The Great Fire

The Great Fire--Jim Murphy

Summary--Jim Murphy takes you on an interesting and eyes witness journey through the Chicago fire. You get to be inside the heads of people from all different social statuses as well as characters with vastly differing ages. You get to see all the little slips the Chicago's brilliantly planned fire prevention plan, the fire fighter's desperate work, the people's panic as they try to flee and find themselves trapped in a wall of burning buildings. Through the eyes of one man you watch the fire do the impossible: jump a river. But most interestingly, it is shown that the O'Leary's (and their cow) were innocent of fault though that fact was never understood and they were forever ostracized.


Pro's--Gripping and easy to read this book takes you through one of the most amazing events in history. I loved how by switching perspectives I was able to get a very full and balanced view of what really happened during the conflagration, and afterwards.I appreciated understanding and being able to sympathize with the clashes between the classes and how this in some cases, foolishly allowed the fire to spread. This book was a big eye opener, reveling behind the scenes to a moment in history I usually only acknowledge with a small nod of recognition.

Con's--I read this book in early January so to be honest, I don't remember parts of it very well. If I am not mistaken there was a little bit of language but obviously not enough for me to have really been scandalized.

Ages 10 and up. Five stars.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

  Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet--Jamie Ford

Summary--Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle’s Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol.

This simple act takes old Henry Lee back to the 1940s, at the height of the war, when young Henry’s world is a jumble of confusion and excitement, and to his father, who is obsessed with the war in China and having Henry grow up American. While “scholarshipping” at the exclusive Rainier Elementary, where the white kids ignore him, Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American student. Amid the chaos of blackouts, curfews, and FBI raids, Henry and Keiko forge a bond of friendship–and innocent love–that transcends the long-standing prejudices of their Old World ancestors. And after Keiko and her family are swept up in the evacuations to the internment camps, she and Henry are left only with the hope that the war will end, and that their promise to each other will be kept.

Forty years later, Henry Lee is certain that the parasol belonged to Keiko. In the hotel’s dark dusty basement he begins looking for signs of the Okabe family’s belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot begin to measure. Now a widower, Henry is still trying to find his voice–words that might explain the actions of his nationalistic father; words that might bridge the gap between him and his modern, Chinese American son; words that might help him confront the choices he made many years ago. (copied from Amazon.com)

Pro's--I really liked this book. It was well written, it was history and most of all it was about something I was not very familiar with so I learned from it. I knew that the internment camps during WWII were sad but I had never come face to face with just how ridiculous they were until I read this book. It was an eye opener!

Con's-- The only thing I didn't like about this book (spoiler warning) was the romance between Keiko and Henry. I understood that there had to be some strong and lasting connection for the children but I thought Jamie could have at least made them older.

All in all I would recommend this book for ages 13(an advanced reader since after all it is adult fiction) and up. Five stars.