Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata

Weedflower

Sumiko was the only Japanese girl in her class. Many people didn’t talk to her because she was Japanese. Her family was poor, owning a flower farm again. Sumiko would do anything to get back to this life. Now she is in a camp for Japanese-Americans because they thought they would attack after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. This camp is in the middle of an Indian reserve in the dry, hot desert. Here she meets Indians, kids who smoke, teachers who don’t know much, and unedible food. Her brother Tak-Tak and her try to be happy, but it is really hard. As time goes on, Sumiko gets used to the place and starts to make friends and kind of like it. Then one day the camp’s supervisors say she can leave. Her family really wants to go. Will she go like she had always wanted, or will she stay without her family at the camp she has come to love?

I think others would like to read this because it is a touching story about people during hard times.

Review by Cassidy M. – 6th grade

A Song for Summer by Eva Ibbotson

A Song for Summer

A Song for Summer is a book about a girl named Ellen Carr. She was born in London around 1910-1920. Her mother and aunts want her to be a professor or scientist, but she loves housekeeping. She ends up with a job at an eccentric school specializing in music, drama, and dance. She enjoys it there, despite its wildness. She falls in love with the gardener Marek, and he loves her too, but they don’t get a chance to tell each other because Marek had a mission to complete: a dangerous one in the face of Hitler’s Reich. He comes back after a while though, and they experience their love. They become seperated again because Marek wished not to see Ellen after he sees his childhood home go up in flames. Ellen becomes engaged to another man, and you wonder whether they will ever get together for good.

I think others would like to read it because is full of mystery and questions that get answered along the way. It is an adventure, but there is love in it, too. Ellen is a heroine who you can relate to because she has dreams and love just like everyone does.

Review by Colleen H. – 8th grade