Book Musings with Cattau

        Written by Saraciea Fennell Published by Flatiron Books in 2021 ISBN: 978-1338255812 Plot Summary: This anthology is written through 15 different stories and the purpose is to show that each Latinx person has a different story and a different path. These stories do not have the same experiences and many of them outright talk about the marginalization of the Latinx community. Eres un Pocho was a personal favorite as it talks about the story of Mark Oshiro as a queer transracial adopted kid. It goes through many very sad aspects of his growing up and why he felt like he was a threat to those around him even though he was just trying to live his life. The other standout in this anthology to me was Caution Song by Natasha Diaz as she tells her story through a poem about what it means to be who you are and to be grilled by a stranger about your heritage.  Critical Analysis: This anthology goes through many ups and downs and it does an excellent job of sh...

       Written by Ann Clare LeZotte Published by Scholastic Press in 2020 ISBN: 978-1338255812 Plot Summary: Mary is a deaf girl who lives in Martha's Vineyard in 1805 with her father who is also deaf and her mother and brother who are hearing. Her brother George loses his life after saving Mary from being run over by a carriage and it tears her family apart. Mary is content in her life and dreams of one day being a teacher. She enjoys the company of Ezra who tells her stories about life as a sailor and he is also deaf. A man named Andrew Noble is visiting the island to study the reason behind many occupants being deaf and in doing so decides to kidnap Mary to study her with his boss Dr. Henry Minot. Mary sees how people who are deaf are treated as though they have a psychiatric issue and she sees all the discrimination that happens in Boston. Mary decides to become a teacher to change the hearts and minds of the American people about deafness.  Critical An...

      Written by Benjamin Alire Saenz Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers in 2012 ISBN: 978-1442408937 Plot Summary: Aristotle is a young Latino boy growing up in El Paso, Texas "who is a mystery even to himself." He doesn't have anyone helping him through his teenage years as his older brother is in prison. He meets a boy named Dante who is unlike any boy that he has ever met as he shows his emotions each and every day. Ari risks his life to save Dante when a car swerves in the street and ends up with broken legs. Dante moves to Chicago where he experiments with kissing girls but finds out that he prefers to kiss boys. Dante gets beaten up and Ari comes to his defense and realizes that he loves him. Ari and Dante grow close and Ari realizes that his parents are human and have big emotions like the ones tied to his brother and Ari finally embraces his true self.  Critical Analysis: This book goes through so many highs and lows and teaches u...

     Written by Tahereh Mafi Published by HarperCollins in 2018 ISBN:  978-0062866561 Plot Summary: Shirin is a 16 year old Muslim woman who is tired of being stereotyped after 9/11. She is terrorized by people at her school and this causes her parents to move around to find somewhere that is more tolerant. Shirin finds a boyfriend at her new school and he is captain of the basketball team but that causes many issues with the school and his parents. Shirin feels pressured to break up with him.  After joining a breakdancing crew with her brother, Ocean learns about how the school has been treating Shirin and he punches the coach and gets back together with Shirin before her parents decide to move again at the end of the year.  Critical Analysis: This book works through many aspects of life that people who are not in the minority probably won't be familiar with. The themes of racism, fear of peers, and how family influences lives are very apparent throughout ...

    Written and Illustrated by Ed Young  Published by HarperCollins in 2001 ISBN: 978-0060279196 Plot Summary: Monkey comes to the earth through a magical rock that burst and spit him out. Monkey becomes king but he is a restless soul and he wants to go out and have adventures. He learns many fighting tricks and he uses that knowledge to send back the Red Beard Bandit. Monkey comes to battle with bigger armies and does things like splitting himself into hundreds of people but that makes him proud and arrogant. Buddha teaches Monkey a lesson and he loses his power. He meets Black Bear who ends up swallowing him and the magic robe but Monkey kicks so hard that he is let out. Monkey learns his lesson about being proud and boastful.  Critical Analysis: The illustrations are what stand out in this book as the prism and geocentric illustrations are sure to catch the readers eye and the many characters that are introduced are easily recognizable through Young's use of water...

   Written by Cynthia Kadohata Illustrated By Julia Kuo  Published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers in 2013 ISBN: 978-1442474659 Plot Summary: Summer is a 12 year old girl who lives with her family in Kansas. She deals with a bout of malaria which almost takes her life and makes her not trust mosquitos anymore even though she sees them all the time. Her family is hired by Parker Harvesting Company to pick crops. Her parents have to go back to Japan all of a sudden so she is left with her grandparents and her brother Jaz. They get sent to Texas to harvest there but end up in Oklahoma even though they didn't get to see the finished product in Texas. Summer completes the work that is set before her and she gets the full amount of the company when they head back to Kansas where she catches up with her parents and learns the value of hard work.  Critical Analysis: The thing about luck is a coming of age story that shows many different aspects of what it means to be a p...

