I bought a peach over the weekend. Little Miss has always enjoyed them. So, I remembered it last night and said she could have it. I cut it into slices, and we all took a piece. Little Miss asked for the skin to be peeled off. I told her the skin, with peaches, is very important because peaches are delicate and need the skin. So, she promptly ate the peach like an orange slice - around the skin. I told her that was fine. Whatever she does, DO NOT EAT THE SKIN OF THE PEACH. What did she do next? She ate the peel. She looked at me and said, "Mommy, did you see what I did?" After every bite, I gave her mock horror as she ate more and more of the peel. She ate it all, but instead of constant whining, the evening was filled with giggles.
...shows that truth has as many shades of gray as an elephant in this emotionally taut survival story, set in war-torn South Vietnam. After American troops leave his village, Y’Tin, his family, and his neighbors are left to fend off their enemies themselves. But Y’Tin’s mind isn’t on war. It’s on his pet elephant, Lady, and his dreams of opening an elephant-training school. His hopes vanish when North Vietnamese soldiers devastate his small village (Y’Tin helps dig a mass grave at one point). Y’Tin manages to escape into the jungle with a friend, where he reunites with Lady, but separated from family and friends, his thoughts grow dark. As the days go by, he becomes angrier and less trusting, wondering “if he would ever feel safe again or if safety was gone from his life forever.”
Illustrating the wisdom of Y’Tin’s father’s words—“The jungle changes a man”—Kadohata delves deep into the soul of her protagonist while making a faraway place and the stark consequences of war seem very near. Y’Tin’s inner conflicts and changing perception of the world will haunt readers.
When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him.
Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms. Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.
“Children do live in fantasy and reality; they move back and forth very easily in a way we no longer remember how to do.”
