Luis Rodriguez's Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.: A Review by Natalie!

The story Always Running is about Luis J. Rodriguez. It centers on his years in high school to his years after high school. Luis grows up in Las Lomas which is a sketchier town in Los Angeles. In the memoir, he deals with drugs, sex, violence, gangs, and jail. For most of the time in his high school years he gets distracted with those subjects. Then, one day at his new school he and this girl run to be the girl and boy Aztecs people as the mascot of their school. They win the election. There they both implement a Chicano Studies program. The program become a huge success, and he and the girl become known very well by the whole school but especially by the Chicano students. That program helped many other students but especially Luis. He became off drugs and started almost a new life. In that same year, later one of his teachers tells him about a poetry tournament being held in Berkeley and that she has some of his writing that she was really impressed with it. She enters his writing and a few days later he gets a call that he was one of the winners and he would get $250 and a trip to Berkeley. Luis was really excited and that was a strong turning point in his life. One thing I like about this book was how the author really describes how he feels in moments when he is scared. You might like this book if you enjoy non-fiction stories about the tough lives of some when growing up.

Ann Cameron's The Kidnapped Prince: The Life Of Olaudah Equiano: A Review by Yesenia!

*This review features a book not available at the Longfellow Library, but nonetheless enjoyed by a Longfellow student!*

In this novel Olaudah Equiano was the protagonist who is separated from his family as a boy and is brought into slavery. Anyway, Olaudah Equiano explains through his story how his sister was sold off to another man and he never saw her or his mom again and how while you have family you should care for it. First, Equiano expresses how only because he was black they did not take him seriously, at trading events. Second, in the middle of the book he enters the slave trade in Britain and sails off to Virginia, London, the Caribbean and many others. Third, Olaudah was then sold off to Captain James Doran, a year later Captain James Doran died and Olaudah was named “Captain” by all the cities and he continued to sail freed from all the slavery. One thing I liked about this book was how Olaudah was sent free at the end and had good masters throughout the time he was enslaved. You might like this book if you enjoy African-American history.

Jeannette Walls's The Glass Castle: A Memoir: A Review by Charlotte!

*This review features a book not available in the Longfellow Library, but nonetheless enjoyed by a Longfellow student!*

Jeannette Walls lives with her mom, dad, sister and brother, although they don’t have a rooted home. They are always moving during the night, “the skedaddle” as her dad calls it. Jeannette learns how to be her own parent. When she was three, she was cooking hot dogs herself, she burns the side of her torso, but she’s okay. Her dad teaches her not to run from fear, but to face it, unless it’s  the police. As she grows, her family falls apart. The Glass Castle: A Memoir is an incredible novel about family, struggle and surviving. One thing I liked about this book was how she writes the book in stories about her life, not in chapters. You might enjoy this book if you like books about struggle and making it to the end.

John Grogan's Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog: A Review by Leo!

*This review features a book not available at the Longfellow Library, but nonetheless enjoyed by a Longfellow student!*

The main characters in the book Marley and Me, are Marley, the dog, the narrator/John, his girlfriend/wife and later on in the book his kids.  One important event early in the book was when they went to go admire and pick out a little Labrador puppy. When they arrived to the small breeding farm, the mother of the puppies and the owner came out to greet them. Where was the dad? Later on when Jenny and John are about to leave, they finally get to see the father. He emerges from the woods, his coat is covered in mud running at top speed towards the house. Another important event in the book is when Marley begins to act strange and not himself.  After a few days of being like this John takes him to the hospital to find out that Marley has a stomach torsion condition that does not allow him to eat because of all the pain in his stomach.  One of the main themes in this book is family.  One thing I liked about this book was that it was based on a true story and that I also have a Labrador so I can relate.  You might like this book if you like emotional and funny stories based on true events.

Felicia Pearson's Grace After Midnight: A Review by Brianna edited by Ms. Hernandez!

*This review features a book not available in the Longfellow Library, but nonetheless enjoyed by a Longfellow student!*

To begin, it starts of where she is very young.  She is about 9 in the memoir.   It never reveals her real age so we have to base it off from the information given.  When she was born she was born a miracle baby which means that her mom was on crack when she was in her mom's womb.  She was put into the foster care system so, ever since she was young she had a tough start.  One day her mom supposedly changed and stopped taking crack and she was allowed to visit her mom again.  To Felicia this is one of her biggest mistakes because when she got there her biological mom told her to strip down and to go lock herself in the closet.  When this happened her social worker found her there crying for her life.

Once she went through that she had another struggle coming to her.  She didn't know her sexuality and she had to do some “experimenting” and found out that she was a lesbian.  One day there was a parade and she decided to go and because she was African American, this one girl came swinging at her with a bat and she had a gun in her back pocket.  Felicia decided to pull it out and shoot the girl in self defense.  Once she realized what she did she needed some help, so she asked her favorite uncle and eventually there was nothing he could do in the end so she had to go to jail.  She found her girlfriend in jail. She started going out with somebody that worked in the jail and broke up with her later.  Her uncle dies and she is very depressed.  Once she got out she started changing, making the right decisions and changing [her life] so it's very positive.  It was to hard for her and she couldn't do it so she changed back to the person she was.  She turned back into a drug dealer and the top pf the streets.  Right then the memoir ends. 