  Written by Grace Lin Published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers in 2009 ISBN: 978-0316114271 Plot Summary: Minli and her family live at the bottom of a mountain that is not thriving as it is called Fruitless Mountain. Minli hears a story about the Old Man in the Moon and how he can help save the mountain so she goes on a journey to meet him. Minli goes on a series of quests in order to meet the old man including releasing a goldfish and meeting a flightless dragon. The Old Man will only answer one question so Minli asks to help the flightless dragon and because of her sacrifice, the dragon gifts her with a stone that she gives to the king of her land who gives her seeds so that her family can grow and thrive.    Critical Analysis: The author weaves a tale that teaches many life lessons including being grateful for what you already have, and that hard work and dedication pay off in the end. The cultural markers for this book are very apparent as many di...

Written and Illustrated by Allen Say Published by Clarion Books in 2009 ISBN: 978-0547237473 Plot Summary: May is the author's mother and this book tells that story of her life that is split between two countries and how that causes a great amount of strife and stress in her life. Masako (her Japenese name) spent her formative years growing up in the U.S. but after graduating high school her family moves back to Japan and she must go with them. She is not used to the customs of Japan but after being set up with a matchmaker, she is able to find her own partner where she creates a home in Yokohama with Joseph her husband.  Critical Analysis: This book is a very well written memoir of Allen Say's mother and the choices that she faced growing up in the U.S. and then abruptly moving to Japan with her parents after high school. The character is shown as a little girl through the story eating traditional Japanese foods as well as eating food that was culturally normal for the U...

         Written by Tim Tingle  Published by Roadrunner Press in 2015 ISBN:978-1937054557 Plot Summary: Isaac who is a ghost is telling the story about when he learned that he was going to have to abandon his home in Mississippi and go on a journey to a new place that they don't know but while they are packing up Isaac sees visions of his people bursting into flames or becoming diseased and needing help. Isaac sees that his house is going up in smoke as the white men have set fire so his people go to the swamp to try and get away from the white men. Issac is helping out a family that he discovers when he is attacked by a wolf and is killed. He helps find a missing girl named Naomi and with the help of Joseph who is the grandson of the leaders of the tribe, he is able to keep her safe from the soldiers and find her way back to her family.  Critical Analysis (Including Cultural Markers): Issac has many supernatural gifts but they don't become fully reali...

        Written by Kevin Noble Maillard Illustrated by: Juana Martinez-Neal  Published by Roaring Brook Press in 2019 ISBN:978-1626727465 Plot Summary: Fry Bread is a food that is traditional to the Navajo people and this story is told in simple lyrical text where we learn more about the history of the bread and how it brings people of all generations together. The book talks about the many different tribes that were subjected to relocation and how they learned to make fry bread a new part of their culture. The book ends with a message of courage and hope as they are making Fry bread.  Critical Analysis (Including Cultural Markers): This book is all about how food brings people together. Food connects people and generations and this story includes the history of the trail of tears but is mentioned in a kid friendly way as the long walk is referenced in the middle of the book. Fry Bread is a comfort food for the Navajo people as they weren't able to use...

       Written by Angeline Boulley Published by Henry Holt and Co. (BYR) in 2021 ISBN:978-1250766564 Plot Summary: Daunis Fontaine is a mixed race child from her mother's French/Italian side and her father's Ojibwe side. Daunis has a very hard family life with lots of illness and death and she finds herself in the middle of a tough situation where someone is making meth and is distributing it to her people as well as the school around her. She becomes an informant for the police as she is very ingrained with the people at her school and she finds out that it is her brother and his hockey team friends who are the ones that are making and distributing it and she is kidnapped by the Tribal Judge who has a part in the operation. Daunis realizes that she wants to help people so she decides to go to college at the University of Hawaii where she is able to research ethnobotany and traditional medicine just like her ancestors did for many years.  Critical Analysis (Incl...

      Written by Joesph Bruchac  Published by Speak in 2006 ISBN: 978-0142405963 Plot Summary: Ned Begay is an American Indian child who is taken from his family and is taught how to embrace Anglo American culture and the customs rather than his traditional culture. Ned is able to learn English and excels at school where he is able to enlist in the U.S. Army so that he can become a Navajo Code talker who is able to transmit information across unsecure channels so that the Axis powers can't understand what is being said because it is in a different language. Ned's military service includes time in the Pacific where he is able to be on the front lines of the Atomic bomb being dropped and after he gets home, he uses the GI bill to further his education and he gets recognition for his service by the U.S. government after his service is considered declassified in 1969.  Critical Analysis (Including Cultural Markers): Ned Begay (original name Kii Yazhi) is a smart and...

     Written by Matt de la Pena Published by Ember in 2010  ISBN: 978-0440239383 Plot Summary: Danny Lopez is a high school student who has come to spend the summer with his father's family while his mother and sister are back home in San Francisco with her boyfriend. Danny immediately doesn't fit into the community as he comes from an elite private school where he plays select baseball and the area is mostly lower income and hispanic. He struggles with his mixed heritage of being half white and half Mexican even though his father's family welcomes him with open arms. He sees his privilege as an obstacle that keeps him from being truly accepted into the family as well as the fact that they speak primarily in Spanish which he doesn't understand fully. Danny meets a girl named Liberty who is also half Mexican but she doesn't speak English very well so it makes it hard for them to communicate.  Danny goes about creating narrative in his head that his dad left to mo...

