SSOJ Blogs

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin is an exciting story about the importance of family. This story begins with the main character, Minli, who lives in the Valley of Fruitless Mountain and follows her as she goes on an adventure. Although Minli and her parents work hard, long days in the fields they barely survive on small amounts of food and cramped living space. All Minli wants is enough money to take care of her parents as they grow into old age. At night time Minli's father tells many stories, one story is about the Old Man of the Moon who is said to know everything. Minli becomes convinced that if she can find the Old Man of the Moon, he would bring her family great fortune. This story follows Minli as she leaves her home to complete this quest, meeting many magical creatures, royalty, and seeing many interesting places on the way. This story also follows the perspective of Minli's parents as they realize she has gone missing and decide to follow her.  This ...

SOME SPOILERS I have recently finished "Echo" by Pam Muñoz Ryan. It was such a captivating book which I am glad I read. This boo follows 3 different stories, but all connected by one thing. A harmonica. Each of these stories is very different with completely different plots and characters but with all of them, the harmonica brings them joy and comfort. The first story follows a boy named Friedrich in 1933 in Germany in the time when the Nazi party is taking power. He has a face deformity and is often made fun of for it. But it also means he is more of a target to the Nazis, because he is not "perfect". Friedrich has a sister, Elisabeth, who has always protected and stood up for him. But since moving away from home, she has joined the "League of German Girls" which is a division from the "Hitler Youth" group. Her ideals have changed and shes not the same. Friedrich's dad works at a harmonica factory and one day at the factory Friedrich finds...

Originally published in 1963, Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. follows John, who tells us that he is writing a book called The Day the World Ended , which was likely going to be about the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima during World War II. He then begins to describe the research that he did for his book, which revolves around Felix Hoenikker, who is one of the “Fathers” of the atomic bomb in Cat’s Cradle . To learn more about the now deceased Felix Hoenikker, he starts his research by heading to Ilium, New York, where he learns of the ice-nine that Felix was working on at the time of his death , which is said to be a unique structure of water that crystallizes upon contact with water and causes the rest of the water to crystallize along with it. Then, as fate would have it, his job working for a magazine takes him to the island of San Lorenzo, an impoverished island ruled by “Papa” Monzano and home to the fictional religion Bokononism. After arriving on the island, th...

As we continue to be stuck at home because of quarantine, I struggled to find a book to write about because of my lack of options. Using the digital library, I was able to check out Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. This book follows a girl named Cath as she starts her first year of college with her twin, Wren. Cath is an introvert with a love for writing and fan fiction. Cath is nervous, especially because Wren wants some independence, and because this means leaving behind her father who tends to overwork himself. Wren, an extrovert who easily makes friends, is almost the exact opposite of Cath when it comes to personality.  When Cath gets to her dorm, she ends up meeting her roommate, Reagan, (who is the exact opposite of her) who has a boyfriend named Levi who is constantly over. The rest of the story goes on to explain how Cath survives her first year of college and the challenges she faces.  Just a warning, from this point on, there will be some spoilers!  One thi...