Skip to main content

Two Roads

 


Two Roads 
By Joseph Bruchac 
Dial Books for Young Readers, 2018. 320 p. 

Cal and his dad have been riding the rails for about a year—ever since Cal’s mother passed away. Times are tough and the Great Depression is well, depressing. Cal’s father served in the Great War (WWI) and has a bond that will give them money—eventually. But it doesn’t help now. Soon his dad takes Cal to a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school in Oklahoma so that he can in turn go to Washington D.C. and petition President Hoover (with all the other war veterans) to get their owed veteran’s bonus money. While at school Cal learns about his Creek Indian heritage (that his dad had hidden from him up until right before taking him to school). Cal is strong and honorable, like how his father taught him. This is a story that shows that it is good to be kind and honorable even in hard circumstances. It is good to stand up for truth and what is owed to you. But most important of all it is good to know who you are and where you come from and how that can help you figure out where you should go and what you should do. The world needs more people like Cal.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) by Pamela Espeland & Elizabeth Verdick

If there's one book today's kids need to read, it is Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) . The authors provide a fun format for teaching etiquette to children. They discuss proper behavior at home, at school, at other people's homes and in public places. The information is completely up-to-date with cellphone manners and netiquette included. Fun, cartoony illustrations are on practically every page giving the book great visual appeal. This book is perfect for boys and girls in the fourth grade or older. WARNING: Bodily functions are discussed.

Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin

Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin Illustrated by Leslie Evans Charlesburg; 2009; unpaged Faces of the Moon is a short nonfiction book that describes the different phases of the moon and why the moon appears like it does on certain nights. This book is short and sweet so even the youngest of moon lovers will enjoy it. The layout is simplistic and easy to follow. I don’t know much about the moon so I found it very interesting.

Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...