One thing I liked about this book was the fact that she realized what she was doing wrong and she changed for a while, but she did quit the bad things she was doing.  You may like this book if you enjoy exhilarating pieces of writing.  [This is a book] that makes you question what's going to happen next?

March is Women's History Month!

Think about about the people you admire or aspire to be--who is he or she? How many of your heroes are women? Women of all backgrounds definitely make an impact on our world and have been for centuries. Tomorrow, March 8th, is International Women's Day and every March in the United States, we take the time to recognize and celebrate the contributions of women in history. One of the best ways to do that is by exploring their lives and achievements through books at the Longfellow Library. The history of women is both inspiring and surprising! Come see Ms. Lane or me about the following nonfiction and fiction titles:

Failure Is Impossible! A History of American Women’s Rights by Martha E. Kendall
A history of the female heroes who defied and challenged society’s views on the rights and roles of women.








Damsels Not In Distress: The Story of Women in Medieval Times by Andrea Hopkins
Describes what life was like for noble and peasant women during the Middle Ages; a time when the church had great power and the concept of romantic love was born.







By Grit & Grace: Eleven Women Who Shaped the American West edited by Glenda Riley and Richard W. Etulain
Whoever said, “Go West, young man” failed to predict the women who would heed this call. This book explores the lives of eleven women, the likes of Calamity Jane and Annie Oakley.







Shout, Sister, Shout! Ten Girl Singers Who Shaped a Century by Roxane Orgill
Get to know the lives, the loves, and the music of influential female singers such as Ma Rainey, Judy Garland, Madonna and more!








Girl in a Cage by Jane Yolen and Robert J. Harris
In 1306, eleven-year-old Princess Marjorie, daughter of king of Scotland must confront the humiliation of being caged in the middle of the town square by the King of England. Armed with only the weapons of her spirit and wit, can she break free from her prison?







Miss Spitfire: Reaching Helen Keller by Sarah Miller
Partially-blind yet young and determined, Annie Sullivan sets out to work a miracle with a deaf and blind little girl named Helen Keller.









Uprising by Margaret Peterson Haddix
One of the greatest tragedies of its time, the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in 1911 killed 149 workers and changed the lives of all American workers. Told through the eyes of Bella, Yetta, and Jane who join the fight for the safety and protection of workers’ rights.







Fire from the Rock by Sharon M. Draper
Sylvia Patterson has been selected to be one of the first African American students to attend Little Rock’s Central High. Sylvia is on the brink of changing history, but can she withstand the racism that undermines her safety and dignity?

Dave Pelzer's A Child Called "It": A Review by Christopher O.!

A Child Called "It" by Dave Pelzer is about one child's courage to survive. The child's name is Dave. Dave takes beatings, his mother tries burning him, he sleeps in the basement, he eats nothing, he gets poop thrown in his face, and he gets no respect for his chores. Can Dave survive through his pain and his mother's not trusting him? I liked this book because a child goes through pain, but he still may survive through all the suffering that his mother makes him go through.

Jeff Kinney's The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary: How Greg Heffley Went to Hollywood: A Review by Rudy G.!

When you see a movie, you probably might think that it is fun and easy. But actually, it can be pretty hard. Learn how a movie gets actually made, like the movie Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Author and illustrator Jeff Kinney will guide you to see EVERYTHING. Want to be an actor on a famous movie? See interesting facts how an actor has to do hard things. I like this book because it actually even tells you that some interesting fact is that they used three schools to make just one school!!!!! You should read this if you're curious to see how they make a big Hollywood movie.

Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson's Chew On This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food: A Review by Nathan!

Do you know what you eat? In Chew on This, Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson explain what you eat, from both the businessman's point of view and the health inspector's point of view. This book is great because I feel like the authors really did their research and pointed out every flaw of the fast food companies. If you are curious about what's behind the counter at McDonald's or Jack in the Box, this is the book for you.

Sarah Forbes Bonetta's At Her Majesty's Request: A Review by Julia!

At Her Majesty's Request is about a girl named Sarah who was born in Africa and who got captured by Dahomey's. A man who works for the queen of England takes her back to England and saved her. This book is very good because it is the biography of Sarah, Queen Victoria's adopted god-daughter. You should read this book because it is historical nonfiction and people will find it fascinating.

Cuca's Choices #1: Victor Villaseñor's Rain of Gold

This book tells the true story of two Mexican Americans named Lupe Gomez and Juan Salvador. Lupe grows up in La Lluvia de Oro, which means "Rain of Gold," in Mexico. Juan grows up in a different part of Mexico called Jalisco. During the beginning of the book it shows how Lupe is surrounded by all the American men who work in a mine that is very near to their home. She has never wanted to marry any white man because she has seen if you marry a white man they just get a Mexican girl pregnant then go back to America and are never seen or heard from again. As Lupe grows up she realizes that the only way to survive is to get married and have children. Juan is also growing up but his family is moving to the United States to live a better life. This is the time when the revolution is happening in Mexico. Lupe's family also decides to move to the United States to escape the war. Juan and hi family have a hard time crossing the border because they have no money to get across. One day Juan sees his mother begging for food on the streets, which reduces him to crying. But later on, Lupe and Juan both get across the border and into America. Will Lupe and Juan ever meet? What will they think of each other when they do? Believe me, this is one of the best books I have ever read. There is drama, romance, comedy, but also truth.