It's Monday! What are you reading?

I finished not one, but TWO books this weekend!  (It helps that we had Thursday and Friday ice days to squeeze in a little more reading.)

Both of these books have been in my to-read pile for awhile!

When Stars Are Scattered is a graphic novel jointly written by Victoria Jamieson (of Roller Girl fame) and Omar Mohamed, a Somalian refugee who has settled in the United States via the United Nations relocation program.  I can't imagine Mohamed's story being told in a more appropriate format for middle grade readers.  I typically have trouble reading graphic novels, but this story held me captive. I was rooting for Mohamed as he waited over a decade in a camp that was supposed to be temporary lodging, caring for his younger brother who has a medical condition.  They were both under the age of five and alone when they arrived in Kenya; we don't find out for sure what happened to their father and mother until Mohamed has to recount the horrifying story to the UN relocation staff.  If you are worried that this is too much of a "heart" book (hard on emotions), know that it has a satisfying ending...really, just another beginning, as the refugee crisis is far from over.

Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park gives us a glimpse of Little House on the Prairie days from a Chinese-American perspective.  As can be (sadly) expected, racism against non-white settlers and indigenous peoples features prominently in this story.  Hanna has heard racial slurs all her life as the daughter of a white father and Chinese-Korean mother.  Since her mother's death, she's had to learn to live with the daily looks and comments on her own, as her father is busy making a new life for them in the midwest.  Hanna is growing into a confident young woman, sure of her skills and her place in the world but unsure how to confront the biases of the white inhabitants of the town, who see her only as a "Chinaman".  Park provides an extensive author's note at the end, talking about her childhood love of Laura Ingalls Wilder's prairie series--despite its racist parts--and how it inspired her to write this story.

It's Monday, and I'm happy to add these diverse titles to my "done" pile.  What reading did you accomplish during our unexpected long weekend?