Then Wood Walls and Dear America: The Fences Between Us

The internment of Japanese Americans during World War II may not sound like great reading, but I just finished two novels on this subject; not only did I learn a lot, they are both really great books. First I read Thin Wood Walls, by David Patneaude, which was told from the point-of-view of Joe Hanada.  I found myself stopping during the reading to check if our country really treated people this horribly. Joe's story made me think about how this little-known piece of American history tells us a lot about who we are and where the country.  Then I started on Piper Davis' diary, The Fences Between Us by Kirby Larson. Although Piper wasn't a Japanese-American she still lived in and then near one of the internment camps, giving at different point-of -view. As I was reading these books I was horrified about how we treated the Japanese Americans and surprised to learn that, despite this, many of them still volunteered for military service. I think everyone should take the time to learn about this part of our history, and these are two great books to start with.

Thin Wood Walls Rating: *****
The Fences Between Us Rating: *****

If Books Were Medicine, I Would Live Forever

If you have read my blog for a while, you know that I have a Mitochondrial Disorder, (a form of muscular dystrophy) and it has impacted my health my whole life.  Over the last 2 months, my medical condition has rapidly deteriorated.  I have feel awful; I’m in pain constantly, I have mostly lost the ability to walk and the energy I had.  Things have gotten pretty icky.  I have a whole team of doctors and they are trying lots of things to help, but there is no treatment or cure for Mito, and the things they are trying to keep me out of pain aren’t working perfectly.  In short, I am really sick. 

If you have read my blog, you know I LOVE books and I LOVE authors.  I have even gotten to meet some on an amazing trip to ALA in 2010.  I am still 12, so I don’t have Facebook, but my mom has friended some authors on Facebook for me so that I can see when they are publishing something new.  That is where my current medical disaster turned into something amazing.  An author I adore, Kathi Appelt, saw one of my mom’s posts about how I was doing and wrote her a note to ask about me.  My mom updated her.  Kathi, being the amazing person she is, asked if it might cheer me up to get some signed books from authors.   My mom, knowing how much I adore authors, said yes.  She didn’t tell me.

She should have warned the mailman, because I have been getting TONS of packages of books.  And I mean TONS (totally amazing!)!  The other amazing part is how much they are helping; I have had to have some totally awful medical procedures done, and my mom reads aloud to me to distract me (it works, try it).  And I am reading to relax and enjoy.  Really, books are medicine!  And the amazing excitement of signed books from so many amazing authors is the best pain medicine yet.  I was in the hospital last week and the books came with me. They cheered me up and brightened the uniform hospital room.

What I really want to say is thank you. Thank you to all of the authors who sent me books. Thank you, thank you, and thank you. Thank you especially to the wonderful author who orchestrated this. Thank you Kathi! Thank you to everyone who has been so nice to me these past couple of months.