewinning novel The Thief Lord, first published in Germany in 2000. This suspenseful tale begins in a detective's office in Venice, as the entirely unpleasant Hartliebs request Victor Getz's services to search for two boys, Prosper and Bo, the sons of Esther Hartlieb's recently deceased sister. Twelve-year-old Prosper and 5-year-old Bo ran away when their aunt decided she wanted to adopt Bo, but not his brother. Refusing to split up, they escaped to Venice, a city their mother had always described reverently, in great detail. Right away they hook up with a long-haired runaway named Hornet and various other ruffians who hole up in an abandoned movie theater and worship the elusive Thief Lord, a young boy named Scipio who steals jewels from fancy Venetian homes so his new friends can get the warm clothes they need. Of course, the plot thickens when the owner of the pawn shop asks if the Thief Lord will carry out a special mission for a wealthy client: to steal a broken wooden wing that is the key to completing an age-old, magical merry-go-round. This winning cast of characters--especially the softhearted detective with his two pet turtles--will win the hearts of readers young and old, and the adventures are as labyrinthine and magical as the streets of Venice itself.

Gregor the Overlander By: Suzanne Collins

Summary:

In this accessible, almost-cinematic fantasy, Gregor and his two-year-old sister fall into an amazing underground world. Taken in by people who have lived beneath the earth for centuries, the 11-year-old learns about the giant-sized talking creatures that also reside there, including bats, cockroaches, and vicious rats. Gregor just wants to get home, but a prophecy hints that he may be the "overlander" destined to save the humans from the warlike rodents. He is reluctant until he learns that his father, who disappeared from their New York City home a few years before, is a prisoner of the rats. Gregor is not an eager hero, but with common sense, quick thinking, and determination he grows into the role. His sister, who provides some comic relief, also plays a key part because of her ability to befriend creatures, especially the giant cockroaches. Plot threads unwind smoothly, and the pace of the book is just right. Exciting scenes and cliff-hanger chapters are balanced by decisions and interactions that drive the action. Gregor is not the most compelling figure at first, but as the story progresses he becomes more interesting, maturing through the challenges he faces. Supporting characters are generally engaging, particularly the enigmatic warrior rat that claims to support the protagonist's mission. This is an engrossing adventure for fantasy fans and for those new to the genre.