Between Shades of Gray, written by Ruta Sepetys
A Lithuanian family is separated and deported by the Soviet secret police, sent to prison camps where they fight for survival, hoping to one day be free and reunited. It's a story of grit and teamwork, hope and despair, choosing to love the unlovable, and a reminder that right and wrong aren't always black and white.
p. 161, "Sometimes there is such beauty in awkwardness. There's love and emotion trying to express itself, but at the same time, it just ends up being awkward."
p. 307, We'd been trying to touch the sky from the bottom of the ocean. I realized that if we boosted one another, maybe we'd get a little closer.
p. 311, "A wrongdoing doesn't give us the right to do wrong."
*****
The Family Nobody Wanted, written by Helen Doss
Written by the mother of a family with twelve adopted children, this book is an interesting glimpse back to a time when adoption, particularly interracial adoption, was very uncommon and deemed inappropriate. I had mixed feelings as I read their story - gratefulness for their willingness to buck societal norms in order for kids to have families, appreciation for how they handled racism, and a bit of, I don't know what, maybe sympathy for the man she was married to at the time who appeared to love his kids, but also seemed constantly overwhelmed by, and therefore resistant to, the steadily increasing size of their family.
p. 170, What can we do about it? There is no easy answer, no quick solution. Civil-rights legislation, while no cure, can alleviate some situations, like the clean slash of a surgeon's knife to cut away festering flesh. Education, through books, newspapers, and the public schools will help. But, in the long run, we can never eliminate race discrimination, as we can never eliminate war, until a controlling number of the world population is composed of more emotionally healthy and mature individuals.
p. 260, "There's the job that needs to be done. To help the ones needing love to find people who have it."
*****
Magic Hour, written by Kristin Hannah
Two sisters, estranged and each dealing with their own personal struggles, come together to help a young girl who mysteriously arrived in their hometown. Unable to speak and with clear signs of trauma, she's in desperate need of help and needs to be identified. One sister devotes all her time to helping the girl, the other is highly committed to solving the mystery of identifying her, and both work through their own issues in the process.
p. 258, "It's not about the falling in love. It's about the landing, the staying where you said you'd be and working to keep the love strong."
*****
Maniac Magee, written by Jerry Spinelli
A young boy with an affinity for running and impressive physical accomplishments becomes a legend in his community. But his story is also one of loneliness, a cycle of loss and belonging, a kid who wants a place to fit in and doesn't understand why those in his community are so strongly opposed to each other. I read this school book in my free time and thought it was great.
p. 51, For the life of him, he couldn't figure why these East Enders called themselves black. He kept looking and looking, and the colors he found were gingersnap and light fudge and dark fudge and acorn and butter rum and cinnamon and burnt orange. But never licorice, which, to him, was real black.
p. 102, His smile was so wide he'd have had to break it into sections to fit it through a doorway.
p. 159, But the East Enders stayed in the east and the West Enders stayed in the west, and the less they knew about each other, the more they invented.
*****
My Father's Daughter, written by E. L. Konigsburg
This is a school book for the kids that I read on my own and enjoyed. It's about two siblings, a brother and sister, growing up in an affluent home that leaves them wanting. Their half-sister, a woman everyone thought had died many years earlier, shows up at their door one day and changes everything.
p. 17, "Sorrow strengthens some and softens others."
p. 30, "You know," I said. "I think that someone who has been in prison resents the person who frees him. Freedom interrupts something very important."
"What?" she asked.
"In interrupts a person's self-absorption."
"You keep making references to prison ..."
"But, of course, I do. It was that."
"When did you realize that it was?"
"When I got out. If you're raised inside a huge shelter, one that you've never seen from the outside, how would you know that it was a prison unless you saw it from the outside?"
*****
Not Fade Away: A Memoir of Senses Lost & Found, written by Rebecca Alexander with Sascha Alper
Alexander has been steadily losing her sight and hearing for her whole life, as well as living with permanent effects of damage incurred from falling out of a window decades ago. No one would blame her for choosing to hide away or having a bad attitude, a recluse who uses her physical impairments as an excuse for avoiding everyone and everything. But that's not what she is at all. Instead, she's an accomplished athlete with a couple Master's degrees and a full life. I love stories of people who don't let the obstacles in their life determine their worth or success, acknowledge the struggles without wallowing in them, and choose to keep moving forward. This memoir fits the bill.
p. 98, I don't feel like that cards I've been dealt are unfair, I don't think that life is that complicated, and I know that pity is a trap that will deplete my self-esteem and take away time that I don't have to waste. I choose instead to be grateful: to be happy with what I have today, and to be optimistic about tomorrow. It's a conscious choice, and one that takes effort, but what's the alternative? What other choice do we have if we want to live our lives to the fullest?
p. 112, They have all given so much to me, and I need to remember to be grateful for that, to accept that helps as the gift that it is and not run up against the walls of my frustration for needing it.
p. 242, Silence seems to scare a lot of people: We live in a world that never seems to slow down or shut up, with a mind-boggling amount of entertainment and information right at our fingertips, and, if you stop to notice it, we are rarely in total quiet. Many of us have devices that create sound to drown out unwanted noise - noise to block noise.
p. 261, People tend to get stuck in the unhappiness of their lives because it's familiar, and they find comfort in the discomfort because it's predictable and what they know. Breaking that cycle requires you to face your fears, to explore the unknown, and to let yourself be afraid and vulnerable.
p. 282, Fact: Disabilities require help. Fact: I hate help. The disabilities weren't going to change, so I was going to have to.
*****
The Wheel on the School, written by Meindert DeJong and illustrated by Maurice Sendak
I enjoy this book more each time I read it, which has been four times as a school book for the little Ws. On the surface it's about a group of young students and their teacher trying to bring storks to their small fishing village. But, really, it's about creative thinking and teamwork, taking risks and persevering, family and community, and realizing how much everyone benefits when we stop making negative assumptions about people based on how they're different than we are.
*****
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