    Written by Margarita Engle  Illustrated by Rafael Lopez  Published by Dreamscape Media in 2016  ISBN: 978-1520018171 Plot Summary: This is a book of poetry that is focusing on the historical figure Millo Castro Zaldarriaga who is a Chinese-African-Cuban drummer where it was unheard of for a girl to be a drummer at that time in Cuba. Millo spends time dreaming about being a drummer and she thinks about all the different types of drums including conga drums, bongo drums, and even the timables which are the silver small drums that you can play on your hand. Millo feels the beat of the drum in everything that she does including walking, her heartbeat, and in the environment around her like listening to the woodpecker. She is constantly reminded that she doesn't belong as a drummer she finds ways to find drums and play and she even gets invited to be a part of a band. Her father says that only boys plays drums but relents and finds her a teacher who sees her natu...

   Written by Margarita Engle  Published by Square Fish in 2010  ISBN: 978-0312608712 Plot Summary: The book is based on Rosario Castellanos Castellanos who is a famous person in Cuban American history. She was a freed slave who works as a nurse for the rebels who are fighting against the Spanish in the mid to late 1800's in Cuba. The poems are free verse and are written from the perspective of 4 different people: Rosa, Jose her husband, a slave hunter named Lieutenant Death in the story, and a girl named Sylvia. The novel is written in 5 different parts that cover Rosa's story from childhood to adulthood.  The first part is titled "The Names of the Flowers" and is talks about how Rosa grows up in the field amd learns about the healing properties of different plants and herbs from the women. Rosa helps to heal runaway slaves who have been beaten after running away and this is where she meets Teniente Muerte otherwise known as Lieutenant Death. The Lieutenant doe...

  Written by Pat Mora Illustrated by Rafael Lopez  Published by Lee and Low Books in 2007 ISBN: 978-1584302711 Plot Summary: This is a collection of poems that is written in Haiku with an informational section next to each poem to learn more about different types of food. The set of haikus was about blueberries, chile peppers, chocolate, corn, cranberry, peanuts, pecan, pineapple, potatoes, prickly pears, papaya, pumpkin, tomatoes, and vanilla. The information section for each gives more information about the food, with some of the information given about how it was used for different purposes as well as letting us know where the food was from and where it is currently being used today. Pat includes information about how it is used in the U.S. as well as in other countries like Mexico.  Critical Analysis (Including Cultural Markers): Lopez does a wonderful job of being culturally relevant and making sure that the art that he uses has a distinctive Latino influence as...

Written by Patricia McKissack Illustrated by April Harrison Published by Schwartz and Wade in 2019 ISBN: 978-0375836152 Plot Summary: The story begins with the boy James Otis learning that his dad died. His mom loses the family farm so they have to move into very shabby housing in the bottoms. James Otis and his mom go to church and they decide to go on a mission to follow the pastor's challenge of helping those around them that are less fortunate. Mama decides to use her only nice tablecloth to give to a mom who's family lost everything in a fire. That makes James think long and hard to try and decide what to give the little girl who is 2 years younger than him. The day comes at the church where the family gets their box full of things needed to start over. James hands Sarah the little girl a book all about her called From My Heart to Your Heart. Sarah loves it and as James and his mom were walking home talking about how good they felt helping, they find their own love box on ...

Written by Rita Williams-Garcia Published by Quill Tree Books in 2011 ISBN:978-0060760908 Plot Summary: Delphine and her younger sisters are going to visit their mother Cecile in California for the summer as she abandoned them several years ago. When they arrive, they find out she lives in a normal house even though they believed she was homeless. Their mother tells them to order takeout and then tells them to stay out of the kitchen. 3 Black Panthers arrive and ask for their mother's help with doing printing. Her mom tells the Black Panthers that they need to take her 3 daughters so she can work so the girls end up at a Black Panther's facility that is like a daycare. They learn about what is means to be a Panther as well as learning what their culture should and shouldn't do. Delphine starts to get along with her mother and Delphine decides to take her sisters out to see the sights around San Francisco. When they get back, the find out their mother has been arrested. At a...

  Written by Ibi Zoboi Published by Balzer and Bray in 2017 ISBN: 978-0062473042 Plot Summary: Fabiola is a Haitian immigrant who moves back to the US where she was born. Immigration police take Fabiola's mother into custody as they think she is planning on staying here illegally. Fabiola is forced to move up north to Detroit where her aunt and cousins live. She doesn't like American school but her cousins are doing well so she spends her time with them. One of her cousin's boyfriend's name is Dray and he's a drug dealer. Fabiola is approached by a detective saying that he can help her mom if she can find evidence against him but as she is searching she finds out that her aunt and cousins are the ones that are into the illegal activities. Kasim is Fabiola's love interest and also the friend of Dray as well. Kasim shows up at the party where they are planning on busting Dray for selling drugs and when Fabiola hears this she tries to go to the party to stop it. Ka...